Casted (Casted series) (21 page)

“Exactly! What will they do if they knew I had the book in me? If they want it that badly, do you honestly think they’d hurt me? Jude, this could save your life!”

“No,” Edge growled, “don’t think for one second that they wouldn’t do everything in their power to get the book out of you, by any means necessary.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Seriously? The only way to get the book to do what we wanted was for me to sleep with Edge. If the Nomads had me, the book would be locked up tight in my chastity.

“She’s lost it,” Jude said in exasperation.

Maybe I had. Maybe this was the last step of me going completely insane. I had a book in my head that fluttered its pages and was demanding things from me.

I would do everything in my power to go with Jude. I couldn’t let him die, not for this, not for me.

The question was; how could I get past Edge to go?

“We still have time. I’m going to dig through my books and see if there’s any kind of counter spell,” Matheson said as he touched Jude lightly on the shoulder. “I’ll let you know what I find.”

I jumped up, offering to help. My intentions were partially deceitful. I buried my face in a book while trying to figure out how I could go with Jude. If they couldn’t find a spell to counter his return back to the Nomads, Jude would not be going alone.

Julie stayed with Jude, keeping him company while the rest of us were scanning through the stack of books Matheson had brought with him. The second hand on the clock ticked away the precious minutes as we feverously searched for the much needed spell.

My mind raced as I scanned the pages. We were hours into our search and none of us had found anything. I had to come up with a plan that would ensure Edge would leave me alone so that I could follow Jude.

An alarm sounded in the security room. Edge tossed the book he’d been flipping through and took off. Dagger tucked a slip of paper in his spot and handed it to Jessa before following him out.

Dagger was back within minutes. He was shaking his head in disbelief.

“What?” I asked him.

“Our luck is shitty,” he replied, taking the book back from Jessa. His shoulders were strained and he grumbled as he sat down.

“What happened? Where’s Edge?” I asked.

“Gone. The Triad called a mandatory meeting. One he has to go to or it will raise all sorts of red flags,” he said, not looking at anyone.

Edge was gone? My stomach plummeted.

“You don’t think they know, do you?” Jessa asked.

“No, if they knew they wouldn’t have called everyone in. He said he’d be back soon,” Dagger said, cutting off further questions.

What if he wasn’t back before Jude left? And then it clicked. If he wasn’t back by then, he couldn’t stop me. The Triad had provided me a possible way to follow Jude. I was torn between freaking out that he was in the midst of the Triad, and elated that he might not be here to put a stop to my plans.

I hoped for both our sakes that we’d find the counter spell. Following Jude to the Nomads was one of my stupider ideas. Once I was there, I would be looking at several possibilities. They could lock me up until they could figure out how to get the book out of me and back to being just a book. They could think I was lying and kill us both, or they could figure out how to use the book through me, which was highly unlikely given the circumstances.

The clock on the wall ticked away the seconds - a constant reminder that we were running out of time. I’d skimmed through three books and found nothing to help Jude. By the saddened faces around me, I could tell they hadn’t found anything either. Edge still wasn’t back and Jude was starting to become restless. I wasn’t sure if it was him getting antsy or if the Nomads spell was already beginning to pull on his body.

Jude had pulled himself from the couch and now sat with us as we raced against time to come up with something. Rainy picked up one of our discarded books and scanned the pages using her finger. Flip, scan, flip scan, her fingers moved quickly on the page.

Jude tugged the book away. “Thanks for trying, but I have to go now.”

Tears pooled in her eyes and ran down her cheeks unchecked. Jude hugged her tight and then stepped away. He was saying goodbye. And there was nothing anyone could do now.

“I’m going to walk him to the door. Edge would want that,” I told Dagger. He pulled me back and stared me down. “To the door only,” he growled.

Julie tried to bolt out the door, but Jude grabbed her and pulled her tight to him. “I’ll be okay. Don’t worry. In no time, I’ll be back and you can threaten me again.” He tried to make it sound like a joke, but it only made Julie cry harder. Jude cut off her sobs with a kiss. It was the saddest thing I’d ever witnessed in my life. When he let her go, she crumpled to the ground. Dagger swept her up in his arms and nodded to Jude. “I’ll take care of her.”

Jude let a watery sigh out before turning away. I followed Jude out of the den to the living room.

“This will take you to the Nomads?” I asked.

“Yeah, I got the flash points set up on a keypad. All I have to do is select where I need to go and when I step through, I’ll be there.”

“I thought you had no magical abilities,” I said, screwing my face up in confusion.

“I’ve been working on this concept with Edge for a while. So far, it’s worked,” he tried for a smirk, but it fell flat.

His hand shook as he reached out and pushed a series of numbers on the keypad. His knuckles were white as he grabbed the doorknob. “Tell Edge, I said thanks - for everything.”

This was it. Now or never. The thought was so quick, that I moving before I knew it. I grabbed Jude’s arm and pulled him back. His balance wasn’t the greatest right now and I used it to my advantage. He tripped over his feet and sprawled on the floor.

“Tell him yourself,” I said, pulling the door closed behind me. What had I just done? My only hope was that this would save Jude. And the downfall? Edge was going to be so pissed.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The moment I stepped through the door I turned, half expecting Jude to be right behind me. But the door had disappeared. The room I stood in was empty. Had I screwed everything up by not showing up with Jude? The only door had vanished, leaving me in a sealed box. How long would I last without air?

The wall in front of me began to ripple. I pressed myself against the far wall, waiting to see what would happen. The wall gave way to a room full of people. Their backs were turned to me as they stood facing a slightly raised platform. No one turned to look at my intrusion as one man raised his hand to point his splayed fingers at me. My back bowed as if he were pulling me forward by my chest. My feet left the floor as I was tugged towards him on invisible stings.

As I got closer, I could see others sitting in high back chairs, forming a half circle around the one who held me tightly in his spell.

“Who comes before us uninvited?” he asked leaning closer to my face. His eyes took in every aspect of my body and snapped wide when he got to my arms.

His hand shot out at me. I ducked to protect myself, expecting a solid blow, but instead, a robe settled over my shoulders covering my body. The hood slid down over my face.

“Council is dismissed,” the voice boomed out. Feet shuffled out of the room as I strained to hear snippets of conversation. They were just as confused as I was. The hood over my head flipped back to reveal a wizened old face.

“Where is Jude?” he asked.

I couldn’t tell if he was angry or curious. There wasn’t a single flicker of emotion that came from his face.

“I have the book, so it wasn’t necessary for him to come,” I said, trying not to fidget under his scrutiny.

“He led you to it and he must pay for his treasonous actions against the Coven,” a hooded figure to the left of me sneered.

“Jude didn’t lead me to it. You had my friends. I came to get them and found the book.” Technically I wasn’t lying. Jude told me where it was, but never led me to it. Edge did.

“Now, now, my friends, this young lady will tell us everything we need to know. I’m sure,” the man in front of me said quietly.

“Lying by omission is still lying, Micah,” another man spoke up. I didn’t dare look up to see who was accusing me. I kept my eyes locked on the man in front of me.

“Let’s give her a little time to think on it, shall we?” He gestured for me to follow him. I had no choice but to keep up with him as the others crowded in behind me, pushing me forward without touching me. I was going further into the Nomad compound, which would make it much trickier to escape.

Micah and the rest of the Nomads said nothing as I was led to a deserted part of the compound. Empty rooms marched down the hallway without an escape route in sight.

“This room will do nicely,” he said as he put his hand on my shoulder and ushered me into a windowless bedroom. I had no choice but to go along with his wishes. There were too many of them to fight. The door closed and locked. The silence was broken only by the sound of many feet walking away. What the hell was I supposed to do now?

Edge would be furious when he got back from the Triad meeting. If he got back from it. What could have been so important for them to call a meeting together like that? There was something very odd about everything that was happening.

Jude was summoned to the Nomads. Edge was summoned for a meeting with the Triad. It was way too coincidental that all of this was happening at one time.

I chased the thoughts around in my head, trying to make the connection. Before I knew it, Micah was back. He quietly slipped through the door holding his fingers against his lips to ensure my silence.

His hands glided in the air, starting at the door, and then turning as if gesturing around the room. When he stopped to face me, he finally spoke. “My dear girl, you’ve gone and done it now, haven’t you?”

“What do you mean?” I was a little confused by his kindness.

“Sit and I will try to explain. We haven’t much time,” he said, sliding his eyes to the door as I sat on the edge of the bed. “May I see your arms?” he asked.

I turned my arms over and he reached out to touch the writing.

“May I?” he asked.

I nodded my approval and he flipped the hood of his robe back, revealing his shiny bald head. His skin was so light and thin that I could see bluish tinted veins. His fingers began tracing the outline of the foreign words as his tired looking eyes pinched closed.

“We’d hoped that this would never come to pass. Your mother and I, that is,” he sighed.

“My mother? You knew her?” I slid forward, hungry for every detail he had about my mother and the book.

“Yes. I had the pleasure of helping her once,” he said, tipping his head at the arm he had in his hands.

Hope soared through me. “You know about this?” Maybe I’d get more answers from him.

“I know that she searched for a very long time to find the right spell to bind the book. When she was successful, she brought the book to me and I’ve kept it ever since, until now.” He made an attempt to smile.

“Do you know who helped her?” I asked.

“I do…but, my dear girl, the man who helped her died for his troubles.” He let go of my arm and started to pace. “You see, the book was very–how would you say it.” He stroked his chin in thought.

“Demanding,” I said, rolling my eyes. How many times had I wanted to tell Edge what was going on inside of my head and got shut down?

“I guess that’s one way of saying it. Your mother made it her life’s work to keep the book from being passed on to you.”

I winced, knowing that in one move, I had undone all she had done for me. I had let her down and was now paying the price.

“My title gives me certain leverage here, but unfortunately even I can’t stop what is going to befall you because of the book. You see, for a very long time, no one else knew of it. That is, until one of the Nomad members decided to take it upon themselves to unpack my meager belongings when we came to this location. It was silly of me to think that others wouldn’t immediately recognize the book upon seeing it.” He shook his head and paused. “There is a turncoat in our midst, dear girl, and I’m afraid of what that means for the both of us.”

A traitor, of course there was a traitor, there always was. The traitor told the Triad, the Triad found out about Jude who linked him to Edge, and now Edge was with the Triad and I was with the Nomads.

Damn it!

It had been a very carefully constructed set up. What did that mean for Edge? Would the Triad hold him captive? Or were they just going to try and pick his brain for answers? The last run-in Edge had with Lorenzo replayed in my mind. He’d threatened Edge, but had admitted that he would hold his promise to leave him alone. Would that promise still hold?

“I can see a million questions racing around in those eyes,” Micah said, bringing me back to the present.

“The Nomad Council is demanding action. They want the book brought back to its rightful owner, which is funny, because the rightful owner is you. However,” he said, flailing his hands, “they think by some strange right it belongs to the Nomad Coven because of our ability to keep it safe.”

“If only it were that easy,” I replied.

“Yes, if only,” he said as he turned to the door. “I will do what I can, but I must keep up with appearances. If they thought for one second that I was helping you, we’d both be dead.” He waved his hands around the room and again put his finger to his lips gesturing for my silence. He opened the door and slipped out, leaving me alone to deal with the information he’d just given me.

He knew about the book. He had known about my mother and that she’d bound the book before giving it to him for safe keeping. Now the Council had taken it upon themselves to be the Keepers of a book that didn’t belong to them. Hell, it didn’t even belong to me. It was its own Keeper that had chosen me as its host. How far would the Nomads go to pry it out of my head?

The answer to that question came a few hours later when the bedroom door was pushed open and I was practically dragged out by a robed figure. He tossed me into a closet-sized room and slammed the door shut.