by Lexi C. Foss
“Just using my gifts to my advantage like my mentor taught me,” Kolstov tossed back at him, his hand on his throat.
Zephyrus snorted. “If that were true, you’d have relied on your physical strength and not your Elite Blood.” He brushed the flames from his sleeves with a flick of his wrist, the energy dissipating into a gray cloud, leaving his blazer untouched.
Kolstov rolled his neck and shook the flickers from his own clothes, creating a tendril of steam that disappeared with the others.
The smoke cleared, leaving them both unharmed without a shred of evidence on them. Almost as if I’d imagined the whole thing.
Huh. That’s interesting.
Cold green eyes met mine, narrowing. “Is this my project?”
“Yes,” Kolstov replied. “Aflora, meet Zeph. Zeph, this is Aflora.”
Zephyrus’s gaze passed over me in clear disinterest. “How fun.” His sarcasm wasn’t lost on me. “I’m Headmaster Zephyrus, your new Guardian. Try to leave this suite without me and you’ll regret it.” With that proclamation, he turned on his heel and headed toward the living area, leaving me alone with Kolstov.
“Charming,” I grumbled.
Kolstov palmed the back of his neck and blew out a breath, shaking his head. Then he followed the headmaster out of the corridor.
Great. A game of Chase the Pixie.
I supposed if I wanted any answers—not to mention food—I had to join them.
Huffing, I stomped down the hallway in their direction and found them standing off again in the living area. Only without touching this time. Tension poured off them in waves. Neither of them speaking.
I cleared my throat. “So, uh, my lock is broken.”
No reply.
“Kolstov. You can’t just barge into my room without—”
“Your room?” he questioned, breaking his staring contest with the headmaster to glance my way. “This is my suite. The locks don’t apply to me.”
My jaw tightened. “They do in my guest room.”
He snorted. “No, sweetheart. They don’t.”
Fire licked through my veins at his declaration.
First, Shadow bit me against my will.
Then, the Council forced me to attend Midnight Fae Academy for reasons no one bothered clarifying.
And now, Prince Kolstov claimed I would have no privacy here in his quarters—a place I didn’t even want to stay.
Not. Acceptable.
“Kolstov has a problem with being locked out,” Zephyrus put in, completely oblivious to the turmoil brewing beneath my skin. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.”
“Are you going to be an ass to me all year?” Kolstov demanded, his focus on the headmaster.
“Likely,” Zephyrus replied.
The thumping in my ears drowned out the continuation of his statement, my focus on the little tendril of power peeking at me from beneath the thick, inky waves inside me.
Oh, hello, I thought at it. Come here.
Closing my eyes, I followed the flare of light through the dark web in my mind.
This is where they’ve trapped me, I realized, the map clearing behind my eyes. They’ve cast a binding spell over me.
It must have happened while I was asleep.
Did Shade do it? Kolstov? Another fae?
It didn’t matter.
What I needed to do was unravel it.
Zephyrus and Kolstov continued to bicker in the living area, neither of them seeming to remember my presence. Normally, I would consider that rude. In this case, their impudence worked in my favor.
Energy swirled inside me as I navigated each thread, carefully plucking them apart with my invisible scissors, longing to free that spark at the bottom.
The design wasn’t too intricate, suggesting it’d been done in a hurry. The fact that I could suddenly see the binds implied Shade had indeed contaminated my blood and that perhaps my power was growing in darkness as a result. Or maybe I just hadn’t looked in the right place.
Regardless, I could see it now.
And I seemed to be able to undo it.
Kolstov raised his voice.
Zephyrus remained calm.
The two of them were engaged in some argument about Kolstov throwing Zephyrus to the wolves three months ago. I only half listened, my attention on the growing light inside me.
There are you are, I breathed, smiling at the earth source. Come to me now. Help me.
Power hummed through my being, revitalizing me in the strength of my core essence.
Yes, yes.
I felt alive.
Exuberant.
Whole.
I sighed, the plant life around the Academy prickling at my instincts. The trees weren’t dead at all, just a different species. A burning thwomp, the roots told me, giving me a proper name to work from.
Nice to meet you, I murmured, rolling my neck and memorizing the heart of the species in my mind. You’ll do very well.
With a twirl of power, I began to reconstruct the base of the charred tree, rooting it in the guest room.
Kolstov didn’t want to give me a lock? Then I’d make one.
And I’d rip his suite apart in the process.
“Do you feel that?” Zephyrus asked, interrupting whatever Kolstov had just been saying.
Must work faster, I thought, directing my nurturing waves from the gap in the web to the new creation.
“What are you doing?” Kolstov demanded.
I ignored him.
His palm was suddenly on my neck, his hard body pressed along mine. “Aflora.”
I didn’t open my eyes.
I just continued to unweave and weave, unweave and weave. Grow, little tree. Grow.
The earthy force pulsed inside me, breaking through the final binds and flourishing to life. I sighed in content, my powers finally free.
Flowery scents perfumed the air, vines of my own making climbing over the walls to protect me from the snakes outside. Because I could feel them slithering in agitation, their intent to break down the threshold palpable.
Oh, but the gargoyle held them at bay.
Why?
Ah, because I’m part of this suite now. It protects everyone inside. The knowledge slammed into my mind from an unknown source, but I felt the veracity of it deep inside my bones.
“Aflora!” Kolstov yelled.
My lips curled, power rippling through me in energizing waves. What was it he said to me earlier? Oh, right. “I’m ready to dance now, Midnight Prince,” I told him, shoving him away with a pulse of energy that put him on his ass.
He coughed, then cursed as roots grew from the ground, trapping him.
I smiled. “Those burning thwomps sure are sturdy.” The one in my guest room was almost complete, the branches reaching the ceiling above. Content with the design, I told it to grow outward. I’d left the door open, giving it the opportunity to inch thick black roots down the hallway toward us.
An explosion sent me sideways into the wall, my focus temporarily disrupted as Kolstov launched to his feet. He’d lost his cape and jacket, his shirtsleeves rolled to his elbows. It all happened so quickly that I didn’t know how or when he’d made the wardrobe change, but I caught the writhing lines twisting along his skin.
The dark source, I realized.
It thrived inside him.
And he was about to use it against me.
I ducked the oncoming blow, a shield of petals building along my skin in an instant.
“This is ridiculous, Aflora,” Kolstov snapped. “Stop.”
I tripped him with one of the roots, then stirred a myriad of pollen mites into the air around him, eliciting a sneeze.
Zephyrus stood off to the side, completely unfazed. As he didn’t seem to want to join the battle, I left him alone—for now—and concentrated on my fellow Royal Fae.
Zings of electricity shot from his fingertips, all aimed my way. I deflected them with flowers, frowning as he turned the gorgeous creations into ash.
“No respect,” I muttered, stirring an array of blossom motes to blind his vision. My tree from the bedroom had finally reached me, grounding me in life as I directed the thick black ropes toward my attacker.
If I could incapacitate him and Zephyrus, I could find a portal and escape.
Maybe.
I honestly hadn’t thought that far ahead. I just wanted out of this damn suite.
The snakes, however, would prove to be a problem.
Hence the petal shield.
A root wrapped around Kolstov’s ankle, tightening, only to be engulfed in red and yellow flames.
I screamed as the fiery embers reached my heart, my tree crying out in pain. “Stop!”
“You first,” Kolstov ground out, his destructive essence screeching across the floor and destroying my creation with horrifying ease.
I fell to my knees, agonized over the destruction of life, his vile powers eating at the goodness of mine.
Hatred unlike any I’d ever experienced bloomed inside me, all directed at this monster of a royal. Energy blazed from his golden eyes, overtaking mine in murderous lashes that obliterated my vines and all traces of the earth I’d brought into his suite.
Including my beloved tree.
He hadn’t stopped at the roots, taking the entire thwomp and incinerating it into ash in a matter of seconds.
My chest ached at the loss.
So wrong.
How could you?
Why?
The thwomps outside wept with me, their branches rattling angrily in protest.
“That was fascinating,” Zephyrus murmured.
“That’s not the word I’d use for it,” Kolstov retorted, his booted feet appearing in my vision. “What the actual fuck, Aflora?”
I glowered up at him. “You’re a monster.” My voice was hoarse, the black magic coating my earth source leaving me breathless.
He scoffed at that. “You just unleashed a monster into my suite, nearly killing all of us in the process. Have you lost your fucking mind?”
“It wasn’t going to kill us,” I returned, livid. “You are the murderer here.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Really?” He bent down, grabbed me by the neck, and hauled me to my feet. “Let’s see about that.” He dragged me through the living area to the back windows. “Watch.”
“No.”
When I tried to struggle, he wrapped his arms around me from behind, capturing me with my back to his chest. His lips were at my ear. “Fucking watch or I’ll drag you back to the Council and throw you in the dungeon for the week.”
I bristled at the threat and considered conjuring more pollen dust to suffocate him with, but our heads were too close together. I’d probably end up inhaling the potent mix, too.
An outburst in the distance caught my eye, causing me to gasp. “What was that?”
“Keep watching.”
I had no idea what he wanted me to see. It was pitch-black outside, which seemed to be their version of the day. From what I recalled, Midnight Fae held opposite hours to Elemental Fae, choosing to sleep when the sun rose and to work during the night. Not a schedule I wanted to—
An inferno billowed into the sky, followed by two more from different positions on the Academy grounds.
Narrowing my gaze, I focused on the source and gasped when I felt the burning thwomp closest to our building expel its burning embers into the sky.
Oh.
That was why they possessed charcoaled stems and didn’t have leaves.
They literally burned.
“Now imagine what would have happened had your little creation gone through its hourly process inside my suite?” Kolstov released me, taking a step back.
I swallowed and pinched my lips to the side. “Well, how was I supposed to know that?” I asked, facing him.
Zephyrus stood off to the side, arms crossed, his chiseled features devoid of emotion.
“How about you not play with things you don’t understand?” Kolstov suggested. “That’s why you’re here—to learn.”
“No, I’m being held here because a Midnight Fae bit me against my will and you think his powers are going to mix with mine. Well, I feel fine now that I’m grounded again in my earth essence. So how about you let me leave and we call it a night?”
“You feel fine,” he repeated, his skepticism evident. “Yeah. Because it’s perfectly normal for an Earth Fae to be able to unravel a dark arts spell. One my father put on you, by the way. And it was a binding spell that other Midnight Fae wouldn’t be able to dismantle in a week, let alone minutes. So yeah, I think it’s safe to say Chern’s suspicions about your future are already coming true.”
My mouth worked without sound, his words effectively freezing me in place.
Was he right? I hadn’t noticed the web before, but once it came to me, I worked through it rather quickly. And I’d wondered if the reason I could suddenly see it meant something about my growing power. It seemed it did.
Which meant… “I really am morphing into an abomination.” Something I already acknowledged once, but now… now I had proof.
“It would seem so, yes,” Kolstov agreed. “But it might—”
“How is this possible?” I asked, cutting him off. “All that willow stump did was bite me. We didn’t exchange powers. If anything, he should be inheriting mine, not the other way around.”
“A bite creates the mating bond in our world,” Kolstov replied, irritation lacing his tone. “Something you should know about Midnight Fae culture. Except, that’s right, you haven’t studied us at all. What a fantastic royal you are turning out to be.”
His barb failed to penetrate my already whirling emotions because we were beyond my studies and what I knew. What I cared about now was the future and how to use it to my advantage.
“Elemental Fae don’t bond through blood. We bond with the source. So it’s one-sided. I don’t even feel him, and if we were truly mated, I would.” Or I hope that’s the case, I added to myself.
“It’s still forming,” Kolstov gritted out. “Midnight Fae mating is initiated with the first bite, sealed with the second, and promised for eternity with the third. Shade only initiated it, which means your powers and blood are mingling now, forming a new life together. Hence, you suddenly have access to dark magic. What we don’t know is how deep it will go.”
“Which is why the Council decided to keep her here,” Zephyrus interjected. “To observe her progress. And you’re the one charged with managing her.”
A muscle ticked in Kolstov’s jaw. “Is this the part where you call me a babysitter?”
“No. Executioner seems like a better term.” Zephyrus pushed off the wall, his eyes narrowing. “You are the one who will have to kill her if she proves to be an abomination, yes?”
My heart stopped.
No.
Except the look on Kolstov’s face said, Yes.
I started shaking my head in denial, refusing to believe that could possibly be a recourse, yet all the while knowing it had to be an option. Because abominations couldn’t exist. Too much power led to insanity.
And I’d witnessed firsthand what happened when someone achieved too much power.
A shiver traversed my spine at the memory of Elana trying to destroy all of Earth Fae kind with her dark magic. She’d tried to suck our souls from our bodies, to absorb our abilities.
My connection to the earth source nearly fractured because of her.
I’ll never be like that, I thought to myself.
But what if that was my fate? What if this connection Shade had forced upon me drove me insane?
I’d nearly unleashed a burning thwomp on this suite. What else could I do?
It didn’t matter that I hadn’t known. I should have known. Should have dug deeper into the being’s core to determine its purpose before picking it for my plight.
My knees buckled and I hit the ground, my eyes on the floor.
How had everything gone so horribly wrong? What
could I do to stop it? Learn dark magic? Control it? Would that even help?
“We’re going to need a new binding spell,” Kolstov muttered. “A more powerful one.”
I remained silent because he was right.
Returning to the Elemental Fae realm was impossible in my current state. Bringing dark magic there would upset the balance.
I had no choice but to remain here while my future revealed itself.
All because a Midnight Fae took advantage of me in the Human Realm.
My eyes narrowed.
Kolstov might have pissed me off with his high-handedness, but it was Shade who earned my ultimate wrath.
That male would pay when I saw him again. I’d wrap him up in vines and squeeze until his gorgeous head popped off. Then I’d burn him for good measure.
“He warned me you would be beautiful, Aflora,” he’d said.
He who? I pondered now. And why did you do this to me?
Death and I were already well acquainted, as I’d been placed at the lethal doorstep a few times before. Once as a child. And again just last year. Yet my life had won both times before.
I wasn’t one to just give up and accept fate. I fought it every step of the way. And this wouldn’t be any different.
A new task list brewed in my thoughts, providing me with renewed purpose.
Play along.
Learn how to control the darkness.
Behave.
Demand answers.
Kill Shade.
Yes. Yes, this would work.
And then, when I finished, I’d escape.
Chapter Seven
Aflora
I pushed the bloody sauce across my plate with a frown. The giant hunk of brown crap sitting in the middle didn’t appeal to me, nor did the strange, long white worms surrounding it.
When Kolstov claimed to be heading out to pick up some food, I thought he meant edible food. This was not edible. Yet Zephyrus and Kolstov seemed pretty satisfied with it, their plates already half-empty.
My lips twisted. I can’t eat this.
Fortunately, they hadn’t cut off my elemental power yet, which meant I could grow—
“It’s spaghetti,” Kolstov said, interrupting my thoughts. “Fresh from Italy. Why aren’t you eating it?”