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  Eventually, we headed home. It would be an early day of classes tomorrow. As we walked out of the pub, I craned my neck around, looking for him once more.

  But nope. He was nowhere to be seen.

  I frowned, disappointed, then followed my friends out. The wind was bitter as we made our way down the street and through the portal to the Protectorate. It was even colder in the Highlands, and we ran all the way back to the castle, jumping over gnarled old tree roots in the enchanted glen and sprinting across the great lawn.

  I was gasping and laughing by the time we pushed through the doors, so grateful to have this as my home and my new life. It’d been hard on the outside. Hard and dangerous and scary.

  Life could still be those things here, but we had backup. Support.

  Grinning, I followed my friends across the entry hall.

  “Ana.” Lachlan’s voice made me pull up short.

  I turned. He stood at the entrance of the hallway that led to Arach’s office.

  “Ana?” Bree whispered.

  “You can go.” My heart was already racing. I approached him, completely ignoring my sister. Classy. “What’s up?”

  My heart was lodged in my chest. Could this be the last time I saw him?

  “How do you feel?” he asked. Concern glinted in his eyes.

  I shrugged with my good shoulder, regretting the move when it pulled on my injured arm. “Fine. It’ll heal. You?”

  “Much better.”

  A large crowd of laughing Protectorate members entered the hall, so we stepped into an alcove behind us. The crowd turned right, directly toward us. They piled into the hallway, forcing us deeper into the alcove, where the shadows lingered.

  It pushed us closer together, and I couldn’t help the shiver that raced through me. I searched Lachlan’s gaze, hoping to see the same heat.

  Maybe I did, or maybe it was wishful thinking. The flames were banked within his dark eyes.

  “I wanted to thank you for your help,” he said.

  “Thanks for the opportunity. It was fun. And profitable.” Oh fates. Was that weird? Should I have said that?

  I gave a mental shrug. Not much I could do about it now! If I was going to feel weird about something, it should probably be the fact that I’d been sucking on his face a couple days ago. And the fact that he’d had to break the kiss and remind me that we were working together.

  I blushed.

  His gaze traced over my cheeks, which just made me realize that he noticed me blushing.

  Perfect.

  I was a badass who’d started driving across Death Valley when I was sixteen, and here I was, blushing.

  “I wanted to make you an offer,” he said.

  “An offer?”

  “I don’t know what you are—you’ve been too cagey to share—but you have powerful magic. It was you that made the difference between failure and success on this mission. I want to find the cloaked figure, and I want you to help.”

  “Me?” Okay, idiot. He already made that clear.

  “Aye, you.” His lips curved up at the corners. “It will take time to find him—we have almost no clues. Just the scrap of fabric that my claw pulled off his cloak. Thank you for spotting that, by the way. We may be able to use it to track him. Eventually, we’ll get a lead. When we do, I want your help.”

  “And I’d be working with you on this.”

  “Aye. We’ll hunt him together. In return, I’ll help you with your magic.”

  “How can you help me?”

  “I wasn’t born with twelve fully developed powers. They were seeds of different gifts, only partially there. But with practice, they grew.”

  “I’ve never heard of that.” Normally, you had what you had. It took some practice, sure, but no one ever described their magic as partially there. Also, no one had ever had twelve powers before.

  “It’s rare. But I can help you. And you can help me.”

  “Um.” My mind raced. But what was I going to say? No? Heck no. “Yeah, I’ll do it. I want to get that bastard. And the help sounds good.” Fates knew I was a mess.

  “And if we catch him, it will help you at the Academy. I can talk to Jude about it.”

  “That’s just what I need.” Outside jobs were easier for me than the academy for some reason, and I wanted to pass. This could help me do that. More than that, I wanted to spend time with Lachlan.

  “But there’s one thing.” He looked vaguely uncomfortable.

  “What is it?”

  “The kiss.”

  My cheeks blazed, and I wanted to dunk my head in a bucket of freezing water. “What about it?”

  “It shouldn’t happen again. Not as long as we’re working together on this.”

  “Uh.” I swallowed hard. That wasn’t really an official Protectorate rule. Some people liked to try to abide by it, but they didn’t have to.

  But Lachlan wanted to.

  Which meant he didn’t want to kiss me again.

  And now I couldn’t exactly say, “I’ve changed my mind. I won’t help you hunt the bad guy because you won’t kiss me.”

  Yeah, that wasn’t an option.

  Cheeks burning, I nodded. “Yeah, of course. Good idea. Fabulous.”

  Go on. Keep babbling. I forced myself to hold his gaze, unable to read what was in his eyes. Heat? Regret?

  Maybe.

  I wanted there to be.

  But they were just professional. I remembered how intense the kiss was, but it seemed he might not.

  Just my luck.

  “Thank you, Ana.” He squeezed my shoulder. It was clearly supposed to be a friendly gesture, but heat zinged down my arm.

  From the way his eyes widened slightly and how he jerked his hand back, he felt the same.

  There was an undeniable connection between us. A heat I’d never felt before.

  And he was determined to ignore it.

  “I’ll see you soon,” he said.

  I nodded. “Yep. Later.”

  His gaze held mine for just a second more, then he turned and left. I watched him walk away, turning to peer around the corner of the alcove as he strode through the hall and out into the cold night.

  Oh fates, what had I gotten myself into?

  Crime of Magic

  Dragon’s Gift: The Druid Book 2

  1

  “Oh fates! Hide here!” Panic flashed inside me as I grabbed my two sisters’ arms and dragged them into a nook in the castle wall. I pressed against the wall, my breath held.

  Bree and Rowan crowded against me, smooshing me into the cold stones. We squeezed behind a statue, mostly concealed.

  “Why are we hiding?” Rowan asked.

  “Potts is coming,” Bree whispered.

  She’d seen the day librarian, too. And probably sensed him with her amazing hearing. The last thing we wanted was to run into the crotchety day librarian right before we snuck into the library and broke into a secret tunnel.

  My sisters and I stood still as statues as we waited for him to pass. Bree’s dark hair fluttered into my mouth, and it took all I had not to spit the flyaway strands out.

  It took Potts ages to pass, since he was older than the crypt keeper. I tended to like older people, but Potts was so grumpy you’d have thought someone put cement mix in his morning coffee. Every morning.

  Through a gap in the statue, I saw Potts shuffle by, grumbling about Florian moving the books into the wrong places. He had an ongoing feud with the night librarian, and they fought like two cats over a catnip toy.

  Except not nearly as cute.

  When he finally passed, my shoulders relaxed. We gave him a minute more, then moved to slip out of the nook.

  The sound of voices stopped us, and we pressed ourselves farther into the shadows.

  Two people were walking down the hall, chattering away.

  “I don’t buy it,” said a feminine voice. “No way she stopped the cloaked figure from stealing the spell.”

  “I’ve seen her in class,” sai
d a guy. “She’s a disaster.”

  I stiffened.

  There was only one person they could be talking about.

  Me.

  Shit.

  “Probably just made it up,” Lavender said. It had to be her, my fellow institute trainee. She hated me. “Who knows what she gave Lachlan Munroe in order to get him to agree to her story.”

  “Oh, I think I know,” Angus said. He always hung around Lavender, so it had to be him.

  She snickered.

  Rowan started to move, then Bree. I grabbed their arms, not wanting them to get in a fight on my behalf.

  A second later, Lavender and Angus passed. I held tight to Rowan and Bree for a moment more. Bree could crush them with her power, and Rowan’s magic might be gone, but she could fight like a demon.

  “They’re such jerks,” Rowan muttered.

  Yep. And they were my classmates. I clenched my teeth, determined not to care.

  Bree turned to me, concern in her eyes. “You’re doing that stiff upper lip thing, aren’t you?”

  “Keep calm and carry on, right?” I said.

  “It’s your specialty.” She frowned. “But you know you can be pissed, right?”

  “Being pissed means I care,” I said. “I don’t care. I can’t care.” I still had bruises from our last magical combat class. Those two had used their offensive magic to beat the crap out of me, and with my shield magic on the fritz, I’d pretty much just been a piñata.

  If I cared, I’d be an idiot.

  Everyone else at the Protectorate had been impressed when I’d helped Lachlan Munroe stop a mysterious cloaked figure from stealing a dangerous spell last week.

  Not those two.

  It’d just stoked their dislike.

  Whatever. Can’t win ‘em all.

  “Come on,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  We slipped out of the nook, into the wide hallway. It was one of the older passageways in the castle, and the walls were ancient stones that had seen hundreds of years of activity. Warm candlelight from the sconces gleamed on the old wooden floors. We’d only been here a few months, but I loved this place.

  Who wouldn’t love living in a castle?

  “I know it’s fine if we’re out at night.” Rowan pushed her dark hair over her shoulder as her eyes gleamed blue in the low light of the wall sconces. “But I really don’t want to run into Potts again. If that means cowering behind a statue, so be it.”

  “Amen, sister.” I nodded.

  Mayhem, Bree’s ghostly sidekick, fluttered in the air up ahead. The little pug glowed a transparent white, her small wings working overtime to keep her aloft. She peered around the corner and then looked back at us, wagging her tail.

  It was our signal that the coast was clear.

  We kept going, moving silently along the hall.

  I had to agree with Rowan—there wasn’t much need to sneak around. I didn’t think we were doing anything wrong. Even though this was the Undercover Protectorate’s school of magic, we were all adults.

  But it was more fun to sneak through the halls at night, led along by a ghostly pug with a fondness for ham.

  Anyway, Rowan was right. The last thing anyone wanted was to piss off Potts.

  We reached the library without any more incident and slipped inside. Shelves lined the walls that towered high above, stuffed full with leather-bound books. The spines gleamed in the light of the fireplaces that burst to life upon our entrance. Paintings hung on the walls, some stacked right on top of books.

  I grinned. The whole place was magical.

  As usual, Chaos and Ruckus, Mayhem’s two ghostly pug buddies, sat in a plush bed in front of the biggest fireplace. Probably waiting for Florian to read them their bedtime story.

  What wasn’t normal was the Cats of Catastrophe. The ragamuffin cat gang sat on a big wooden table, clearly up to no good. Princess Snowflake III, the fluffy white Persian who wore a diamond necklace, sat at the edge of the table, throwing daggers with her eyes.

  “I think she’s the lookout,” Bree said.

  “Oh fates,” I sighed, watching as Muffin, the hairless black sphynx cat, tried to pry a gemstone out of a fancy lamp that sat in the middle of the table. A sapphire glittered in his tattered ear. A couple days ago, it’d been an emerald to match his green eyes. He’d changed out his jewelry.

  I had no idea how he’d managed it, but he was the Cat Sìth, the most magical cat in Scotland, so he had a few tricks up his sleeve. Muffin was the leader of the gang, which specialized in stealing fish from the docks and organizing complicated jewel heists.

  Beside him, Bojangles chewed on his tail. The goofy cat was paying no attention to the jewel heist in progress.

  “Isn’t this a bit amateur for you guys?” I asked.

  Muffin glanced at me, his front claws still clutched around the jewel that he was trying to pry free. “Meow.” Everyone needs a hobby.

  “Fair enough, but how about you run your operation out of the castle. You’re making me look bad.” A little over a week ago, they’d followed me back here and never left. I didn’t mind having feline sidekicks, but if they were going to steal stuff, it was no good.

  Muffin gave an audible sigh, then lowered his claws. He looked longingly at the bright red stone, then at me.

  “Go steal hams from the kitchen with Mayhem,” I said. “No one seems to mind that.”

  I didn’t give him time to answer. Who was I kidding anyway? He wouldn’t listen to me.

  “Ooooooooh, ooooooooh.” The ghostly wail echoed from the far wall.

  I looked at my sisters and grinned.

  “Wipe that smile off your face,” Bree whispered.

  I did, but it was hard.

  “Who is it?” Bree asked in a tremulous voice.

  We all knew who it was—Florian, the ghostly night librarian—but we played along anyway. He liked to scare people. Unfortunately for him, he was the least scary ghost in the history of ever.

  “Ooooooh, oooh.” The wails came again.

  I stifled a small laugh. “Terrible and tragic ghost, have mercy!”

  Florian drifted out from the bookshelf, his fancy eighteenth century outfit making him look like he was about to go to a ball. His wig sat slightly askew, the curls towering above his head. “I did quite a good job that time, didn’t I?”

  I nodded. “Superb. You really had my heart going there.”

  He smiled and bowed, then stood. “You’re here for our mission?”

  “Can’t wait.” I swung my arms over Bree and Rowan’s shoulders. “I brought some backup.”

  He clapped. “Good, good!” With a sweeping gesture of his arm, he indicated for us to follow him, so we did, heading back to the older part of the library.

  Last week, my new and uncontrollable magic had delivered a premonition that there was a trapdoor in the library—one that had been long forgotten. When Florian and I had gone searching for it, we’d found it. But it’d been locked tight. This was the first time we had a chance to investigate. I’d been busy trying not to drown in my classes.

  It wasn’t going so hot.

  I pushed the thought away and followed Florian to the back wall. He led us toward a door hidden on the right side, and we followed him into the massive hidden library in the back.

  As always, a sense of wonder filled me. The front library was incredible—I’d never say it wasn’t—but the back library was like something out of my fantasies. Florian called it the ghost library because it was his domain, but it really looked it.

  The space was ten stories tall, with a massive open atrium in the middle. We entered at the middle, so it was possible to see both up and down, which lent the place a feeling of majesty and grandeur.

  Each level circled the atrium and was filled with books. The ceiling was domed, the glass allowing light to filter through. Since it always shined at all hours of the day, I had to assume it was magic. It glittered on the dust motes in the air, and glowing balls of light hovered near the cei
ling.

  “Come, come.” Florian headed for the railing that bordered the open space in the middle. As he walked, the railing disappeared, and a staircase formed in its place.

  The library only admitted you if it wanted to or if you’d earned it. I’d had to earn my way in last week by finding the long-lost trapdoor. Now we were going to figure out what was inside the door, and the library seemed to be totally down with this plan.

  “I can’t believe this place really exists,” Rowan whispered as we walked down the sweeping staircase to the next level.

  “Me neither.” Bree and I had only been here about a month longer than she had, and we’d barely adjusted. It was still the most incredible place I’d ever been, and I was certain it would retain that title until the day I died.

  “I’ve tried everything I can think of to pry the door open,” Florian said. “But none of it has worked.”

  “What’d you try?” Bree asked.

  “Well, pulling the handle, mostly.” He shook his head. “Didn’t work.”

  I stifled a small laugh. “Hopefully Bree can help us.”

  As a Dragon God, she’d been gifted with the powers of different Norse gods. One of those—super strength—had come from Magni, one of the sons of Thor.

  “I do hope you’re right.” Florian led us around a tall bookshelf. “I desperately want to know what is in the door. It’s as if the castle is trying to tell us something.”

  If it was, I definitely wanted to figure it out. This was Florian’s domain, and I was just glad he’d invited us along.

  He led us toward the back corner of one of the lower levels, where we’d found the trapdoor. It was set into the wooden floor in a forgotten spot in the library. The ancient rug and table that had once covered it were pushed up against the bookshelf behind it. I wasn’t convinced we’d find anything interesting down there, but I sure as heck wanted to look.

  Florian rubbed his hands together and peered down at it. “All right, get going!”

  Bree saluted, then bent down and grabbed the round iron ring that was set into the wood. She pulled at it, yanking hard.