Page 4 of Immortal Sins
The roots of Brie’s hair spark with lime-green highlights. “Oz is behind this? How?”
We catch Brie up on the general hypothesis.
“Oz has angel dust at his disposal, and we only have five antidotes. We’re screwed. We need more.” Her shoulders sag, and it’s the first sign that she thinks of this secret meeting as more than an unpleasant interlude with frenemies.
“I’ve gone over this in my head a thousand times, and I agree with Brie. Could Deveraux replicate this? Find out the ingredients? Like a reverse-engineered recipe?” I ask.
Brie nods. “If anyone at Dark Falls can do it, it’s her. She’s the most esteemed Spells and Sorcery teacher in the three realms.”
Flynn boosts himself on the desk, sitting with his legs spread wide. “Assuming she’s not in on it, or affected by angel dust herself.”
“She’s immune. Beth said so. And I think she’s our best bet.” A dash of confidence blazes through my gut. There’s no love lost between us, but we can work together. Like Lydia said, this is more important than petty school rivalries. This is life or death. With one whiff of angel dust, any of us could become a helpless pawn in Oz’s twisted game.
I flip through my notes, hoping that the doodles and scraps of information will suddenly click together. “A unicorn’s horn is an extremely rare and potent ingredient in many spells. Oz needs it for something. I just can’t figure out what. Whatever he plans to do with it, we have to stop him.”
Lydia grabs her notebook from the blue comforter. “Some references say that it’s a powerful arcane focus for healing spells.”
Jeremy wraps an arm around her shoulders. “I read it could be carved into a weapon to pierce the most potent magical armors.”
Flynn pushes himself off the desk. “So basically, it can do anything. The holy uni-fucking-grail.”
“Legends say that a unicorn can be reborn if its horn is recovered,” Brie whispers, her voice low and ethereal.
A feverish heat travels from my ears to my chest.
Flynn sneers like he just lost his last thread of respect for the mermaid. “Have you lost your gills? Nothing can make someone come back from the dead.”
Brie crosses her arms. “I’m just repeating what my grandmother said.”
I place myself between them. “What else did she say?”
The stiffness in Brie’s spine eases. “She told us the elders used to bring the fallen unicorns back to life.”
Bringing Beth back from the dead…it’s too good to be true, and yet, my heart swells. “No one can know about this. We can’t tell anyone else about Oz, the antidote, or what we’re trying to do. As long as we don’t know how far up this goes and who can be trusted, we have to keep it secret.” My gaze darts to Flynn. “We need to vow not to speak of this.”
With a perfectly rehearsed air of faux-drama, he brings a hand to his chest. “You wantmymagic to solidify this freak show?”
I hold his stare.
He cocks his head to the side, his eyes the color of the ocean under a cloudless sky. “I do this for you, and you have to kneel whenever I tell you to. For a year.”
I cringe at the giddiness in his voice. “A week.”
His grin widens. “One month.”
Blood rushes to my ears. Kneeling at Flynn’s feet whenever he pleases is not my idea of a good time. “Fine. By the Dark Gods, I swear it.”
We shake on it, and magic spirals in my bones.
He rubs his palms together. “Let’s try this thing.”
“We have no time—”
“Kneel, witch.” The dark, luscious inflections of his voice radiate inside my cells. I grit my teeth together on the way down, but I have to obey.
A kid at Christmas holding candy…and chocolate…andchocolate candy comes to mind as he says, “This is fun.”
“Fuck you, Verinos.” I start to unfold.
