Page 18 of Immortal Sins
Hot tears glide down my cheeks. “It’s there. Under the bed. Under the floorboards. She’s trapped there.”
“The horn?” Flynn offers me a hand to get up.
I grunt as he pulls me to my feet. A tremor of helplessness and disgust quakes my body. “No. Beth’s soul.”
8
OVER THE RAINBOW
“We have to steal the horn.” My teeth chatter as I speak, the whiplash from the upside-down spell still thick in my veins.
Lydia wraps a second blanket around my shoulders, but I can’t get the tremors to stop. I feel cold and lightheaded and numb. The tips of my fingers prickle as though I’ve been plunged into a tub of ice.
We regrouped in Jeremy’s room to share the results of our investigation, and while Brie and Jeremy seem content that I localized the horn, they do not grasp the magnitude of our discovery.
“We can’t leave it there.” I turn to Brie. “Your grandmother wasn’t so wrong about it. It’s alive. Beth’s soul is still attached to it, and she’s in danger.”
“Danger?” Jeremy asks.
“Something else was there. It didn’t have a clear shape, but it was white and smoky and it felt our presence,” Lydia explains. “It wasn’t from this plane.”
Brie purses her red lips. “Never mind the weird ghost shit—or the fact that neither beings don’t actually exist—how are we going to break into Oz’s cabin?”
“He invited me. If we could get him to leave me in there for a few minutes—”
She rakes her sharp nails against her nylons. “You think Oz is just going to leave you in his cabin alone?”
“If we create some sort of big emergency, he might.” I look around the room for a friendly face.
Lydia gives me a small, encouraging arm squeeze. “Oz is in charge. If something goes wrong, they’ll send for him right away.”
A wicked gleam flashes over the mermaid’s face. “I’m all for stealing the horn from that bastard, but we need agooddiversion, not some stupid fight or injury. Oz would see right through that.”
Flynn combs his blond hair back with one hand. “We need him out of his cabin for half an hour tops. Jules will let me in, and we’ll steal the horn right under the dragon’s nose.”
Lydia glares at the littered floor. “How do you know your dimensional rings work on a Magisterium safe?”
“I’ve done it before. They work. But it will trip the safe’s alarm.”
We all exchange a glance.
Jeremy grumbles. “So, even if we manage to steal it, he’ll just take it back.”
“Not if it’s gone,” I say quickly.
Brie offers up both palms in surrender. “The beach is under strict surveillance. I can’t smuggle anything or anyone out of here again.”
I bite my bottom lip and wait for the silence to set in. The discouragement on each of their faces pushes me to share my dangerous idea. “There’s a Faerie portal in Oz’s cabin, the same one we used for the beach games. We could use it.” I stretch the nerves out of my arms and wait for their reaction.
Lydia shakes her head. “Are you crazy? What are you going to do in Faerie?”
“We bring the horn to Cole, away from Oz.” I force a steadying breath down my lungs. Flynn’s nod of approval is enough to convince me that I’ve indeed lost my mind. “We can figure out the rest later.”
“We could all get expelled,” Jeremy whines.
“You? I already spent five days in an interrogation room this month. You’re not even a footnote in this adventure, dog.” Brie’s lime-green hair starts to gleam. “But I have an idea for a diversion. Simple enough not to raise Oz’s suspicions, but big enough to get his attention.”
I shiver at the vindication in her eyes.
