Incipient A Dark Paranormal Romance - Bianca Scardoni Page 0,81
say, I wasn’t going to make it to my meeting on time.
28. WICKED GAME
By the time I’d finally managed to tear myself away from Trace and make it over to Temple, I was a little over an hour late. The Senior Magister looked less than pleased when I found him pacing the floor in the atrium.
“You are late,” said William disapprovingly as he watched me rush my way over to him.
“I’m sorry, I got held up at school.” I huffed out the lie as I ran my palm against the back of my hair to smooth it out, suddenly very aware of the fact that I was probably sporting sex hair.
I wasn’t sure if he believed me or not, but he didn’t say anything else on the matter.
“The others are waiting for us in the main study. This way,” he said as he made his way through the atrium and then rounded the corner to a dimly lit corridor.
After passing a few doors in silence, he stopped at the end of the hall in front of two double doors. A gilded plaque with the words Conference Room hung above the entrance. Turning the handle, he eased the door open and then extended his arm, allowing me to enter first.
My gaze immediately circled the room, taking in the two Horsemen that I knew, War and Famine, and then stopping on the third man who I presumed to be Death. And he seriously looked it too. His ashen skin looked almost translucent as it stretched itself over not much more than skeletal bone. His sunken dark eyes were boundless and his lips a thin pale line.
He looked as though he hadn’t eaten a good meal in over a century, though I supposed riding around with Famine, the killer of all good food, would probably make it hard to get your grub on.
“I don’t believe you two have met,” said William as he pulled out a chair for me. “Jemma, this is Death, the last of the Horsemen. Death, this is Jemma Blackburn.”
Death dipped his head in a brisk nod as I slumped into my chair and forced an awkward smile.
I noticed he was wearing similar armor to the other two horsemen, with bronze-colored shields protecting his arms, lower legs and his upper chest. I imagined they hadn’t ventured outside of Temple being that they looked like a band of gladiators riding straight out of Rome’s history books.
“The first order of business I’d like to discuss is the progress we’ve made on our translation of the Sang Noir,” started William as he took his seat at the head of the long conference table. “Thanks to our new allies here, we’ve been able to interpret most of the book and it has been quite…shall we say, eye opening.”
“Anything specific you’d like to share?”
“It seems there may be a way to activate the Power of Four after all, should Ms. Parker refuse to comply with the Order’s sanction to end the pregnancy of her own volition.”
“Well, that’s probably a good thing for you because I’m pretty sure Nikki isn’t going to budge on the subject.”
“Foolish girl,” muttered War as my gaze darted over to him. “She will not have a choice for very much longer,” he informed, his commanding tone sending a wave of prickles over my skin.
Staving off a shiver, I turned back to William and asked, “So, how are you going to do this anyway? Are you going to like, resurrect the dead Horsemen in order to activate the Power of Four?”
A displeased grumble sounded at the back of one of the horsemen’s throat, but I couldn’t really tell which one it was. Judging by their murderous glares, it could have been any one of the three.
“Unfortunately, that is not an option. The Horsemen were created, not born and so there is no soul to resurrect once their vessel expires,” explained William, making me cringe at his entire string of callous words.
“So, how then?” I bounced a glance at the trio of Gladiators, waiting for someone to fill in the missing piece.
“Quite simply,” began William, since no one else seemed interested in conversing with me, “we’re going to produce a fourth Horsemen.”
I stared at him blankly as I waited for the punchline. “Oh. Wow. You’re actually being serious right now?”
“Of course, I’m being serious.” William clicked his tongue in disapproval before giving each of the Horsemen an apologetic look on my behalf. “This is hardly the time for antics, Jemma or have you