Page 3 of Lunar Desires (Celestial Magic #2)

RILEY

B y Hecate, my plan worked.

Yay!

I couldn’t remind Drake outright about our bond not letting me get too far, so I just had to hope it worked without him trying anything dangerous.

The moment I popped back into Waterloo, I used my Moon Illusion and turned the violence on its head, making everyone believe they were inside the musical Wicked .

An invisible band played random songs, the whole thing a melting pot of lyrics and melodies. One woman repeated the opening lines of the song ‘For Good’ while twirling on the spot, singing so off key she gave my brother Isaac a run for his money.

Poor Isaac. A supermodel who definitely had no chance of a pop career.

God, I missed him. Even though we hadn’t known each other long, we’d already formed a bond. Relying on each other, comforting each other, and partaking in fabulous karaoke sessions to ease our stresses, his wonky pipes be damned.

Drake joined me, unaffected by the illusion due to me plucking him out of the magical falsehood. “Are you alright?”

Sweat beaded my brow as I poured everything into my musical creation, and terror gnawed at my guts. But at least I wasn’t in Rhianna’s clutches.

“I’m fine,” I answered, feeling the force of my power in my bones. Sweat ran down my spine, my body temperature going up in the non-fun way as a hot flush attacked my body.

Dammit. Where were the ice packs?

Moon Illusion came with some rules. Firstly, I could only use it once a day. Secondly, it diminished in strength over time, needing to be topped up by a ritual in the celestial room at Aurora Mansion, which was temporarily closed.

Ugh.

Drake winced as a woman wailed a rendition of ‘Defying Gravity,’ knocking into him as she skipped past.

What kind of singing voice do you have? I thought at Drake, staring at his yummy profile.

Stop that!

I snapped out of my silliness, sharpening my focus.

Drool over him later!

Those booms continued to shake the ground, the cracks on the platform widening and spreading. The shadow magic blocking us in began to weaken, holes opening in the darkness.

A shadow witch nailed the chorus of ‘Popular’ while pulling off some impressive backflips. Under different circumstances, he’d be well suited for the main stage in a West End musical.

“Wish I could do that,” I said, grabbing Drake’s hand. “Let’s go.”

He didn’t ask where, following my command and keeping pace with me.

We tore down the platform, the hole in the shadow now big enough for us to slip through.

Would there be witchcops on the other side? We weren’t exactly in a position for the High Coven to find out about House Aurora’s rising yet, especially considering the shame of my family’s past, and the fact that sacred witches were an absolute nope in their eyes nowadays.

But no amount of suppressing magic and ruthless control stopped me from becoming The Moon. They’d failed to stop the Aurora bloodline from continuing, and I guess it would piss them off greatly.

Yeah, best to keep ourselves under the radar for as long as possible.

I went first, side-stepping through the hole, horrible magic stirring around, wisps of blackness swirling, bulging to reach me. But the gap was wide enough for me to step into the open-air section of the platform safely.

Yay!

Cold wind ruffled my hair, its icy caress a welcome reprieve from my sweatiness. No witchcops here, but elevated voices were nearby, along with the sound of an approaching helicopter.

I caught my breath as Drake joined me. A heavy quake made me stumble into his arms. He held me, locking his dark gaze to mine.

I could drown in you…

Blinking, I freed myself from his hold. Everything could wait for later, when we were out of London, back behind the walls of the mansion.

Not to hide. Not to cower. But to regroup. The shadow witches were upping the ante quickly, so we’d have to follow suit. If they meant business, then so did we.

Bring it, arsesholes.

Okay. Grand escape first.

“This way.” Drake took charge. I followed him off the platform onto the rails, then to the three-spiked fence running alongside them on the left.

“Up and over,” he said. “You first.” He locked his hands together to give me a boost.

The ground thrummed, the stones between the rails vibrating. The whirring of the helicopter grew louder. Any minute now, it would appear above the glass roof of the station.

“We can’t risk being spotted,” I grunted, getting myself over the fence pretty easily.

The cloaking potion inside me was designed to hide any magical activity outside of the mansion, but not the whole of me.

The power of Aurora blood, which gave my physicality and durability a boost, got me up and over the fence. And training with the Bramble triplets also helped in the fitness levels department.

Lucky me. Past Riley would’ve struggled here.

I landed on the other side, heart pounding in my ears.

Hecate guide us home safely.

Pretty please!

Drake practically vaulted over the fence, landing like a cat, a warm sensation blooming in my belly.

The man could sneeze and I’d get a stiffy.

“Come on,” he commanded, directing me to a wall a few feet away from the fence, a street directly below it. Voices sounded from below. A lot of voices.

We crouched behind a big gray electricity box, taking a moment to plot.

Wait. My witch bangle could help. The light was green, allowing me access to three heavily diluted spells provided to shimmer witches to help whenever they were caught in a pickle.

I followed the steps, calling on the spell with my mind. Blue magic danced in my hands, ready to be clapped out with the commanding word.

“Hide!” I said, clapping my hands.

Done. Cast. For the next three minutes, I would be invisible.

Scrying witches couldn’t cast spells like shimmer and shadow witches, since their searching skill was their only power. But as long as Drake stayed within five feet of me, the effects of the spell would apply to him, too.

We didn’t have long to get the hell out of here. The Wicked illusion still held, but I felt it unraveling as if my soul were made of fabric, a loose thread running away from it.

Weird.

“I’ll take a look,” I said, nodding at the wall.

He gave me a boost. I peered over the edge, my stomach dropping at the sea of vehicles and witchcops on the other side. All dressed in the white uniform with blue piping, blue berets on their heads, every face giving off trained-to-kill energy.

“Crap.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Witchcops. I think they’ve got the whole street locked down.” I checked my bangle, digital numbers counting down in the small window below the green light.

Just over two minutes to go.

He took me by the hand again. “We have to go for it. I know this area. Trust me.”

“O-okay.”

Holy crap. We climbed the wall, my heart a doom-filled drum in my chest, expecting the worst—which didn’t suite my sparkly, glass-half-full personality.

Well, call me jaded from a recent period of deadly trysts.

With one minute and thirty seconds left, we climbed off the wall side by side, and landed within grabbing range of four witchcops, their eyes on the sky.

The helicopter arrived, stopping to hover.

My God. I was about to faint.

Drake tugged my arm, leading me across the road. We wove around the heavily armed witchcops, their bangles bigger than mine, with five green lights. They were in possession of extra spells, all of them packing a much bigger punch.

We reached a low wall on the other side of the road, a row of houses beyond it. Moving quickly, we climbed over, lowering ourselves into the garden below.

On the other side, I ran fingers through my hair drenched in sweat, catching my breath.

“Over here,” Drake whispered, opening the garden gate.

We darted down an alleyway into a high street, hurrying past more patrolling witchcops, hand in hand with twenty seconds on the clock.

“There’s too many of them around,” I said, both ends of the street sealed by blockades, the blue lights of witchcop vehicles flashing.

Drake took me down an opposite alleyway between a pub and a comic book shop. We turned the corner into a dead end with a huge bin and a door.

Eight seconds left…

He knocked on the door, tapping out a song I recognized.

“Is that ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow?’” I wondered.

“Yes. It’s Molly’s most hated song.”

Erm, okay. “Who’s Molly?”

The hide spell dropped, leaving us exposed. Along with it, the Wicked illusion gave up. I swayed as everything went a little hazy, the fabric part of my soul gone.

“What’s wrong?” Drake asked, taking both my hands.

“I—”

The door opened, warm air and the smell of pine wafting in my face.

“Get in!” a voice hissed in the space beyond.

Drake dragged me inside, a goblin closing the door behind us.

A single bulb cast a bright light over a room filled with shelves, each one stuffed with comic books and graphic novels.

With knots in my chest, my body in need of a timeout and a spiced rum, I faced the goblin.

She smiled warmly at me, a mass of vibrant pink hair framing her green face. “Hi. I’m Molly.”

I shook her heavily ringed hand, loving her white jumper with the words ‘Goblins Hug Best!’ emblazoned across it in turquoise letters.

Wow, those were the most orange sweatpants I’d ever seen.

“Riley,” I answered. “Nice to…” A fresh wave of haziness rolled over me. I swayed again, leaning on Drake for support. “I need to sit down.”

“Poor thing,” Molly said. “Let’s get him a chair and a cuppa. Can you walk, babycakes?”

I was all out of sorts with shock and drained from Moon Illusion, but hearing babycakes made me giggle. It put a little spring in my step.

Who didn’t love a sprinkle of lightness to chase away some of the anxiety of a crappy situation like this?

But unease scratched at my senses, putting a pin in the nice vibes.

We weren’t out of the woods yet.

“Yeah,” I answered her, “I can walk.”

In fact, my energy levels were filling back up again. I’d be better in no time, especially after a hot tea and a sit down.

Yay to one of the perks of my blood.