Wicked Omen (The Royals: Warlock Court Book 1), page 16
I swallowed around the ball of nerves in my throat. “I-I’m Astrid . . .” I forced the name out. “Lockwood. And I believe you have something that belongs to me.”
The sound of footsteps coming to me filled my ears, each one a countdown to my ending. “Is that so?” A tiny snake-like tongue darted over my cheek. Something slithered and moved over my face and brushed into my hair. Yet I dared not look up.
“Astrid, what’s happening?” Beckett tried to let go of my hand.
I squeezed my fingers harder around his. “Don’t move, don’t look.”
“She’s right,” her voice whispered in my ear. “Best not take a peek.”
I peeked my eyes down at the floor only to see perfectly manicured toes painted silver with little purple sparkles. “I’ve come for the book.”
“Well, in that case, don’t be afraid, my dear, all you have to do is…” Her voice dropped to a whisper right next to my ear, “open your eyes.”
Chapter 22
Astrid
“Take a peek,” she whispered, her voice so tempting, I wanted to look at her to see her eyes and her snake-like hair.
My pulse raced, sweat beaded my forehead, and I had the overwhelming urge to pee. If I was the Lockwood heir, then this would prove it. I sucked in a deep breath. “Go big or go home, right?”
“Astrid, don’t!” Beckett yelled.
It was too late. I looked up into beautiful vivid violet eyes and then I froze. My body went catatonic. I couldn’t move my arms or legs. My feet were cemented to the ground. The air seized in my lungs. Am I stone?
Medusa sucked in a sharp breath and clapped her hands together. She was smaller than I expected, standing at only a few inches over five feet. Her features were delicate and elf-like, with a small pert nose, pink rosy cheeks, and full bow-shaped lips. Her eyes were huge and hypnotic. She had the body of a complete bombshell even Marilyn Monroe would envy. Any man would succumb to this woman despite the black and purple snakes flowing from her head. She bounced on her toes and squealed. “Oh my God, you’re a girl!”
Then Medusa in all her terrifying glory leapt on top of me, knocking me to the ground and holding me in a hug that squeezed all the air from my lungs. My hand slipped free from Beckett’s grip while her little snakes seemed to be planting tiny kisses on my cheeks. I lay there completely frozen. How was I supposed to react to a mythological creature and her snakes loving me?
“Astrid!” Beckett screamed then started shooting blue energy balls in all different directions. Statues exploded into dust. “Come at me, you bitch! I’ll kill you for what you did to her!” Blue orbs fired from his hands in rapid succession. The cave shook and dust rained down on us.
Medusa rolled off me. “Mind telling your boyfriend you’re not dead before he brings my whole house down?”
“Beckett!” I yelled over the explosions. “I’m okay.”
But was I? I literally was in a sorority-like girl hug with freaking Medusa. Beckett spun in a circle then lifted his hand to remove the blindfold. I jumped to my feet and grabbed his hand and tugged it back down. “No, don’t.”
Medusa lurched to her feet and dusted herself off. “You’re lucky I like you, otherwise I’d have to look your boyfriend in the eye. The redecorating alone is going to cost a fortune.”
I brushed the dirt off his shoulder. “Oh, he’s not my boyfriend.”
“Oh no?” Her eyes glittered with excitement and she clapped her hands together. Then she nudged her elbow into mine. “Boy girl drama, do tell.”
Beckett shifted uncomfortably. “Look, we’re just here for the Lockwood grimoire.”
“Avoidance is a major sign of denial. So, you like her, right? I mean, you guys were all hand-holding when you came in here. And then when you thought I added her to my collection you were all”—she held her arms up, making muscles and grimacing—“I Hulk smash your place for my woman. I could totally picture you having the big green monster moment. Oh my God, can you actually turn into one?”
“Umm, turn into what?” His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“A Hulk smashing green monster, duh.” She rolled her eyes like he could see her.
He threw his arms up. “No, I don’t turn into a big green monster.” He turned his back to us and leaned away, whispering, “Astrid, you’re gonna have to handle this.”
“Um, Beck, I’m over here.” I tapped on his shoulder.
He spun around to face me, then put his hands on his hips. “Let’s get the book and go. This is dangerous.”
I glanced at Medusa, who kicked at some unseen rock on the floor and looked about as sad as a dog when their owner was about to leave. I grabbed Beckett’s hand and led him back toward the opening of the cave. Once we got there, I positioned him with his back toward her. I grabbed the edge of his blindfold and tugged it up just enough so he could see me. “Listen, I think I should stay and hang out for a little bit.”
“What, are you crazy? This is Medusa we are talking about. She turns men to stone on a regular basis.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, but I think she could use some girl time.”
“Girl time? You can’t be serious.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “We need to go now.”
“Well, you can go. I’m going to stay.” I planted my feet and mimicked his position with my arms over my chest.
Medusa leaned on one of her statues, watching us. She rested her chin on her hand and sighed. “You guys are so romantic, better than my day time soaps.”
Beckett rolled his eyes. “You’ve got one hour before I come back in here looking for you.”
“An hour and a half,” I countered.
Medusa squealed again. “Oh, you guys are just the cutest.”
“Fine.” Beckett walked around me. “You handle this.”
I waited until he stomped down the long tunnel and out of sight before I spun back around to face Medusa. “I think you scared him off.”
She waved a dismissive hand toward the hall and sighed. “I always do.”
I didn’t know what I was going to do here with her, but she seemed like she needed a friend and I could use some time away from Beckett. I sucked in a breath and blew it back out. “You know I do need the book.”
“Yeah, I know.” She walked over to a statue of a shirtless man who was in the process of unbuttoning his pants. She pulled a nail file from his pocket. “Thanks, Stan, I always lose this.”
She patted the statue on the cheek and walked farther back into her cave. She waved to me over her shoulder. “Come on.”
The sound of her filing her nails filled the cavernous room. Toward the back of it we walked down two steps to a sunken living room. In front of us was a huge flat screen TV with a cushy purple crushed velvet sectional sprawled in front of it. To the left of that up against the wall was a four-poster king-sized bed with a bedspread that matched the couch. To my right was a full chef’s kitchen with stainless steel appliances, marble countertops, and shaker cabinets. “How’d you get all this?”
She waved the question away. “Honey, that is a story for another time.”
She walked over to a single statue in the corner of the room. This man, he was beautiful, with long hair down to his shoulders and a smile on his face. Held with in his arms was a silver metal box the same one I’d seen in my vision. I sucked in a breath. This was it, this was the book I needed to learn to control my powers. Medusa walked over to the statue and pressed her hand to the man’s cheek. “His name was Richard. They always think they’re strong enough. They always think it won’t happen to them.” Her voice was tinged with sadness. “He caught me off guard, surprised me, and then this happened.”
She grabbed the box. “Thanks for holding this, honey.” She turned and winked at the statue. She walked over to me and hefted it into my arms. “I’m glad you came for that. I’m glad I can look someone in the eye.”
The box was heavy in my hand. Whether it was from the book inside or the metal box containing it, I didn’t know. “Thank you.”
I didn’t want to grab the book and run. I knew she’d been trapped here forever. But more than that I kind of liked Medusa. The movies had her all wrong. She was feminine, girlie even and just wanted a friend. A bright purple cell phone sat on the coffee table. It binged with messages and vibrated. Medusa rushed over to it and scooped it up. The second she looked at it she broke out into fits of laughter. “Oh my God, you have to see this.”
I placed the book on the floor at my feet and grabbed her phone. “What the hell, you’re on a dating website?”
“Yeah, isn’t it great? I chat all day long. Oh wait, look at my profile pic.” She grabbed the phone, brought up a picture, then handed it back to me.
I squinted at the screen. “Who’s that?”
“Athena.” She giggled.
A chuckle broke past my lips. “You’re catfishing with Athena’s picture?”
“Serves her right for what she did to me.” She flipped her snakes over her shoulder. “Best part is when I give them her phone number and tell them I love when they leave dirty messages. Bet she still can’t figure out who’s giving it out.”
“That’s hilarious.” I handed the phone back to her. “And she probably deserves it.”
“Yeah, she does.” Medusa tossed her phone onto the bed, then motioned for me join her on the couch. “After what she did to me and my sisters. She deserves that and more.”
I gazed at the metal box, never wanting to let it out of my sight. But I left it where it lay and joined her on the couch. “So tell me something?”
“Yes?” She leaned her head on the couch and the snakes slithered over the back of it. “You can’t believe how heavy those things are.”
“Do you, um, have to feed them?”
She raised her eyebrows at me. “Is that your question?”
“No, but I couldn’t stop it from coming out.” For some reason I didn’t feel like I should be embarrassed. For the first time in days I was comfortable around someone else. At the school I was constantly messing up. With Beckett I felt like I was nothing more than a nuisance, a responsibility he didn’t want.
Medusa chuckled. “Nah, I don’t need to feed them, although any time a spider or bug tries to get near me, they nab it.”
“That’s cool. I hate when spiders bungee jump into my lap too.”
“Animals are naturally attracted to magic. That includes spiders. Better get used to it.” She sighed and tickled under the chin of one of the snakes.
“You know what I don’t get, how can I look at you and them?” I motioned to the snakes.
“Ah, well, Athena in all her divineness, decided to give me the gift of letting one person and only one be able to look at me.” She wagged her eyebrows. “She meant it to be a mortal, and technically it was, but when Gregor came here, he was the first person to walk in and not try to kill me. He wanted to talk to me, to figure out the spell that cursed me. I think I was a bit of a science project for him.”
I found myself entranced by her words. I wanted to know more about my great, great grandfather. The man who dared to defy an evil tyrant and lost his life for it. Medusa rose from the couch and walked to the kitchen. She pulled the refrigerator door open and grabbed a pitcher of water out. She moved to one of the cabinets and pulled a glass from it.
“At first he asked me so many questions, always coming in blindfolded, stumbling along.” She chuckled. “After so long we became friends, really good friends. He brought me things from the outside world, and I told him of times past. Finally, I decided a best friend was better than any lover I could find. At least Gregor would always be respectful and oh, the jokes he’d tell.”
“Yes, but how did it carry through the bloodline if you were only supposed to get one?” I leaned back on the couch and kicked my feet up.
Medusa grabbed another glass from the cabinet and filled it. She padded back over to the couch, her bare feet soundless over the floors. “Gregor was very cleaver. He magnified the spell and let it bless all his bloodline to come so I would always have a friend. But then . . .” Her face turned sad as she looked down at her glass. “Well, you know the rest.”
“Wow, he figured out how expand something that he shouldn’t be able to do and I can’t even summon a normal cat.” I chuckled to myself. “Can I tell you a secret?”
She motioned to the empty room. “Who am I going to tell?”
I don’t know what made me want to confide in her. Maybe it was knowing she wouldn’t tell anyone else. Maybe it was knowing that Medusa struggled with her own kind of magic on a regular basis. “I accidentally summoned a demon who is, as we speak, pretending to be a one-eyed cat named Odin in my house.”
Medusa spat water all over her coffee table. “That’s fantastic.”
I felt myself laughing just as hard as she was. “It kind of is, isn’t it?”
“Who else has a pet demon. Only a freaking Lockwood, that’s who.” The snakes seemed to chuckle along with her.
“Astrid, are you ready yet?” Beckett hollered down the tunnel.
“Just a sec,” I yelled back. I turned to Medusa. “He really doesn’t know how to tell time.”
“No, but he cares for you. I can tell.” She gave me a wistful smile.
I groaned. “It’s more like I’m his job and he takes his work very seriously.”
Medusa rose to her feet. “I’m sure he’d like to.”
Before I could say anything else, she grabbed up the box and handed it to me. The metal was made of hundreds of puzzle pieces, each on connecting to the other in perfect symmetry. There were no gaps or seams, no latch or hole for a key. I turned it over. “How do I open it?”
“That’s the pandora configuration. It’s like a puzzle you have to solve. Once you do that, it’ll open. I think a hint will appear soon. Gregor said when the real Lockwood heir arrived, it would begin. But he didn’t give me much else to go on.”
“Thanks.” I held my arm out and wrapped it around her shoulders.
“Astrid!” Beckett snapped.
I pulled away from Medusa and yelled back, “Jeez, dad, I’m coming!”
Medusa held her hand to her head in the universal sign for a phone. “Call me.”
I held my hand out and gold magic seeped across her floor to the bed where her phone sat. “There, my number is in there. Text me whenever.”
Her eyes lit with excitement. “Are you for reals?”
“Yeah, totes.” I turned to walk to the opening of the tunnel. Then a thought hit me and I looked at her over my shoulder. “Can you freeze demons?”
She shook her head. “Nah, they’re from another world.”
“Good to know.” With my pandora configuration I headed out of the cave. My phone vibrated in my back pocket before I even got to Beckett.
Chapter 23
Beckett
Pandora keeps a book of mine. Within her lies the Lockwood line.
Blood of my blood these clues I’ve left. Unlock our magic saved from theft.
Seek the one beneath the sea. Skin of the serpent by willing plea.
Stand by sand, her cries will roam. For a piece of bone to lead you home.
Thy final test is sharp and fine, place thy heart to claim what’s mine.
I hunched over the box and ran my hand over the cryptic engraving. “What does it mean?”
Maze sat next to Astrid on the couch as she held her phone up. The two of them ducked their heads close together with that cat sitting between them. Maze held a bowl of cereal in one hand and a spoon in the other. All of their eyes were riveted to the screen, then all at once they broke out into fits of laughter. Astrid sat with one leg curled under the other. She leaned down to Odin and whispered in his ear then pointed to the screen. Did that cat just nod? What the hell? “Astrid, are you listening to me?”
Her head snapped up and when those emerald eyes flashed at me, my heart nearly stopped. She bit her full bottom lip. “Um, yeah, I’m listening.”
With each passing day I saw new things about her that I liked. She was sassy when she was upset, smiled and laughed at Maze even when he was outrageous. And for the life of me he actually liked her. Maze didn’t like anyone. I’d been hard on her and she bore it like no one else could. She was feisty, beautiful, and even though she didn’t know it yet…powerful.
She called to me in ways I didn’t understand. Why couldn’t I just brush this aside the way I brushed away any other girls? Why couldn’t I keep my distance from her? When I thought I’d lost her in Medusa’s lair my mind snapped, and I lashed out. If I was being honest with myself, I didn’t remember what I’d done, I just . . . lost it. She wasn’t a queen and it wasn’t my job to protect her like a knight, but I wanted to all the same. God, I wanted to protect her!
She rose to her feet and tossed that mane of dark hair over her shoulder. Those dark jeans clung to her legs like a second skin and her jacket was loose and falling off her shoulder, giving me the barest hint of skin. I wanted to brush my fingers over it just to see if it was as soft as I believed she was. I shook myself. “Then what do you think this is?”
Did I just snap at her?
She moved up beside me. “Well, I haven’t been staring at it as long as you have, but if I had to guess I’d say this line.” She pointed at the line. When she reached out her hand and brushed mine, excitement slithered underneath my skin. “Seek the one beneath the sea. Skin of the serpent by willing plea. I think we’re going to have to go talk to a sea serpent or something.”
Cross, who’d been silently staring at Odin, threw his head back, chuckling. “You don’t talk to a sea serpent, you stab it.”
“Right, because that’s the solution to everything . . . stab it . . . says the warrior dude.” She rolled her eyes.
Add ballsy to the list of things I like. “I think you’ve got something here.”
Her phone buzzed in her hand. When she held it up, she giggled, wrote a quick response, and slid it back into her pocket. “Um, I have a class in like ten minutes. Do you need me here or can I go?”
