Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

ZINNIA

" I just don't understand what the hell is going on." The school was eerily still this early in the morning. Most of the students went home for holiday break while the skeleton crew remained. Even most of the teachers were gone. Yet here I was standing in our meeting room in the basement of the school, wondering what the hell was wrong.

For some reason it felt colder, damper, and desolate now. The silence in the halls sat heavy in the air. Normally, I would've been sleeping and enjoying the comfort of my soulmate. Yet I couldn't sleep. There was something in the air that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge. Magic was my existence, and I loved every bit of it, but why did it feel as though the balance was off in the world? It was as though darkness lingered around every corner. I shivered and ran my hands up and down my arms.

"Hey, couldn't sleep again?" Tucker, my soulmate, walked into the room holding a mug in each of his hands.

I couldn't help but give him a smile every time I saw him. If ever there was anyone on my side and by my side, he was it. He was perfection in every way, with his bed-tossed auburn hair and molten honey eyes. Though it was winter, he still wore a thin hoodie, T-shirt, and jeans. I took the cup and sipped at its contents. "Oh, it's cold."

"That's what I get for walking across the courtyard in the middle of winter." He reached out and placed his hand on the side of my cup. Warm light shined in his palms and warmth spread through the contents of my mug. Steam rose from the top and drifted up toward my face.

I sucked in a deep breath and sighed. "Thanks, babe."

He winked. "So, what are we doing?"

I groaned and slid onto one of the stools next to the table. "Something is wrong."

"Something?" His brow furrowed in confusion. "Care to be more specific?"

"I know it sounds crazy, but I feel it in the air. Magic is off." I rested my elbows on the table and gave a little huff.The world had a certain push and pull, a certain feel to it on any given day. But the last few days there was a build that I could not explain. It kept me up at night and made me feel restless during the day, like walking into a room and forgetting why you went in there in the first place. Everything was just . . . off.

"Like all magic, period?" He raised his eyebrows at me while sipping at his own drink.

"Yes . . . all of it. I can't explain it. I just feel it all around me. It's kind of like when you're alone in a huge dark house and you feel like something, or someone is watching you . . . like the creeps all over your skin." I sighed. "I'm not explaining this right."

"No, I understand you. We just have to figure out what it is."

"Makes my skin crawl." A shiver went down my spine. "It's icky."

"Icky?"

"Dark." I met his eye. "It's very dark."

A bright blue, swirling portal opened in the middle of the room, and I sat up straighter. Tucker turned toward the blue light and sipped at his drink. "This should be interesting."

"I'm hoping they found something to explain all this." I motioned to the map spread across the table. Every mark was a place where I thought I felt a magical flare-up, yet every time we checked it out, there was no sign of anything at all. "Otherwise, they're going to think I'm starting to go crazy."

Tuck shook his head. "No one thinks that."

No one would be able to open a portal right into this room unless they were one of our crew. Evermore Academy was protected by The Fallen and many layers of magic. If someone was coming in, they were granted permission, not just using their magic to infiltrate the school whenever they felt like it. Our enemies were many, so our protections had to be tight. Beckett sauntered out of the portal with Astrid at his side. He shook his blond hair out and sand fell to the floor around them. It sounded like grains of sugar hitting the floor. Astrid brushed her hands down her shirt and stomped her feet, sending even more sand to the floor.

Their magic filled the space, and I felt it run over my skin. I could tap into either of them and take whatever power they had to offer, but I wouldn't unless it was freely offered. Taking magic that wasn't my own was a slippery slope. As the Siphon Queen, it was my responsibility to keep the balance within myself and around the world. No one felt power the way I did, and I would be damned if I let it consume me the way it did my father.

Astrid could manifest anything her heart desired, which made her a hugely powerful ally. She was all fiery looks and attitude with her dark-red hair and bright emerald eyes. Beckett was powerful in his own right as one of the warlock heirs and a guardian of the Witch Queens. He could move anything with his magic. Yet he had a calm about him that made his magic feel like a cool balm against hot skin. It was almost icy like his ocean-blue eyes.

He ran his hand through his blond hair and strands of it fell back into his face. "What's up?"

"Did you guys find anything?" I wanted them to find something, but I also did not. If they found something dark, that would mean my suspicions were correct and something was very wrong. But when they found nothing, it just meant I was going to drive myself crazy looking for whatever I felt was wrong. It was a damned if they did and damned if they didn't situation for me.

Astrid shook her head. "Nothing. It's like whatever was there is gone now."

"I don't get it." I looked at the map spread out before me. I ran my hand over the points I'd marked. "I know they're there."

Astrid dropped down into a chair across from me and looked down at the points. "It was weird."

"Weird how?" I sat forward. We'd been checking out random flare-ups of magic for weeks now, but nothing ever came of it.

"It's like I could feel the power all around me, but there was nothing and literally no one in sight." She tossed her hair over her shoulder. "I mean, we were in the middle of the freaking desert, and there was absolutely nothing for miles."

Beckett nodded. "Nothing but sunshine, sand, and ass sweat."

"I'm telling you all something isn't right." The nagging feeling wouldn't leave me alone. Day and night I felt a shift in the world, a shift that could not be explained.

"I agree." Astrid nodded.

"I might not be able to feel what you do, but I believe you." Tuck reached out and ran his hand over my back in small circles.

Astrid glanced up at me. "We might have to bring some extreme things in on this."

"Extreme? Like what?"

"Like Ophelia and Maze." She met my eye. "Send them on the hunt."

I nodded. "You might be right. Nothing a little psycho and some psychic couldn't help."

"Does anyone else think they've been super weird lately?" Tuck glanced around at our blank stares. "I mean, more than usual?"

"They're both definitely up to something." Beckett nodded in agreement. "But we'll never know what until they think it's time to tell us."

"It's true. We just have to?—"

The door flew open and slammed into the wall. Adrianne slid into the room with a sheen of sweat covering her ebony skin. Her chest heaved with deep breaths. Her long, dark braids whipped around her head as she skidded to a halt and nearly slammed into the wall. "You have to come quick."

I hopped to my feet. "What happened?"

"It's Niche, she's . . . she is not okay." She waved her hand, motioning for us to hurry. "You have to come."

Chairs scraped over the floor as we all sprinted from the room and down the stone hallway. Though the air was cold from winter, I felt my skin heat and my heart hammer in my chest as I pumped my arms trying to keep up with Adrianne. We ran up the stairs and across the courtyard toward the training room. It'd been ages since I'd been in the training room, but when we ran through those double doors, I found myself dragged back to those first days when I knew nothing of magic and the others weren't even my friends yet. Now we'd made a family and Niche was part of it. I didn't want anything to be wrong with her or anyone else in our crew.

Adrienne stopped just outside the door to Niche's office and placed her hand on the knob, then turned to face us all. "Just prepare yourself and remember . . . move slowly."

"You're scaring me." I didn't know what was behind that door, but whatever happened it'd spooked Adrienne, and she was all logic and patience. The only things that rattled her were her own clumsiness and her mother, Athena.

"Just . . . go easy." She turned away from me and opened the door. It creaked as it swung wide open and hit the wall.

The room was dim, with no windows and only a single candle in the middle of the room that bathed only some of it in warm light and left the rest of the room in shadows. Adrienne took a step back and let me go in first. All but one wall was covered in shelves, and each one held a dozen different pendulums—each made from a different stone. They all had their own stands where they hung and swung throughout the day. The last time I was in this room, they all moved in the same direction each time Niche asked me a question. Now they swung in wild circles as though the scattered energy was too much. I felt the power in the air, and it put me on edge.

Niche stood with her back to us and faced the one wall without shelves. On it was a huge map of the world. It was bigger than the one I had spread across the table in our meeting room. As the handler for the Witch Queens and their guardians, Niche had always been a guide of sorts. She trained our Guardians and kept on top of us all to become masters of our own magic. She'd always been so straight-laced with every strand of her fire-engine-red hair in place and her pressed lab coat. I couldn't remember a time when she didn't have her clipboard in hand to scribble notes across. Yet now her hair was piled in a messy ball on top of her head and her lab coat hung off one of her shoulders. It was so wrinkled it looked like she pulled it from a ball in the corner. Her body quivered from head to toe as she mumbled quietly to herself. I wasn't even sure she heard us enter.

"Niche." I barely touched her shoulder, and she startled and then spun around to face us.

"Oh good! You're here!" Her lips pulled up in a manic smile and she shoved her glasses up her nose like she always did. Except this time, they fell crooked across her nose and she didn't seem to notice.

I let my hand drop as I took in the map. It was covered in pins with red string running from one pin to another. It looked like a tangled spiderweb. Tiny Post-it notes littered the wall. Some made sense, others just had illegible scribbles on them. Tuck moved in beside me and lit a ball of fire in his hand. The whole room illuminated.

Niche flinched away from the offending light. "That is not necessary, Phoenix."

In the light I could see the dark bags under her eyes and the open food wrappers littering the floor. Astrid took a tentative step toward her. "Niche, honey, when was the last time you slept?"

Niche paused and pulled a pen from the nest on top of her head. "I can't remember . . . but . . . but you all have to listen to me."

"We're listening." I'd never seen her like this—so manic, so panicked.

"Magic all over." She began pointing at all the pins. "And . . . and we have no idea what it all is."

I lowered my voice and slowed my words so they were calmer than her hurried ramblings. I wanted to help her, but I didn't know how. It was difficult seeing her like this. "Niche, we know this. We've all been working on it."

"Yes, but you don't see." She ran her fingers over the bright-red strings and whispered, "None of you see."

Adrienne motioned to her. "She just . . . snapped. She's been saying that for the past two hours. We don't see , but she's not explaining what I don't see."

I lowered my gaze to meet her eye, trying to catch her focus or attention somehow. "See what, Niche? What are we missing?"

Wild laughter escaped her lips, and she began pacing back and forth. She dropped the pen and fisted her matted hair as her eyes bounced around the room. "It's all there. All the power! Like a sunken minefield in the ocean. All of it. Do you see it now? Do you!?"

I glanced up at the map, but all I saw was the mad ramblings of someone who'd exhausted herself to the point of madness. "I don't see it."

"She's not going to make sense until she gets some rest." Beckett eyed the pendulums all swinging in wild directions. He shook his head. "We need to get her to bed."

"NO!" Niche pressed her back to the wall and spread her arms wide over the map. Her eyes darted back and forth. "I'm not leaving."

"Easy fix." Astrid waved her hand and golden sparkles poured from her fingers. A small twin-sized bed formed in the corner of the room. "Look, you don't have to leave."

Niche's eyes widened and she slouched more into the wall. "No, it must be like this!"

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and started to guide her toward the bed. "Come on. Just a few hours of rest and you'll be able to explain it all."

She fought my hold and Tuck moved to her other side, taking her hand. "You're going to have to drain her a bit."

I hated using my magic on my friends, but she needed my help. My silvery magic wrapped around her, and I felt the first pull of her manic energy shift from her body into mine. It felt like drinking ten espressos. I couldn't stop myself from shaking. But Niche visibly relaxed. Her eyes gave a long, slow blink. "Maybe I should rest for a minute?"

"Yes, you should." Beckett's blue smoke filled the room, and Niche was lifted from our hold. He floated her across the room and placed her on the bed. The blankets lifted up and laid over her.

She sighed as her head fell back into the pillows, then yawned. "But I have to help him."

"Help who?" I moved to her bedside.

Her eyes fluttered shut. "The magic . . . It's all converging in one place . . ."

"What?" My heart sped even faster. "Where?"

I spun around toward the map, trying to make sense of the lines. Astrid, Beckett, and Tuck all stood beside me staring at it as well. Niche gave another heavy yawn. "England . . . The House of Shade is in trouble . . . Grayson is in trouble. Death calls."

My body turned to ice. Only a day ago he came to us for help and now . . . and now I didn't know. I spun back toward her. "Niche, did he survive? Niche!"

It was too late. My power had done its job of knocking her the hell out. I nearly dropped to my knees to shake her awake, but Adrienne stepped in front of me. "She needs to rest. It's the only way we can have her back to help us."

I knew she was right. I knew I had to let her rest.

Niche gave one last sigh. "No one could survive this. . ."