Page 116 of Magical Academy for Delinquents
Gray nodded and rubbed my palm. "Yup. He and his cousin should be finishing up ‘Masquerade.’ Soon as they drop all those jewels, they'll be here."
I shook my head, heat flooding my neck as I rubbed it. I blew out a breath. "Covering a heist with another heist--"
"We've got to explain away all the chaos we've caused. People are gonna be looking for a reason."
I nodded.
"It's a solid plan."
I nodded.
My entire body felt like it was balanced on the head of a pin. I felt like some cirque act, suspended high in the air, nothing to catch me.
Gray let go of my hand and flicked my boob.
I recoiled. "Ow!"
"Stop it, nemesis. Don't freak yourself out. Ride the adrenaline. Don't let it ride you."
I turned to look at his dark brown eyes drawing my strength from him.
"This is just another prank. Just another fuck you."
The driver stopped and Gray pulled me out of the car into the frosty night air. The cold seemed to wake me up, to drive away some of the hot worry that was stewing in my stomach. Seeing Evan standing under the trees, a mask covering his nose, lifted it further.
I marched over to him. "I tried to radio you like three times."
His cheeks reddened. "Sorry. Tia was ... harder to get rid of than I expected."
Jealousy flared inside me like a blow torch. "What? Why?" "I ended up telling her that I'd had a crush on you for years in order to get her to back off."
The flames ebbed and I gave him a small smile. I turned to see Zavier and Andros walking toward us. Malcolm followed just behind them.
“You get it?” My gaze went straight to Andros.
Z grinned. “A better question is what didn’t he get? Damn! Those women were swimming in diamonds.”
“You dropped those right?” I glared; my expectant expression immediately turned to a frown. “Half those gems will have seeker spells on them.”
“Relax. I dropped them with a couple of Gray’s guys. They’re on it.” Andros’ reply was casual. Too casual for me. Like he wasn’t taking this seriously.
“Did you get Stone’s wand?” I repeated.
Andros held up a silver wand. Then he tucked it into his shirt.
I smacked my hands together and then held up my hands. The darkness unfurled from them like calligraphy, like beautiful swirls of ink. I let my power caress each of my crew's faces. Then it swirled down and swallowed them up.
"Okay," Gray said. "I'm up."
"Not yet, I replied." I took my left hand and flicked my fingers, letting tiny pinpricks of light float out and settle over each of them. Now, we'd be indistinguishable from the starry sky. Once we were done, we lined up and stared at the Pinnacle.
The building rose, tall and imposing, the white stone arches glinting in the light from the parking lot and a tiny sliver of crescent moon. We’d lucked out with the moon’s phase. It wasn’t bright.
The shadows created by all the sculptures carved into the walls made my eyes play tricks on me. Even though I controlled darkness and light, my eyes still thought they saw movement. My pulse pounded so hard that I thought I might fall down dead where I stood. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on the shit meditation techniques that Potts was always pushing on me. Calm wind. Waves. I counted my inhales and exhales until my heart was at a manageable 65 mph and not the fucking Indy 500 pace it had been at before. It didn’t help things that sex with some of the guys had made my power sizzle beneath my skin all damn day.
Shit. Control it,I scolded myself.
Like the asshole he was, Grayson strode over to stand beside me, his bulk making me feel small. “Ready?” he asked.
