Atone: A Fairytale (Fairytale Trilogy) (5 page)

Becca could make out the surprise on his face. It would have been hard for her to describe that face. It had a broad forehead and heavy brows and it sloped out almost in a wolf-like snout. There was a heavy, shaggy mane around his head. He seemed at the same time to remind her of a lion, a bear, and wolf—but somehow put together in a manner that became a whole new animal.

Nicholas.

Her brain hadn’t quite wrapped around the concept yet. But somehow, the pieces had all fallen together—a curse, the claw-like mirror, the beast in front of her. “What have you managed to get yourself into?”

The surprise on his face switched to angry shock. A rough sound emanated from his chest…a strange barking laugh.

“What have I gotten myself into? More like what have your precious princess and her evil magic gotten me into?” The words were bitter.

“Lilia isn’t evil, but I doubt you’re open to listening to reason. Not that you were ever open to listening to reason,” Becca caught herself before she launched into a tirade and refocused. “You’re obviously under some sort of curse. Maybe we can help you.”

The angry sound that came from Nicholas sent a shiver down Becca’s spine. It didn’t sound quite like an animal, but not quite like a human either. She steeled herself against taking a step back.

“I don’t need your help. I need you to leave. Or I will not be held responsible for my actions.”

Becca shook her head silently.

“You have five minutes to get out of my house or there will be hell to pay.” With that the beast that had been Nicholas turned quickly on his haunches, muscles coiling, and sprang toward the back of the room. He disappeared so quickly that Becca’s mind at first couldn’t keep up. She realized then that there must be another door near the back of the room.

“Oh crap,” she breathed out. “We are in some serious trouble.”

~ Chapter Four ~

B
ECCA SLAMMED THE
front door of her mother’s apartment shut behind her with a satisfying bang. That made a total of five doors she’d slammed on her way home from Nicholas’s—the door to his creepy hidden half of the house, the front door, her car door twice, and now the apartment door. She still felt like slamming something so she opened it again, letting in a blast of heat from outside, before pulling it shut with enough force to shake the wall.

“Dude, what’s your deal?” her younger brother called from the living room. “Mom’s gonna be pissed if you break her door.”

“Shut up, Dylan, I’m not gonna break the door,” she hollered back as she stormed down the hall.

“Whatever,” came the response. “Just be quiet, we’re watching Iron Man.”

“Who is this ‘we’?” Becca asked as she stuck her head into the living room. “If you have a girl here, Mom is gonna skin you alive. Oh hey, Gabe!”

Becca’s cousin popped up from the couch were he’d sprawled and walked over to greet her.

“Hey, Becks. Long time no see.” He wrapped his large arms around her waist and pulled her up for a hug.

Becca laughed as her feet dangled over the ground. “I saw you at Grandma’s two weeks ago. Put me down. You’re gonna send me to the chiropractor.”

Gabe smiled, his teeth flashing against his tanned skin. “So what’s got you so upset you’re trying to break down the door?”

Becca sighed. “It’s a really long story, and not really that important.”

“Need me to beat someone up?” He waggled his dark eyebrows at her.

“Don’t tell me you’re gonna get all protective on me.”

“I can’t help it. You’re my baby cousin.”

Becca coughed. “Baby? I’m only a year younger than you.”

Gabe shot her another grin as he sprawled back out on the couch, his long limbs hanging over the sides. “Still a baby, compared to me. So what’s Lilia up to? Seeing anyone?”

Becca snickered. Ever since she’d brought Lilia to a family gathering two years before, Gabe hadn’t made much of a secret of his infatuation. “What do you care? You’re dating Annabelle.”

“Annabelle who?” He asked with wide-eyed innocence.

“You’re horrible.” She shook her head at him sadly and then tossed a glance at her brother. “I’m gonna be in my room. Mom said the frozen pizzas were for tonight, so don’t eat them.”

Dylan dismissed her with a half-hearted wave, his eyes glued to the television screen.

Becca rolled her eyes and continued down the hallway to her room. She plopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, letting all the frustration she’d felt on the drive home seep back into her.

Nicholas presented a huge problem and one that didn’t just seem like it would quietly resolve on its own. How had he managed to get himself turned into a…whatever he was? Her brain couldn’t wrap itself around what she’d seen. Becca noticed her hands were shaking. She hadn’t yet dealt with the shock of Nicholas’s physical change. She’d been too busy focusing on her anger. Obviously he had been changed into some kind of animal. She couldn’t even begin to guess what kind, it looked more like a weird mashup of animals than any one species. It could be some kind of animal that existed in the Fae Realm that she had no idea about or it could just be its own special brand. So far, all she knew was magic was involved, the mirror was involved, and somehow this was Nicholas’s fault.

The thought that he could be an innocent victim didn’t even occur to her. It was obvious that he’d been meddling where he shouldn’t have been. If he’d gotten involved in some kind of magic because he was trying to prove what had happened two years ago at the museum, then this all fell squarely on his shoulders.

Not only was there an enchanted mirror sitting unguarded in the middle of Los Angeles, there was now an enchanted man/beast thing. He had seemed rational, albeit also angry, for the few moments she’d talked to him…but then this was Nicholas, she couldn’t be sure his rational was safe for anyone. Especially not her friends. He’d even mentioned Lilia. He was obviously not over her using magic on him two years ago.

How long would it be before someone besides her discovered him or discovered the mirror? And when they did, what else would they find? God only knew what other information he had on Lilia or on Alex. There was no guarantee that whatever was on his laptop was all he had. If he’d sent papers to Dr. Gagnon, he could’ve sent them to other people, too.

She willed her hands to stop shaking as she pulled her phone out of her back jeans pocket and contemplated it. Her thumb hovered over the “call” button next to Alex’s picture. She knew Alex would want to know what was going on with Nicholas. She also knew that her friend was enjoying every minute she got to spend with Luke.

“Stupid, irresponsible, careless, reckless…jerk.”

As much as she wanted to stay away and enjoy the rest of her summer leaving Nicholas to his miserable existence…she couldn’t. Not as long as that miserable existence threatened her friends.

Not that she knew it was miserable. Maybe he liked being a weird, magical, hybrid beast.

Becca got off the bed and opened the closet door, grabbing a few pairs of jeans and t-shirts. Almost as an afterthought she dug to the back of the closet and snagged a few hoodies. She shoved everything into her backpack along with some underwear and socks and slung it back over her shoulder.

“Tell Mom I’m staying with some friends for a while,” she hollered at Dylan as she passed the living room. Gabe stuck his head out into the hallway.

“You cool?”

“Yeah, fine. Remind Dylan to tell…never mind, I’ll just text her.”

“No prob.” He winked at her. “Tell Lilia ‘hi’ for me.”

“You’ve got no chance, Gabe,” she replied sweetly.

“I know, but it doesn’t hurt to remind her that she’s missing out on such a great guy.”

Becca laughed in spite of herself. “I’ll let her know.”

~

Becca pulled up in front of Nicholas’s house and glared at the tall gate. Her life would be so much easier if she didn’t have to hike the stupid driveway in the heat.

“Argh!” Becca gave in to the urge to slam her door once more.

Popping the trunk, she pulled the sleeping bag out of her emergency kit. Her strangely earthquake paranoid dad had gifted the kit to her when she first started driving, and she’d used the sleeping bag from it more than once. She even changed out the water bottles occasionally to keep her dad happy. Every time she visited him and wife number three he checked her trunk. Every time. She supposed it was his way of making sure she was safe. A weekly phone call would have probably done the trick, but nobody ever accused the Wards of doing things the normal or easy way.

Becca started back up the long driveway. She had probably gone around the bend. In a life filled with responsible, well-thought-out choices, this might go down as her stupidest moment. But she wanted to figure out what was going on and make sure the magic that had changed Nicholas wasn’t a threat to her friends. And the only way she could think of to accomplish that was to go straight to the source.

The front door was locked again. Obviously Nicholas had no idea that she could open it so easily. It was even faster the third time around.

Becca rolled the sleeping bag out on the mattress in one of the upstairs guest rooms and stuck the contents of her backpack into the closet, pulling on a hoodie to keep the freezing air at bay.

She wondered how long it would be until Nicholas made good on his “hell to pay” threat. She was kind of anticipating it actually. She was still angry herself and thought that raining down some hell on his head would vastly improve her day.

Being in the same house as the mirror reignited her anger. Becca didn’t know its origin, but if he’d brought a magic artifact here to Los Angeles in the attempt to prove something about Lilia and Alex, or to hurt them in anyway, “hell to pay” didn’t even begin to describe the retribution she was about to bring down on him.

She made her way back downstairs. There was a huge television in what her family would probably refer to as a den, but in a house like this was likely referred to as “the media room” or something just as obnoxiously pretentious. She was attempting to figure out which of four separate remotes actually turned the thing on when Nicholas prowled into the room.

He didn’t say anything at first, just glared at her and growled. Becca attempted not to stare or mentally catalog all of the things about his beast-like state that freaked her out. She managed to coolly glance up from the remote control with a raised eyebrow. “So how does this thing work?”

He growled again, the fur on his back standing on end. “I told you to leave.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I think that would be obvious. I’m going to try to help you.”

“You’re lying; you don’t want to help me.”

“Okay, fine, helping you is not my first priority. My first priority is protecting my friends.”

He let out a harsh sound, something between a bark and growl. “And what do you think I’m going to do? Eat your precious princess?”

Becca glanced at his wicked looking teeth in spite of herself. He could tell where she was looking and bared them in a snarl. He was trying to scare her. She knew that. “Do you actually want to eat her? Or anyone?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“Yes.” He flashed his teeth again.

Becca turned back to the remotes and pushed another button. “How weird. I can tell you’re lying. But then I could always see through your threats.”

Nicholas bounded toward her. He was huge—bigger even than she’d realized. As he bore down on her, she was suddenly reminded of the National Geographic documentaries in which harmless gazelles were taken down by ravaging predators. In this scenario she was most definitely the gazelle.

He stopped, mere inches from her, and roared—there was no other term for it—right in Becca’s face. She had a glimpse of his flashing teeth and then her eyes closed involuntarily against the blast of hot breath that flowed out of his mouth along with the deafening noise.

As soon as roar faded, Becca snapped her eyes back open. He was still mere inches from her, staring at her, his brilliant blue eyes filled more with sardonic loathing than with actual anger. Nicholas didn’t consider her a threat at all, just a nuisance, something to be shooed away as quickly as possible. Like a gnat or a housefly. For some reason this made her extremely angry. He had always dismissed her.

She narrowed her eyes at him, letting the anger course through her. She ran her thumb over the top of her ring. The feel of the protection spell usually calmed her down, but not now. Instead, she used it to jump start her own spell.

Becca saw the flicker of surprise in the beast’s eyes—she’d decided to stop thinking of him as Nicholas as soon as he’d roared in her face—as a gauzy violet film shot through with gold streaks sprang up in between them.

The surprise was quickly replaced by loathing. “You’re one of them, too? And here I thought you were just a bratty little girl.”

The anger flared into hatred, and Becca had to hold tightly to her thin wall of magic as it sparked with purple and gold fire. She so badly wanted to keep up the appearance of calm neutrality, but it was just a show. She was angry, off-balance, and she wanted to hurt him. She’d never be able to wound with words the way he did, but for the first time in her life she wished to actually physically harm someone.