Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel) (10 page)

Chapter 8

Rome
ripped open the folding glass door to one of the buses that had been left out
in the parking lot for the field trip.

“I
can’t believe we just ran!” Aria whispered.

“I
wasn’t sticking around for that. Did you see the look on her face? I didn’t
think anyone would actually be there.”

“Anyone
but us, you mean.” She hurried down the center aisle, quickly finding a seat in
the back. He sat beside her and she wriggled down on the bench until the top of
her head was nearly hidden.

“What
are you doing?” he laughed.

“She
could be looking for us.”

“Somehow
I doubt the music teacher is on the hunt for us. That’s probably above her pay
grade. Besides, we weren’t doing anything wrong.”

“If
we weren’t doing anything wrong, then why did you run?”

“Just
because you didn’t commit a crime doesn’t mean you should hang around to be
interrogated by the police.”

Ariahna
frowned at him.

She
reached up and grabbed him by his tie, tugging him down. “You should at least
try and hide. Just in case,” she said, peeking out the window. “You know, we’re
not exactly supposed to be here, either. If you were trying to avoid getting in
trouble, running from one place you’re not supposed to be to another is a
little counterproductive.”

“Yeah,
but it’s fun, isn’t it?” Rome twisted towards her, leaning in and smiling as
she slid back against the window. He very much wanted to pick up where they’d
left off. He licked his lips as he stared back at her.

“You
taste like vanilla,” he smiled.

Aria
blushed, swallowing around the lump in her throat. The next thing she knew his
lips were on hers. She let out a startled moan, pressing her hands to his
chest. “What are you doing?” she breathed.

“…Kissing
you? Do you not want me to?”

She sat there uncertainly as a contemplative sound
wiggled its
way up
her throat.
His breath was gentle and hot
against her skin, distracting
her from the fact that they probably
shouldn’t be doing this. After all, she didn’t even know him. She brushed her
fingers over the soft stubble on his cheek, caressing his skin as he smiled
against her palm. She looked up into his eyes as soon as she realized she’d
been staring at his lips. It wasn’t until then that she noticed he’d been doing
the same.

Her lips came crashing over his without warning,
completely
stealing
his breath. She was pulling him
against her and making him practically climb over her to get closer. They were
two seconds away from ending up sprawled across the seat with her on her back
and him pressed on top of her.

What
they didn’t know was that Christian was standing just outside the bus with his
arms crossed and his eyes narrowed. The sight of them kissing was nearly enough
to make him want to puke. He liked a challenge, but chasing after her now meant
finding a way to distract Rome. Christian knew that until he did, the real fun
couldn’t begin.

He
smirked when he saw Eliza walking out to her car. She was hands down the most
popular girl in school, and for good reason. If her long legs and golden skin
weren’t enough to make you drool, she had the figure of a model and the
attitude to match.

“Thank
you,” he muttered towards the sky.

“Eliza,” Christian called out. It was clearly the voice
of
someone who
wanted something. “I see the summer sun has treated you well.”

Eliza
sighed at his lame compliment, not bothering to stop or turn to face him. “Not
now, Christian.”

“That’s
not what you said the last time we
talked
,” he said, slipping himself
against the door of her car.

“Move,”
Eliza said blandly. “I don’t have time for your games.”

“What,
is there a shoe sale in town?”

“As
a matter of fact…”

“I’m cashing in on that little debt you owe me,” he
explained
. “Unless
you want me to tell daddy you were the one who crashed his car.”

“If
you recall, that was Dallas, not me.”

“And
who gave him the keys?”

Eliza
relented. “What do you want?”

“I
need you to go after someone.”

“Who?”
she asked.

“Rome
Navarro.”

“Not
a chance.”

Christian
sighed. “You don’t have to actually do anything with him, I just need something
pretty to keep him preoccupied.”

“What’s
your angle?”

“What
else?” he said, smiling lasciviously.

“Right,
stupid question,” she breathed. “Fine, I’ll do it. But this squares us, you got
it? Don’t come to me looking for any other favors.”

“Not
even sexual favors?” he laughed.

Eliza
shoved him on the shoulder for the comment.

“Stop,
I’m going to get excited. You know I like it rough.”

“So
are you going to give me anything else to go on other than a name and a sense
of nausea?”

“You
might be able to catch him alone in the morning. I saw him running down at the
track,” he said.

Eliza
squinted at him curiously. “What are you, his stalker? Maybe you want me to
distract someone else so
you
can go after him.”

He
rolled his eyes. “Just make sure you cross your t’s and bat your eyelashes. If
you mess this up, then you still owe me,” he said, slipping away from her car.

“Do
me a favor – don’t
ever
say that again.”

Eliza
bent to unlock the door and he tilted his head, admiring the view for a moment
before slapping her right on the ass. She jumped and he laughed before taking
off towards the buses.

“Where’re
you going?”

 “…On
a field trip.”

***

Rome
climbed off the bus, his eyes wandering up the steps of City Hall. He’d been
here more times than he could count. The last thing he wanted to see was the
inside of another courtroom. “Why are we here?”

“The
Witches Collective,” Aria whispered. “It’s hidden inside, along with the
history museum.”

“How
many secrets does this town have?”

“I
guess you’ll just have to stick around and find out.”

The
teachers split them all off into six groups before entering the building. Rome
drifted along, looking at everything with curious new eyes. The only thing that
was really different about this place was the fact that he wasn’t in a set of
handcuffs. The layout and the decor alluded to nothing out of the ordinary. In
fact, it seemed more bland than usual.

Rome
was the last one to step through the metal detector, and he sighed as he set
off the alarm. He took his ring off, taking a step back and trying again.
The guard looked perturbed, maybe because somehow
the horrid
sound seemed even louder than before. That’s when he
remembered the pocket knife hidden in the side of his boot.

“Damn it,” he muttered. He slapped it into the guard’s
palm,
watching as he
tossed it into a box of similar looking contraband.

He
wasn’t getting that back.

At
least I have my ring
,
he thought, grabbing it off the belt.

“If
I asked to hold your hand, would you still say yes?” he asked.

Ariahna
looked down to see that Rome was holding out his palm, and she hesitated for
only a moment before gently slipping her fingers between his. His skin was a
little rough, and she wondered why she hadn’t picked up on that before. She
couldn’t help but think he was too young to have hands like that.

Rome,
on the other hand, was more intrigued by the set of stairs leading them down
into the sublevels of the building.
He
paused, brushing his
fingers over a
small symbol etched into the stone. He noticed the same
strange
marking was placed on the pillar on
the other side of the staircase.

“What
are these?” he asked.

“They’re wards. They’re put in place to dissuade anyone
who doesn’t have magic from wandering into places they shouldn’t. They’re also
on the
first floor
at Vardel.”

Rome
closed his eyes, trying to recall what was so familiar about them. “Are there
different kinds of wards?” he asked.

“There
are sigils?” she said. “I suppose they’re similar. They can be used for
anything, really. Why?”

“I
remember something like this carved into the porch at my old house. It was a
seven pointed star. I used to stare at it sometimes; at least until my dad
scratched it out.”

“It’s
called an otherkin, or faerie star. It’s used for protection, but more
specifically it’s used in controlling or dismissing spirits.”

Rome
hummed in thought, lagging down the stairs after their group. “I can’t believe
all of this has been right in front of my face.”

“That’s
sort of the point,” she giggled.

He
stepped into what looked like a lobby. There were several black circles
outlined on the tile to the left, and hallways and stairwells branched out from
the room like a maze.

“Dr.
German,” a woman called, “Lab C is ready for you.”

Rome
narrowed his eyes, watching curiously as the man stepped into one of the
circles. He smoothed out his lab coat, adjusting his glasses apprehensively.
What happened next made Rome stop dead in his tracks. The floor slowly turned
black beneath the man’s feet, breaking away until there was nothing beneath
him. He’d dropped straight through like he’d been sucked into a vacuum.

“Trying
to catch flies?” Trevor grinned.

Rome
shut his jaw with an audible clack.

“Do
I even want to know what the hell that was?”

“You should sign up for Transference,” Aria said, leading
them down another flight of stairs.

“So
is this place really underground?” Rome asked.

Trevor spun to face them, walking backwards down the
narrow hall. “Yeah,” he said. “Redwood Bay is one of the oldest settlements on
the east coast. Underground structures are scattered all over, and tunnels run
beneath every inch of the town. They reach out as far as the cliffs. I found
one once,
on the
side of Blue Maiden’s Bluff. Most of them are abandoned or lost, though. My dad
says that a lot of them are even caved in.”

“Next
you’re going to be telling me that crop circles are real.”

“Nope,
those are still an unconfirmed phenomenon.”

Rome
rubbed at his eyes with a sigh. Trevor was serious.

“Aren’t
you assigned to another group?” he groaned.

Trevor dropped his gaze, turning on his heel and shuffling
off after his group without so much as a word. Rome didn’t have to look to know
that
Aria was
frowning at him.

“You
should apologize.”

“I
know,” he huffed, staring at his boots as they rounded a corner. He walked
through what felt like cold water, frowning as he whipped around. The hallway
was gone, and in its place stood a solid wall. It rippled lightly around his
fingers as he reached out to touch it, and he could almost see people walking
by on the other side.

“What…
the hell,” he breathed.

“It’s
not real,” Aria smiled. “It’s an illusion.”

“If
they have wards upstairs, what’s the point?”

“It’s really just an extra precaution. I also think they
just like
showing
off a little,” she said.

Rome
smirked. “I can see that.”

He
shuffled after the rest of the students, walking through a set of double doors
on the far side of the room.
His eyes slowly
wandered up the expanse of the ceiling. It was an extremely tall dome,
structured
so high that if he didn’t know any better, he would have
guessed it could be seen from the outside. He didn’t even want to know how
they’d managed that.