Page 22 of Savage Sacrifice (The Savage Six #4)

I rear back in surprise. “Says who?”

He shakes his head again. “A center is always a center, Polaris. Illusion or not.”

“What does that mean?”

He shrugs, just like Octantis did before, pointing a finger at me.

“Only you.”

The thump of the door swinging against the wall cuts through the air, followed by the sound of laughter and students, drawing my attention away from Jonah for a moment, and when I turn my head back, he’s gone.

The class passes in a blur and I take nothing in, my mind locked on Jonah’s parting words. The second the bell rings, bringing the class to an end, I bolt from my seat, but before I can dart toward Octantis, he’s gone, having already slipped through the door behind his desk.

I purse my lips, letting the rest of the class filter out before I take the steps down two at a time, but when I swing the door open, all I find is a storage closet.

A freaking closet.

Dammit.

Frustrated, I sweep my hair back off my face and march back up the stairs, rushing down the hallway before I find myself back outside in the quad.

Any hopes of him magically appearing before me with answers are slim, so it’s no real surprise when it doesn’t happen.

My cell phone vibrates in my pocket, and I dig my hand in to see what the notification is for.

Ben: Raincheck on that coffee.

Relief floods my veins. In the whirlwind of the members of the original witch’s coven, I forgot all about meeting him for coffee.

I have time to waste, and I know attending another class is going to be useless right now anyway. My mind is even more preoccupied than it was when I first woke up.

I react with a thumbs-up emoji before stuffing my cell phone in my pocket and making a beeline for home. Temporary home.

No one is there when I step into the house, and I hurry upstairs to my room, falling back against the door with a sigh. Overwhelmed, I dig my cell phone back out and scroll through the limited contacts I have saved.

My thumb hovers above Blaze’s name, then Wylder’s, Tatum’s, Asher’s, and Lincoln’s before I settle on my preferred option: Minnie.

I drop my backpack by the door as I dive toward my bed, bouncing with a grunt as the dial tone echoes around me.

I don’t even know how their numbers are in there.

Surely that’s not something that would transfer over with the blood kin curse, so it has to have something to do with the girl in question when they were here yesterday.

I don’t even remember being near my cell phone, but everything was a blur, to be honest.

“Hey, are you okay?” she blurts down the line, panic in her voice, and I bite back a smile.

“I’m fine. Overwhelmed and stressed, but fine,” I insist, and I hear her sigh with relief.

“Overwhelmed and stressed, I can work with. Let’s switch to video,” she mutters, and I accept the invite the second it appears on my screen. Her face fills the display a moment later and I smile.

“Remind me why I didn’t think of this last night so I could at least pretend to fall asleep with someone,” I mutter, and she snickers.

“That’s your treat for tonight now,” she says with a wink, and I shake my head at her as I shuffle up the bed so I can sit against the headboard.

“How is everything there?” I ask, and she shrugs.

“Good. No progress, but the world isn’t crumbling. So, what has you stressed and overwhelmed, apart from the fact you’re missing me?” she asks, eyebrow cocked in question, and I verbally vomit the entirety of my psych class to her, from Octantis, to Jonah, to the magical closet.

When I’m done, silence stretches for a brief moment before she nods. “Yeah, that sounds stressful and overwhelming for sure. Maybe we—” Whatever she was about to say is cut off as a door slams off camera and she frowns.

“Hey, is everything okay?” she asks, and a moment later, Bryony appears on the screen as she flops down beside her on the bed. She pinches her nose, clearly distressed as she exhales slowly.

“Nothing, just more Renegade issues now that Foster isn’t coming back.

It’s not helping that I’m dealing with the fact that I’m a center now, with no magic suppressing me.

I can’t calm myself or deal with all of the emotions raging inside of me without a coven, and it’s not getting any easier,” she says with a sigh, and I feel bad for her.

Minnie holds her hand in silent support when Bryony realizes I’m on the screen.

“Hey, Polaris. Sorry, I didn’t mean to vent when you guys were chatting,” she murmurs, and I wave her off.

“As long as you’re okay, that’s all that matters.”

Her smile is tight, tension drawing her eyebrows together. “Let’s talk about something else.”

I nod, rubbing my lips together nervously before I opt to ask about their end instead of continuing to sink into the madness and stress over here.

“Did you guys check the coins? With Belladora mentioning them, I haven’t stopped wondering,” I ask, and Minnie’s eyes widen ever so slightly as she shakes her head.

“I haven’t, but the guys said there was nothing to be aware of,” she states, and I sense a shift in her gaze.

There’s something she’s not telling me, but before I can even consider pushing on the matter, I freeze.

“Bryony,” I breathe, and her eyes meet mine through the device as I gulp.

“Is that the same blood kin curse marking as Lincoln?” I ask breathlessly, and the color drains from her face.

“Yes,” she whispers with a nod, turning her arm to hide it from view. I blink at the pair of them.

Fuck.

“Don’t worry about it. Not yet,” Bryony insists, squeezing Minnie’s hand, but it does nothing to calm the horror flooding my veins.

Minnie, however, is on board with Bryony redirecting the conversation. “You need to get ready,” she states, pointing a finger at me.

“Ready?” I repeat in confusion, and she nods.

“Blaze will be on his way soon.”

Excitement ripples through me, but the reasoning behind it is still a mystery, which leaves a wariness holding me back from getting too excited.

“How long?” I ask, hoping it’s more than a brief visit, and she grins.

“However long it takes you to get here.”

“Here?” I repeat, aware I sound like a parrot right now.

“The wolf party,” she says with a beaming smile, and my eyebrows rise to my hairline in a mixture of disbelief and shock.

“Uh, are you guys forgetting the fact I’m supposed to be going about my merry new life? I don’t think appearing on campus after everyone witnessed me killing myself is a good idea. Do you?”

“Well, luckily for you, it’s not on campus,” Minnie explains, but I still shake my head.

“But the people attending will still recognize me.” I’m pretty sure I’m stating the obvious right now, but they both smile from ear to ear as Bryony leans closer to the camera.

“That’s where I come in.”