Despite knowing that my black magic was powerful, and might be the difference between victory and defeat, I wasn’t quite ready to admit to the others exactly what I’d learned. And from the way Eva was squirming, I could tell she felt the same way.
“We’ll tell you all about it later,” Alex said, coming to our rescue. “What’s the plan for right now?” He was trying to appear pulled together, like the timewalking hadn’t thrown him for a loop. “When can we leave?”
Andre gave him a once-over and arched a bushy eyebrow. “As soon as you and Hunter look like you can walk a few miles. Ayla tells me I won’t be able to warp onto the fae academy grounds. Neither will Odette. Only specific warpers have that privilege, and Tittelbaum is . . .” He gulped loudly. “Still at Spellcasters.”
“Why do you say it like that?” Diana asked, her tone high.
Andre and Sam shared a long, pointed look, until Sam turned to us.
“Spellcasters fell to the demons after the Hellgate broke open. The royals chose it as their new palace.”
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
After Sam dropped the Spellcasters bomb, Alex and Hunter tried to insist that they were ready to journey to Faerie right away. However, since the guys fell over the moment they stood up, no one believed them. They tried to fight it, to insist that we leave, but ran out of steam after a half hour.
Honestly, it was just as well. As much as I wanted to see my parents and finish off the royal demons, a brief break was necessary.
Andre, Sam, and Ayla were still ravenous, and after they told us more about what they’d been through, I planned on feeding them until they passed out in a food coma. The rest of us needed a shower, a bed, and some quiet time to process what had happened in the months we’d been gone. Thankfully, my parents’ house was large enough to shelter all of us.
After we’d devoured seven more pizzas, I showed everyone to the spare bedrooms.
Alex and I retreated to my old bedroom, where I called solo dibs on my en suite shower. I wanted to shave, and he did not need to be around for that mess.
Good-naturedly, my man took the separate bath down the hall. For the first time in living memory, my mom’s insistence on too many bathrooms in our home proved reasonable.
I groaned as the water hit me and ran over my skin like silk. The fresh tingle of my rosemary-scented shampoo made me want to cry with joy. As I massaged my scalp, I breathed in the delicious scent, and mulled over the situation.
According to Sam, Andre, and Ayla, the demons hadn’t made an overt play for world domination yet. Just small moves. Attacks and maneuvers that a layperson wouldn’t see as too crazy or fiendish, unless they knew that thousands of demons had recently infiltrated the world.
I wondered if that was because they were waiting to use me and Alex to wrench the Hellgate back open. Or maybe they simply wanted to find us and make sure we watched the world burn.
Damn demons.
Twenty minutes later, I turned off the water and wrapped a buttery soft towel around my body with a pleased shiver. M&M’s cottage had been nice enough, and I’d be forever grateful to them for housing us, but it had been too long since I’d been clean, warm, and swathed in comfortable fabric.
I primped a little more, and was still lost in thought and gratitude for modern luxuries when I emerged from the en suite bath. Alex was already sprawled on my bed. He was staring at the ceiling, clad only in a spare pair of my dad’s sweats.
“You okay?” I asked.
The effects of timewalking had worn off by the time the group split to rest. But I wasn’t sure if people could relapse or not. There wasn’t a lot of data on that sort of thing.
“Fine. Just worshipping how soft this bed is—like a damn cloud after sleeping on hay for so long.” He propped himself up on his elbows with a small grin. “And soaking everything in. Honestly, I just can’t believe we’re here—in our own time. You got us here in one shot, sweets.”
“Why the tone of surprise,” I deadpanned, and when his face tightened, a small smile broke on my face, and I threw a wave. “I understand what you mean. Morgan let me hold the reins after our first timewalking experience, but I’d never spanned so many centuries. Or timewalked without my totem.” My hand went to my chest, where the necklace would’ve lain, had I been wearing it. “I miss it.”
“Me too.” Alex glanced down at his unadorned finger. “But it is reassuring that they don’t think we need them anymore.”
“I wonder if that means we’ll get another one?” I smiled to let him know that I was being flippant. “Totems are kind of a status symbol.”
Alex chuckled. “I’m sure that after we get rid of the demons, Headmistress Wake will give us another crack at Spellcasters’ totem cache.”
“I hope that if something chooses me again, I get earrings. I’ve always been more of an earrings person. Not that I didn’t love the necklace,” I added hurriedly, because that little necklace had saved my ass many times. “Particularly the moonstone. It looked good with all my outfits.”
“You look good in anything, babe, even that towel.”
I wiggled my hips suggestively. “White terrycloth doing it for you, Wardwell?”
“After living in that shack for weeks, you wearing a burlap sack would do it for me.” He reached for me. “Come here.”
