Exaltation (Insight #11)(39)

“Anything happen tonight that you feel I should know about?” Jamison asked as he looked across the girls and Soren, settling his stare on Raven who’d turned red with embarrassment.

That answered one question—who Rydell had made a move on.

“Just—just the routine we’d been working on, sir,” Soren said as he made sure he kept space between him and Ash.

Jamison’s eyes met Raven’s.

Raven felt her heart race. There was no way in a million years Raven was going to confess what she’d done. If she did she would have to admit to herself it actually happened.

“Something happened tonight,” Jamison said to her. “And whatever it was penetrated every single spell we have in place to protect you. You’re basically standing in the middle of a field with a flashing light strapped to you.”

“How—how do we fix it?” Raven asked.

“Look,” Jamison said as he ran his hands through his hair and glanced back at Emery. “We were going to take this slow, because if we didn’t everything that you suppressed would flood you and I’m not sure how well you would take that. So, right now you’re going get a crash course in energy while Saige and the others put the barricades back up.”

“Right now?” River asked.

“Would you rather leave town?” Jamison asked, already knowing the answer.

In unison, without even glancing to one another, they all said, “Crash course.”

“Inside,” Jamison said before he turned to go to back to Emery.

When the girls and Soren reached the front steps they glanced back, saw how Jamison was holding Emery against his chest. Something they always thought they wanted to see, but right now it scared them even more.





Chapter Twelve

Rydell King was sure he was losing his mind. To try and break the fever Raven put upon him he had forced himself to think of exactly how he would disperse her soul, how it would save his people.

The thought of killing her made him feel sick. The thought of his own death if he didn’t destroy her really didn’t make him feel any better, not when he thought of all those who were in his faction and counted on him to keep them safe.

The barrier around the Quarter was broken with the kiss. Rydell could move freely in the neighborhood. But he didn’t stop there. He went to the twins’ home. Walked every room, breathing in Raven’s scent.

He could imagine her life there, hear her laugh, even though in real life he had never had the pleasure. He moved on to her father’s home. No one was there either. He roamed each room but there were certain cabinets and drawers he couldn’t open. They were magically sealed.

Rydell could feel Jamison’s regal presence in his home. So familiar yet absent to him at the same time.

He had been perched in the corner of Raven’s room staring at her bed for hours now. He ran through every possibility in his mind.

There was no way around it, one day one of them was going to have to kill the other. No kiss was strong enough to stop it from happening.

‘If you want to smell my hair ask.’ One line led Rydell to believe that Raven had no idea who he really was or even who she was. But at the same time she obviously ran from him, too—she was driving him mad.

He was so deep in his thoughts that it took Rydell a second to notice his phone was ringing. “Yeah,” he breathed as he answered.

“Tell me you’re not in the Quarter,” Dagen said.

“Why would it matter?”

“Do you not feel that? A wave of energy is soaring over the neighborhood. You are about to be trapped in the worst way possible if you do not move—”

Rydell was standing before Dagen before he could finish his warning.

At that second Rydell felt a dome of energy encase the Quarter which was now nine miles away. No doubt Jamison BellaRose was one witch you did not f*ck with. Not if he could pull that much power together within a few hours time.

Rydell collapsed on the couch. Dagen dropped his phone as he leaned forward on the recliner and stared at him like he was infected with some kind of vile disease. As far as Rydell was concerned he was. A f*cking fever.

“King?”

Rydell moved his head side to side as he clenched his jaw.

“Did she hurt you?”

“Yep,” Rydell breathed.

“What do we do? You need vim? Food? I have a few on the line—we could hit Vegas, cause a few wins. Fast food but good food.”

“Dagen,” Rydell said as his stare rose to meet his.

Dagen edged closer.

“I have a fever.”

Dagen turned white as a ghost. “What are you talking about?”

Rydell leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he hung his head. “I didn’t kiss her, she kissed me. I had no idea she was Raven until you told me.”

When Dagen didn’t say anything Rydell raised his head to look at him. He was shell-shocked, and rightly so.

“I’ve been passing her in the hallway under the school for weeks. I’ve teased her. I figured it was harmless. I can’t figure out how I didn’t know it was her.”

“It’s not a fever,” Dagen denied.

“Dagen.”

“It can’t be—she has a human soul.”

“It’s happened before.”