by Meg Xuemei X
When the building toppled down, my magic calmed, and the dark monster in me was partially sated and slumbered.
“She can conduct and channel all of our magic!” someone declared.
“I’ve never seen any power like that. What does it mean?”
“What is she?”
Awe, uneasiness, and apprehension mixed in the air.
“She’s the eater of the world,” Noah murmured. “She carries the power of death. She’s the heir of Hades, the God of Death.”
Fear spread amid the mass. Cries to attack burst out.
My mates summoned their flaming swords, ready to defend me, and their warriors formed a protective ring, drawing weapons.
Even Boone pulled out a wicked-looking dagger. Could he really fight? I didn’t want him to get hurt. I preferred he stay in the kitchen and make me cakes.
And Celeb, the half-demon, snarled savagely, about to unleash the nightmare.
It seemed that the war would start right here in the Academy, among us.
I’d called for everyone to focus on fighting the gods, but they’d forgotten it when fear sank into their flesh and bones.
They’d only seen that I could destroy them.
That was true. I could slaughter them all.
My dark monster was waiting for a chance to arise again. It yearned to inhale the pungent scent of blood.
“She’s Cassandra Saélihn, the One to come and has come!” Amber’s voice, unlike any human voice, boomed over the courtyard, reaching every corner. Power throbbed in her every word. “The One you’ve been waiting for. She’s your defender and the humility’s hope. She could have hurt you, but she’d rather hurt herself, so she took all of the powers into her instead of tossing hers at you. If she’d done that, you’d have all been dust. You’ve seen what she can do. She can gather your magic, channel it, and hit our enemies. She’s your conductor, and you’ll join her. She’ll lead you to fight the gods and drive them out of Earth. I was sent as the prophet, to pave the path before her. So listen, your prophet has spoken!”
The tension diffused, and a vibe of awe and hope dominated the crowd, replacing fear.
I caught a darkly amused look in Noah’s green eyes before anyone could.
The mass rushed toward me, wanting to surround their “assigned savior” or maybe lift me up onto their shoulders.
Amber the seer had just brought me another kind of unwelcome trouble, but I couldn’t chide her now, nor could I fend off the crowd, so I left it to my mates.
My knees buckled.
I wasn’t just spent.
Something fundamental was wrong with me as I felt the empty burn in my chest.
“Reys,” I whispered as I eyed him, then my other mates. “I don’t feel good. I might have a fever.”
“Get our mate out of here,” Lorcan ordered.
I blacked out in my mates’ arms as one of them scooped me up, and before that, I vaguely heard someone murmur, “They said she drained a god. Our hope has finally come. Just that she isn’t what we expected.”
20
Now that the entire Council knew of my existence, they demanded my mates present me for their evaluation. My mates hadn’t set up a date yet, though they knew the Council had to meet me eventually if they wanted the Academy to stand behind me.
My mates had planned for me to be their assassin before they met me, and now they just wanted to shield me. Despite their best efforts, the fight against the gods in the Misery Twist club had leaked. I could no longer be a secret, either to the gods or the earthlings.
News spread like a virus, which would only make the gods come seek me sooner. My mates had been stressed out, and they needed to adapt from shielding me and hiding me to fighting beside me while protecting me.
It wasn’t easy to be my mates, I’m telling you. If it was any comfort, there were four of them, so they could share the burden. If I had only one mate, he’d definitely get a stomach ulcer.
Before the Council met me, they wanted to punish me for blowing up half of the courtyard and the guard tower, as an example to others. Reys and Pyrder objected fiercely, but they were outvoted.
“Why do we even need the fucking Council?” Alaric said. “We’ll take Cass and move to my realm in Australia. I have a powerful hybrid troop. Lorcan’s vampire horde can join us, and then your fae army. We’ll also get the shifters to our side.”
“When the full-front war breaks out eventually,” Reysalor said, “we’ll need the mages and the human force. We’ll need every alliance. It’s not wise to divide us right now just because we don’t agree with the Council’s decision. They have a large military force.”
“We’ll only tell them to fuck off when we have no other options,” Pyrder said. “Right now, we have two seats, my twin and me. The shifter Council member is staying neutral at the moment. Dustin doesn’t lean toward us because he’s pissed that we didn’t let him in on Cass. That can be amended. We’ll give him an honor and take Cass to visit his Moonshine clan.”
“What’s the punishment the Council set for me?” I asked, painting my nails.
Each of my nails would have a different color since I had twelve bottles of nail polish and color in front of me on the table. Ambrosia gave them to me, but she warned me not to bring them to the conference. They were mine now, so where I brought them was no longer her business.
“Your mates tolerate only you,” Ambrosia sighed darkly as if she were wise. “If anyone else dared to pull that stunt, they’d make the person drink all that nail polish.”
That was gross.
But Ambrosia might be right because, for the first time, my four mates didn’t fight about sitting next to me. Instead, they sat on the other side of the table, and spread out to the corner. They didn’t like the chemical smell of nail polish.
I’d finish soon, so they’d just suffer briefly.
Only my faithful friend Amber sat beside me. She didn’t want her nails painted though. Ever since I teleported her into the middle of the pool, she was anxious all the time and constantly feared for my safety, not her own.
She kept telling my mates not to let me near the water that had sounds and that if I did I would be taken. When my mates pumped her for details, she didn’t provide them. She insisted that she should not tell all, or the vision would realize.
I warned my mortal friend not to worry too much or she’d have gray hair and wrinkles soon. And then who would want her as a mate? I didn’t want her to end up a spinster since no fun could beat the bedroom pleasure.
“The Council wants you to run twenty laps at the tracks,” Pyrder said.
I raised my head from my colorful fingernails. “I can do that. I’m good at running.”
“They want you to maintain a certain speed while carrying a magical bomb,” Reysalor added darkly. “If you slow down, the bomb will go off.”
“Uh, a bomb? I have to carry a bomb?” I blinked, and my hand knocked over two nail bottles.
Xihin peeled off from the wall and helped me right the bottles. Unlike fae, the vampires weren’t allergic to chemicals, except for Lorcan.
Amber gingerly wiped away the stain on the table with a Kleenex.
I thanked them and glanced at the elite warriors—fae, vampire, and hybrids—who stood against two opposite walls like marble columns. They could stand still like that for an entire day if required, which amazed me to no end.
“None of the students has ever been punished like that,” Pyrder said.
But then, none of the students had ever demolished half the courtyard.
“What happens if the bomb goes off?” I wanted to know.
“Who cares,” Alaric said. “Fuck it, you aren’t doing it.”
“Noah designed the magical bomb,” Pyrder said. “He’s the one behind the whole idea of testing Cass’s power then punishing her because of the outcome.”
“My men are still investigating his true background,” Lorcan said. “We must know everything about him since he rose to
power so recently and rapidly.”
“I don’t think the bomb can harm me,” I said.
“We’ll turn them down,” Reysalor said. “The bomb might harm you. Remember the poison that fucker Phobos gave you?”
“Noah wouldn’t be so stupid as to harm me in public,” I said. “He won’t cross any one of you, and you are four. It’ll be his death if he hurts me. I think I should do it and send a message. There are rules for everyone, and I’ll follow the rules for the sake of unity. I’ll show the future army that I’ll take responsibility for my actions.”
“We won’t let you do it,” Alaric said. “We won’t let those buggers set you up as an example. You’re beyond that. If the Council wants to punish anyone, it should be that fucker Noah. He has too much interest in our mate.”
“I’m not beyond that,” I said. “As they say, ‘No one is beyond the law.’ It rings true sometimes. And this is my decision. You all want to shield me. Your instincts are to protect me, no matter the costs. Though I age differently than your kinds, I’m a full-grown woman. And I’m no longer the girl who just came out of the cage. I’ve learned, faster than you can imagine. My mental capacity also matures and evolves faster than any other kind. If you want to keep me, you need to allow me to grow and not leash me. Trust me as I trust you. Trust I have the power to defend myself and the ability to make good decisions.”
My mates stared at me, as if they didn’t recognize me.
“You always surprise us, dulcis,” Lorcan said softly.
“I’ve wondered when you’d ever be mature,” Amber said in a hushed voice. She was still intimidated by all of my mates, but she could rise to the occasion.
I grinned at my mates. “I’m a mated female now. I can’t always be reckless. More important, I need to take the leadership role, like you dudes. So I’d better start now. I don’t want to end up as an idiot with too much power.”
Quite a few people chuckled in the room.
“You want to be a leader, I see,” Reysalor said, pondering.
“She’s never a follower anyway,” Pyrder grunted.
“I’m going to woman up and take more responsibility,” I said, looking at them expectantly, “even if it comes as a form of punishment. What do you guys think?”
They assented grudgingly, with one condition.
When the day came, I ran laps at amazing speed, all smiles, holding a crystal ball as if it weren’t a bomb but a gift. If I tried to toss it away before I finished twenty laps, it would go off. And if I ran below the speed limit, it would explode, too.
The crystal ball contained potent magic, yet I couldn’t discern what type of magic lay inside. But I knew it wasn’t Earth magic.
This Noah dude was something. How could he access non-Earth magic? Something was off with him. Soon I would get Amber to work with me and give him a heavy-lift reading. If he was anything like Phobos …
A black panther charged toward me and ran beside me.
That was our bargain. I refused to let all my mates crowd me and take part in my punishment, so they compromised and sent only Reys to monitor the bomb.
The students were watching us. Somehow the meddlesome Amber spread the word that I’d had to redirect my power to destroy the empty part of the courtyard in order not to hurt them. Now many of them thought I was taking the punishment for them.
Amber trailed after me after my second lap. Then another student joined. Then another. When I finished the fourth lap, the track was full of students, running with me or behind me. Yet all of them left one lane vacant for me.
“You go, Cass,” someone called after me. “Lead us.”
I hadn’t expected this kind of support, and warmth swelled in my chest like the brightest sunlight in winter.
While my other mates spread out on every corner of the track, watching me like protective hawks, the panther sprang beside me like a black arrow, keeping up with me in every step.
The fae heir to Sihde had set me free. He had been with me when my new cage-free life started. He was with me now in the middle of the track, and he’d be with me to the end.
“I love you, Reys,” I said, holding the bomb steadily.
The black panther roared in response.
21
A wave of nausea shook me, and a pounding pain slammed into my skull.
I snapped open my eyes. I was majorly relieved that I wasn’t in the cage but sleeping in Reys’s arms, Pyrder on my other side, his strong hand draping over my thigh.
My eyes found Alaric on a long sofa near the bed, asleep. This was the largest room in Pyrder’s suite in the Academy, so we took it as our common room. Alaric wouldn’t get in bed with us unless he fought and won the place sleeping next to me.
My gaze skipped Alaric, searching for my last mate, but he wasn’t here.
The High Lord of Night had a different schedule than us. He was most active at night. So, right now, he might be patrolling the floor to make sure I was properly guarded, delve into the deep night to find our enemies’ secrets, or coordinate with his generals and kings of all vampires across the globe to ready for the war.
My mating bond with him was strong since we’d exchanged blood several times. I now could easily detect Lorcan’s true emotions and intentions if he didn’t block me. My bond with Alaric and Pyrder was solid as well, though different than with Lorcan. Reys and I also had a bond, but it hadn’t snapped in place since he was the only one who hadn’t properly claimed me, even though he was the first I’d had intimacy with.
Reys wanted to form the bond with me, but he wasn’t rushing me. Right now, he was pretty content just to hold me in his sleep. His body heat, solidity, and pure male scent comforted me.
As I nudged closer to his cut chest, another wave of dizziness assaulted me, and an empty, cold feeling gnawed my insides, digging and expanding, as if a foreign force was gutting me.
The nausea turned worse, spinning me violently.
Panic burned in my throat.
I took a deep breath, trying to drive away the terrible feeling, but my chest tightened like a fist. A sound escaped my throat, which I had no control over.
Alaric jumped off the sofa, fully awake now. He strode toward the bed, looking down at me.
A shadow of alarm flicked through his eyes.
My face must have looked paler than the dead. And the moonlight shining through the window on my skin wasn’t making the sight better.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Alaric asked softly.
Pyrder bolted up, turning to me.
Reys pulled me tightly against him, still sleepy. “Cass baby, what’s hurting you?”
Alaric had gotten into the bed with us, reaching me and trying to pull me into his arms.
“I got her,” Reys said, gathering me onto his lap.
A stream of tears flowed down my face. I started sobbing.
“Cass baby, talk to us,” Reysalor coaxed, his finger wiping off my tears, which flowed faster than he could dry them.
“I’m very thirsty,” I said amid my sobs. “I’m going to die of thirst.”
Reysalor left the bed and immediately returned with a cup of water. Alaric moved in and took Reys’s place as he inspected me.
Reysalor put the glass to my lips. “Drink, baby.”
I shook my head, pushed the glass away, “Water can’t make the thirst go away,” and sobbed. I couldn’t help it. “Nothing can. My head is pounding and pounding. My body hurts everywhere. I’m dying.”
“You’re not dying, Cass baby,” Pyrder said. “We’ll figure this out.”
“I’m going to kill Noah,” Alaric said. “That motherfucker gives off bad vibes. Cass wouldn’t be like this if that asshole hadn’t insisted on pulling out her power and exhausting our mate.”
“Alaric, I hurt,” I said, as I found the sympathy in him.
Alaric pulled my eyelids up and cursed.
“Are my eyes bloodshot?” I asked. “I don’t want to look bad in front of you. But do you see infec
tion? I must have caught a lethal virus. This is worse than fever.”
I had never been sick before, not even when I was half-starved to death.
“Cass is suffering severe withdrawal,” Alaric announced. “She was supposed to drink from Phobos over a week ago. Her body now craves the pure energy, but it can’t have that shot anymore.”
Reysalor took a sharp breath. “So this is like drug and alcohol addiction?”
“A hundred times worse,” Alaric said, wiping off my tears with the sheet, which was more effective than Reys’s hand. “Drug and alcohol often act as brain depressants that push down the spring and suppress the brain’s production of neurotransmitters like noradrenalin. When an addict stops using drugs or alcohol, it’s like taking the weight off the spring. Her brain rebounds by producing a surge of adrenaline that causes the withdrawal. It’s hitting Cass with savage force, since Phobos’ energy is much more powerful than any drug.”
How did he know so much about drugs? It didn’t matter. I hurt.
“I need a quick fix,” I whimpered. I truly felt like an addict, now that Alaric had been so kind and merciless as to point it out. “Or I won’t survive the night.”
Great. Now I talked like one as well.
“Maybe sugar will help,” Pyrder said. “Cass loves cakes.” He vanished and then reappeared with an angel cake Boone put in the freezer.
Boone had mentioned that this type of cake was made with egg whites alone, no yolks, though I wouldn’t mind the yolks.
“I can’t have cake,” I said. “Amber said food is scarce, and a lot of people are hungry. I’ll only have one piece of cake a week, or maybe two pieces, but that’s it.”
“Today is special, and you need cake to get over withdrawal,” Alaric said and put the cake up to my mouth.
He was right. I stuffed my face with the snow-white, airy cake and all fruits on its side, hoping it would fill the hole inside me. After two servings, I pushed the cake aside and resumed crying.
“It didn’t help. And I don’t want to keep eating cakes. I’ll gain weight and none of you will want me anymore.” Tears leaked out of my eyes again.