Lock and Key (Nocturne Academy 1)

The emotions were too great—too much to hold. I felt them start to overflow—like a cup filled with too much liquid. The love we shared spilled outward and spread like water running downhill.

Suddenly the canvas hammock we were zipped into—the snare as Winifred Rattcliff had called it—began to shake At first I thought it was because the witches outside were rocking it on purpose but after a moment I realized the hammock was shaking because the ground was shaking.

I heard screams of surprise outside and a crashing sound like trees falling in the forest and then someone was shouting something over and over about roses…look at all the roses…

All of this should have scared me to death and I admit it was pretty frightening, but in a distant way. The main thing to me was still Griffin, still the connection we shared and the love flowing between us and over us and through us in a continuous cycle of longing and adoration.

“I love you,” I whispered, looking into his silver eyes. “I love you forever…this is forever.”

“I love you forever too, my little witch,” he murmured and again I felt our love crest and rush outward, like a tidal wave flooding out in all directions. Together we had created an unbroken loop of emotion and it was spilling over, flooding both of us and flowing into the world around us…

Flowing because we had just done the most forbidden thing two Others of different races could do—

Griffin Darkheart, a Nocturne, was now Blood-Bonded to me, Megan Latimer, a Witch.

The Edict was broken and not just for us, I sensed—for everyone.

76

The ground started shaking even harder and I finally had the thought that it might not be a good thing to be stuck in a canvas sack if the trees holding up the hammock we were in suddenly fell over.

Griffin seemed to think the same thing at the same time.

“We need to get out of here, Megan,” he said, frowning. “I love you forever but forever is going to be very short if we can’t get away from this…this emotional earthquake we seem to have created.”

“You’re right.” I nodded, feeling clear-headed despite my blood loss. The swallow of blood I’d had from Griffin seemed to have restored me completely. Had he healed me in some way? The way Corinne Latimer’s Nocturne lover had healed her when she was on the brink of death?

It was an interesting idea to consider but right now we had to concentrate on getting out. Avery and Emma and Kaitlyn were out there too, I remembered. I had to rescue my coven-mates from whatever natural disaster it was that we had somehow started by breaking the Edict.

“I think I could do magic again,” I said to Griffin. “If only my hands were free so I could cut myself somehow. Can you move or are you still frozen?”

He struggled for a moment and then was able to lift his arms, though he looked like a man fighting against heavy weights tied to his limbs.

“I think…her spell…is weakening,” he grunted, as he finally got his hands up to mine and started working on the ropes that held me. “She’s probably distracted with everything going on outside.”

What was going on outside? The earth was still rumbling as though we were having an earthquake—which is not something that usually happens in Florida unless there’s a sinkhole, (which is something that happens)—and I could hear a lot of screaming and running around too.

We really needed to get out of the damned hammock-sack!

“There!” Griffin said with satisfaction and the rope around my wrists abruptly fell away.

I pulled my arms down, wincing as the blood rushed back into my numb and tingling hands and fingertips.

“Good,” I said to him. “Now I just need something sharp to cut myself with. Uh…” I looked at him uncertainly. “Is that going to be a problem? Are you still, um, thirsty?”

He shook his head.

“The moment we Blood-Bonded, the thirst was quenched. In fact, if you will allow me to offer some assistance, you can cut yourself on one of my fangs if you need to.”

He opened his mouth and I didn’t hesitate a moment. Holding the pad of my right thumb to the point of his left fang, I pressed gently and felt the sharp little pain as he pierced my skin.

A rush of pleasure came right on the heels of the pain and I was tempted to get lost in it—and in Griffin—all over again. But the rumbling and quaking and screaming outside let me know that would be a bad idea.

I really didn’t know any spells except for the few easy ones I had failed at in Elementary Casting and none of them seemed like they would fit my purposes. So I simply thought, Let Us Out, and sent the power I could feel coursing through me outwards in a kind of mental wave.