Magicorum Box Set (Books 1-5)

20. Chapter Twenty

20

Chapter Twenty

Bryar Rose

I stay konked out and comfortable until sunlight blazes onto my closed eyes. I flip my arm over my face, block out the brightness, and try to get comfy again. It isn’t easy. I’m sprawled across the front seat of the Fiat with my legs jammed onto the dashboard and my head smooshed against the passenger-side door. Huh. My sleepy brain tries to process all this. How is Knox is driving, exactly? My left leg uses the steering wheel as a footrest.

My eyes flutter open. We definitely aren’t driving anymore. Knox isn’t even in the car. I scrub my hands over my face. Where am I again? The last thing I remember, Knox and I were driving away from the Boucle-Roux farm and into the night. I must have slept longer than I thought.

Craning my totally cramped-up neck, I see that Knox has parked us before a fancy iron gate somewhere in a countryside that positively screams France. The roads are lined with quaint houses that might have fallen out of a fairy tale. Everywhere, the buildings are made from heavy wooden frames filled in with white plaster and topped by overly pointy roofs. There’s even an old man on a bicycle with a baguette strapped behind him. The town isn’t what interests me, though.

Beyond the gate, a gravel road winds up the side of a cliff. Atop the mountain, there stands a castle. It’s another fairy tale classic: a sprawling structure with a gray façade and skinny windows. Everywhere you look, the castle is lined with stone turrets that end in tiny conical roofs. At the center of the ground floor, there’s a seriously huge set of wooden doors, which are most definitely closed.

Around the castle itself, the cliff side has been crammed with dozens of fountains and small, perfectly manicured lawns. Topiaries are everywhere, and for some reason, they’re all snipped into the shape of fish. Not that I’m an expert in clipped-up tree-bushes, but that seems odd. Knox stands with his back to me, gripping the bars of the main gate and staring up at the castle. I want to call out to him; but I’m sort of jammed in an odd position. Some conversations are best had when your leg isn’t wound around a steering wheel, especially ones that cover topics like:

Is this a sightseeing stop, or does Ty really live here?

And if Ty is here, since when does anyone have an ex-girlfriend who lives in a castle in France?

Long story short, I need to get myself upright for this conversation. Since I’m stuck in an odd position, it takes some work to get unstuck. As I shift around, my foot gets caught in the steering wheel. The car horn gives out a friendly little toot-toot.

Hearing the noise, Knox turns around and smiles. The sight makes me both happy and miserable. Knox’s health has certainly taken a nosedive since last night. All the color has drained from his skin. A pang of guilt tightens my stomach.

Knox was better last night.

He’s sicker today.

Either Ty is casting a spell to make Knox sick…or Az is right that magic is somehow punishing Knox for finding a mate instead of the fountain.

Whatever way I look at it, the situation isn’t good.

Plus another night has passed, so the equinox is only two days away.

Correction. The situation is looking worse.

Knox stalks over to the car, grips the roof, and leans into the side window. “How’re you feeling?” He taps the window frame. “I left this open to give you some air.”

“Thanks, it must have worked. I really slept hard.” Narrowing my eyes, I scan his face. Now that Knox’s face is only a few inches from mine, I don’t like how the veins have popped out on his forehead and neck. “How about you?”

“No worries.”

I slip my palm against his bristled cheek. “I still do worry.”

Knox kisses my palm. “Which is why you’re my girl.” He exhales a long breath. “I need to explain about this place, but there isn’t a lot of time.”

“Huh, okay.” Blinking hard, I try to get the sleep out of my brain. This seems like an important conversation, and I’m not totally awake yet. Even my wolf is still snoozing. Plus, my stomach is growling. I’m hoping there’s a chance to get a croissant or something before we get into anything too intense.

“Not a lot of time?” I ask through a yawn. “What do you mean?”

“The horn. They definitely would have heard that.”

“They?” It’s still taking me longer than usual to catch on to things here. “Oh, you mean the people who live in the castle?”

“Yeah, them. I never told you my fairy tale life template.” The edge of a growl creeps into his voice. I don’t need to catch Knox’s scent to know that whatever his fairy tale life template is, the idea saddens him.

Inside me, my wolf yawns awake as well. “That terrible principal asked our mate the same question at school,” she says. “We don’t care what Knox’s template is.”

Knox tilts his head. “Does your wolf have something to say about that?”

“As a matter of fact, she does. And I believe the same thing, too. It doesn’t matter what your fairy tale life template is. You’re with me now. We make up our own story.”

“That we do, Bry.” Those are the words Knox says, but I can still scent the acidity of his worry. My shifter hearing picks up a new sound: soft wooden creaks. The main doorway is opening in the castle above.

“What has you worried?” I ask. “The people who live in the castle?”

“Not all of them,” says Knox slowly. “Just one.”

My eyes widen as more of my thoughts come into focus. “So your ex does live here.”

“Yeah, she sure does.”

My pulse flutters with this news, and not because it’s a surprise. The whole reason we were driving here was to confront Ty. Knox’s ex was supposed to hand over the Codex Mechanica last night at Boucle-Roux. Instead, she tricked some French weres into attacking me. Honestly, I’m more worried what my wolf will do when she meets Ty. My inner animal is rather protective.

All of a sudden, the castle seems to loom taller on its cliff top. Not sure where I pictured Ty living, but it definitely wasn’t a castle.

Knox inhales. “You smell of anxiety. Does seeing Ty worry you?”

I hold my thumb and forefinger an inch apart. “Only a little bit, and that’s because of my wolf.”

As if on cue, my inner animal yips with glee. “Ty is bad. She makes our mate angry. Now, we’ll raid her stone den and bite her!”

It’s amazing how my wolf can go from barely awake to ready to bite ex-girlfriends in thirty seconds or less. Over the past months, I’ve learned to nip these ideas early. When I next speak to my wolf, I take care to use my no-nonsense voice. “Get that idea out of your head, fur girl.”

A small smile rounds Knox’s full lips. “Fur girl?”

I pop my hand over my mouth. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?” For the umpteenth time.

“Yeah.” Knox’s smile broadens. “Don’t worry. It’s cute.”

My inner wolf preens. “Our mate is the best.”

“Agreed,” I reply in my mind.

Back in the outside world, I can’t help but match Knox’s grin. “Actually, it’s my big bad inner werewolf. I’m trying to keep her in line.”

“Even cuter. What’s she want to do?”

“Ah. That would be…” I try to think of a subtle way of expressing this but come up empty. “She wants to bite Ty’s face off.”

Knox chuckles. “I’d like to see that.”

With a loud thud, the main gates finally swing open. A small army of servants pours out from the castle and starts heading our way. Even from a distance, I can tell that they’re a rather fancy crowd of servants. All the men sport dark suits with cravats, while the ladies wear gray dresses with poofy maid hats. I scan the group for someone who might look like ex-girlfriend material and come up empty. Knox told me that Ty was our age—all these servants have gray hair.

Inside my soul, my wolf growls her displeasure. “Is the one who angers our mate drawing closer? Can I chomp her?”

“No and no,” I reply in my head.

“Please? I just want to bite off her ankle.”

“The answer is still no.” For once, that reply is in my mind. “Besides, she isn’t here yet anyway.”

“Fine.” My inner animal huffs out a frustrated breath. “I can wait.”

Knox eyes me carefully through the car window. “Your wolf still feeling chatty?”

I nod. “In case you’re wondering, she’d be happy biting off Ty’s ankle.”

My inner animal chimes in again. “What’s wrong with that?” asks my wolf. “She’s got two ankles. She doesn’t need them both.”

This time, I decide to ignore my wolf. Engaging with her about whether Ty needs two ankles is not a conversation that will end well anyway.

“Ankles,” says Knox. “Got it.” He lowers his voice. “You still good? We can come back later if you need some time with your animal.” He cracks his neck from side to side. “Tell the truth, we could both probably use a good run. Long car rides and wild animals don’t mix, yeah?”

“Look, I’m fine,” I assure him. “My wolf’s definitely under control.”

Inside my mind, my inner animal is not dropping the issue. “What about a finger, then? She’s got ten of those.”

Knox gives me the side eye. “You sure?” he asks.

“Honestly, I’d rather get this over with.”

That results in more side-eye. “Not even one quick run?” My mate is always protective about giving our animals time in the wild.

“Both my wolf and I are fine. Absolutely.”

Inside my mind, my wolf is definitely not giving up. “If you won’t let me have a finger, how about a toe?”

Now, this has gone on long enough that I can’t ignore it. “If you keep talking about taking T’s body parts, I’m going to have to put you in stasis.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

Knox inhales. “Your scent mixes aggression and determination. That’s good. T’s tricky, you know.”

I shrug. “Tricky goes along with being a sorceress, right?”

“Partly.” Knox frowns. “T’s a little nutty, too.”

Unfortunately, my mate is the master of understatement. If Knox is saying Ty is a little nutty, then that can only mean one thing…

“In other words, Ty is bat-crap crazy.”

“Oh, yeah.” Knox glances over his shoulder. “Here they come.”

The servants rush down the gravel driveway, a small cloud of dust puffing up behind them. For a bunch of older folks, this group is certainly spry. All the while, they chat away in rapid-fire French, so I try to catch some of their talk. Since I only speak English, I can recognize Knox’s name and that’s about it. It’ll be great when I learn how to harness my witch power. Then, I’ll be able to cast translation spells for situations like this one.

Within seconds, the servants congregate by a small iron door off to one side of the main gate. A super-tall guy stands up front, a loop of old-fashioned keys in his veiny fist. After some jangling and stuff, Tall Guy unlocks the side door. Everyone races out to surround Knox. Turning around, my mate faces the group and starts to converse. Of course, Knox speaks perfect French because, well, that’s Knox.

I have no idea what’s going on, apart from the fact that everyone’s speaking French and seem incredibly happy to see my mate. Then I hear one thing I do recognize. A name.

“Reginald.”

My skin prickles into gooseflesh. I must be hearing things. Then, it happens again.

“Reggie.”

After that, I catch another word.

“Denarii.”

Officially, this has become one conversation that I don’t want to miss…And I can’t have it in the car without some translation help. Gripping the handle, I start to open the door, but everyone is pressed up against that side of the Fiat in their efforts to encircle Knox.

The whole situation is anxiety-inducing to my inner wolf. “Denarii mean danger! We must shift and run!”

My wolf has a point. At this moment, I can easily use my shifter strength to burst through the car door, but that’s overkill, especially with this particular group of servants.

“Let me talk to them first,” I reply. “These servants don’t smell like shifters. I could hurt them.”

“But Ty could be nearby,” counters my wolf. “If we’re in wolf form, we could get that toe.”

And here we go again. My wolf has a one-track mind. “We are not biting anyone’s anything. Last warning.”

I cup my hand by my mouth. “Hello, there.”

No one replies. Instead, the servants all keep right on talking at once—at ever higher volumes—and always in French. Worse, Reggie and the Denarii are definitely the highlight of the conversation. My pulse speeds faster. Has Reggie been running around here trying to ‘help’?

Time to get some answers.

I set both pinkies in either side of my mouth and let out a long whistle. Everyone quiets.

Knox turns around. Laughter dances in his blue eyes. “You want something, Bry?”

“I heard the name Reggie.”

“Sure thing; I’ll fill you in.” Knox turns to the group. “Stand back, everybody. Make some room.” The way he talks to the servants is more conversational than bossy. Maybe Ty owns this castle and Knox got to be buddies with the staff while they were dating? Seems reasonable.

The servants step back and form a long, neat row. It must be part of their staff routine because I’ve never seen a group line up so quickly. There are about twenty servants in all, evenly split between men and woman. All of them are staring at me, wide eyed. I sniff the air. Cases like these, it’s great to have a shifter sense of smell. I this case, I catch the lemon of anxiety mixed with the flowery bloom of happiness. Most likely, these servants are pleased to see Knox, along with a little worried about how their mistress will handle the new girlfriend in the Fiat.

Makes sense. If I were them, I’d worry about my boss freaking out, too.

Knox pulls on the car door; it swings open with a long creak. It’s as if time slows down as I make my way out of the Fiat and into the morning air. A blush crawls over my skin.

For a moment, I wonder if I should get back in the car, but I shake the idea off. Knox knows these people. If he thinks it’s okay for me to meet them, then it’s fine.

I straighten the folds my black duster. I’m still in my unshreddable outfit from this morning. In fact, I even have my bracelet on in case I need to glamour myself into looking like I’m wearing a regular school uniform. I shake my head. Was my first day at West Lake only yesterday? Seems like a million years ago. I clear my throat.

“Good morning,” I say.

All the servants start talking at once.

In French.

Not helping.

Knox raises his arms, palms forward in the universal sign for stop right there. “Whoa, guys.” They quiet instantly. “Bry here doesn’t speak French, so you’ll need to use English from here on out.” Everyone nods, which I take as a good sign.

“Thank you,” I say.

“First things first.” Knox steps to my side and wraps his arm about my waist, pulling me close against him. “This is Bryar Rose. She’s my mate.”

That news changes things for the servants. The scent of anxiety, which was pretty faint before, now becomes overwhelmingly strong. Still, if these folks worry about how their mistress will handle meeting Knox’s new mate, that’s their problem. I need to find out if Reggie is running around the French countryside and causing trouble. And the there’s the issue of finding the Codex Mechanica, but that will have to wait a minute.

I focus on Knox. “I heard the name Reggie before. Why?”

It might just be me, but it feels like the servants just reached an entirely new level of quiet. All eyes seem to be locked on me and Knox in a way that isn’t entirely comfortable.

They know something I don’t.

“To begin with,” says Knox Slowly. “I used to hunt Denarii with Ty.”

“You did?” Not sure why this surprises me, but it does. I guess I always pictured Ty as off somewhere casting spells over cell phones, not doing something useful like killing zombie-mummies.

“Sure,” continues Knox. “Back then, I hired folks to help me out, depending on the job. T’s one of the best mercenary sorceresses around. She was with me when I first captured Reggie, and the two of them got to be friendly.”

I purse my lips. “Friendly? Reggie only talks in creepy songs that he makes up on the fly. He’s not really friend material.”

“Anyway, he and Ty still hit it off,” explains Knox. “They’re both…” He bobs his head, trying to find the right word.

“Off their rocker?” I ask.

“Yeah. That.”

I rub my neck, thinking through the implications of that bit of news. “So when Reggie escaped last summer, you thought he might come here.”

“Right,” says Knox. “That’s when I reached out to these guys.” Knox gestures to the line of servants. “I asked them to give me a heads-up if they noticed anything suspicious. They just finished telling me how they haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary.”

The tallest servant—the guy who’d opened the side gate door with his keys—steps forward. He’s a lanky dude whose lean face is topped by an artful swoosh of gray hair. When he speaks, it’s with a serious French accent. “We’ve kept zee watch just as you requested, my Master.”

Now, that’s one really thick French accent, but I can still understand what he says. Surprisingly, I’m pretty sure Tall Guy just called Knox his “Master.” I frown. Maybe I’m mishearing things. It has been a long twenty-four hours, after all.

Knox shakes his head. “You know I don’t like that name, Louis.” The way Knox says the name, it’s with a little accent as well: LOO-eee.

“Apologies,” replies Louis. “We’ve kept zee watch as you requested, Sir.” He bows a little after he says that last bit, as if he needs to make up for not saying Master.

It’s taken me a little while, but I’m finally catching on to what’s happening here. I turn to Knox. “Is this your castle?”

“But of course,” answers Louis. He’s a fairly chatty guy, now that he’s broken the ice. “As I said, Knox eez our Master.”

“Technically, this is Az’s place,” says Knox. “One of many. He left it to me.”

I open my mouth, ready to correct Knox because actually, when you leave something to someone, it’s not yours anymore. In other words, Knox is definitely the master of all these folks now, whatever that means. But I close my mouth instead. Knox is my mate and we need to provide a united front, at least in front of his team. I can bring up the you’re actually the Master here discussion later.

Louis lifts his chin. “Whatever you say, Sir.” Looks like Louis is also on Team Keep Your Mouth Shut For Now. “Shall we take you to see Mademoiselle Ty now? She is still in residence.” The way he says in residence, it’s clear the Ty didn’t just stop by here on a whim. Knox’s ex is living in his random French palace.

This is getting complex.

Inside my heart, my wolf paces in anger. That’s not a good sign. “Ty,” growls my wolf. “We hates her.”

And she’s talking like Gollum again.

An even worse sign.

“One second.” Knox turns to me and lowers his voice. “Sure you don’t want to know my fairy tale life template?”

It’s a good question. On the one hand, I’m super-curious about this whole Ty situation. However, the other hand, there are about twenty servants standing around, waiting to hear our personal business. Like the conversation about who owns what castle, it can wait.

“I stand behind what I said before.” I lift my chin. “I don’t need to know your fairy tale life template.”

Knox leans in, brushing a gentle kiss across my lips. My knees turn wobbly. “Thanks for that.”

“Any time.” I wink.

“All right.” Knox takes my hand, and together, we head toward the castle. “Get ready to meet my personal nightmare.”

Inside my soul, my wolf prances about with her tail held high. “Our mate thinks Ty is his personal nightmare. Good, good, goooooood! We’ll get to chomp her face off soon. I know it!”

“No,” I counter in my mind. “Chances are, this will be bad, bad, bad. Ty is a sorceress and a nutjob. We need to be careful.”

“You ruin all my fun,” my wolf grumbles.

That does it. Tapping into my shifter power, I pull on the cords of golden energy inside me. My wolf instantly falls into a deep sleep. She’s been warned to be careful; now she’s going into the equivalent of a magical time-out.

No wolf and Ty at the same time, thank you very much.

After stepping through the gate’s side door, Knox and I begin the long walk up to the castle. How did all those senior citizens speed down this driveway so quickly? Right now, every step feels like I’m treading through molasses.

I straighten my shoulders. Who cares about some ex-girlfriend? Why should I worry? I fought Jules, the undead Roman general and creepster extraordinaire. Plus, last night I battled werewolves with Knox at my side. And now, my mate and I are reunited and loving it.

We can face down one off-the-wall sorceress.

Who used to be Knox’s ex-girlfriend.

And who still lives in his castle for some reason.

Personal nightmare, here I come.