The Moon Warriors Page 4

  “Nothing I can’t handle,” he says and stands up, shaking his shoulder as if he’s hoping to remove a dozen spiders that have made their way under his shirt.

  I know he’s going to try and walk away again but I can’t let him do that. I reach out and grasp his ankle, holding him in place. He towers above me, his frame hulking, but when he looks down and catches my eyes, he deflates the slightest bit.

  “What is it?” I try again, my voice much softer this time.

  “He…wants me to get some old spellbook,” he says, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. “For the library.”

  I tilt my head to the side. That hardly seems scary considering the source of the mission. “Really?”

  Marcus nods.

  “What’s the spellbook?”

  Marcus pulls his lips to the side and looks down at me incredulously. “You think he was going to explain much more to me than what I was told?”

  I push my lips out into a pout. “How can you know if you’ve found it or not if you don’t know what you’re looking for?”

  “It’s an old Grimoire. Apparently, I’ll “know it when I find it,’ ” he says, mocking Reddick’s voice.

  I stifle a laugh. “That’s something, I guess.” I drop my gaze and frown.

  Marcus bends down and grasps me around the waist, lifting me to set me back onto the edge of the bed. I freeze at the contact, the spots where his hands were sending little jolts of electricity through me. He doesn’t notice as he pulls his hands away.

  “What is it?”

  “Did he…mention Shadow?” I ask.

  Marcus shakes his head but suddenly, he refuses to make eye contact. “I’m going to try and find the book as quickly as I can so you can get back to your revenge and cross the border back into Wonderland.”

  He stands up and turns to walk away but I don’t want him to go. “You think you’re just going to leave me here?” I ask.

  Marcus casts a crooked smile over his shoulder. “No offense, sweetheart, but you haven’t proven yourself very worthy against demons so far.”

  “Well, now I have a reason to try harder,” I point out, holding out my arm, and the markings, so he can see them clearly.

  Marcus stops walking and rests his forehead gently against the wall. “What about your legs?” his muffled voice says.

  “What are you doing?” I counter.

  He glances at me over his shoulder. “I was just seeing if I’d have any better luck talking to a wall since you’re just as stubborn.”

  I glare at him and he walks back over to me, sitting on the bed. “Seriously though.” He gestures to my lower half once again.

  I hold out a hand and reach down my neckline, seeking out my crystal.

  “I don’t know what you’re doing but can I help?” He winks.

  My eyes narrow as the glare turns to concentration, but I’m hardly aware of my face as my fingers work faster, more erratically. I poke at the familiar skin that’s used to feeling the cold metal of the amulet but it’s empty.

  “It’s gone,” I whisper, eyes wide.

  “Your amulet?” Marcus asks. “Yeah, it’s uh…collateral to ensure we do the mission assigned to us.”

  “Our lives weren’t enough?” I ask, mouth stretched wide in shock.

  Marcus shrugs. “Apparently not.”

  I look down at my legs, disheartened. “What are we going to do? We can’t find anything if I can’t even walk.”

  “Your crystals hold all your magic?”

  I bob my head. “They hold the energy for it. Without them, I…”

  Marcus laughs and reaches into his pocket, pulling out the tiny array of crystals I usually keep stored in my pocket. I glance from his open palm up into his face and back down again.

  “So, I have some explaining to do,” he says with a sheepish smile on his face.

  “And I hope it’s a very good explanation,” I reply, swiping the crystals from him.

  “Well, the reason I ever approached you in the bar to begin with was well…” He reaches up to scratch his neck.

  “Was?” I prompt, raising an eyebrow as he makes every attempt possible to avoid my gaze.

  “To pick your pockets. That’s what I do. There’s a reason the demons didn’t spare me when they went after you. They hate me just the same.”

  My eye twitches. “So, what you’re saying is that over the course of the last two hours, you’ve gone from petty criminal to martyr?”

  “Pretty good character growth, right?”

  I scoff and open my hand to stare down at the gems again. “What stopped you from running off after you swiped my crystals?”

  “I saw your face,” he says.

  I raise an eyebrow. “And just like that, you’re no longer a criminal?”

  Marcus holds up his marked arm. “I wouldn’t go that far. Now I’m just onto bigger and better things.”

  “Right,” I say and Marcus reaches out a finger to push the tiny gems around my palm.

  “How does this work?” he asks.

  I don’t say anything. I close my eyes and clench my hand again, humming softly in the beginning of a chant. The sound grows louder, and I feel the crystals warm on my skin but it barely lasts before their power goes out completely, and I cry out, throwing them across the room like a glittering hailstorm.

  Marcus looks between them on the floor and me on the bed. I look at my hand, at the tiny burn marks they had left in my palm as he asks, “What just happened?”

  “Their power’s been tapped.”

  “You can’t heal?” he guesses.

  I bob my head and tuck my lip between my teeth.

  “You have to stay here then,” he says slowly.

  “No. I don’t even know where here is!” I say, mouth wide in horror as I glance around the shadowy room.

  Marcus winces as if he doesn’t want to offer an explanation. “These are Reddick’s bunks for his…devotees.”

  I glance around but find myself not wanting to obtain anymore information than that.

  “Well, whatever this place is, it doesn’t matter. I’m coming with you.”

  “And what are you going to do if I refuse? Crawl?” He laughs.

  I look him dead in the eyes and say in one deadpanned word, “Yes.”

  The smile drops from his face and he ruffles his black hair before he says one word back. “Fuck.”

  10.

  “WHEN I SAW you at the bar, I thought you were crazy but this?” He groans, adjusting me in his arms as he carries me out of the building. “I guess what they say about first impressions is spot on.”

  I wish my legs worked just so I could feel the satisfaction of stepping on his foot.

  “I know you want to get to the bottom of this and all but I doubt me carrying you bridal style will inflict fear into the hearts of the wicked. Just sayin’.”

  “This isn’t a permanent solution,” I say scornfully and then a sound interrupts me before I can manage another word.

  “Talia?” a familiar voice drifts from the shadows.

  I tense. It’s Abigail.

  Marcus freezes instantly and both of us scan the darkness ahead, seeking out the source of the voice.

  “Abby? What are you doing here?” I ask when I catch a glimpse of her crystals shining in the dark. She has an affinity for rubies which leaves an eerie red light around her neck and in her eyes.

  “What’s happening?” Marcus asks as Abigail detaches from the shadows.

  Her rubies and her height are probably the most fearsome things about her. She is tall but she’s also thin making it seem as if she could be blown over with a strong enough gust of wind. She has a baby-like face and two identical brown pigtails. In the moment, she wears the same expression as Marcus. “Talia, are you being carried by a demon?”

  “Name’s Marcus, actually. Thanks for asking,” he replies, thrusting out his chin as he tries to shoulder his walk past her.

  “It’s okay, Marcus. She’s a friend,”
I inform him.

  He scoffs and stops briefly to looks her up and down. “Not my first impression, but sure, whatever you say, witchy.”

  “What are you doing here?” Abigail asks me.

  I lift my eyebrows. “I could ask you the same thing!”

  “You weren’t answering me. I got worried,” she admits and looks down at her ruby, stroking it gently between two long, pale fingers.

  “How’d you know I’d be here?”

  She shrugs. “Lucky guess? I know how hard the full moon is on you and-and are you hurt?”

  It’s then I realize my dress has hiked up and my legs are exposed, showing off the patterns of bruises I’ve acquired from falling so many times.

  She looks up at Marcus accusingly. “Did you do this to her? And where are you taking her anyway?”

  He takes on an amused expression. “Guess I’m dangerous like you’re all taught to believe. Right, witchy?”

  “No, Abby. He saved me,” I admit, not playing into Marcus’ game.

  “Hmm, interesting, interesting,” Marcus says. “Now why would a monster like me do such a thing?”

  Abigail makes a face at him. “Put her down.”

  Marcus clutches me tighter to him. “Why would I do that after what terrible things you’ve said about me?”

  She sighs and taps her foot. “Really?”

  “Really,” Marcus says, smiling.

  “Alright, I’m sorry,” Abby spits. “Better?”

  “Eh, not an A plus performance but that’s what you get when you cast a witch,” he says but finally answers her plea and sets me onto the ground.

  She makes a face at him and he begins to laugh.

  “Again with the insane laughter?” I ask.

  “Again with the naivety?” he counters.

  I glare at him.

  “Not you. Your…friend? Here. Yeah. She doesn’t get demons either.”

  Is that the truth though? I stare at her as she drops to her knees beside me. This side of the border is no picnic. The fact that she found me with such seeming ease on her own leaves me with the feeling that, like Ian, she hasn’t been entirely honest with our Coven either.

  Abby goes to work with her crystals, muttering spells and working her magic. “All better,” she says a few moments later and urges me to stand. Marcus helps me to do so and I’m glad to be able to feel the dirt beneath my toes again.

  Abby puts her hands on her hips and stares at me. “Do I get an answer now?”

  For a moment, I’m confused. I don’t remember her asking a question. She looks at Marcus and it’s then that I remember that I haven’t told her why I’m here. “Do you really want to know?” I ask and scuff the dirt at my feet to avoid looking at her face.

  Marcus cocks an eyebrow and dips down to look at my face. “Are you embarrassed? What happened to the hellbent witch on a mission at the bar?”

  I cringe and look up at him. He smiles back even though Abigail is also looking at him.

  “What mission? I can’t believe the Coven would send you here!”

  I clench my hands into fists at my sides. There’s no keeping it in now. “That’s the thing. They didn’t.”

  Her eyes turn into full-blown saucers.

  “No one knows,” I continue.

  “Correction. No witches know,” Marcus says and smiles at me. “Hi, I’m your partner in crime here, remember?”

  “What do you think you’re doing? Do you realize how dangerous this is? These things are savages. No offense,” she says to Marcus.

  He rolls his eyes.

  “You don’t understand!” I blurt out and feel the familiar tingling of tears in my eyes.

  “And neither do you. You weren’t there that night. You have no idea what happened. It’s all speculation. You could die over here and for what? A gut feeling?”

  “No, I do know,” I say with a glance up at Marcus.

  He presses his lips into a grim line and hesitantly nods back.

  “Just come home,” Abigail insists, twining her hand with mine. “And we can forget about this whole thing.

  “It’s not as easy as that,” I tell her, pulling myself away from the contact just as quickly as she formed it.

  “It can be.”

  I shake my head and hold up my arm. “You’re welcome to go home at any time but I’m staying this through to the end.”

  “You’ll regret it. Don’t be surprised if the Elders find out about this,” she assures me before whisking on her heels to disappear into the darkness she had emerged from.

  11.

  WE GO IN the opposite direction of Abigail, both of us heavily silent. At first, it’s anger that fuels me onward but it fades long before the silence does. I’m glad. I’m sure anything out of Marcus’ mouth would’ve been enough to dissolve me into tears and even if I’m not as tough as I wish I were, I can still appear that I am.

  “All this work,” Marcus tsks some time later. “You must really love that Shadow guy.”

  I look away, purposefully doing anything I can to not look at him. “I can’t say I ever loved him.”

  “But you’re here.”

  “Yeah, but it’s impossible to say I love someone I never truly knew. I had no idea about anything he did on this side of the border. Now for Abigail to come here and tell me to forget it all…I feel like it’s related.”

  Marcus sighs and stops walking. I turn to give him a questioning look. “Something wrong?”

  “I lied to you, back there at Reddick’s. He…told me a bit about Shadow when you were unconscious.”

  I turn on my heels and rush up to him, grabbing him by the collar. “Tell me!”

  “A little too short for that to be real effective,” he says, smiling at me as he pats my hand.

  I ignore the teasing and grasp onto his shirt even tighter. “What did he say?”

  “This mission…it’s because of something Ian did.”

  I blink once. Twice. Three times. “And you didn’t think to tell me?”

  Marcus says nothing but there’s a glint in his eye, almost like a tear. Suddenly, I get it. He didn’t want me to think of Shadow, of the mess he had gotten himself into. Instead, Marcus had wanted me to think of the way he had stepped in and saved my life when I very well could’ve been murdered.

  “For as long as I live, I’ll never be able to make this up to you,” I tell him. “Everything. From the bar to this.” I glance at the markings on my arm.

  He smirks. “I can think of a few things you can try.”

  I groan but inside, I wonder just how much longer I have to live. If we fail this mission, I may have just hours left. Marcus glances at me from the corner of his eye and I wonder if he’s thought the same.

  “I don’t know what the guy did to get you attached to him but from everything I’ve gathered, he was scum.”

  I almost don’t want to ask but I do anyway. “What else have you heard?”

  “Nothing that will make you feel any better,” he says.

  For some reason, I trust that to be the truth and push no further on the topic.

  “We should stop soon and rest for the night,” Marcus says after a while.

  That catches me off guard. “Huh? Why?”

  He blinks at me. “How long did you think this trip would be?”

  I stare at him, dumbfounded. I hadn’t actually considered it. For some reason, I had assumed that this could be simple, easy enough to accomplish in a night, but if that was the truth, wouldn’t Reddick have taken care of it himself instead of sending someone else to do it for him?

  Unless he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. I purse my lips.

  “I was hoping to be back home by morning,” I admit.

  Marcus looks down at his arm. “I don’t think that’s possible now.”

  “They’ll notice I’m gone if I’m not there when the sun comes up,” I say, letting out a shuddering breath.

  “Won’t they know anyway?” he asks.

  Then I rememb
er Abigail. I’m sure she’ll wake them all up just so they will know. “Maybe it’s best to never go back.”

  “Que sera, sera,” Marcus says with a shrug.

  I bob my head. “How long of a trip is this?”

  “Reddick wants us to find a demon who lives out in the mountains beyond town.”

  I stop and turn to look at him. “Mountains?” I feel smaller and smaller inside at the thought of just how long this mission could actually take.

  “Relax, we won’t actually have to climb them,” he says, holding up his hands. “Hopefully. Reddick says the guy we need frequents the woods at the mountain base.”

  I nod and hope that to be the truth. “I guess we should get some rest them.”

  Marcus smiles. “I was hoping you would say that. There’s a hotel coming up in about a mile.”

  “A hotel?” I ask. “I don’t have any money.” I stare at Marcus but when I remember the pickpocketing story, I make the assumption that he doesn’t either.

  “It’s okay, I’ve got it,” he says, chin out and head held high.

  I don’t know what he’s planning. I’m just glad he has a plan.

  12.

  MARCUS EVENTUALLY LEADS us to a nice inn. It’s small but being that it’s run by demons, it’s surprisingly cozy. The desk clerk asks no questions and doesn’t even look all that surprised by the idea of a witch and a demon checking into a room together.

  Does this happen often? I wonder.

  “They don’t seem to care that I’m here,” I whisper as we ascend the winding staircase to our room.

  He shrugs. “Why would they?”

  “Well, after the whole incident at the bar, I just thought…”

  Marcus laughs. “Not everyone is violent, witchy. There are some demons who care more about their own business than other people’s, believe it or not.”

  “Whatever the reason, I’m glad for it,” I admit and rumple my hair as we hit the landing onto the next floor.

  Marcus smiles but doesn’t speak again until after we get to our room. It’s small and I notice there’s only one bed. I turn to Marcus and raise an eyebrow.