Wolves at the Door - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,6

the wizard council, and you can tell me on the way to the house. If we can’t win it fair and square, maybe we can find our treasure while she’s signing paperwork.”

“The council is…the council,” Helena said.

“Are they elected?”

“Sort of. Yes. But only guild wizards get to vote. And there are barriers for getting into guilds. When people complain, the guild wizards just tell them they should stop complaining and put in the work to join a guild.”

“Ah. I see.”

“You don’t look impressed.” She made a face. “Well, I’m not in a guild either. So I don’t vote. There have certainly been problems with the councils over the centuries, but they’ve kept order, and that isn’t always easy when magic is involved. It’s just…lately…”

“Lay it on me.”

She fussed with the vents in the rental car. It was definitely a warm day in the south. “I’m not sure if the guild has changed, or if we’ve changed, but I think I told you that they’re pretty old-school, 19th century, kinda sexist.”

“Yes, you may have mentioned it a time or two,” I said dryly.

She laughed. “Well, I am not a fan. They find ways to punish women who try to reach for the sort of power men have. It’s not that different from normal human life, but it’s set back a few decades. And my brother has been barred from Etherium. That just pisses me off. He’s a good guy and there’s no reason for it and sometimes—” She looked out the window as a few strip malls passed by our view. “Sometimes it makes me want to give up Ethereal magic myself.”

“And become a dark wizard like my grandfather? Why not?” I felt unmoored in the world, as if I was not in another state but on another planet. I just forced a girl to speak against her will. My grandfather was a dark wizard; I’m a demon…so am I doomed to walk a dark path? What does that even mean?

“Sinistral is dangerous. Dark magic is powerful, but it also tends to have a higher cost. The Ethereal wizards would be my enemies. My own family…”

“I see.”

“I guess I’m a little cowardly at heart, because I’m afraid of getting kicked out like Harris was. He became a Wyrd warlock, but Wyrd is scary too, because it’s the weakest realm and…being an Ethereal witch from a good family is just safe.” She smashed the heel of her palm into her forehead. “See, this is why I was a bitch to Billie in high school. It was safer to stick with the other rich witches, and I hurt her to save my ass. Now I can hardly look her in the eye, and I’m going to rob her house?”

“I guess we could just go home,” I said, knowing she would never choose that option.

She was quiet, twisting her hair like she could spin the strands into gold.

We both had our reasons. She wanted to help Byron. I wanted to find out what my grandfather had been up to.

Our reasons were slightly at odds. She wanted to help Byron. I wanted her.

“No. We’re doing this,” she said.

Chapter Four

Helena

I have to make it quick, I thought, as Graham drove down a small country road and I knew we must be getting close. If this was anything like the last house, Byron couldn’t help me. I would have to find the map hidden inside Greenwood House on my own.

This was certainly the craziest thing I’d ever done, considering I still didn’t know what the maps would do once we collected them. We had one, which I carried with me on the plane, along with the spell books that told the story of the treasure—in a lost magical trade language called Cyprium. Stupid lost languages. So inconvenient.

Despite some words similar to Middle English and other magical tongues, I had made little progress in translating them. Together, the three maps, each shaped like a triangle of stone—formed “Pandora’s Box”. I assumed Pandora’s Box did something very destructive, and I had no idea what we would do with it once we put it together. I just knew that I had something incredibly powerful on my hands, something Byron desperately wanted me to find.

As we turned the bend, a house came into view behind some clusters of trees.

“There it is,” Graham said.

“Oh…shit.”

He hardly had to tell me that this was Greenwood Manor. The road led right to it, circling its impressive facade, but otherwise leading nowhere but here.

The manor was