“How do you know?” Bastien asks. He’s probably annoyed I found out before he did, but he can suck it. He should have stopped Callan before any of this happened. “They look nothing alike.”
“I saw her and Gabriel outside Uriel’s house. He called her daughter, and then they flew off together. Probably to take her somewhere safe.” For all I know, that’s the last time I’ll see her, and my heart clenches tight at the thought. I think I might be in love with her, and I might never be able to tell her that.
“Gabriel’s daughter…” Bastien says to himself, as he stares out the window. “This changes everything.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Callan says. “Jonah still told us to keep her away. Now we know why.”
“He wanted us to protect her,” I argue. “He would never in a million years want you to fuck up her car, trash her room, or expose what she is to the entire school. That’s the opposite of keeping her safe.”
Callan says nothing, but he looks away, the muscle in his neck twitching. Awkward silence stretches between the three of us as we remember our crimes against Olivia. I feel like a total shithead for being involved with any of that, and then I have another horrible thought. I’ve been sleeping with Jonah’s sister. After I also slept with Grace after he disappeared. Worst. Friend. Ever. I’m no better than Callan or Bastien, it turns out.
The silence is interrupted when Olivia herself bursts through the open window of the bell tower, her black wings spread wide and her entire body glowing slightly. She looks beautiful and fierce, a perfect combination of light and dark, angel and demon.
“You betrayed me,” she says, in a cold voice I’ve never heard her use before. “Why?”
“I made a promise to Jonah,” Callan says. He plucks her photo from his wallet and holds it up. “Before he disappeared, he made us swear to keep you away from this school—for your safety. Nothing else I did worked, so I had to expose you. It was the only way.”
“Nothing else—” she starts, and then her eyes widen as she puts it all together. “The notes. My car. My room. You did all that?”
“We did,” Callan says.
Her eyes sweep across the room, leveling accusations at me and Bastien. “I can’t believe I trusted you.”
I step forward and hold out my hands in peace. “I had nothing to do with exposing you, I swear. Or the notes, or the car.”
“But you helped trash my room! You broke my mug!”
I hang my head. “Callan broke the mug, but yes…I was there. I’m so sorry.”
Liv turns to Bastien. “And you?”
He stands a little taller, like he’s resigned to his fate, but he still has that guilty look in his eyes. “I am complicit in all of the same things as Marcus, and I also helped Callan retrieve the video of your kiss. I do apologize. I would not have done such things if I’d known you were Jonah’s sister.”
“So you all know that too.” She shakes her head, her hands in fists. “Jonah gave me that mug. It’s the only thing I had from him, and you destroyed it.”
“I had no idea know he gave it to you,” Callan says. It’s probably the closest he’ll get to saying sorry. Callan does not apologize. “I figured it was just a silly mug.”
“I came here to find Jonah. I believe he went to Faerie, and if he told you to keep me away from this school, then he must have suspected he wouldn’t return. Do you know what happened to him?”
Wow, she knows a lot. I open my mouth to tell her everything, but Bastien shoots me a look, before saying, “No, we don’t.”
He must be trying to protect her, even now. We have to keep her safe from the Order. They’ll want to use her or hurt her, now that word’s out about what she is. Seriously, what the fuck was Callan thinking?
“Sorry, but I don’t believe you,” she says. “In fact, I’m pretty sure you’re lying and you know exactly what happened to him. After everything you’ve done to me, I can’t trust you at all.”
“Everything we’ve done has been to get you to leave and fulfill our promise to Jonah,” Bastien says. “And if we’re keeping secrets from you now, that’s why.”
“We’re not bullies, not really,” I say, but it sounds pathetic, even to my ears.
Olivia snorts. “Even without the way you treated me, you walk around this school like you own the place. If you don’t want to be bullies, try treating people like equals instead of the dirt on your shoes.”
Okay, she has a point there.
“I stand by what I did,” Callan says. “You don’t belong here, and Jonah knew it. Plus you showed up here and turned Marcus on his head, and now Bastien is just as bad. I can’t stand the sight of you, but I can’t help but want you anyway. We can’t have a succubus using her powers at this school.”
She puts a hand on her hip and cocks it. “Hey, asshole, I’ve not sent a single ounce of my powers toward you. So, if you can’t stop thinking about me, guess what? It’s because you want me for who I am, not because of what I am. But I’m happy to tell you that your plan failed. I’m coming back next year. And the three of you? Can stay the hell away from me.”
“Liv, wait.” I reach for her, but she pulls away, and her glare shuts me up fast.
“No. I thought we were friends, or maybe even more. But we are done.”
She flies out of the bell tower, and I’m half tempted to follow her, but sense it would be useless to try to talk to her right now. I spin around and face the other two Princes.
“We’re done too. I want nothing to do with either of you. I’m over your bullshit.” I shake my head at them in disgust. “Olivia deserves better.”
I don’t wait for a response before I take off. I need to figure out how to get Olivia back, and I have a feeling it’s going to involve a lot of groveling.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Olivia
I head back to my dorm room and finally let myself fall apart. I cry, and I hit a pillow, and I eat up the last of the ice cream in the fridge, then drown myself in coffee—after throwing the mug from Marcus against the wall. It doesn’t break, because even my fucking mug is against me. It’s obvious he got it for me as a guilt gift, and I want nothing to do with it.
Or with any of the Princes. I’m certain they’re lying to me about Jonah, especially after what Grace said, and I can’t forgive them for what they did to me throughout the year. I blamed so many things on Tanwen, and even pranked her in return, when it was the Princes all along. Specifically Callan. He vandalized my door. He sent me horrible notes. He ruined my car. And they all trashed my room.
Then they committed the ultimate betrayal by exposing me, after getting me to trust them and promising they wouldn’t tell anyone what I am. Marcus might be innocent in that crime, but Bastien is as guilty as Callan is, and I can’t forgive any of them. I’m not sure I ever will.
Next year, I’m going to make them pay.
By the time I pull myself together, it’s gotten late, and the campus is pitch black and empty. Everyone else has left. But there’s one last person I want to talk to before I go, and I have a feeling he’s waiting for me too.
I set down by the lake, and Kassiel is already waiting there, still wearing his suit from earlier. He jumps up from the bench and steps toward me with a worried expression.
“Olivia, are you all right?”
“It’s been a rough day, but I’m…okay,” I say. “Thank you so much for your help today. I appreciate you standing up for me and for just being there.”
“Of course. Everything I said was true. You do deserve to be here, and I’ll always do whatever I can to help protect you.”
All year long I worried he might expose me, but in the end, he proved to be one of the few people I can trust. It’s a strange realization that I have only two real friends at Seraphim Academy, and he’s one of them.
“Why help me?” I ask softly, stepping close to him. He’s so ridiculously handsome, and it’s been a while since I really allowed myself to fully take him in. The moonlight enhances
the highlights in his dark hair, and his lips look so soft and kissable. I can’t stop staring at them.
He reaches up to stroke my hair. “I care about you, Olivia. You know I do.”
“I care about you too,” I whisper. Originally it was just lust and attraction, but over the last few months it’s turned into more. Our little midnight meetings by the lake became one of the highlights of my week, and I wished so many times that he wasn’t my professor, even though he was also a damn good one.
He’s looking at my lips too, and then our eyes meet again. He looks as conflicted as I feel, and he’s still touching me, trailing his hand down my cheek now. We’re standing close together, very close, and I’m not sure how that happened.
“Fuck it, I can’t wait two more years,” he suddenly growls, and then our mouths meet at the same time. His arms pull me against his chest, and I circle his neck with my own, never wanting this moment to end. Our kiss is desperate and hungry, filled with months of longing and the memory of that one night we spent together, and then his energy hits me, hard. He’s so incredibly strong, maybe equal to Callan, but he tastes totally different from the Princes, just like I thought. They taste like light, and the finest wine, and hardy potatoes.
He tastes like whiskey and filet mignon.
And darkness.
I pull away from him and stare up at his green eyes. Eyes a lot like mine.
Demon eyes.
“You’re a Fallen,” I whisper.
He looks down at me in the darkness, seeing me perfectly, and his lips press into a tight line. “How did you know?”
“You taste different from angels. Before I thought maybe I was remembering it wrong, since it had been a while since I fed on you, but now I know for sure—you’re a demon. But you have wings too, so you must be a Fallen.” My eyes widen as I connect all the dots. “The other demon, the vampire the Order tortured—I told him I was undercover on a mission for Lucifer, and he mentioned another demon at the school said the same thing. That’s you, isn’t it?”
“It is.” He tilts his head and studies me. “You’re a member of the Order?”
“I am now, yeah. And so are you.”
He nods. “I started teaching here to find out if the Order is a threat. But you’re not on a mission from Lucifer.”
“No, I just thought it would be something the demon might believe, especially once I showed him I was a succubus.”
“You told him that?” he asks, his face concerned. “That means the demons know you’re here.”
“Yeah, it seems the cat’s out of the bag now. Everyone knows about me.”
“Things could get very dangerous for you now. Be careful. Why are you here anyway?”
“I’m trying to find my brother Jonah, who disappeared last year. The Order sent him to Faerie, and I’m going to bring him back.”
He takes my hand. “Then we’ll work together. I can’t let the Order get the Staff of Eternity. They’ll start another war, and I won’t let that happen.”
I squeeze his hand. “Me neither. And I promise I won’t tell anyone what you are. You can trust me.”
He leans down and brushes his lips against mine. “I know.”
“Uriel knows you’re a Fallen though, doesn’t he?” I ask.
“Of course he does. He knows everything, and he thought it would be good to have a demon professor on campus.” He hesitates. “I’m not sure we’ll be able to hide a relationship from him, and I can’t afford to get fired. Now you know why I’ve had to resist you this year.”
“I understand.” I take his face in my hands and give him one more quick kiss. “We can’t be together. Not yet. But maybe someday.”
“Someday,” he says, then kisses me again. Harder this time, like he can’t stop himself.
I’m the one to pull away. I want him so badly, but I can’t get him in trouble either. I need his help. “Until then, we’re allies. We’ll stop the Order together.”
A dark smile crosses his lips. “With the two of us infiltrating them, they have no chance.”
“I’ll see you next year,” I tell him, and then launch myself into the air before I throw him onto the grass and take what I need from him. I have no idea how I’m going to resist him for the next two years, especially when I know he cares about me as much as I care about him, but we’ll have to find a way. He’s the only one I can count on to help me fight the Order from the inside.
I fly back to my father’s cottage and begin to make a plan for my second year at Seraphim Academy. First, I’m going to bring the Princes down, and then I’m going to rescue Jonah. I’ll learn everything I can about Faerie and the Staff, and I’ll do whatever it takes to find him. He’s alive, I know it, and if anyone can bring him back, it’s me.
Because I’m not just a succubus. I’m the daughter of an Archangel too.
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Stroke The Flame - Excerpt
Four sexy dragon shifters. A huntress with a dark past. A bond that could save the world.
Chapter One: Kira
I crept through the forest in search of my prey, my hand tight on my bow. Heavy rain left a sheen of water on my face even with my hood covering me, and I wiped it off on my already-soaked sleeve. The storm was getting stronger. If I didn’t find a deer or something else soon, I’d have to give up and return empty-handed. Roark wouldn’t like that.
I made my way toward one of my traps up ahead, stepping carefully through the high brush and keeping my eyes peeled for any game. With the weather as it was, I doubted I would have any luck. All the animals in the forest had no doubt retreated once this sudden storm had come upon us. The only thing left out here would be elementals and shades—and I had no desire to confront either of those.
When I’d set out a few hours ago, the sky had been clear and bright. Only in the last hour had the storm clouds gathered overhead as if out of nowhere, or perhaps summoned by the Gods themselves. I shivered, and not just from the cold that sank into my bones through my soaked clothes.
I bent down to check the trap I’d left this morning and breathed a sigh of relief. A large rabbit had been caught inside. Tonight I’d be fed. Tonight Tash would be safe.
I tossed the rabbit into a sack and loaded it onto my shoulder. When I turned around, I wasn’t alone. I dropped the sack and aimed my bow, my heart in my throat.
An old woman stood before me, her body hunched over with age, her skin pale and wrinkled. She wore a frayed traveling cloak and frizzy white hair escaped her low hood. I might have heard her as she approached, but the storm drowned out all sound except for the pounding of rain in the trees.
“Can I help you?” I called out to her, as I lowered my bow and retrieved my fallen sack.
“Perhaps.” She stared at me and frowned, then looked around as if confused.
“You must be lost. I can show you to Stoneham, the nearest town.”
“That’s kind of you.”
I offered her my arm and she took it, leaning upon me. Her grip was strong, even though she seemed so frail I worried a strong gust might turn her bones to dust. I wondered how she had found herself in the middle of the forest in the first place. She shouldn’t be traveling alone, especially not in this weather.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Kira.”
As we careful
ly stepped through the forest she gazed up at the dark sky, letting the rain wash over her face. “There’s a storm coming.”
I patted her wrinkled hand where it rested on my arm. “I think it’s already here. But if we hurry, we can get out of it. The inn is just ahead.”
“There’s no escaping this storm.” She turned toward me and her eyes were like steel. “Not for you.”
Her words sent another shiver down my spine. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
She held my gaze another few seconds, then waved her hand. “Just the ramblings of an old woman. Nothing more.”
I frowned, but continued walking through the wet brush. “We’re nearly there now.”
“Yes, indeed we are,” she said.
A rustling sound up ahead caught my attention. I dropped her arm and drew my bow. “Stay back. I’ll make sure the way is clear.”
I took a step forward as I peered through the brush in front of us, watching for the slightest twitch of a leaf or the dash of fur. But there was nothing other than the relentless rain.
When I turned back, the woman was gone.
“Hello?” I called out, spinning around and scanning the area for her. The storm made it hard to see anything, but there was no trace of her anywhere. She’d just…vanished.
I went back the way we’d walked, calling out for the woman, but I couldn’t find her anywhere. There was no sign she’d ever been in the forest at all.
After many long minutes, with the rain pounding down on me and the wind whipping at my cloak, I reluctantly gave up my search. I told myself she must have gone ahead to the village without me, but something about that didn’t feel right. It was the only explanation though, unless she was a shade. But if that were true I wouldn’t still be breathing, according to the stories I’d heard anyway. I’d never actually seen a shade before, but it was said they were ghostly figures that could turn invisible, pass through walls, and suck the life right out of you. As strange as the woman was, she seemed perfectly human at least. Still, probably best for me to hurry back.
Seraphim Academy 1: Wicked Wings Page 24