Wolves at the Door - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,12

I don’t know how to stop it.”

“It’s just your magic,” I said, and I knew this was true. Of course an incubus would struggle with control after the adrenaline of a fight. “It’s flaring up from the fight and this place and everything else. Just…okay, maybe if you tilt your seat back you could fit your wings in behind you, and once we drive away you’ll have to turn back. You know we have to get going.”

“I know.” He folded his wings and tried to get inside the driver’s seat at an awkward angle.

I made the mistake of looking back at Greenwood Manor. Byron was standing in the door, watching me leave. I swallowed a lump in my throat. He kept a pretty good attitude, but he looked so lonely there.

I climbed in the car and reached for my seatbelt.

Just as Billie came down the one-way road leading to the house.

Shit. So close.

Chapter Six

Helena

I shoved my bundle under the seat of the car and tried to look nonchalant, and perhaps just a little wistful. “Hey, Billie. I just wanted to see what I missed. It’s a great house. A lot of work, but a great house.”

“You just have to throw some shade in there, huh?” Billie shook her head as she got out of her truck, having pulled up next to Graham.

“What? No! I really mean it. I love the house and I wish it was mine to transform. But you won it fairly, and…I wish you all the best.” I was trying to sound sincere because I was sincere, but I also realized that if she was thinking of me as anxious teenage Helena trying desperately to fit in and throwing her under the bus, that wouldn’t help.

“Sure,” she said. Then she jabbed her wand at Graham and said, “Tell me the truth. Why were you here?”

“To steal your treasure map,” he said, obviously compelled by her powers.

“Damnit, Graham!”

“I couldn’t help it!” he exclaimed.

“That’s what I thought,” Billie said.

Fucking surprise attack. Graham jerked back from her. “You forced me.”

“Exactly,” Billie said. “What the hell? What do you know about Nefertiti’s pyramid?”

“Nefertiti’s pyramid? You don’t even know what this thing is.”

“So you do know,” Billie said. “That was just a test.”

“Are you looking for this thing to use it, hoard it, destroy it, sell it…or what?” Graham asked.

Billie seemed like she didn’t want to answer right away.

“Helena, look at her eyes,” Graham said. “She’s ready to do battle for this thing and I don’t want to do battle.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because I don’t want to hurt her. And I don’t understand my magic, except that when it kicks in, I have more power than I expect.”

“I would probably hurt you,” Billie said. “I’m getting the sense you are a demon who doesn’t even know how to demon.”

“Once I learn, you’d better be careful,” Graham said, and I realized that I really did not enjoy hearing him threaten her. Not because I was worried about Billie, but because he sounded so sexy. Ohh, right, so that’s how he feels about me and Byron…

“We might be on the same side,” he said. “This council of yours, they want this thing, correct? And neither of you want the council to have it?”

“True,” Billie said.

I nodded. “That’s right.”

“I want to use it,” Billie said.

My eyes widened a little. I didn’t actually expect that answer, and it led me to my next awkward thought. She knows how to use it? I still barely know what it is. How in the world does Billie know when I’ve been struggling to figure this out for weeks?

“Use it,” I said.

“Yep.” She stood there defiantly.

“You aren’t worried about the consequences?” I wondered if I could tease it out of her.

“I welcome the consequences.”

“But what if the council finds out?”

“Oh, they definitely will find out, won’t they? And I know they’re gonna be mad, but I’ve never cared about making them mad.”

“What will they do when they realize you were the one who used it? That you bear the entire burden of responsibility?” I felt like I was playing twenty questions. “It’s called Pandora’s Box for a reason.”

Billie looked at me, her eyes hard and defensive. “Yeah…”

“So you don’t mind telling your grandchildren that you opened Pandora’s Box?” I asked.

She swallowed. “I’m not having children. I just want to destroy the council’s power.”

Was it just me, or did that sound a little ominous?

“All right,” I said. “I give. I know that these things are maps that fit together into a