Arianna were chatting at the top of the staircase. Gabe met me with an amused smirk. He shot a glance down at the feud, taking a healthy swig of beer. “Gavin is so screwed.”
“Yup,” Arianna craned her neck to sneak a peek. “He’ll be stuck down there for at least twenty more minutes.” The three of us shook our heads at the sight of Gavin peering up at us over the crowd, his chocolate brown eyes screaming, “ Help me. For the love of God, help me.”
Shrugging, we erupted into a fit of laughter, and began filling one another in on the day’s events. After relaying the news about my reading ability and the meeting with my mom, I snuck away for a quick smoke break, returning to find the atmosphere had shifted dramatically throughout the house. The music had silenced, the laughter and shouting turned to whispers and intense expressions on everyone I could see. Gavin and Arianna had taken center stage, addressing everyone with equal intensity.
Though I knew it, I listened while Gavin’s strident, commanding voice described the plan, which was to set up a distraction when we arrived at the bayou portal, Gavin at the head of the resistance, front and center, to face Gérard, who would surely be waiting at the portal for us. A group of frozen souls was to cause a commotion seconds before the portal opened, to start a fight with Gavin to distract Gérard, while others from the resistance helped cover me so I could enter the portal with Arianna.
Lame, old-fashioned, human trickery at its best.
But it was all we had, our only chance to sneak someone through the portal to get a head start in meeting Samira. And because of Gavin’s general over-protectiveness and my freakish link to the Book of the Ancients, I’d been the one appointed to get to Samira as fast as possible and share the message from Vivienne, hopefully convincing Samira to return Dali and Akim to human form at lightning-fast speed. Oh, and then hope the pair of wolves-turned-human even listened to what I had to say.
Right. Things were looking brighter by the second.
Gavin’s voice boomed over the room, his take-charge swagger in full-out strut mode, the stance he adopted whenever he resumed his leadership role that made more than a few of the frozen souls throughout the house all starry eyed. The shy, reserved Gavin was charming. Gavin the leader was mesmerizing.
His gaze was locked on mine, scanning the others every few moments to assure them he was confident we’d do what we went to Amaranth to do the first time around: bring down the exile and reclaim freedom from the curse for all.
“I won’t lie to you all,” he said, shuffling his silver dagger from palm to palm. “As you already know, we weren’t expecting Gérard’s demands to enter Amaranth with him. And the odds don’t look good for us even without that. But with Arianna standing with us and whatever the witches’ Book of the Ancients has been leading us toward, I stand to reason that we’ll have the opportunity to end this once and for all. Try your damnedest—every single one of you—to make it through that portal, and report to Samira as quickly as possible. But our priority is getting Camille and Arianna through first, no matter what. Right now, Camille is the most valuable to our mission. She’s being directed by the Book of the Ancients. And Arianna, being Samira’s weak spot, is Camille’s safeguard. So it’s imperative to get them both to Amaranth first.”
Gavin had left out the part that he, too, was pretty crucial to this mission. He was deemed “the beginning of things to come” by the witches, after all. But he seemed to believe leading the others and putting himself on the frontline with them was the focus of his destined duty. And once he had that responsibility in his head, there was no arguing with him.
Raising his glass and sliding his knife into his belt, he nodded to the sea of frozen souls scattered around the house. “To strong will, sweet
“Yup,” Arianna craned her neck to sneak a peek. “He’ll be stuck down there for at least twenty more minutes.” The three of us shook our heads at the sight of Gavin peering up at us over the crowd, his chocolate brown eyes screaming, “ Help me. For the love of God, help me.”
Shrugging, we erupted into a fit of laughter, and began filling one another in on the day’s events. After relaying the news about my reading ability and the meeting with my mom, I snuck away for a quick smoke break, returning to find the atmosphere had shifted dramatically throughout the house. The music had silenced, the laughter and shouting turned to whispers and intense expressions on everyone I could see. Gavin and Arianna had taken center stage, addressing everyone with equal intensity.
Though I knew it, I listened while Gavin’s strident, commanding voice described the plan, which was to set up a distraction when we arrived at the bayou portal, Gavin at the head of the resistance, front and center, to face Gérard, who would surely be waiting at the portal for us. A group of frozen souls was to cause a commotion seconds before the portal opened, to start a fight with Gavin to distract Gérard, while others from the resistance helped cover me so I could enter the portal with Arianna.
Lame, old-fashioned, human trickery at its best.
But it was all we had, our only chance to sneak someone through the portal to get a head start in meeting Samira. And because of Gavin’s general over-protectiveness and my freakish link to the Book of the Ancients, I’d been the one appointed to get to Samira as fast as possible and share the message from Vivienne, hopefully convincing Samira to return Dali and Akim to human form at lightning-fast speed. Oh, and then hope the pair of wolves-turned-human even listened to what I had to say.
Right. Things were looking brighter by the second.
Gavin’s voice boomed over the room, his take-charge swagger in full-out strut mode, the stance he adopted whenever he resumed his leadership role that made more than a few of the frozen souls throughout the house all starry eyed. The shy, reserved Gavin was charming. Gavin the leader was mesmerizing.
His gaze was locked on mine, scanning the others every few moments to assure them he was confident we’d do what we went to Amaranth to do the first time around: bring down the exile and reclaim freedom from the curse for all.
“I won’t lie to you all,” he said, shuffling his silver dagger from palm to palm. “As you already know, we weren’t expecting Gérard’s demands to enter Amaranth with him. And the odds don’t look good for us even without that. But with Arianna standing with us and whatever the witches’ Book of the Ancients has been leading us toward, I stand to reason that we’ll have the opportunity to end this once and for all. Try your damnedest—every single one of you—to make it through that portal, and report to Samira as quickly as possible. But our priority is getting Camille and Arianna through first, no matter what. Right now, Camille is the most valuable to our mission. She’s being directed by the Book of the Ancients. And Arianna, being Samira’s weak spot, is Camille’s safeguard. So it’s imperative to get them both to Amaranth first.”
Gavin had left out the part that he, too, was pretty crucial to this mission. He was deemed “the beginning of things to come” by the witches, after all. But he seemed to believe leading the others and putting himself on the frontline with them was the focus of his destined duty. And once he had that responsibility in his head, there was no arguing with him.
Raising his glass and sliding his knife into his belt, he nodded to the sea of frozen souls scattered around the house. “To strong will, sweet
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