Kalama wheeled on me. “If things were going well, I’d have the damn door open.”
Okay. She obviously took after her sister in the personality department.
“So … not well,” Justice said.
“There are fifteen spells on this door, Prince. It’s not quite as easy as making pie in the kitchen.”
“Do you need anything from me?” I asked.
She grinned like a cat who’d just spotted prey. “Well, actually, I was telling Justice—”
Justice cleared his throat. “Is there anything that I might be able to do to help you get through the protection enchantments faster?”
I frowned; my brother was clearly hiding something from me.
She barked a hard laugh and then shook her head. “You can’t help me, Second.”
She spat his pack rank out like it was acid, and I caught a glimpse of what was going on. Maybe.
“You must not be a powerful enough witch, then,” Justice taunted, his expression hardening.
‘Justice, what does she need?’ I asked.
He shook his head. ‘I don’t trust her with what she claims she needs. Remember who her sister is.’
“Listen, Midnight Heir. I said you can’t help me.” Then her gaze flicked to me. “But you can.”
Pursing my lips, I shook my head. I knew where this was going. But, with any luck, I’d be wrong. “What do you want?” I growled.
She raised a well-manicured eyebrow. “Alpha blood would increase my odds of getting this open faster.”
Of course. Just like her sister, they always wanted blood.
“No,” Justice snarled and bared his teeth.
‘Brother, if she needs it—’
‘Look what happened with her sister. They cannot be trusted with blood.’ Justice glared at her.
It was my brother’s job to protect me, so I wasn’t going to begrudge him for doing this, but if this would help her…
“I give you my blood, you’ll release the protection spells?”
Justice groaned.
She nodded, her long tight braids slithering up and down her shoulders.
“But I’ll also need you to temporarily release me from my servitude bond,” she said. “It suppresses my magic here on the island.”
I sighed.
Well, I didn’t need or even want her around anyway. She was a liability. I could get a new kitchen maid with half the baggage, so I’d give her a better offer.
“If you can get those spells off, I’ll release you permanently. But without you being bonded, what’s going to keep you from walking out that door?”
“Her integrity?” Justice snickered, and I had to take a deep breath to keep from cracking a smile.
I nudged him. ‘Not sure insulting her will help.’
“Fine,” she said, her lips pulling up on one side to give Justice a cruel half-smile. “I’ll bind myself here, to the library, first.”
She pulled a small dagger from around her waist and pricked her finger. Then she dripped a single drop into the smoking herbs. “I, Kalama, willingly bind my body and soul to Alpha Academy’s library until I break the protection spells on the portal to High Mage Island.”
The air crackled with magic, and Kalama shuddered once before she looked at me expectantly.
I glanced at Justice.
‘Don’t look at me, bro. I’m not king. I can’t let her go.’
Ugh.
“Fine. What do I need to do?” Following her instructions, I slid my own dagger from its sheath at my waist and then pricked my middle finger.
‘For the record, I think giving your blood to this woman is a horrible idea,’ Justice said as I allowed one drop to land in each bowl.
‘Noted,’ I said.
Taking in a deep breath, I did something I really hoped wouldn’t come back to bite me in the butt. “I, Courage Midnight, Alpha King, hereby release Kalama from her servant bondage so that she’ll be able to destroy all the spells, enchantments, hexes, and curses on the portal separating Alpha Island from High Mage Island. Once all the protection spells, enchantments, hexes, and curses are eliminated, she’ll be released from her bond of servitude here on Alpha Island.”
Kalama’s expression hardened. “That’s a bit more than necessary.”
I shrugged. “I’ve learned word choice matters quite a bit when it comes to magical oaths.”
She yanked the bowls containing my blood away from me and then spun on her heel, waving us off. “Now, let me work. I’ll let you know when it’s done.”
Justice and I left and then made our way down to the docks.
‘I gotta say, watching you prick your finger like that gives me the willies,’ Justice said as he started the boat.
‘There’s nothing I won’t do to bring Nai home,’ I told him. Didn’t he understand? She was my other half. My brother needed to fall in love so he’d know what this all-consuming feeling was like.
I considered Kalama’s dark magic, so much like her sister’s—and then my thoughts went back to the vampire issue I needed to deal with. The idea that they drank blood and that my uncle seemed to have allowed them to … I dunno … hunt? It gave me the shivers and made me angry at the same time.
My disgust, both with the practice as well as my uncle’s apparent willingness to go along with it, hadn’t lessened. How many deaths had occurred due to vampires draining people while we’d been lied to about it? How many vampires were there left? I had way too many questions and needed more answers.
“Let’s go to Dark Row. I want to sniff around the place Kirkland died,” I told Justice.
He nodded, and we sped across the water in a speedboat toward Dark Row where I hoped to get additional information that would allow for something other than a blood payment to the freaking vampires.
The last war between the magical races was hundreds of years ago. The vampires were all but wiped out, causing what small numbers they had to retreat to caves to survive. How long did vampires live? Unless they had continued to breed … the thought made me shiver. Could they breed?
I pulled down my sunglasses and rubbed my eyes as Justice slowed the boat and brought it alongside the dock.
“Do you want to see Kirkland’s body first or talk with the mages?” Justice asked.
A shriveled corpse? I grunted and jumped out to tie the boat off. “Let’s chat up the mages. I can imagine what Kirkland’s body will look like, and I can wait to see that.”
Justice raised his eyebrows and then clapped me on the back as he stepped off the boat.
“You getting squeamish?” he asked, shaking his head. “Don’t tell me the rumors are true.”
I finished with the last buoy and straightened with a groan. “What rumors?”
Because if I had to deal with one more thing…
“Nai has turned you soft,” Justice said.
I shook my head at his antics. Then, together, we strolled toward the remains of Dark Row.
At the southernmost edge, two colorful tents stood huddled together. The yellow and green silk was streaked with soot and ash, but I couldn’t tell if these tents were survivors of the fire or new installations.
The scorched earth near where Surlama’s tent had once been remained empty as did the area surrounding it.