I groan, turning into his leather coat and breathing him in. “But I need to figure it out. My vision led me here for a reason.”
I hear rather than see Ian’s huff of hesitation. “You couldstay here with Luca while Marcus and I investigate.” The worriedI guessgoes unspoken.
Luca combs his fingers through my loose blond hair, soothing me. “I don’t like it.”
In truth, I don’t either. It was myvision that led us to the castle in the first place. But if this is the only way I can get answers… I cuddle down against my bad boy alpha and look up into his sea-green eyes. “Please, Luca? You can call for them if anything happens to me. Or take me to Mai yourself. I swear I’m going to be all right.”
“I can’t deny you anything,” Luca mutters. “Fine. We’ll stay here while you two go and figure out why Juniper had her dream and the vision up by the castle.”
Marcus rifles through a bag in the front seat and passes me a granola bar and a bottle of water, no doubt courtesy of Cassian. “Get your strength back.”
Ian quickly texts me a picture of the sigils, and I lean up out of Luca’s arms just enough to kiss him. “Thank you, Ian. Marcus.”
Ian shuts the back door of the SUV to keep out the cold, then heads back up the hill with Marcus while I’m left to wonder what I’ve seen—and why. With my vision still swimming in my head and Luca gently stroking my hair, it isn’t long before I fall into a light doze, the sigils bright in my mind, just like they were in my vision.
I don’t knowhow long I doze, but I wake to Ian opening the back door of the SUV. Marcus leans on him heavily, almost as if he’s been hexed, but Ian doesn’t seem to notice as a flush of boyish excitement lights his face. “We’ve figured it out. Can you make it back up the hill? You need to see this. You both do.”
I launch myself out of the SUV despite Luca’s weak protest. He knows there’s no stopping me, and I imagine he’s just as curious as I am. My alpha can never turn down a new adventure.
“Haley, you should stay here,” Ian says quietly as Marcus leans against the side of the SUV. “You’ve been through enough.”
I study Marcus for a moment and notice a faint grimace on his face, something only I know him well enough to see. My bodyguard is in pain, loath as he is to admit it. “What happened up there?”
“A few mishaps,” Ian admits. “The magic is chaotic. It reacted much the way you said Cora’s did when someone touches her.”
“Sent me to my damn knees,” Marcus mutters. “More than once.”
I take Marcus’ hand and squeeze it, just for a single beat of my heart. “Stay here? Rest while Ian shows me what you’ve discovered.” I already know he won’t. Whether he loves me or not, Marcus will do anything to protect me.
He waves me off, just as I expected he would, and I can’t help but notice his wince as we start up the hill.
Ian talks the whole way up the hill, and I love him for it. He can’t help but teach and explain, research and pick apart magical problems.
“We thought the spell functioned as a sort of key, but when Haley performed it, the storm’s magic threw him back. Whatever the magic once was, it now acts as the most powerful shield I’ve ever seen. Certainly beyond what I can cast.”
Which is saying something. Ian is one of the strongest warders in the world, both for building and for dismantling. I get the impression that there’ll be no dismantling the chaotic snarl of magic that surrounds Marmora Castle.
“Marcus was the one to suggest I cast the spell on him, though I had my reservations. Without knowing the meaning of some of the sigils, it could have been dangerous.”
I shoot my once honor guard a dark look. Of course he volunteered to be Ian’s test subject. “But it wasn’t?”
Ian shakes his head, the movement and spring wind ruffling his dark hair. “When I cast the spell on Marcus, it allowed him to penetrate the magic. When he cast it on me, it granted me the same ability. We made it to the castle walls before turning back. This is your discovery, my darling. You should be the first to set foot in Marmora Castle after all these years.”
“I’m all for exploring a castle on a cliff surrounded by magic that can probably kill us,” Luca says, “but we’re not going to find bodies in the castle, are we?”
“I very much doubt it,” Ian replies. “According to Sienna, Pack Marmora fled to the more defensible Saint Aldric’s Hall when the castle was under attack by Mage King George’s forces. There’s a reason the hall was built like a fortress; it’s served as one more than once. As they fled, Marmora—or more likely his mate, Guinnette—must have created the magical storm. So, I don’t suspect we’ll find any dead bodies. Judging by the exterior of the castle, everything seems remarkably well preserved, but we won’t know until we enter.”
We reach the barrier of the storm, and I hold my breath as Ian casts the eight sigils on me and then Luca.
I ghost my hand over the magic, feeling the warm buzz against the palm of my hand. I look back at Ian, who gives me a nod, then skim the tips of my fingers along the magical barrier. It parts for me with no resistance, just the same buzz around my skin as I step beyond the tumultuous magic toward the towering castle.
Luca follows, a look of pure wonder on his face. I hangback long enough to take his hand and draw him forward. I want my adventurous alpha to see the castle for himself just as soon as I do. We step through the gate in the outer wall that Ian and Marcus had already opened into a grassy courtyard. The castle looms ahead of us at the end of a long yard lit by dappled sunshine cut through with storm clouds and lightning. A stone path leads toward the castle, flanked on either side by beautiful gardens, full of blue and purple lupines, only it’s much too early in the season for flowers like these.
I look back at Ian, and he smiles. “As I said, remarkably well preserved. Practically untouched by time.”
I don’t fully fathom what that means until I set my hand on the immense wooden door to the castle, finding it oddly warm, as if the summer sun had been shining upon it before the storm swept through. Luca and I tug the sun-warmed iron ring and, with a great creak, the door to Marmora Castle opens in front of us.
CHAPTER FIVE
