Seizing Year Four: A Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Grim Reaper Academy Book 4)

by Cara Wylde

  “Class, let’s stick together,” Professor Maat said. “Pay attention to your surroundings and be prepared to teleport away.”

  The giants were friendly. They knew the Violent Death Cabal was visiting today, so most of them crouched down to watch us, some even lied down on their huge bellies to get a better look. But they were heavy and clumsy, so they could hurt us by mistake. It was out job to be careful.

  I felt GC next to me, his body giving off the familiar heat that used to bring me to my knees. Used to, because I was resisting him with all my might now. One of the giants leaned over to get a better look at my strange blue hair, and GC grabbed my hand and pulled me away.

  “It’s fine. He wasn’t going to do anything.”

  “Better safe than sorry.” He pulled me against his chest, and to my own frustration, I couldn’t fight him. Not yet. He placed his chin on top of my head. “I don’t like this place. Makes me uncomfortable.”

  I laughed. “I had no idea the great GC Apis even knew what uncomfortable is.”

  “I didn’t… before you. I mean, before you broke up with me. Now I feel uncomfortable all the time. At least we’re in the same cabal and I can make sure you’re safe in class, but then classes end, and you just vanish.”

  He melted my heart. He was very good at it, too.

  “You don’t have to worry about me,” I whispered. “I can take care of myself. And anyway, I’m in no danger at all. Everyone has stopped bullying me a long time ago.”

  He shook his head. “No one from the Academy will ever touch you. They know better. But year four is coming to an end. He knows you’ll go after him after graduation. What if he decides to make sure that never happens, and comes after you first?”

  “Valentine can’t hurt me. You know that.” I placed my head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat. Oh, how I missed this! How I missed GC, how I missed all my four guys!

  “Are you kidding me right now?” He held me at arm’s length and looked me in the eyes. “He killed you once. He gave the order, and the Unseelie killed you.”

  I frowned. Our frugal, intimate moment had been more pleasant when he wasn’t freaking out and being paranoid.

  “I’m a revenant,” I whispered between gritted teeth, looking around to make sure no one heard me. “He can try all he wants. But he won’t, because he knows it’s impossible to even hurt me now. It’s a stalemate.”

  GC’s voice turned into a plead. “Mila, please come back to us. We can protect you. I miss you so much. We all miss you so much.”

  I swallowed hard. I got too close, walked right into his emotional trap. I didn’t need this right now. I shook my head firmly.

  “I’m sorry, GC. I’m not ready.”

  “You said you needed a break. Did you change your mind? Are we done for good?”

  Fear flashed in his blue eyes when he said the last words.

  “I don’t know. I need more time…”

  “For what?”

  “It’s personal.”

  I walked away and left him standing there, in the middle of the field, alone. I caught up with the VDC and saw Pazuzu staring at me. He’d watched the whole exchange between me and GC, and probably heard most of it, too.

  “Mila!”

  He tried to stop me. I walked faster, determined to catch up with Mrs. Maat. If I stayed close to her, no one would bother me. It was stupid, but keeping away from them was so challenging that I’d resorted to sticking close to the professors and sitting in the front of the class to make sure they didn’t initiate anything. Naturally, Merrit and Raziel thought I was the teachers’ pet now. He grabbed me by the arm and spun me around. I had the physical strength to break free if I wanted to, but we’d already caught Caspian’s and Raziel’s attention, and I had to pretend I was still a helpless little human.

  “Let go of me.”

  He furrowed his brows and pulled me away from the group. His green eyes were rimmed with red.

  “We need to talk.”

  “No, we don’t. I told you I need a break.”

  “The break is over.”

  “You don’t get to decide when…”

  His lips were on mine, hot and demanding. I hit him in the chest, feebly, and I knew my body didn’t want to push him away even when my mind screamed in protest. I wasn’t going to get back with them on their terms. And especially not now, when Yoli and I had managed to map out so much of the parallel dimension network. We were close, I could feel it. Soon, all this would be over, and I could allow myself to love again. Maybe I could even convince myself that I deserved it.

  I responded to his kiss eagerly, threading my fingers through his raven black hair, pulling him closer and closer, until I could feel his hard cock through his uniform pants. I was wet and needy, and if we weren’t in a public place, I would’ve thrown all my doubts out the window and gave myself to him then and there. With a groan, I pulled away and took a few steps back. We actually did have an audience. Two giant girls were watching us like they were watching a telenovela.

  “Don’t do that ever again,” I breathed out. “Don’t try to manipulate me like that.”

  He smirked. “I wasn’t manipulating you. Just taking what I want…”

  “You don’t get to take what you want. Not from me.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Does that mean I can go find someone else?”

  I pursed my lips and held my head high. He was just trying to piss me off, force my hand. I wasn’t going to fall for it. Not even when my heart ached with jealousy. An image of Paz and Pandora back together flashed before my eyes, and I almost doubled over in pain.

  “Do whatever you want,” I managed.

  His eyes, redder and angrier than ever, turned to slits.

  “Say that again,” he challenged me. “Tell me I am free to fuck whoever I want.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek. God, he was cruel!

  “Fuck you, Paz. I’m out of here.”

  I walked past him, hitting him hard with my shoulder. He grunted in pain, which gave me some satisfaction.

  There wasn’t much to see in the Colossi Valley. The giants didn’t live in houses, but in some sort of tents that rose like mountains around us. They were vegetarian, and the few animals that had accidentally managed to cross into their pocket universe were kept as pets. They were a simple, rural people. Not even rural. More like prehistoric. They communicated with each other through signs, facial expressions, and grunts. Peaceful and harmless – as long as they stayed in their world. There were stories about giant bones having been found in South America thousands of years ago. Now I knew there was truth in them. I could only imagine how badly it had ended both for the giants and for the humans who’d happened to be in their path.

  “Cutting a giant’s string of life can be tricky,” Professor Maat said. “I believe next week you will talk about it in Anatomy of Souls. Please do your best and not skip that class.” She shot me a look that said a thousand words. She wasn’t happy that I’d started this trend. Now, besides me and Lorna, some VDC students had started skipping classes, too.

  It was fine. I had no intention to skip another class or fail another test. I was working hard to recover after my worth score had found itself in the gutter in semester one. I was doing a good job of it, too. If my calculations were right, by the end of the year, I’d be in top ten at least.

  “This has to be the most boring field trip, am I right?”

  I looked at Francis as if he’d grown another head.

  “Are you trying to make small talk?”

  He gave me a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry about Paz. He’s been out of his mind lately. There. Not making small talk.”

  “Good, ‘cause it doesn’t suit you.”

  “Are you alright?”

  “Of course I am.”

  “He was a little rough back there.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Okay. I mean…” He scratch
ed the back of his neck. “I do worry about you. A lot.”

  I sighed. “Well, don’t.”

  “I don’t know what to do, Mila. I’m sorry about the ritual, I’m sorry about my family. I don’t know how else I can apologize. I’ll do whatever. Just tell me… what do I have to do for you to forgive me?”

  The vise grip around my heart squeezed harder. It had been there for a while – the dreadful thing that had turned my poor ticker into its personal squeeze toy.

  “Francis, that’s not the reason I needed a break. I mean, it was one of the reasons, but it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m over it. I know you’re not responsible for your family and their stupid actions.”

  He looked into my eyes. These guys… Ugh! These guys were making it very difficult for me to stay focused on my problems. Problems that had nothing to do with them.

  “Then come back to us, my love.”

  My love. He’s bringing out the artillery. Francis had never been the sentimental one. I shook my head firmly, and when I saw sadness pooling in his eyes, I reached out and cupped his cheek with a trembling hand. He leaned into my touch, and I almost broke down then and there.

  “Soon,” I whispered. “Do you trust me?” He nodded. “I need to figure out some stuff, and I need to do it alone. This is my battle, not yours. When it’s over, I’ll come back to you. And it will all be just like before. The five of us against the world.”

  “It’ll never be like before.”

  I bit the inside of my lip. He was right.

  “Maybe we’ll get lucky, and it will be better.”

  He didn’t believe it, and I didn’t believe it, either. It was all too bittersweet, and the two giant girls from before had moved closer to watch the second episode of their favorite telenovela, this time with another male protagonist.

  “I’ll be waiting,” he said.

  I chuckled. “Thanks for saying that. I don’t know about the other guys…” And I was actually talking about Paz.

  “We’ll all be waiting until the end of time, Mila. Stop pretending like you don’t know that.”

  That almost made me cry. I walked away, and he didn’t stop me.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The last thing I needed when I returned from the field trip to the Colossi Valley was to find Sariel fucking Gracewing in my room. Corri flew toward me, the incessant buzz of her wings betraying her panic.

  “I’m sorry, Mistress. I tried to kick him out. But I’m tiny, he’s big.”

  I doubted that was the problem. Pixies could do pretty much anything. Their magic was stronger than a mage’s. Sariel had probably pulled at her heart strings. My guys were proving to be good at that.

  “Leave us alone, Corri.”

  She twirled in the air, then poof! Disappeared in a cloud of pixie dust.

  “What do you want?” I shrugged off my uniform blazer and dropped it on the couch, then went to the fridge to get a bottle of water.

  “Don’t be so cold. I miss you.”

  I squeezed the bottle too hard, and some of the water spilled all over my chin and chest. I miss you too, I wanted to say. I didn’t. I turned to face him.

  “Sariel, you can’t be here. You can’t just teleport in my room whenever you like.”

  “I gave you space. We all did. Plus, it didn’t bother you in the past.”

  “It was different then.”

  “I don’t understand what changed. Francis is sorry. We’re all sorry for forcing you to do the ritual in front of that stupid cult. Will you ever forgive us?”

  “It’s not about that.”

  “What’s it about, then?”

  He knew. In that moment, looking into Sariel’s blue eyes, I felt like they were onto me. The four of them. They’d figured out a long time ago that I wasn’t upset about the ritual after the Yule Ball, but that I was hiding something from them, and it was easier to hide it if we weren’t together. Maybe they even knew what it was, and they weren’t saying it to my face because they wanted to give me a chance to come clean.

  Stop it. They can’t know. Since when are you paranoid?

  “Mila? What is it about?”

  I sighed. “It’s personal, and I’m taking care of it. Family related.” Well, I wasn’t technically lying.

  “Okay.”

  We stayed like that for a while, looking at each other across the wide space of the living room. Finally, he gathered his courage and walked up to me. In his eyes, I could see how much he hoped I wouldn’t turn him down.

  “Come here,” he said, and dragged me into his arms. I allowed it. “No matter what it is, we’re here for you.”

  I closed my eyes as I nestled into the crook of his neck. I inhaled his scent – flowery, manly, and edgy at the same time. I wrapped my arms around his torso, and my fingers rested atop the bone stumps along his shoulder blades, where his archangel wings had once been. Even after all this time, it was still hard to grasp that my Sariel wasn’t an archangel anymore, that he couldn’t fly, that he’d been cast out of Heaven, all courtesy of my father. Valentine Morningstar. He’d caused too much pain, too much hate. He had to go down, and soon.

  I pulled myself free. Sariel cupped my face with his hands and leaned in for a frugal kiss. I allowed that, too.

  “You have to promise me you won’t come to my room uninvited.”

  He nodded.

  “Say it.”

  “I promise.”

  “Also, I know you four have been stalking me. Stop that. I don’t need bodyguards.”

  “Mila…”

  “Let me do this my way.”

  He furrowed his brows and stepped away from me.

  “We don’t even know what you’re doing, let alone what your way is! Why don’t you just grow up and stop being so tortured and mysterious?! We. Can. Help.”

  “Is that what you think? That I’m being tortured and mysterious?”

  “Come on, Mila.”

  “No, say it. Say what you really think about me.”

  Oh, I knew it wouldn’t be pretty, but I wanted to know. I needed to know what my ex-boyfriends were really thinking about me.

  “Mila, we love you so much. We’d die for you, okay? You have to believe that.”

  “But? There’s a ‘but’, I’m sure.”

  “But since you become a revenant, you’ve been out of control. And we get it. I get it! You need time to figure out how to adapt to this new you. God knows I needed time to accept I’m not an archangel anymore. That I don’t have wings, I can’t fly, and I’m not welcome in Heaven – my own home. But I let you help me. I let you get close to me. And you made it all better. I didn’t only get a girlfriend who’s forgiven my horrible sins, but also three friends who support me and don’t care that I’m a Fallen One. Things turned around for me because of you, Mila. And them. Why don’t you just let us help you like you helped us? Whatever you’re doing, you don’t have to do it alone.”

  “I’m not doing it alone,” I whispered.

  “Lorna and Corri are helping you. Okay. That’s good. You have a powerful mage by your side, and that helps me sleep at night. But why are you cutting us out? We’ve been through so much together. No matter what it is…”

  “Because this one is on me and no one else,” I said. “I love you too much to burden you with…”

  “With what?”

  I sighed and shook my head dismissively. “Just go, Sariel. I’m tired.”

  “Mila…”

  “Please. I’ll tell you when I’m ready.”

  He ran his hand through his short blond hair. “I’ll take that as a promise.” When I didn’t say anything, he rolled his eyes annoyed and teleported away.

  I waited a few minutes to gather my thoughts, then I pulled Corri’s bell from my school bag and rang it three times. The pixie zapped back from wherever she’d been hiding. Probably the kitchen.

  “Yoli needs some motivation.”

  “What do you
mean?”

  “So far, you, Lorna, and I have been her only contact with the supernatural world. The only proof that it’s all real.”

  Corri scratched her chin. “I’m pretty sure her own dreams and experiences are also proof…”

  “I want to bring her here this weekend.”

  “Here where?”

  “At Grim Reaper Academy.”

  The pixie’s eyes grew twice as wide. “Sneak her in?”

  “In and around. Why not? With your help, no one will know.”

  * * *

  It was trickier than I thought. I’d made Sariel promise he’d never drop by uninvited again, and I’d had countless talks with my other three exes about how it wasn’t okay for them to follow me. Lorna and Corri were in charge of keeping them away. A mage and a pixie could always make a powerful team. If they were on the same page, that was. To my annoyance, the page they were on today was along the lines of “Mila’s plan is shit, but we’re gonna help because we’re loyal like that”. Not very flattering, but at least I could count on them.

  I teleported with Yolanda straight to my room. The maids had just cleaned it, so it looked rather nice and cozy. Spring had come at the Academy, and all the windows were wide open to let the sun and the bird trills in. When she saw the large living room, the open-space kitchen, the attached bedroom and bathroom, Yoli’s eyes filled with wonder.

  “You live like a princess!”

  “Not a princess anymore, since my father disowned me, but they let me keep the room. To be honest, I’m not sure why.”

  “Can I see your old room?”

  “It’s not as impressive, trust me.”

  I took her to the Holy Chapel next, which was empty, as usual, and we checked the scoreboard, then stepped outside into the warm afternoon air. From up here, we could see the ocean crashing against the rocks, throwing white foam up the side of the cliff.

  “It’s beautiful.”

  “I have a theory,” I said. “The Holy Chapel leads here, and the Unholy Chapel leads deep in the forest. I think the chapels were built to serve any supernaturals who want to come and pray. Not that many pray these days. In my four years at the Academy, I haven’t seen anyone that’s not a student or a professor here. But I’m thinking… maybe the twenty-two Grim Reapers still come here from time to time. To meditate. I know that if I become a Grim Reaper, I’ll miss this place. Even if I’m not exactly allowed on Academy grounds, I’d come to the Holy Chapel to spend a few minutes. Maybe check out the scoreboard and see who I’d like to mentor later.”