As we drove through the city center of Denver, the vamp guard who was sitting in the back with the other fae and me, handed each of us each a vial. “Drink.” He glared at us, flexing his fist, letting us know that he wouldn’t mind knocking us unconscious if we didn’t obey. I gulped the sticky liquid down, knowing there was no escape.
My vision turned fuzzy, my tongue felt thick, and my limbs relaxed as I slumped against the wall. I kept repeating my plan silently until sleep pulled me under.
I awoke, shivering. I groaned at the hard floor under me, and then sat up. I was surrounded by other fae who were in the midst of waking up. Most were still asleep. Chandeliers and stairs came into focus. How lovely. Once again, the guards had left us on the ground of the entry hall. Couldn’t they have at least carried us into the gym and laid us on mats? I groaned and rose, hoping I wouldn’t get hypothermia.
Since no guards were around, I guessed they were having their meeting with Headmistress Cardinal.
She must be furious. As far as I was aware, my little stunt with Vulthus had resulted in everyone leaving before a blood crystal could’ve been purchased. Good, I had eliminated two birds with one stone.
But even as happy tingles surged into my chest, I knew it’d cost me. Everything always came back to bite me in the ass.
I eyed the sleeping fae on the floor. I kept waking up before the others. Was it because I was a winter fae? That was something to ponder later. Right now, I had to find the blonde bitch who kept making my life hell.
Peony was on the other side of the room, dumped on her side. I wanted to hurry over to her and search her for a phone, but was terrified that someone was watching me.
A few voices, probably those of guards, floated down the corridor.
Peony groaned.
It would be too risky to try it.
I searched for the other fae that might be useful and found her lying near the steps. I hurried over and nudged her with my foot. “Wake up.”
Virgie’s lids fluttered open. “Onyx,” she croaked.
“Follow me.”
She must’ve heard the resolve in my voice because she got up and trailed after me into an empty corridor, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“What is it?” she asked, annoyed when I came to a stop. “Don’t tell me you’re involved in what happened with Vulthus.”
Ignoring her question, I said, “Peony made a video of me. She sent it to Mei tonight, whose phone was destroyed. I need you to get rid of Peony’s phone and find out if she sent the video to anyone besides Mei.” Best to cover my bases, just in case.
Virgie crossed her arms. “That’s a lot of demands. Even if I had the power to do what you ask, who do you think you are, commanding me around?”
I stepped closer, ice gathering in my veins, and Virgie’s lips turned blue.
“Listen closely, because I won’t repeat myself,” I hissed. “I’ve helped you several times, rescuing you from rape and death. You chose to repay me by ignoring me and running after Peony to get scraps. You didn't even warn me that she was planning to film us. I’ve been patient, but my patience has run out. You owe me.” She'd written me a note but couldn't even lift a finger to stop Peony's plan when she knew the bitch would pull something like this.
Virgie’s eyes flashed with anger. “And if I don’t do this?”
I let a vicious smile come across my lips. “Then you’ll finally find out what it’s like to be Kassius and Kayden’s plaything.”
Her eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.” With that, I pivoted and strode away. I had no intention to truly hurt Virgie, but she didn’t know that, and quite frankly, she deserved to be afraid after showing zero gratitude following the Wild Hunt. I was done beating myself up. Something had broken in me watching Vulthus torture his servants tonight. A new survival instinct had taken over. I might have been a bit nice to Virgie in class yesterday but things were getting desperate.
The twins had chosen to sacrifice her because they saw her as a threat, not because of anything I’d done. Virgie wouldn’t be alive if not for me. It was high time she did something for me for a change. Plus, if the video of me and Thorsten came out, no one would be around to help her when the twins decided to zero in on her the next time.
Headmistress Cardinal must’ve been really busy sorting out the mess with Vulthus because she didn’t come up with any punishment for us students in the morning or the next day. Our classes continued as normal and the blood crystal wasn’t mentioned again. The only change were a few extra guards at the academy. In the past, I would’ve scurried around like a mouse, waiting for the axe to drop, but this time, I used my time wisely.
Confident that Virgie wouldn’t let me down since I had threatened her own hide, I channeled all my attention on learning glamour.
Heeding the anonymous note’s advice, I used my ice magic as a base to learn new magic.
In my dorm, I spent hours creating shapes from my ice—birds, flowers, dolphins, and people. Yet every time I tried to change into a person, nothing happened. Lily frowned at me with each failed attempt.
I had just created bees out of ice who swarmed around me when the door to my dorm was flung open. Quickly, I let the floating figures melt and splatter to the floor, but apparently not fast enough, because Virgie asked, “What were you doing?” Her voice was thick with suspicion.
“Nothing.” I gave her a hard stare. “Did you do what we discussed?”
She nodded. “Peony mysteriously lost her phone when we all fled the outing. It wasn’t recovered. She didn’t send the video to anyone besides Mei. It took me forever to find out what she was doing. In case you haven't noticed, I'm at the bottom of the totem pole in that group.”
Had Thorsten come through and destroyed Peony’s phone? A part of the weight on my chest lifted. “Are you sure? Have you checked that no one else has it?”
Virgie snorted. “I think if someone else had it, Mei wouldn’t have been screaming at Peony and Kristen the last few days about how useless they are.”
I exhaled before I remembered that if Kristen fell from Mei’s grace, the Wus were unlikely to buy her contract. Mei and Kristen needed to make up, or my plan to take Kristen’s identity would fail.
“Make sure they get along again,” I said.
Virgie rolled her eyes. “Why? I don’t work for you.”
I advanced. “I’m the only one who will use my magic to protect you. Don’t you ever forget that. Peony left you in the dust the night of the Hunt, remember?”
Her eyes filled with hurt, but I didn’t apologize or soften my blow. She had ignored me for months. If I needed to be firm with her, so she didn’t think I was weak, so be it.
“Ahem, do you want me to come back later?” Lily stood in the dorm’s threshold, her arms loaded with books.
I shook my head. “Virgie was just leaving.”
Virgie glared at me, but turned around and sauntered out of the room.
“What’s going on?” Lily’s face was furrowed with concern.
A strange tingle mixed with ice swept over my body as I imagined Virgie's attitude again. “Nothing. I’m just tired of putting up with Virgie’s bullshit.”
Lily stepped closer, her brows furrowing, then she touched my hair. “Wow.”
I jerked back. “Ever heard of private space?” My voice sounded different.
Lily smiled, almost jumping up and down. “Look in the mirror.”
I turned slowly, my heart pounding wildly with hope. And there it was, not my face, but Virgie’s, staring back at me. My eyes were dark, my face was rounder, and my hair was a silky black curtain.
I glanced down at my uniform to find my shirt ready to burst. Somehow, that made it fully sink in. I let out a laugh and crushed Lily in a hug. “I did it!” My voice was not my own, but Virgie’s.
“You sure did!”
Finally, I let go of her. Hope filled my heart for the first time in ages. “Did Virgie see?”
Li
ly shook her head. “You turned into her a second after she left.”
My ears rang in confusion. I hadn’t even been trying to turn into Virgie in that moment. What exactly had happened? Had it been the combination of me focusing on molding my ice and the anger of arguing with Virgie? I’d go with it. “But I wasn’t trying to use glamour.”
Lily shrugged, eyes widening. “You must’ve done something. Maybe not trying is the trick.”
I tried to think. The ice had risen in my veins at the challenge in Virgie’s tone, but I hadn’t actively had to hold it back. Instead, I’d stared at her hard, committing each of her features to my memory. I had done it almost subconsciously, barely aware of it, not realizing that I had finally found the key to unlock glamour. Reshaping my anger had allowed me to access the power and being in close proximity for an extended time with Virgie allowed me to become a mirror image of her. At least, that was my best theory.
That’s what Petra must’ve done with the real Ms. Rutherford. Petra had been furious over her brother’s disappearance and probably found Ms. Rutherford’s home where they went at it. I could imagine it scene by scene. Petra threatening Ms. Rutherford. Ms. Rutherford insisting that she didn’t know anything about Preston. Finally, Petra must’ve realized that the only way to get answers was to get into Nocturnal Academy. That’s when she had decided to use glamour. Now I could do the same thing. That meant that I’d have to—
Fear crept into me and a cold tingle swept over my body.
Lily's smile dropped away but relief filled her eyes. “You’re back to normal. That’s good. Would’ve been weird having two Virgies walking around the academy.”
I didn’t share her joy. Anger switched on glamour while fear made it dissipate—Petra had lost hers in the awful simulation cube and I had turned back into myself when I realized that I was really going through with my insane plan. But there was a new problem. “I’ll have to incapacitate Kristen long enough for me to get out of here. And the vamps are going to bid on us soon.”
Lily gulped. “How are you planning to do that?”
I shook my head, heart racing and stomach sick. I didn’t know, but I sure hoped that I didn’t have to kill her to pull off the glamour. Killing in self-defense was one thing, but killing to get something…it was monstrous, unforgivable, and yet the iciness in my veins egged me on, telling me to take what was mine. Telling me that I deserved to be free, whispering that the end result always justified the means.
I had ignored the impulses of my Winter Court powers for too long, but I couldn’t pretend they didn’t exist any longer. I was evil, tempted to do whatever to escape Vulthus and other sadists. I was a predator, just like the vamps.
“Onyx, are you all right?” Lily touched me gently, but I jerked back.
“I’m fine. I just need some alone time,” I snapped. Then I dashed out of the room, hoping to find the one person who might know what to do with my new monstrosity.
19
Onyx
I was being reckless. I knew so, and yet, I still headed toward the Home Décor room and slipped through the hidden trapdoor, making my way down the secret tunnel and toward the staff tower.
My nerves only fully kicked in when I reached the storage closet, and thus, the final door that separated me from the vamp staff lurking behind it. As always, I paused before opening the door, straining my ears for noises. There were none, and I prayed that it meant the coast was clear. Vamps were just like cats, incredibly quiet when they wanted to be.
I pushed the door handle down as footsteps neared. Quickly, I released it, pressing myself into a wall instinctively, even though it wouldn’t provide cover.
“Headmistress Cardinal isn’t happy. If Vulthus doesn’t buy a fae from her this year, she’s going to lose a lot of money,” a female voice said. I groaned, recognizing it was the mean guard McKenna. “Our jobs are going to suck big time.”
“Because monitoring a bunch of hormonal morons is so much fun all the other times.”
My heart swelled at Thorsten’s smooth voice, my body purring at the deep vibration of his baritone.
McKenna chuckled. “Touche. Well, I’ve got to get going. Catch you later.”
Thorsten didn’t respond. A set of footsteps disappeared, and I dared to open the door an inch. Thorsten glared at me before slipping into the storage closet and shutting the door behind himself. “What are you doing here?” he hissed.
I smiled, no longer intimidated by him. Not after the kisses we had shared. “I’ve done it. I used glamour.”
His eyes shone with approval before he frowned. “You could’ve told me later. It’s not safe to use this tunnel.”
I ignored his reprimand, sick and tired of others telling me what to do or what was dangerous. My whole life was dangerous. I might as well live a little. “Virgie said that Peony only sent Mei the video and that Peony’s phone went missing at the outing. I guess I have you to thank for that?” I shot Thorsten a playful smile.
He shook his head. “No thanks needed. I did what I had to do.”
I groaned. “Seriously, we’re going back to this?” Exasperated, I waved my hands around. Why was he being so standoffish, especially now that we were in a closet? He didn’t reply, and I crossed my arms. “Really? After everything?”
He ran a hand through his blond strands, unaware what the simple gesture did to me. “What happened was a mistake. It can never happen again.”
I coughed on my own spittle. “Are you kidding me? We kissed twice, and it did not feel like a mistake.”
Thorsten pinched the space between his brows as if I was unreasonable. “If you value your life, you’ll get out of here, Onyx, before Vulthus takes you back to his mansion.”
I stepped closer and reached my hand forward, but he stepped back as if the idea of me touching him was repugnant. “I know we have to be careful.” I bit my lip. “If this is about me using the tunnel, I won’t again. We’ll make sure no one sees us.”
“There is no us.” His voice was as hard as granite, and he flashed his fangs. “You’re a fae, and I’m a vampire. We can never be together.”
Tears pricked my eyes, but I ignored them. Instead, I turned up my rage. “Why don’t you tell that to the thousands of vamp-fae pairings out there!”
Thorsten let out a brutal laugh, his hand flying to my chin. He twisted my face upward, exposing my neck. “Is that what you want? Do you want me to buy you, so that you can be my personal whore and blood bag, Onyx?”
Humiliation burned through me like acid, destroying everything in its path.
“Well, is it?” Thorsten’s grip on me hardened, and his fangs trailed over my skin. A shudder that was fear mixed with pleasure ran through me, and I leaned forward. I could let him bite me. Show him that I was stronger than he thought. Show him that I wasn’t scared of what he was. That we were more alike than he thought.
But instead of sinking his fangs into my skin, Thorsten pushed me away. A cruel laugh spilled from the lips I had wanted to kiss only moments ago. “Sorry, love, you don’t do it for me. If you must know, Virgie is more my type. I don’t like trailer trash girls with purple hair.”
My teeth chattered, and the tears that shot into my eyes this time were too strong to hold back.
But Thorsten wasn’t done yet. He looked down on me, studying me like I was a bug. “Did you really think that a Steinberg would go for a nobody like you? My friend and I had a bet. He said that the fae hated all of us too much to willingly be with us. I said I’d prove him wrong, by choosing the most rebellious girl and breaking her.” Thorsten reached into his pocket, and I gasped at the red crystal he produced. “I won this.”
“No.”
He grinned. “Yes.”
“But the videos?” He had been distressed, hadn’t he?
He shrugged. “The twins almost gang raped Virgie and you still think that I’d get in trouble for a little kiss.” He snorted. “You’re pathetic.”
“But your sire.”
; Thorsten held up the blood crystal, and I quickly glanced away. Who knew what he’d compel me to do for his entertainment?
“I’m afraid my sire doesn’t have a good sense of humor. He’s rather a stickler for the rules.”
I shook my head so hard I was surprised it didn’t snap off. “But why help me all those times? I don’t believe you did it for a bet.”
“Then you’re a fool.” Thorsten’s arctic gaze drilled into me. “There’s no fun in killing you quickly and putting you out of your misery. Haven’t you noticed that we like to play with our food?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing more than a croak came out. Had I really misjudged Thorsten so much? The haughtiness in his looming posture, the brutal cut of his jaw, and the hardness in his eyes told me that yes, I had. It had all been a game to him. I should’ve trusted my first instinct about him. I should’ve stayed strong. Instead, I had made a fool out of myself. But no more.
I turned around and ran. I expected the tears to fall, but they didn’t. My chest hardened, my mind growing stronger and more resolute. I was getting out of here. I wouldn’t let anyone break me.
The vamps were all psychos, one worse than the next. The fae were weak and pathetic losers. I would forge my own path. All that mattered was survival.
With the term coming to an end, there was no time to feel sorry for myself. I only saw Thorsten in German where I made every effort to avoid looking at him, which was fairly easy since he never called on me and treated me like air.
Since sadness or fear wouldn’t get me anywhere, I studied extra hard all through April and improved my glamour, taking Virgie’s form every night and holding onto it for longer periods of time. Unfortunately, I still hadn’t had the chance to turn into Kristen. I was certain I could, but she always avoided being one on one with me, as if her subconscious knew that I was a threat. Peony, on the other hand, had no issue catching me in the corridor alone.
“Hope you’re into candlewax, Onyx. I bet Vulthus will make Blair drip some on you before he watches you being defiled,” she sing-songed, playing with a blonde curl as she trotted past me.
The Nocturnal and Fae Prison Academy Boxset [A Complete Paranormal and Fantasy Series Boxset] Page 38