by Sofia Daniel
“Thanks.” I stepped toward Elijah and let him drape the cloak over my shoulders. After he pulled the hood over my head, we walked down the wooden staircase and toward the door.
It creaked open, and we stepped out into a star-filled night with a bright crescent moon that illuminated the mountaintops. The air was still with a lack of breeze, and a silence broken only by the soft nickering of a horse within the stables.
I sucked in a deep breath of jasmine-scented air and sighed. The Royal Fae Academy and its surroundings were gorgeous, but I was looking forward to living anywhere as long as it was with my sister.
Elijah grabbed my hand and led me around the stable block, where a fierce black mount awaited. It turned to us, baring a mouthful of gleaming fangs.
My left foot stumbled over my right. “Isn’t that—”
“A kelpie?” Elijah walked over to the beast, placed a horn to his lips, and blew, making the creature close its mouth. “Knuckles here has been trained for stealth. Air makes them weak to your commands, you see. Ride on his back, and no one will notice us leave the wards.”
“How do you know about kelpies?” I whispered.
He squeezed me around the waist. “It’s the only way to get in and out of the United Nations stores without being detected.”
“Oh.” The girls had been right about Elijah being a rogue, but I shoved aside any reservations about having received his stolen goods and walked alongside him to the kelpie.
“Did you tame it yourself?” I asked.
“Yep.” He mounted the monster, pulled me up to the saddle, and settled me against his chest. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m not as sensitive to iron as other faeries. It gives me an advantage in all kinds of situations.”
“Your secret is safe with me.” I gave his muscular thigh a gentle pat.
With another gust of air from his blowing-horn, Elijah got the kelpie to leap into the sky. Breathing through the lurching of my stomach, I gripped the beast’s silver mane.
“Mmmm…” He sniffed my neck. “You smell so good.”
“Different?” I leaned into his muscular chest and let the breeze caress my hair. He had never complimented me before on my scent.
“Sweeter than honeysuckle.” He nibbled my ear.
We flew over the castle and its mishmash of ivory towers, over mountaintops, and over lakes that reflected the crescent moon. Throughout the journey, joy surged without my chest. I was finally free. Free of the princes, free of the Fated, and free of the soul-crushing fear that the dead faerie had wiped Sicily out of existence.
“Let’s go to the Mound,” I said.
“Whatever for?” he murmured into my ear.
“I want to check on my sister.”
“Sicily?” he asked.
“They could be mistreating her down there.”
Elijah chuckled. “That particular auction house trades virgins. When they get a new girl, she’s plucked and pampered and made plump enough to attract a sale.”
“What kind of creature would buy a human?” I asked.
“Brothel-keepers, hags for spell-making, lots of people, but none of that matters.” He gave me a tight squeeze around the middle. “In two days, we’ll find her at the viewing, and she’ll be free.”
“Right,” I gazed down at a flash of magic glowing through the forest treetops. “Where are we now?”
“Temperance Forest,” he replied. “One moment, and we’ll reach the family vineyard.”
After several minutes, the kelpie straightened his wings and swooped low, over what looked like a graveyard of gnarled, dead trees.
“This is a vineyard?” I asked.
“These vines only fruit every five years,” he replied. “This is what they look like when they’re dormant.”
“Oh.” That sort of made sense.
At the end of the skeletal forest, the kelpie landed in front of a gorgeous cottage with a roof that curved down to the ground. An assortment of white and silver berries hung down from irregularly shaped rafters, obscuring our view of the cottage’s white-washed walls.
“This is what you call a hut?” I asked.
Elijah chuckled and jumped down to the ground. He placed his hands on my hips, helping me dismount. “Get inside. I’ve made it nice and cozy.”
We stepped into the little cottage to the scent of sweet pine smoke and a fire crackling on the hearth. Its flames illuminated a cozy room with a kitchenette area stocked with jars of dried food, a wooden table with three chairs, and a low bed covered in velvet cushions.
I inhaled sharply. This reminded me so much of home.
Elijah rubbed his hand up and down the small of my back. “I sometimes stay here to avoid returning to the academy after an evening at the tavern. Mistress Ellyllon hates for the students to see the staff intoxicated.”
“Right,” I replied, trying not to wonder why he had never mentioned having visited taverns.
“Are you hungry?” He opened a bag, revealing a loaf of sweetbread and a bottle of wine. “You weren’t eating at dinner.”
The door clicked shut behind us, making me jolt. “One of the pixies put something in my soup.”
He closed the bag and placed it on the floor, a sheepish look on his features. “A rumor like that reached me, but by the time I returned to the dining room, they said you had already left without eating. I wasn’t going to mention the poisoning, but it’s why I stole you away in the middle of the night.”
My heart softened, and I reached down and squeezed his hands. “Thanks for looking out for me.”
Elijah wrapped his arms around my waist. “My reasons weren’t completely altruistic.”
“Really?” I gazed up into his sparkling eyes and smiled.
He pulled my cloak off my shoulders, making it fall into a puddle of fabric at my feet. “Unity, just the sight of you makes me stiff as iron.”
“Prove it,” I whispered.
He wrapped his fingers around my wrist and guided my hand to his crotch. A hot, hard erection strained under the wool fabric of his pants, making heat rush between my legs.
“Is that proof enough?” he growled.
“Maybe I want more.” I raised myself onto my tiptoes and gave him a peck on the lips.
Elijah moaned and unbuttoned my shirt.
We were falling into our old patterns. A nagging voice in the back of my mind echoed this thought. Elijah would get something for me, whether it was the provision of food, DVDs, or some other luxury item, and I would reward him with sex.
He reached behind my back and unfastened the buttons of my skirt. When the garment fell to the floor, he cupped my ass with both hands. “Fuck, Unity, you’re so perfect for me.”
Letting my eyes flutter shut, I parted my lips for a kiss. Elijah pulled my shirt off my shoulders, drew me into his body, and plundered my mouth. If I was escaping the trial and getting my sister back, what did it matter that Elijah’s motivations were based on wanting to fuck me? He and I were great together in bed, and I needed his touch.
I rubbed my bare belly against the hardness straining through his pants, eliciting a groan loud and deep enough to send a tingle through my hungry core. Wetness gathered in my folds as I succumbed to his kiss.
“I need you so much.” He pulled down my panties.
After kicking them to the side, I unfastened my bra. “How do you want me?”
“On the bed.” His eyes glazed over my exposed nipples. “Get on your hands and knees.”
I sashayed to the mattress and got into position.
“Good,” he growled. “Now spread your legs wide, so I can taste you.”
A shiver of pleasure ran down my spine. Some evenings, Elijah visited and didn’t want to talk. On those times, he would be inventive, sometimes fucking me hard and brutal and other times slow and sensual, like he wanted it to last forever. I loved fucking Elijah, but the sex was best when he was commanding.
Resting my palms on the mattress, I spread my knees wide. “Like this?”
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His breathing became ragged. “Good girl.”
I wiggled my ass. “Are you going to fuck me?”
“In good time.” He spread me apart with his thumbs and ran a finger down from my entrance to my throbbing clit. “What a pretty little pussy.”
The muscles of my core clenched with need. We didn’t often get the chance for a long, unhurried fuck, as Sicily was always in the other room, but on days like this, he liked to take his time teasing me to distraction, and when he finally gave me his thick, juicy cock, I would howl like a banshee.
“I need it now.”
He walked around to my head and unfastened the top button of his pants. “Suck me first?”
My tongue darted out to lick my lips. “Yes.”
He placed his hand on the side of my face. “It’s all yours.”
I ran my fingertips over the bulge in his pants, savoring its warmth and hardness. With deliberate slowness, I unbuttoned the rest of his fly and pulled aside the woolen fabric of his pants to reveal my prize. It stood proudly with a bulbous cock-head oozing precum from its tip.
I lapped up the clear fluid, making him rock forward onto his heels and groan. A giggle bubbled up in the back of my throat. He was sensitive today.
“Put it in your mouth,” he groaned.
“In a minute.” I kissed around the space where his shaft met the tip and ran my tongue along the most sensitive part of his underside that led to the slit.
Elijah threw his head back and moaned. “Unity.”
With a smile, I let him slip between my lips. Panting harder than usual, he took control, rocking back and forth, moaning with each thrust. I don’t know if it was because of the wings or the new location, but he seemed to be reaching a climax at an alarmingly rapid pace.
Just before his cock swelled, Elijah pulled back and roared.
I blinked. “Why did you—”
Jet after jet of semen spurted in my face, some getting in my eye. I reared back, tried to turn my head, but Elijah grabbed my hair and held me in place, squirting his cum up my nose, in my eyes, and into my protesting mouth.
“Fuck,” he moaned and released my hair.
“Bloody hell!” I wiped the cum out of my eyes with the back of my hand. “Why the hell did you do that?”
“Open your eyes,” he said.
My surroundings faded, and I blinked to find myself sitting on a pile of ashes in the middle of a huge ring of dining tables. The wall to my left consisted of a massive, floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the mountains and Snaefell Palace.
“What is this?” I stared up at Elijah, not quite understanding why the cottage had morphed into the academy dining room.
Behind Elijah stood Ladies Salix, Gazania, Aster, and Gala.
And they each gave me a mocking round of applause.
Chapter 14
I jerked away and scrambled back in the ashes, my heart thumping against my chest like a captured jackrabbit. A frantic pulse beat between my ears, muffling the sounds of feminine giggles. My gaze darted from Elijah, who leered down at me with a grotesque grin, and back to the Fated.
“What is this?” I whispered.
“How did you break the glamor?” Lady Gala snapped. “They told me you had no magic.”
I rubbed my eyes, which still stung. Someone in the remedial class must have run to the Fated and told them about my inability to see through glamours. It hurt, but not as much as my boyfriend’s second betrayal.
Lady Gala continued ranting at me, as though it was my fault that whatever she had planned for me had failed. I scrambled on my hands and knees, groping for something to cover my nudity, but someone had conveniently taken my clothes.
“Looking for this?” Lady Aster levitated a cloak.
“Give it to me!” I snapped.
She raised it higher. “If you want it, fly up and get it.”
I ground my teeth. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Salt!” Lady Gala’s mouth dropped open, then her face twisted into a rictus of rage. She turned to Lady Aster and snarled, “That filthy halfling’s ejaculate is probably teeming with the stuff.”
My head shook from side to side, a sequence of events rattling into place. Earlier in the evening, I made eye contact with Elijah and said out loud that I knew him, then he faked a rescue which had probably been a ride around the academy grounds on the back of a winged horse. He couldn’t perform magic, so I guessed one of the Fated had enchanted the surroundings, so that the escape looked real.
Pain lanced through my chest. Was what he said about Sicily’s location also a lie?
“You were supposed to fuck her, not cum all over her eyes,” Lady Aster snapped.
“Sorry, My Lady.” Elijah shrugged and pointed at my mouth. “She was just so skilled at sucking my cock, and with you four and the rest of the academy watching—”
“What?” I shrieked.
Applause exploded across the dining room, and flames erupted from the candles, illuminating hundreds of laughing students. Humiliation burned through my veins, searing the surface of my skin. Sweat gathered on my brow, my palms, my armpits, and despair washed over me like torrential rain.
This public display felt worse than the assassination attempts. A sob surged to the back of my throat, and tears stung my eyes, but I swallowed them down. They could trick me into taking off my clothes and trick me into sucking some asshole’s cock, but I refused to dissolve into a puddle of hysterical tears.
I sat on my ass, clutching my arms over my exposed breasts. “What was the point of this?” I snarled between clenched teeth. “The trial hasn’t even started.”
“But it has.” Lady Gala wagged her finger. “It’s two hours past midnight, which counts as the morrow.”
Bile rose to the back of my throat. I wanted to surge to my feet and spit in her eyes, but the entire academy was watching, waiting, anticipating the moment I degraded myself further.
The dining hall’s double doors slammed open, making me jolt. Prince Rory rushed in, his russet hair flying behind him. “What is the meaning of this?”
He wasn’t glowering at Lady Gala, but at me.
My mouth dropped open.
“Unity.” Lady Gala prodded me in the back. “My fated mate asked you a perfectly valid question.”
Every ounce of moisture left my throat. If this was any of the other princes, the ones who hadn’t threatened me with beheading if I didn’t go ahead with this awful tournament, I might have spilled my guts. But I couldn’t with Prince Rory.
“Speak,” he said in a voice as sharp as an executioner’s ax.
“I…” Telling him the truth would mean admitting that I had wanted to run away, and that would mean losing my head.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Lady Aster sashayed to the middle of the ash-strewn pit, where I continued to sit on my ass like a used up piece of firewood.
“Explain.” He folded his arms across his chest.
“Half-bloods need to stick with their own kind.” She raised a shoulder. “They’re wanton creatures, little better than centaurs. It’s not her fault she couldn’t hold back her desires for a janitor.”
Prince Rory turned to me, his brows raised in question.
I shook my head. “Your Highness, I—”
“Unity Quayle has sullied herself,” said a voice from the double doors. I raised my head to find Prince August standing between his brothers. “She is no longer eligible for this trial.”
My shoulders slumped.
“Wrong,” said Prince Rory.
“What?” Lady Gala screeched.
Prince Rory’s wings flared out, their ends glowing. Lady Gala scowled as her wings also retracted and glowed. I didn’t need to glance to one side to see the reaction of my own wings. They illuminated the entire fire pit.
Prince Rory nodded in my direction. “Despite her wantonness, Unity is still one of the Fated and is therefore eligible for the trial.”
“I will not accept a mate who has had
dalliances with other males.” Prince August shook his blond head.
“Neither will I,” said Prince Bradwell.
“Nor I,” Prince Caulden snarled.
A gong sounded from outside, and everyone’s attention turned to the floor-to-ceiling window. Someone flew toward us, their hair backlit by the crescent moon. I swallowed hard, hoping it was one of those dark faeries come to drag me into their lair. Right now, anything was better than facing this bunch of bastards.
The figure stepped through the window into the dining hall, and all the students stood. I remained on my ass, not wanting to offend such an important figure with my nudity.
It was Mistress Ellyllon, her dark-as-midnight features harder than granite. “The ward informed me that a large group of students has congregated in the dining hall.” She swept her arm at me, and the black cloak Lady Aster levitated appeared around my shoulders. “Who will explain this charade?”
I shifted on my ass, making sure the fabric covered my essentials before pulling myself to my feet.
“Headmistress,” I said, not giving a shit who got fired or expelled. “I was in bed last night when Elijah Meadowhawks and the Fated tricked me into an intimate encounter.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What is that glistening on your face, child?”
The words died on my throat.
“It’s the janitor’s semen, headmistress,” said Lady Aster.
Lady Gala smirked.
The older faerie’s lips tightened. “How did this happen?”
I glanced at Prince Rory and raked my mind for a way to phrase things so it didn’t look like I had tried to escape the trial. “I thought I was dreaming about my false human memories, but they told me it was a glamor.”
“Headmistress,” said Prince August. “I insist that you disqualify this disgusting creature—”
“No,” she snapped. “All candidates have failed the first challenge in the trial. Unity Quayle for letting a dream become too heated before she realized it was a glamor, and the four other candidates for concocting such an unseemly plot.”
Prince Caulden’s nostrils flared. “But Mistress—”