Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,44

how I learned about the first of the curses. Who knows? Maybe if I find the right person, it would break the frog’s curse, but that’s no one else’s business but mine.” His voice dipped lower, rough. “I don’t know what the rest of the curse means. The Cheshire’s been trying to figure out that riddle for years. You’re my best friend, Tala, but I don’t owe you or anyone else an explanation.”

Tala listened silently, combing the icicles out of her hair. “Point taken,” she said, just as quietly. “But at least tell me why you left without saying anything to anyone. You may have the right to hide your curse, but you just up and disappeared for no reason.”

“Yeah, well.” Alex sank down on a bench. “I freaked out and I knew I had to get this.” He handed her the cell phone.

They were photos of Alex and another boy Tala didn’t recognize; he had curly black hair, green eyes. The latter’s arm was wrapped around her friend’s waist. Alex was grinning up at him.

“He’s part of the family I stayed with before I moved here,” Alex mumbled. “They’re practically European royalty.”

“You mean, you guys were official?”

“No. Neither of us were out, and it lasted for about two days, tops. Should have deleted these from my phone when I moved, so that’s on me. Hughes saw, thought it’d be good blackmail. Like, I’d insulted his sister by being gay, apparently.”

“You should have told Lola Urduja or—”

“They don’t know about him, all right?” he interrupted fiercely. “It’ll be harder on him if it comes out, and I won’t have that. No one else can know but you.”

Tala closed her eyes. “You like him that much?”

Alex’s thumb moved, pressing the delete button, and his screen lit up, asking for confirmation. “And that’s the damn irony,” he said shortly. “I don’t.”

He hit yes. The photos disappeared.

The door flew open, ignoring the bench Tala had previously lugged across because it swung outward instead of in.

Zoe stood in the doorway. She held a needle in one hand and a whip looped around her waist like a hipster’s belt, with Lola Urduja and Tita Chedeng on either side of her.

“I see you’ve found him,” Zoe said calmly. “A pleasure to meet you, Your Highness. I’m sure you’ll offer us some sound explanations later, but we must get going. Loki and West are back. Apparently, the rabbit hole at the Doering residence has been completely decimated. We don’t have much choice but to head back to the looking glass outside Invierno if we want to leave quickly.”

“Where’ve you all been?” Tala demanded.

“We had our hands full fighting off a sudden army of shades that sprouted up. Had to draw them away from the bonfire crowd. Ken and the others are still fighting. Your sharp-eyed Tito Jose spotted the firebird flying away from the celebrations several minutes earlier, though, and Loki thought it might be heading back to Elsmore.”

“You’ve given us a hard time, hijo,” Lola Urduja said severely, and Alex had the grace to look ashamed. “But there’s no time for pointing fingers. Anak ng Diyos, what the hell happened in here?”

“Ice maiden,” Alex admitted.

“An ice maiden was here?”

“We killed it,” Tala said defensively. “I don’t really see how this is our fault.”

“You didn’t kill her,” Zoe said tersely, her eyes trained on the floor. Was it Tala’s imagination, or did one of the puddles move, just a little? “Ice maidens are the Snow Queen’s right-hand women, her elite bodyguards. If she’d truly been killed, no trace of this ice would be left. Most likely she’s reconstituting herself somewhere else. She can only build herself back up in colder climate and it’ll take a while, so you’ve bought us time to escape, at least.”

“Wait!” Alex dashed toward the bench and scooped up the frog, which was nearly forgotten in all of the excitement. “You have to make sure she’s somewhere safe when she changes back,” he muttered, cheeks pink.

Lola Urduja accepted the frog without comment. “Very well. Follow Chedeng and the general. They’ll lead you back to Tala’s parents.”

“Am I leaving with Alex?” Tala asked hesitantly.

Lola Urduja nodded. “We all are. None of us have any choice in the matter. We’re all targets.”

The hallway was the scene of a bloodless massacre. The corridor was littered with the bodies of the zombie-like students who’d tried to accost Tala earlier.

“Are they all right?” She stared down at Langdon. The boy’s chest rose and fell, his glassy pale eyes