The little redhead took her hand, pulling her forward, and my smile faded as she rounded the corner out of view. Beck mumbled under his breath, rocky waters in his blue eyes. But he knew it was coming.
“It still fucking moves,” I whispered into the night breeze.
“That woman’s changing you,” Beck muttered. “Haven’t seen you like this since—”
Johnny. “I know.”
Zephyr and Phoenix were already at the entrance of the grounds. Four blindfolded members from Norse Woods Coven lined up against the iron gate. The blindfolds were necessary. The girls understood the conditions. This wasn’t their first time with a Heathen. We had to take measures to keep them safe. Zeph walked past Francesca, the girl he’d been paired with, and slipped through the gate’s bars.
To us, sex with them wasn’t for fun and games. All we needed was the energy drawn from male and female during this powerful act. Plain and simple, this was a means to an end, not the final goal tonight—a business transaction. We were four Hollow Heathens trying to break a curse—only sex. Fallon was the first girl I’d ever kissed because I’d never thought it was possible. Now, she was the only girl I thought about giving myself to in a way that was more than my body. The kind of way that wasn’t for magic or a ritual.
Tabitha stood there, blindfolded with a mop of black hair that sat on her head like a clown wig, a plastic onyx shine. She turned her head, probably listening for me, and the straight edge of her hair grazed her shoulders. She’d dressed for the occasion too, wearing a black lacy bra under her little top and a mini jean skirt for easy access as if it would have mattered. How desperate was I to break this curse? Desperate enough to engage in sex magic when my cock only ached to be in a particular white-haired stupid freak like me? As I looked Tabitha up and down, even though it meant nothing, it all looked, seemed, felt … wrong. Before Fallon, I’d never had to doubt my obligation. She was already in my head.
Phoenix carried the backpack of books, and the rest of us slipped through the bars and took off to the old Ferris wheel house. I lurked in the background of the group like an evil spirit, despair and remorse pressing on my heart. I didn’t like this one bit, but I was determined to bear on.
The girls grouped under the shack, gabbing back and forth, waiting for us as we stood off by the Ferris wheel. Phoenix sprawled out in the rickety and faded passenger cabin of the Ferris wheel, flipping through one of the books stacked over his lap. The rest of us passed around a bottle as the night carried on—the girls laughing in the distance. We detached ourselves as much as possible from them. No reason for foreplay.
“Julian, race me to the top?” Zeph was looking up at the large wheel we were standing under.
I couldn’t look up without a sudden sickness pulling in my stomach. The thought of being that high up caused my mind to shut down, body to shake, and vision to weaken. “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you, bitch?”
A callous grin appeared in Zeph’s eyes.
“I’d seen it in here last night,” Phoenix mumbled, scouring the pages of the Book of Wildes. “A passage written by Kyden Wildes over a hundred years ago. Yeah, here it is,”—he cleared his throat— “It was past midnight and long after the gathering of the Order whenI heard the forbidden girl in the caverns. She sang, her voice flowed in a thick melody, swelling and dying away, calling out to me, or leading me, I could not be sure. But her song took me to the celestial waters where it was there I witnessed a sight I could never have imagined. The wife of Foster Danvers, Clarice, shuddered beneath Matteo Cantini with the whisperings of the Norse Woods in his ear. She made promises of pleasure in return for help to break the curse of the Hollow Heathens. Yet, what would make the Danver wife believe a Cantini would have the answers? We were told the curse could not be broken! I kept this from my fellow brothers, from my dear friend, Foster. For this news of his beloved indulging in sexual acts with a foe would be the very news that could destroy him. A risk I wasn’t willing to take.”
A silence passed between us as the four of us exchanged glances.
Phoenix broke the silence first. “So, what the hell does that mean?”
“It means that your ancestor walked in on a Danver’s wife and a Cantini bangin’ it out in the tunnels,” Beck concluded before taking a swig of the bottle.
Zeph pushed off the Ferris wheel cabin and dropped both palms over his blond head, perhaps needing air, space to think. Phoenix swayed in the faded car, watching him as he said, “You’re telling me the answers we need to break the curse rests in the hands of a Danver’s wife who hasn’t been around since …oh, I don’t know, a century? Then, of course, let’s not forget a Cantini!”
“I had a feeling Sacred Sea was behind this,” Zeph gritted out.
It didn’t make sense. Cantini’s were good people, the keepers of secrets. They’d always been the one family from the Eastside to uphold the laws of balance and respect our coven. Sure, I’d expect this from a Pruitt, but not Cyrus’s family.
“This isn’t making any sense, Phoenix. Go back and read it again.” There had to be more of the story.
Phoenix read again,and afterward,he paused and looked up at me, his gold eyes blazing. “That’s it. That’s the end of it. Do you think that’s why the Danvers line is gone? Someone else found out about the infidelity between covens and her attempt to break the curse?”
Danvers. The fifth founding family of the Norse Woods Coven. The element of Earth. Was Phoenix correct? Had Sacred Sea murdered them? Was that why the Danvers line was severed? “It doesn’t make sense that a Cantini would be involved in this,” I said, my head already throbbing.
Phoenix reached over, grabbing the bottle from Beck. “Well, tonight, we could either call upon this backstabbing wife, Clarice Danvers, or Matteo Cantini.” He closed the book and sat upright.
Zeph’s eyes snapped to Phoenix. “If this woman betrayed her husband, what makes you think she would be honest with us?”
“Well, we sure as shit can’t call on Cantinifuck.” Beck shook his head. “What if he goes back to Sacred Sea? Samhain is right around the corner. He could drop hints that we’re digging into this.”
“You’re right.” I pushed my hand up my forehead, through my hair, and gripped the back of my neck. Looking around at the Heathens, I figured it out. “We need to call on the Danvers girl, see what she knows. We need to find out if she ever got the answers on how to break the curse. Matteo Cantini won’t help us.” Not after hearing he was sleeping around with one of our own. I was beginning to believe the Order was as corrupt as my soul.
Zeph rubbed his palms together, dragging his hawkish gaze over to the girls. “Now, choose a body.”
“Tabitha,” I quickly stated.
“You going solo?” Phoenix gripped my shoulder.
I felt Beck’s knowing glare strum through my veins. “Something like that.”
