Page 29

Neith

“A lright, got it,” River says after only a couple of runs through the words. It really isn’t that complicated.

“Great, so these are the movements that go along with it,” I explain, and then begin to show him.

It takes us a couple of run-throughs, but he soon picks it up, and then we’re both marching along and singing the song with fancy arm and head movements thrown in for good measure.

“How the hell did we get to this point?” Reed asks through his laughter.

None of the others can stop laughing long enough to actually answer him, though, and River and I are too busy dancing to reply.

After a while, we finally stop, and the guys calm down.

“That was brilliant,” Doc compliments with a giant smile.

“We should probably get back to the castle, it’s really late, and we most likely have a trial tomorrow,” Ransom suggests.

“Hang on, I want to see Neith’s new tattoo?” Raiden says, looking at me questioningly.

I nod and pull at the leather cuff. I have to admit that I’m pleased that it comes off; it had crossed my mind that it may be a literal permanent feature that I couldn’t remove even if I wanted to.

“Oh, it’s so pretty,” I say when it’s revealed, and then, because the guys are all looking at me confused, I add, “I only got to see it for a moment before it was covered by the bracelet.”

“That really is pretty. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Doc says.

“Raiden, do you have any idea what it means?” Evander asks, moving his eyes away from the mark on my arm.

Raiden shrugs, “Honestly, I am absolutely clueless about what it could mean. I knew that unicorns were once real, but I had no idea that they still existed, and honestly, it’s probably one of the few supernatural creatures that I haven’t looked into at all.”

“Oh,” I say, sounding quite disappointed. “I was really hoping that one of you knew something about it.”

“Sorry, Neith,” Raiden replies. “We can look into it when we get back to the house. Maybe we could ask Sully, he’s been around for a long time, and he might know something about them, and what the mark means.”

I nod, “Yeah, that’s a great idea, actually.”

“Do you feel strange?” Reed asks.

I pause and then shrug, “No more stranger than I normally feel.”

Reed smirks and adds, “I’m only asking because it was done with magic by an unknown supernatural creature and we have no real way of knowing whether it meant you harm or not.”

“He makes a good point,” Griff says with a troubled frown.

I shake my head, “There’s no way that it’s harmful.”

“You sound really sure about that?” Ransom questions.

I nod, “I am. The voices didn’t and haven’t reacted in warning at all, and in fact seemed quite pleased about it.”

“That’s definitely good news,” River says thoughtfully.

“The little bit of magic that I do have access to didn’t seem to react in any way either, and it has reacted to things when I’m under threat, so I think if the unicorn meant me harm, then my magic would have done something to protect me,” I explain.

“Yeah, you're right,” Griff replies. “Your magic will always protect you, if you are in danger, unless it’s been suppressed or something, and even then it’s more likely to try to protect you than not.”

“Could it have been suppressed?” I ask, a thread of worry weaving through my resolve that the unicorn didn’t mean any harm to me.

Evander immediately starts shaking his head, and that thread of unease disappears, “No, you would know immediately if it had been suppressed, it’s not a very pleasant feeling. Even though you haven’t got access to all of your magic, you would still feel it.”

“Well thank fuck for that, I was questioning my instincts then,” I reply. “Wait, how did you guys find me if you weren’t watching the trial?”

“Well, Raiden used the link to the tether,” Doc starts to explain.

Raiden winces, “Sorry about that. I just wanted to make sure that you were alive. We had no idea where the Draconian team was, and since we are now thinking that Kylen is trying to kill you, we were worried that they might have you and that Coen couldn’t do anything about it.”

I wrap my arms around his waist to stop his rambling, “Thank you for caring so much about me. I am eternally grateful for the tether, and I like feeling the piece of your magic inside me.” I burst out laughing, “Okay, I was trying to sound all sincere, but that just sounded dirty.”

His chest vibrates underneath my head as his laughter rumbles free, and the others all join in, laughing at my unintentional dirty joke.

Raiden’s hand reaches down, and he tilts my face up before he smiles and kisses me gently.

When he pulls up, he says, “Thank you.”

“So, Raiden checked and found out you were alive at least, but we couldn’t really tell anything else,” Evander starts, carrying on the explanation, “and we still couldn’t find you anywhere, that’s when we ran into Mabel, we even asked Castle, and it couldn’t tell us anything.”

“Then River went all alpha, and here we are,” Griff finishes with a grin.

I grin at River, “Thank you. I was getting really bored of walking by myself.”

“Even with your marching song?” he asks with a smirk.

I nod, “Yep, even with the song.”

“Let’s start walking back,” Evander suggests.

Doc sighs, “I wish I could just transport us back, but I can’t do it without the van.” He frowns, “Well, I might be able to now, but I don’t want to try that here, and it’s also not something that anyone should know that I can do.”

I nod, “Yeah, don’t do that, I think we’ve exposed enough of all of your extra talents, let’s not add to it.”

“Agreed,” River says firmly.

We all start walking, River holding one of my hands, and Griff holding the other one. I feel absolutely tiny walking between them, and I love it.

After a few moments, Raiden interrupts the silence, “It wasn’t a trial for the Choosing, we know that because Mabel said that two tasks for the same person don’t happen on the same day. We also couldn’t do the activation spell to watch you, so no one saw the task.”

“I’m really pleased about that, I don’t think that it would be a good idea for the supernatural population to know that the unicorns are in this area, or even that they definitely do exist, as I think that many supes think like us and thought that they were all gone.

Their blood and horns are worth millions on the Obsidian Market, but I just thought that it was fake stuff.

I had no idea that it was real,” I reply.

“Oh, absolutely. There would have been a lot of people out here looking for the unicorns, and they wouldn’t have been safe,” Griff agrees, squeezing my hand.

“It also means that no one saw your interaction with the unicorn and the mark that it left on you, that’s a really good thing. Especially since the unicorn provided you with the leather cuff so it clearly wants you to keep the mark hidden,” Ransom adds.

“Which means that the mark is obviously important,” Reed adds with a slight frown.

“The problem is that we have no idea why,” Van says.

“None of it explains why I was pulled here using a portal either,” I add. “The unicorn looked as surprised to see me as I was to see it, so it can’t have somehow called me to it so that I could help it.”

The guys are all silent for a moment as they try to think over what it could all mean.

“It’s strange, and is yet another thing that we can’t really look into until we’re back home and have no cameras on us or curious and dangerous people that we need to worry about,” Doc points out.

“I’m pretty much done with this whole Choosing thing now,” Reed mutters, running his hand through his hair, before adding, “not that I was exactly interested in it when we first arrived.”

“How many days have we got left now?” Griff asks. “The days have sort of morphed into one, and I have no idea where we are in the week.”

“It’s Wednesday so we have two more days of trials, then a rest day and then the scroll room thing where we find out what team you’re going to be on, and the perks if you win and all that,” Doc explains, and then adds, “I’ve been counting down the days until we can get out of here.”

“That’s smart,” Van tells him.

We carry on walking, and my thoughts turn to the decision that the scroll is going to tell us.

Whose team I’m going to be on. I am no longer worried that I won’t be put on the guys.

I pause my thoughts. Okay, so maybe I am a little bit worried that I’m going to be put on the Draconian team, but that worry is nowhere as big as it was when we first arrived.

Kylen isn’t even trying to win the game or even play it properly, from what I can see.

His end game is a complete mystery to me.

If he really does want me dead, which it’s looking pretty likely that he does, then surely it would have been easier just to try and kill me off at the academy or on a job?

Hell, it would have been easier to kill me anywhere else but here, at the Choosing.

His motivation isn’t really clear either.

Before I saw him at the academy, I had never met him before, I am one hundred percent sure of that.

He had it out for me from the second that he saw me, and it would be impossible to make someone want to kill you that quickly, even for me.

Surely he can’t hate the guys that much.

The dislike that he seems to have for them is pretty extreme in itself, but it’s clear from the treatment of Coen that his hate is extreme.

The anger that floods me at the thought of Coen being controlled by Kylen is extreme, and I feel my magic stir in anger too.

The feeling is such a surprise that it distracts me enough that my anger dies.

Smiling, I can’t help but be pleased that my magic is as angry as I am about the situation because hopefully that means that if, no fuck that, when the opportunity presents itself and I can get that stupid necklace off Kylen’s neck and figure out how to destroy it, hopefully my magic will help me do it.