Page 44 of Spelled By Truth and Tresses

Josh looked green. “Something's been dead in here for a while.”

Jax tilted his head, then manifested a ball of blue magic and sent it hovering above the bed, thickly covered with dust. He put his hands in his pockets and surveyed the walls. Blood spatter covered the stone walls, some of it still crimson and dripping, and some brown with age. The scene reminded me of the tower where the Black Lily Coven had died.

I twisted my mouth in disgust as I struggled to breathe inside the small office. It looked like it hadn’t seen daylight in years. It definitely didn’t look lived in. I backed out of the room, my throat swelling with anxiety. My boots thudded softly against the stone as I paced the empty classroom.

Jax shouted from inside the professor’s office. “Zellie, you should come and see this.”

Josh stood in front of a panel cut into the stone. Magic hid it from us originally, but once we crossed the threshold the blood splatter revealed the rectangular edges of the hidden room beyond. Josh pushed the panel further into the wall, then ducked inside the cramped space.

“What the actual fuck?” I asked no one in particular.

Jax and I moved over to the opening and peered inside. There was a woman slumped over on the dirt floor, crimson stained her black, matted hair. Her lips were blue, and pieces of her flesh hung from her torso in ribbons. I squinted as Josh nudged his boot under her. Beneath her decaying body was a much older corpse. It appeared to be a man, but it was hard to tell with the flesh of its face rotted clear through to the bone in some places.

As Josh lowered his foot, the woman’s corpse toppled to the side, and my eyes widened in horror as maggots wiggled amongst her spilled entrails. Despite all of that, the smell was the most overwhelming thing about the scene. It was obvious her bowels had been released.

I covered my mouth with my hand. “Do you think Thomas could have done this?”

Josh shrugged; his gaze fixated on the dead woman. It was hard to tell in death, but I was pretty sure it was Professor Willow. Unholy shit, she went missing months ago.

Thomas was nowhere to be found, but I had a bad feeling the brutalized corpse was left there on purpose for us to find. With that thought, my eyes darted to the walls inside the secret room. Countless crude depictions of a familiar tower were drawn in blood. I have no idea how I missed them at first glance.

I straightened my spine as I fought the urge to run as fast and as far as I could away from this place. Icy claws dragged down my spine.

“It’s an invitation,” I whispered, then rubbed my arms, willing the goosebumps to go away.

“What?” Jax growled, then pulled me into him.

“Look at the walls, Ax.”

His gaze rose, then he swore.

“He wants us to go to the tower,” Jax seethed.

My stomach twisted as we left the classroom.

CHAPTER 19

Imatched my pace with the men as we jogged through campus and into the woods. Adrenaline flooded my system, feeding my fury with unfiltered chaos.

Not only had Thomas threatened and hurt Lalita and was stalking me at the mixer, but now he had potentially murdered at least one professor. He needed to be stopped, and I was itching to be the one to eliminate him.

The tower came into view, beautiful in its loneliness amongst the eastern white pine trees. Deep grooves cut into the dark gray bark betraying their age. Endlore greeted me like an old friend, its magic swirling around me and lifting the long blonde strands that never made it into my hasty braid this morning. Jax and I led Josh through the meadow, dried foxglove crunching underfoot, and over to the unmarked graves littered around the entrance.

I breathed in deeply through my nose, then exhaled through my mouth, a stream of steam forming in its wake.

“This is it. We set the stage for war here.”

“War?” Josh questioned. “Isn’t that a bit dramatic, Zellie?”

I turned to face his incredulous face and Jax encircled me with his arms from behind. “You saw what that monster is capable of. We came here knowing it would most likely be a trap. The best we can do is take this seriously, and then perhaps, we will survive the night.”

Josh’s jaw fell open, then his mouth moved, but no words came out.

“Close your mouth, idiot,” Jax teased, then his arms tightened around me. “My siren is right. Please take this seriously, cousin. I can’t afford to be distracted worrying about your impulsive ass.”

For once, Josh was silent and only nodded his understanding.

I turned my side into Jax and breathed him in as my eyes traced the thick vines covering the stone exterior of the tower. The residual energy from the witches was building the longer I stood here. The coven whispered in my ear, making their wishes for me clear.

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