friend. I could definitely use one. I feel so lost here.”
“Then there’s nothing left to say.” He stalked off toward the castle. “Are you coming? I must see you safely to your room.”
“You have to see me safely to my room?” I called after him, rushing up the path. “What part of me screams damsel in distress to everyone around here?”
He stopped short and spun around. “Don’t be daft. You’re not safe. And play fighting won’t cut it here. You’ve never fought a Mystik creature. It’s not a game.”
Daft? After that, I really wanted to punch him.
“I leave for a mission in the morning,” he said over his shoulder as he led me to a side door. “Carrig will be here to watch over you.”
“I don’t need watching over.”
A frustrated breath punched out his nose. He shoved on the bar to open the door and leaned against it, holding it for me. His muscles rose and fell in all the right places on his body, and his nearness as I passed caused a shiver to run across my skin.
Silence clouded us all the way to my room.
“Hey,” he said when we reached my door. “I apologize. Regardless of you being the…”
“Doomsday Child,” I finished for him.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“I meant, even though the Coming has already happened—” He punched out a breath. “Regardless of how I feel, the laws are still the laws. I’m the leader of our band of Sentinels, and I must follow them.”
Just like you followed them with Veronique? I knew a lame excuse when I heard one.
When I didn’t respond, he added, “Try to stay out of trouble while I’m gone.”
“You’re not my pop.” My hands shook at my sides as I thought about what he said. Friends don’t think of each other the way I think of you. How can he say something like that when he’s with another girl? I didn’t buy any of his reasons. That he admired me? I’m nothing but a fraud, like I’m playing Nick’s video games and pretending this is all make believe.
He grunted and his boots clacked down the hall.
I was not going to stamp or yell. I would not show him any weakness. “Goodbye, Arik…and be careful.” I turned the knob and pushed the door open.
“Good evening,” he grumbled.
I watched him until he vanished around the corner. Not once did he look back.
“Are you coming or going?” Lei flipped through one of my books, her crossed legs resting on top of the desk. Her hair hung like a shiny black curtain over the back of the chair. Her sword and scabbard were still strapped to her thin waist.
I shut the door and bolted the lock. “Why are you here?”
“I’m on duty until your bodyguard returns.” She continued scanning the book. “Wow, did you know there were this many battle globes?”
I peered over her shoulder. “Actually, I did. Uncle…Professor Attwood showed me all of them earlier. What’s your globe?”
“It’s a lightning globe.”
“What are the other Sentinels’ globes?”
“Jaran performs a water globe,” she said. “Once he flooded the National Library of Austria. Demos can do a wind globe. Stay away when he has one going…he’s careless. Kale’s is a stun globe. He stunned himself once in Madame Tussaud’s in London. None of us could undo it, so we propped him up next to some Bollywood stars while we waited for a wizard to release him. People believed he was one of the wax figures and were taking pictures with him. It was rather hilarious.”
“Why were you in Madame Tussaud’s?”
“We chased a rabid feral there.”
“A what?”
“They’re shifters who only change into cats. Anyway, Arik can do a fire globe. He’s the best. He can manipulate the fire into a thin whip, and he never hits walls or books. I can’t wait to see which globe is yours.” She turned a page and yanked her hand back. “Love a duck! Paper cut.”
Lei dropped her feet to the floor and examined the cut. “It’s a ghastly one. Those pages are thick.” A couple drops of her blood fell onto the desk. She slipped her finger into her mouth and hustled to the bathroom.
Two tiny puddles of her blood beaded on the lacquer finish. I stared at the crimson pools before glancing at the bathroom door, which was slightly ajar. The faucet ran, and Lei hunted through the cabinets.
I swiped her blood off the desk with my finger and smudged it on my palm. Professor Attwood’s warning caused me to