Wicked Potion (The Royals: Witch Court Book 4) Read online

  Wicked Potion

  The Royals: Witch Court Book Four

  Megan Montero

  Copyright © 2019 by Megan Montero

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  For Alexander, because you’re my most favorite person in this whole world. You make everyday better just by being you. I’m so proud of you. All my love xoxo

  Contents

  Wicked Potion

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  About the Author

  Also by Megan Montero

  Wicked Potion

  Megan Montero

  Chapter 1

  Tuck

  Beckett’s face crumbled as he gazed down at his watch. His brows drew low over his ocean-blue eyes, and he pressed his lips into a thin line. When he dropped his arms to his sides, he looked away from me. I narrowed my eyes at him over my shoulder. She had to wake up. There was no other choice. “Beckett, time?”

  He shook his head and ran his hand through his surfer blond hair. Tremors rocked me as I shot to my feet and turned to face him. She had to be okay. She was my everything. “How much longer?”

  His breath hitched in his throat. “Time’s up.” He gazed past me toward Zinnia.

  I launched myself forward and wrapped my hands in his shirt, then shoved him up against the wall. My breath caught in my throat, and a sharp pain shot through my chest. I need her to be okay. She has to be okay. “Check it again!”

  “Tuck, time was up five minutes ago.”

  When his gaze met mine, I knew he was telling the truth, but I didn’t want to hear it. I refused to believe him. She is not gone. “I said look again!” He shook his head. “Do it, damn it!”

  I hadn’t even gotten the chance to tell her how I really felt, and now she may never know.

  All the time I’d wasted hiding what we were to each other, for what? It was never meant to be this way. We were only teenagers. We had the rest of our lives to be together…I thought.

  I turned back toward her lifeless body. Her once shining porcelain skin now held a blueish tinge. I stared at her chest, willing it to move, praying that she would suck in just one breath and wake from the potion she’d taken to save me. I reached out and brushed my fingers through her wild midnight hair. I bent down low and whispered in her ear. “Come on, babe. You can’t leave me now, not so soon.”

  Still, she didn’t move. Dizziness overcame me, and I felt my heart being ripped from my chest. A single tear rolled down the side of my face as I buried it in her neck. “Please wake up, for me. For us.”

  My arms shook as I wrapped them around Zinnia’s limp body. I pulled her into my chest, clutching her closer to me. I rocked her back and forth, hoping just to see a small spark of life.

  This is my fault.

  If I hadn’t fallen under Alataris’ Hex, none of this would’ve happened. Zinnia would still be alive, Ophelia wouldn’t be behind these walls and we would be further in the fight against Alataris.

  It should be me…not her. Oh god, I wish it was me.

  I couldn’t picture a world without her. I inhaled her warm vanilla scent, making sure to burn it into my memory. The muscles in my body all tightened at the same time, and I shook with the effort it took not to squeeze her too hard.

  I had nothing else to lose in this world. All that mattered was Zinnia, and she was gone. I rose to my feet and lifted her up off the cot, with one arm under her knees and the other supporting her torso. Her body was limp, her arms hung out to her side and her head lolled back. Those midnight locks I loved to run my fingers through swayed and brushed my knees. I was desperate to see her sapphire eyes. I wanted to watch them spark with life or narrow at me in frustration.

  I let everything inside of me go. The aching burn, the unending hurt, pain, regret, I released it all. Flames shot from my skin, and I prayed for once that they would consume me. My family? She was my family. This world? Nothing without her. My friends? How could I look at them now knowing I’d taken her away from them? She was my soulmate, my everything. Where she went, I would follow. One way or another, I would find her again. The pain was too much. My flaming wings erupted from my back, and I spread them out wide. I tilted my head back, and for the first time in my life, I let my inner blaze go. The rage I felt toward my parents casting me out, the pain of hurting my soulmate, the frustration of being trapped in a world where she didn’t exist…I let it all go and just…burned.

  White hot flames flared down my back, across my chest, and onto my arms. My body turned into one continuous scorching bonfire, and I let it. I wanted to turn to ash with her, to be with her in the end. Pain like I’d never felt ripped through my chest, the pain of losing her too soon. We’d barely just begun.

  I turned around to face Beckett. He held his hand up, blocking his eyes from the volcanic flames shooting out from my body. The rocky floor beneath me turned molten, and I felt my feet sink down. I didn’t stop. I needed to let everything I felt scorch out of me until I could feel nothing at all. If my flames hadn’t vaporized each of my tears away, they would stain my face.

  As I held her in my arms, I knew her body couldn’t take much more of this, but I’d be damned if I saw her lying in a coffin buried where she couldn’t feel the warmth of the sun or the cool of snow. No, my Zinnia would be freed and spread among the world she loved so much. The world that would be dimmer without her in it. I dropped to my knees, feeling as though I was nearly out of power. The fire I let loose was burning off any of the energy I had left in me. I was being sucked dry.

  It can’t be.

  That’s when I felt it deep in my chest—something I didn’t think I’d ever feel again…a siphoning.

  Chapter 2

  Nova

  Time’s up? He can’t be serious! There’s no way it all ends like this. No way I’d lose my best friend like this.

  I stood motionless, watching as Tucker’s body ignited into a blazing inferno. I sucked in deep panting breaths. I saw this the second my hand brushed hers—her downfall, his pain.

  Why didn’t I try harder to warn her?

  I stumbled back a step, and Grayson caught me by the arm. The others should be here, not recuperating in the infirmary from getting attacked by Tuck the night before. They needed to be here to witness what Ophelia had done to us all.

  Grayson glanced around the room. “That’s not it. Bloody hell, this can’t be it.” He swiped his hand over his face. His chocolate eyes were locked on Zinnia as he backed up against the wall. “I don’t know about you lot, but no.” He shook his head. “There’s no way she’s not waking up.”

  Even I could hear the doubt in his voice. The breath stuck between my lips, and my chest was caving in on me.
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  I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.

  I shoved out of Grayson’s grip and wiped at my face. Hot tears flowed down my cheeks. Each one seared my face, scorching this moment into my memory. The only close friend I had in this world lay lifeless in Tucker’s arms. He cradled her and rocked her back and forth, all the while burning brighter. The life that used to shine within her was gone. Her head lolled back, and strands of her wild midnight hair drifted over his arm. Tiny flames danced through the strands yet never burned her.

  Tucker’s dark auburn locks fell forward, covering his features. After he’d barely survived the hex plaguing him, he looked like he’d just fought a battle. His shirt was ripped and torn, exposing patches of his tan skin. The phoenix tattoo on his neck glowed a soft ember. Did it change with his mood? I didn’t know, but now even I could feel the sadness rolling off of him.

  His face was buried in her neck, but I could still hear his quiet sobs. His words were soft, pleading and insistent. “Don’t die, please God. Don’t die.”

  My knees buckled and slammed into the ground. I didn’t want her to die! The sound of my own crying flooded my ears. Desperate gasps scratched up my throat, and I tried to catch my breath. I hunched over and spread my fingers out on the cold stone floor. We were still in the jail cell where only moments ago Tuck was going insane because of a wicked hex. Now he would live because of her, because of the sacrifice she’d just made. The ultimate sacrifice. Zinnia Heart, our Queen Siphon Witch, had killed herself to save him. The guy she obsessed over.

  No, she didn’t kill herself…Ophelia killed her.

  Zinnia put her trust in O, and now she was gone from this world.

  My magic gathered in my fingertips. I snapped my head up and met Ophelia’s wide-eyed gaze. “You killed her.” The words were a growl through my gritted teeth.

  I knew what I looked like—face covered in red blotches, thick black makeup streaming down my tear stained cheeks, and sparks of my purple magic running up my arms.

  Ophelia took a step back. Her obsidian eyes swam with tears. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The potion—”

  “Didn’t work! Murderer.” The ground rumbled beneath my feet, and I felt the dead move to my command. I was Queen of the Dead, and it was about time I embraced it! They listened to me. I’d once feared my power; now I let it lose. Strands of my white blond hair blew back from my face. “I don’t think it was an accident! You were planted here by your father, and now you did exactly what you meant to do.”

  Large tears rolled down her face as she waved her hands in front of her, trying to ward me off. “Nova, we’re friends. You have to believe me. I love Zinnia. I would never do anything to hurt her.”

  I shook my head. “Lies! It’s all lies!”

  The ground exploded up, sending dirt flying in all directions. Reanimates surged up from the cracks in the cell floor. Their zombie-like features were contorted in soundless screams as they reached out toward Ophelia with skeletal hands. A sneer tugged at my lips as I forced them to rise from the underworld to come and claim her. Ophelia turned from me and tried to run down the hall but, my Reanimates blocked her from escaping. They swarmed in behind her covering the doorway leading out.

  I pressed my lips into a hard line and fought the sob about to escape my throat. “What did you think would happen? You’d come in and kill one of us and walk away?”

  Ophelia spun in a circle. Her curtain of black hair fell from the messy bun on her head and fanned out around her shoulders. I could almost smell the terror pouring off of her. She took another step back, trying to push through to the other side of the doorway. “I’m telling you I didn’t kill her.”

  It was too late. I had her surrounded. More Reanimates clawed their way from the crack in the ground. There were at least a dozen of them now. Usually, I would be gagging just from the sight of their decomposing flesh, the smell of their rotting skin and their thirst for violence. But Ophelia had taken my closest friend, and she had to pay. I held my hand up, commanding them to grab her. Purple sparks lit up the jail cell like fireworks on the fourth of July.

  I heard Beckett screaming something, but I was too focused on taking out Ophelia, the girl who stole my bestie from me, the one friend who got me. With one potion, Ophelia killed any chance we had of defeating Alataris for good. The Reanimates grabbed at her arms and legs. Ophelia threw her arms up and twisted out of their grip, breaking free.

  “Not so fast.” I shot to my feet and lifted my arms over my head.

  Skeleton arms sprouted from the ground like weeds. Their boney fingers wrapped around her ankles and legs, holding her in place. Ophelia’s arms pinwheeled as she tried to gain her balance. Her eyes went wide with shock. The Reanimates wrapped their hands around her arms and legs, lifting her up off the ground. She kicked her legs out, looking like she was crowd surfing.

  Beckett wrapped his hand around my arm and yanked me to face him. “This is not who you are!”

  “She took Zinnia from us. She deserves this!” I felt it in my bones. My friend was gone.

  Grayson was by his side in an instant. “No, love, she doesn’t. Stop this, now.”

  I couldn’t stop, not now, not ever. Beckett took a step back from me. Blue smoke seeped from his hands.

  “No.” I shoved my fists into his chest, knocking him back. “She will suffer! We’ve lost everything—everything. My friend, our chance to kill Alataris…it’s all gone now.” My gaze locked on to Ophelia being hefted up and down as she fought to free herself. “She has to pay.”

  Beckett shook his head. “Not like this.” Blue smoke shot from his hands.

  I let my magic go wild. Purple sparks leapt across the floor, and my Reanimates hauled her toward a cell. I wanted them to throw her across the jail to hurt her the way that she’d hurt all of us.

  “Enough!” Beckett threw a wave of magic over us all.

  My body jerked back, and I went flying across the room. When my feet touched the ground, I skidded back a couple feet until I bumped the wall. Beckett shoved forward. His magic spilled over the floor, taking out my Reanimates one by one.

  I shook my head and sucked in a deep breath as I staggered toward them. “I have to.”

  I needed revenge. I needed to not feel this gaping pit in my stomach. I needed…I fell forward and pressed my head into his chest. I need Zinnia back.

  Beckett wrapped his hands around my shoulders and hugged me to him. Tears poured down my face, and racking sobs cut up my throat. “She was my best friend.”

  “Shh.” He tried to soothe me, but nothing he could say or do worked.

  All at once, the fight left my body and was replaced with utter sadness. This time, I let go of my rage and allowed the heaving sobs to rack my chest. I didn’t bother fighting the tears or the ball in my throat. I let the grief have me.

  “That’s it, Nova love. Let it go.” Grayson brushed his hand down my arm. His touch was cool against my too hot skin. Even so, I found no comfort in any of it. Zinnia was gone.

  I lifted my hand and commanded the Reanimates to drop Ophelia into the cell next to where Tuck had been kept. I peeked out from under Beckett’s arms in time to see them lift her over their heads and drop her into the center of the cell. She landed in a heap on the hard stone, and a blank look came over her face. As the last zombie creature walked out, the cell door slid shut behind him.

  Ophelia scrambled back into the corner and curled in on herself. She pulled her knees in toward her chest, and her whole body quivered. “I-I thought this would work. I thought I could save them all.” She pressed her forehead to her knees and began to cry. “She was all I had left.”

  Chapter 3

  Beckett

  The last of the Reanimates crawled back into the ground where they came from, leaving behind the upheaved rocks and dirt. I pulled my warlock magic back into my palms and gazed at the scene around me. Ophelia huddled in a ball in the corner of a cell, and Nova clung to me. Tucker held Zinnia in his burning arm
s. It was a slow fire, the kind that flickered like candlelight. It illuminated the cell with a warm, soft tone, a tone that was too peaceful for what had just happened here. My insides were balled into disgusted knots. I wanted to throw up and scream all at the same time. I’d thrown off my past and found a place here and a purpose. Now it was all gone. Alataris had won and hadn’t even lifted a finger to do it.

  My shirt was balled around Nova’s fists as her tears soaked through the material and fell onto my skin. I had yet to sleep and was still dressed in my tux from the night before. It was funny to think one night I was on such a high, ready to dance and have fun with my friends, and the next I was grieving for the loss of one of our own.

  “Come on, just take a deep breath.” I gently walked Nova back over to the bench, and we both sat, keeping watch over our grieving leader, Tucker.

  His flames gently danced over both of them. His face was crumbled in agony, and his lips were pressed into a hard line as silent tears fell from his eyes. When he reached out toward her face, his hands shook uncontrollably. He brushed his fingers over her cheek and through her hair, smoothing the strands back. “You’re not dead, Zin. I know you’re not.” He clutched her tighter. “I know you can hear me. Just open your eyes for me.”

  I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to watch him break into a million pieces. “Tuck, man, come on.”