Page 100 of Artemis' Bow
“We don’t have a great track record of finding hotels where people don’t want to kill us.” I shrug.
“I wasn’t trying to find anything, but I can check it out. I don’t think we have to worry about anything here, though.” Draven closes his eyes and his hands light up in a soft green. “Nothing like ours but there is a faint magical signature.”
Greyson stiffens and stops mid-step. A growl rumbles up his throat as he sniffs the air and scans our surroundings.
“Greyson, what is it?” I ask.
“Witches. They don’t really get along with shifters. We can’t stay here long,” he whispers.
“That must be what I felt. They don’t feel malicious, though.” Draven scans the parking lot as well.
“If they catch wind of us, that will change,” Greyson warns.
“Hey, Greyson,” Jayden calls. “Why don’t you come with me and Dax to book some rooms.”
I blow Jayden a kiss and he grins back at me with a wink. He artfully diffused that situation, and I love him more for it, especially since I can’t handle one more thing right now.
Thad jogs over, grinning. He points to something behind me and I turn to find a taco place across the street. This hotel isthe best one we’ve stayed at, considering they have a taco place across the parking lot. I love it.
“Me and Adrian are going to get tacos, burritos, and nachos for the whole group.” Thad pats my shoulder.
“We’ll go with you,” Draven says, pointing to Olly, who nods. “That’s gonna be a lot of food for two people to carry back on their own.”
As they all walk off, I narrow my gaze on Draven. “What happened to him? He’s being… helpful.”
“I know, it’s weird.” Raven shudders.
“That’s part of what we have to talk to you about regarding our mission to Chicago, I think,” Kira says.
“It’s that bad, isn’t it?” I ask.
Dread fills my gut and my hands shake. Did they run into trouble? Did the other team make it to their destination? Hopefully they’re already on their way back to the academy and had no issues as I suspected they wouldn’t. If any classmates die because Chiron didn’t listen to me, we are going to have some serious words.
“Yeah, it’s pretty awful. The guys are pretending everything’s fine, but I know it even shook Dax.” Kira runs a hand down her face.
“Hey, baby. We ended up just getting a five-bedroom suite instead of separate rooms. We figured it would give us room to have our debrief.” Jayden hands me the key card. “Go up to the suite. I’ll wait for the others so I can tell them where to go.”
“Okay,” I say and kiss him softly. “See you in a few.”
“C’mon, babe,” Raven calls to Greyson. “You can’t stay out here like this, remember?”
“Yeah, that has bad news written all over it.” Greyson stiffens and scans the area.
What is his deal with other supernatural species? When we met him at the Halloween party at his pack house, he didn’tseem bothered that we weren’t human or wolf. He just claimed Raven was his mate.
That night was pretty insane, and we got in huge trouble for leaving campus without permission. Raven had lied to me about being allowed to leave for that one night. I was surprised Jayden hadn’t spilled the beans and just tagged along, even though he wasn’t welcome.
We get up to the suite and I open the door to an opulent living room complete with a chandelier hanging above a glass and metal coffee table. We probably should not be staying anywhere near this. My mind races with all the ways that chandelier falls or shatters and breaks the table in its own demise. An unexpected casualty.
“Let’s just hope nothing in this hotel tries to kill us because we all know that will be the first to go.” I point at the chandelier.
“And that will be second.” Raven giggles pointing at the table.
“Things like that happen to the two of you often?” Kira squeaks.
“Have you met them? It doesn’t just happen to them. Sometimes they actively do things like that to get out of dire situations,” Greyson says with a scoff.
“If you don’t use everything at your disposal when you’re in a life-or-death situation, guess what? You die. I’m not planning on dying anytime soon. One close call today was enough.” I flip my hair over my shoulder.
