Rogue Royalty

by Rebecca Ethington

  "It's time you pay for what you did to me. It’s time you learn your place."

  “As the best in class?” I took every ounce of strength to keep my face impassive, even as she growled like some kind of wild animal.

  She flung her fiery yellow magic at me before I could really do much more than dodge and throw the nugget of stone bread at her face. Yellow fire ripped passed my head as the hard bread-stone hit her right between the eyes. She yelped and stumbled back, taking two wide steps before she regained herself.

  "Dumb bitch," she snarled, patting at the dried blood that was oozing from the new cut in her forehead. Whoops. "I knew I should have thrown you off that cliff first."

  "Why? So, it can be one and three?" Angry waves of magic rumbled underneath the surface of my skin, they pooled through my veins ready for use. Ready to pick them all up and throw them away from me again. Finally.

  One smack on the head with a lightning bolt ought to shut her up. Except that nothing happened, no flare. No fire.

  The waves of rage I had felt before had died completely down.

  “Hell fucking sewer rats,” I mumbled, dodging her next attack, using only a bit of wind to move it to the side as I took a lazy step back. Well, if I couldn’t attack her, I could sure as hell play with her.

  And dodge. And hope to hell she didn’t burn my jacket. I had spent way too much time perfectly ripping the seams. I had a feeling she had been practicing to break through my shield.

  Something that I couldn’t even tap into seeing as my magic was locked away, again.

  "You know, if you anticipate where your target is going and aim there you have a better chance," I yelled, watching her follow my instructions. I back stepped the second she sent an attack toward me, the thing missing again. Although, it did tug and burn a bit of my jacket before slamming harmlessly into the wall.

  Shit. Figures.

  Well, maybe not harmlessly. Some shattered stone fell to the ground, although it kinda looked like it had been attacked at some point in the past.

  "Better, Sia! Try again!" Another attack, another step. Clearly, one week was not enough time for her to figure out how to do more than throw fire.

  "You don't get to take my life away from me, away from any of us. You don't belong here, you belong underground. In any way I can manage it."

  Well, that was darker than I expected.

  I dodged one more attack, the sparks hitting against the back wall with little more than a sizzle.

  “Shame. I thought you almost had me.” I clicked my tongue at her, giving her a wink that only infuriated her more.

  Rage was glowing her eyes, burrowing as she growled and heaved and took a quick step closer.

  "All the glitters were never gold." I continued, letting my smile spread.

  Okay, that time I might have gone too far.

  Her hand raised as she screamed, bits of spit flying from her mouth, dripping over her nose and catching in the light of the magic that she was clearly hoping to kill me with.

  "What are you doing, Sia?" The deep boom was unfamiliar, but the power behind it I had felt before. At the Gauntlet, in that little room after I had thrown a boulder on Sia's head.

  But I had not felt the magic from him. Not from the guy with jet black hair and burning green eyes that seemed to be gleaming in the dim light of the hall. He looked as disheveled as I was. Hair a mess, jacket forgotten, tie pulled down. I swallowed and looked away, not liking the way my magic was heating. Not in a rage, either. Oh, hell no. I was not about to become a walking cliché.

  "She attacked me, Rowy!" Sia shrieked, immediately beginning to cry.

  Really? Did she not have any other card to play? Crying is her go to?

  "I attacked you?" I shrieked, pushing myself back to standing now that whatever weight I had been hit with was gone and most of the older students had scattered. "I can’t do anything but make a few sparks."

  Of course, my supposed display at my weakened powers chose that minute to flare into a sparkling orb of swirling color, crackling and shining from the tips of my fingers.

  “Really? Now you work?”

  Was I imagining it, or did the corner of Rowan’s mouth turn up?

  "How did she attack you?" Rowan asked as I grabbed my bag and threw it over my shoulder, ready to high-tail it out of there. Leave Rowan to deal with his weasel of a girlfriend.

  "She was waiting for me on the way to class, she and that guy, the fat one..."

  "Fat?" I knew who she was talking about. Like hell if I was going to let her calling Ed fat slide. I was up and barreling through the hall, ready to break her nose again, but Rowan stopped me, one flat palm and a flare of magic freezing through me.

  Okay, no. Prince or not, he doesn't get to come in and play puppeteer to my life.

  “Let me go, pretty boy. I can fight my own battles.”

  "Get out of here, Sia." Rowan boomed, more dust falling from the ceiling. "When my family allowed you enrollment, we did so expecting you to uphold the values of the Chosen and to fit into the roll we have designed for you."

  "You're dismissing me?”

  “I expect better of you.” Pretty sure the tone in his voice was rattling the rafters.

  “My father will hear about this! You don’t get to dismiss me," She snarled, little drops of spit flying in his face in her rage. He froze, eyes widening as she spun on her heels, taking two steps before he reached out and grabbed her, pulling her back.

  "I'm not dismissing you, Sia. I'm telling you I'm disappointed. I will speak to you about this later."

  "This is because you have a thing for--"

  "This is because I am your Prince and value all life in my kingdom, those who I share my life with should have the same morals," He cut her off, every single word of that sentence stabbing and twisting in my gut, even he wasn’t too pleased with it. Sia, however, lit up.

  "Find me at dinner, Sia," Rowan said, that same commanding tone bleeding from him, bathing the stone and melting against Sia. The vile anger that I was so used to seeing on her face melting away and she smiled. She actually smiled.

  He pulled her close to him, so close that from where I stood I could barely see her. It was just Rowan's torso, Sia's head, and four legs. Aww, they made such a cute two-headed monster when they kissed. Well, and all the time.

  Sick. The two stared at each other like lovesick teenagers before the beast who would be queen turned and left, leaving me alone with the Prince. The last place I wanted to be.

  Stepping stone or not, I wasn't needing to bash his face in today. I was going to if I had to listen to one more second of his holy-man speech. I couldn't get out of that hallway fast enough.

  "Aren't you going to say thank you?" He called after me, his voice echoing over the soot-covered stone, rattling the ash to the ground. I turned, but I didn't stop walking, keeping as much space between us as possible as he tried to catch up to me.

  "Haha! No. I won't bow to you either. You don’t get to be a rat’s ass for more than a month and then come back in to a parade. You did nothing to deserve that." I couldn't even summon one of the shit-eating smiles I had been giving him. I was that pissed.

  "I didn't ask you to do that." Was this guy for real? He clearly lived in another dimension. You know the one with white knights, and princesses, and parents, and food, and a perfect Utopia of bliss and ignorance.

  "Yes, you did," I turned away from him, hitching the heavy bag onto my shoulder better. "The second you came in and saved the day you showed them all that you are better. Stronger. That you and your family control our life like puppets on a string. Everything in our life, right up to our death. I don't need any of that. I don't need any of you. I don't need a prince."

  That last word burned on its way out.

  "I saved you--"

  "From what?" I was roaring now, my low voice sending him back a step. "Saved me from a punch in the gut and maybe a bit of singed hair? A broken bone? Oh! I know! The gunshots and stab wounds your armi
es have inflicted on us our whole lives." He looked as confused as his parents did, poor guy. "It's nothing I can't heal from. Nothing I haven't overcome before. I can fight my own battles. I will continue to rise above the shit of this world. You included. You can go back to not talking to me now."

  He flinched and for a split-second, regret flooded my chest. It pulled me back and made my cheeks heat as I second-guessed everything. If I wanted a straight shot to the return of my magic, he was it.

  This ego ridden, 'too handsome for his own good', bastard of an Eternal.

  But just like his mom and her favor, I didn’t care. Maybe I needed to go about this whole thing another way.

  "I'm fighting for what's right. Standing up to one bitch with an ego and her mob doesn't make you a hero, Princey. It doesn't make you right, and it certainly doesn't deserve a thank you." I scoffed, curls bouncing over the shaved parts of my head as I turned on my heel, ready to leave him sputtering in the middle of the hallway.

  Instead, I was stopped in place, his hand winding around my elbow. He pulled me back, his palm covering the torn jacket that usually hid my mark.

  Everything stopped, the air shifted as though it was the one that was breathing.

  His hand was hot, like the irons we use to cook the rats when they were left too long over the fire. That saturating heat was everywhere, it crackled over my skin, it ran through my veins and pooled in my chest with so much energy that I was afraid whatever Mira had put inside of me was going to break out. That my magic would shove it through my chest so that it could continue its race under my skin, continue to pull and press and drag me toward him.

  Everything was magic. He was magic. I hated every bit of it.

  "Don't touch me," I snapped, pulling away and staggering back as I tried to catch my breath. “I don’t know what the hell you are playing at, or what that was. But don’t do it ever again," I gestured to him wildly, I still wasn't able to get either breathing or heart rate under control right then. Even one step back was difficult, I was sure my knees wanted to buckle beneath me. My legs wanted to throw me back into him.

  "It was..."

  "Don't," I snapped. He was as breathless as I was and I really didn't want to hear the other side of that, of what the hell had happened. Or why he had tears dripping down his sexy face.

  Ugh.

  No. Not sexy. Nothing about this was sexy. Not tears. Not a prince. Certainly not the two of them together.

  This was not in my wheelhouse.

  I bolted down the hallway, toward my remedials class that at this point I had every intention of skipping.

  "You're welcome," he called after me, but I kept running, not trusting myself to do anything right then.

  I was either going to explode, or I was going to kiss him.

  I hated myself for both of those options.

  12

  Rowan

  I had originally planned to sleep after classes last night. I had already told Sia that I wasn't feeling well and arranged with Greer to cover for me at Rugby practice. After last night, there was no way I was going to get to sleep. My mind was racing, magic buzzing in a furious rampage that by the time dawn crested the mountains I was finally able to gain control and the pressure at the back of my neck had dwindled down to a low hum.

  Sleep was not happening, if only because I needed to make sure Gemma was alright. That she wasn’t scared shitless after our magic had connected when I had grabbed her arm in the hall. Not that I was sure that’s what had happened, or if she had even felt it. Either way, I needed to see her. To touch her again, to see if it would happen again. To make sure she was okay.

  It was probably some kind of foolish 'white knight' bull shit that I had probably picked up from my dad, making sure the girl was safe, but even realizing that hadn’t stopped me from getting to class a whole ten minutes early.

  She clomped into our first class as she always did, although today, she was right on time. The bell hadn’t even rung.

  She was smiling, each step sending the streaming light from the windows glinting against a line of silver studs in her ear. The skull with sapphire eyes in her lobe was especially nice, it set off the purple in her eyes. I should have looked away, I knew I was staring, but I couldn’t stop. Which is probably why instead of going to her desk, she came to mine.

  "My liege thank you for saving me from the wicked bullies yesterday," she said as she bowed low, her near yells carrying over the class and pulling everyone's focus. The room went silent. "If you ever need any assistance, such as getting that stick out of your ass, or removing the parasite before she sucks the life out of your soul, I am at your beck and call."

  Well, I guess she had recovered from yesterday.

  The Undermortals at the back of the class roared in laughter, the Goldens gasped. I was left staring at her as she hopped over the aisle into her old desk, dirty boots propped up on the worn wood within seconds. Just like every morning. She gave me a wink as Analine entered, doing her best to silence the still laughing class.

  "Thanks for that, Gemma," I said under my breath, grateful that my voice didn't catch on her name.

  "Anytime, Prince Rowan." It was hard to ignore the way my stomach flip-flopped at that. "Of course, you might regret that now that you seem to think I'm not worth avoiding anymore."

  Even I couldn't ignore the pang in her voice, the hostility that was breeding under the surface as she looked away, giving someone at the back a wink before turning forward again.

  "Does this mean I'm still a half-douche?" I leaned over my desk, my lanky body blocking the aisle as I whispered to her, aware that all of the hopeful Goldens around us were listening in.

  "Oh no, after the last month you will always be a full douche. You gotta like save the world or some shit to get back to half-douche." She gave me that bright smile that I realized I had missed, my stomach flip-flopping as she winked and turned to Analine who was already announcing today's task before even turning to the class.

  My cousin was confused as I was that Gemma was back to her old seat, but thankfully said nothing about it. Good. How she treated the Undermortals sometimes grated on me, I doubted with how active my magic was I would be able to avoid standing up to her and not pulling rank if she was to try something.

  Thinking about it was making me agitated and I started doodling monsters in the margins of my books as she began class.

  "Today we will begin working on the recreation of the timeline of the first thousand years," Analine said, shuffling papers and handing stacks out to the first person in each row, who grabbed one before passing them back. "You will be working in pairs for this project so I suggest you choose your partner carefully as they will be responsible for half your grade."

  She had barely finished speaking when the class broke into a buzzing, everyone partnering up, and every girl directly around me turning expectantly. They batted their eyelashes and flipped their hair in a wave of enchanted sparkles that I was sure was meant to ensnare me. I, however, had turned to the one person who was doing neither of those things and was instead staring at the questions on the paper with a curled lip.

  "Who was Filare? Rat crap on a stick. Guess I should have been paying attention."

  "Gemma," I hissed, the girls around me leaned in closer, like I had hissed their name. The girl in question, however, turned slowly, eyebrow tweaked as she gave me one of those smug grins.

  "Yes, your majesty?" Damn it she even bowed a little bit, her hands waving to the side in what I was sure she thought was a flourish and not a bird trying to take off.

  "Will you pair up with me?" I choked on the word, my voice cracking like I was going through puberty again. Of course, she didn't miss it.

  "Pair up?" she repeated slowly. I could feel the color grow over my cheeks, turning me into a furnace and pricking at the back of my neck. "What do you mean by 'pair up' Rowan? Because I can do all the pairing. Name your price."

  She was leaning over the wooden L of her desk now, her purple
eyes glinting mischievously as my stomach swooped at the sound of my name. I was going to have to get her to go back to calling me Princey if this kept happening.

  "I mean do you want to work with me on the program, Gemma," I tried to put as much seductive teasing into my voice as she had. Honestly, I was glad that I had kept my voice in a normal octave that time.

  "I dunno," she said with feigned innocence, looking at all the blondes who hadn't given up hope on me yet. "Isn't there an application process or something?"

  "Oh, be quiet and get over here," I groaned, letting my magic shift and wrap around the desk, pulling hers closer to mine with a groan that matched that of all the others doing the same thing. It was only then that all of the hopefuls retreated to their desks with a moan.

  "Testy, testy. You know, you sound like an old lady," Gemma said, scooting her desk away a tad, the grind of metal against stone loud now that most everyone had paired up.

  "No, I don't. Now get back over here," I said, trying to pull her back over to me, but she slapped my hand away. I jerked; I don't think anyone had reacted to me like that before. Correction: I don't think anyone had the guts to.

  "I'm giving us a respectable distance, partially because I don't like to be seen too close to jerks or people who think girls are weak and need saving. But mostly because the wicked glare Professor Analine is giving me has me scared for the loss of my fingers." She gave me a smile, angling herself away from my cousin who was, sure enough, sending daggers right into the back of the girl’s head. I could have sworn that even her curls were quaking in fear.

  "Analine's harmless," I sighed, knowing it was only half true. "She's kind of always been a bitch."

  "Always?" Gemma said, looking from Analine, to me, to the paper where her eyes went wide. "You know, I kinda forgot she was your cousin. Mostly because after getting escorted by Wynifred for a day I can't imagine how Analine came into existence. Well, unless they summoned her from hell."

  "It's been a topic of debate for decades," I chuckled, even my mom at one point had theorized that she was just resentful that she wasn't that cool. "Kinda makes you rethink your whole douche ranking system doesn't it?"