Dread Delight: Rosewood Academy for Witches and Mages (Darkly Sweet Book 2)

by Juliann Whicker

  “And you, saying that you might marry me? We both know that I’m just a game to you that you will play and then forget. You can play with me, that’s fine, I signed up for the Drake Huntsman fan club, but putting ideas into Revere’s head that you’re serious about me? He’s going to tell my mother. She’ll expect you to… and we both know that I’m not what you want. I’ll have to deal with that whole thing—”

  He growled and turned until I was the one against the wall, his strong, lean lines pressed against me. “Is the only way for you to understand what I want to carve my name into your skin?”

  “You always take what you want.”

  He growled and caught my jaw with his teeth. I inhaled sharply while my hands dug into him, pulling him closer. He released me and exhaled, breath cool against my wet skin. “I haven’t taken what I want. You should have noticed my restraint. There’s no point in my holding back if you don’t appreciate the effort. So,” he whispered, brushing his lips over my jaw. “Much.” He trailed his lips up to my ear. “Effort.” His teeth found my skin and nibbled on my ear lobe while I tried to breathe.

  “Drake, it’s not going to work. I need someone serious, someone I…”

  “Don’t love,” he finished for me, head bent to the side of my neck.

  I gripped his neck and slid my fingers up to tangle in his hair. “You said that you’d get bored with me quickly. Why haven’t you yet?”

  “You don’t belong to me. How can I tire of something I don’t have?”

  I pushed him away to see into his eyes, to think or something. “Fine. Write your name in my skin. It’s only fair.”

  He inhaled sharply while the scent of black cherry made me dizzy, or maybe that was him. “You don’t know what you’re saying. We should go.” He pulled away.

  I scraped my nails over his chest where I’d put my name.

  He gasped and arched towards me, his reaction more than I expected from a well-healed wound. Unless it wasn’t. I started unbuttoning his shirt, my fingers trembling while his hands slid over my arms, my sides, my hair, never still, never settling, as if searching for something.

  It only took three buttons before I saw angry pink skin. I frowned at it before I carefully traced my finger over the ‘P’ and ‘E’ of my name. “It didn’t heal.”

  “I recarve it from time to time.”

  I stared at him. “Why would you do that?”

  His lips twisted. “Because I’m a wicked mage and I like remembering your bite. It reminds me you have darkness that you keep locked up. If a witch like you can do such a thing, I can as well.”

  “But I failed. You pushed and pushed until you broke me.”

  He grinned, sharp teeth gleaming. “I like to remember that as well.”

  “You didn’t seem to mind.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “What did it feel like, me writing my name in your skin? Wasn’t it humiliating?”

  He shook his head, pressing his thumb against my lips. “Someone told me that I needed humbling.”

  “And that’s why you sang badly tonight.”

  He replaced his thumb with his lips, his bare chest beneath my fingers, my name rough on his skin. He kissed me slow, steady, sweet, so sweet. I trembled from the sweetness. My heart ached, pounded and my whole body keened for him.

  Drake pulled away a little bit and I searched his eyes for something. Love. I was looking for love in him like it was inside of me, this big, messy bulbous monster that snorted and woofled inside my heart, like an oversized dragon knocking over all the furniture.

  “This wasn’t supposed to happen,” I whispered, tracing his face with my fingers. “You’re a dangerous distraction, a wolf, but I really want you to bite me.”

  He swallowed and pushed my hair back less gently. “You want my bite? I don’t believe you.”

  I ran my fingers over his chest, scraping the wound so he gasped and his pupils dilated. “It’s your turn to want something. Do you?”

  He gazed at me for a long time, hands tracing the lines of my face. “Yes, just not now.” He stepped away from me, but I grabbed him and pulled him back, kissing him, desperate because he could not leave, not like this, not when my heart was full and soft and aching for him.

  His hands slid over my hair, grasping and tangling, until his fingers found the back of my neck, sliding over my bare skin beneath my collar to my back. I gasped against his mouth as his fingers dug into the flesh beneath the bony part of my shoulder.

  I pulled away to search his eyes, desperately. “Yes. There. Please,” then I kissed him again, scraping his lips with my teeth, tasting the sweetness of his mouth. He didn’t taste like ashes but like honey, dark, rich, so sweet it made my bones ache. He should be cutting my skin with his nails, but instead he massaged the muscles beneath the skin on my back and shoulder.

  I pushed him away and glared at him. “You aren’t cutting me.”

  He gave me a half-smile but his eyes were unfocused, so dark as he bent close and inhaled tremblingly. “It’s not what you want, not really. You smell so delicious. Don’t ask again because I can’t resist and you will regret it.”

  I couldn’t breathe through the ache in my chest. “Do you regret me tying you in the woods and carving my name in you?”

  “No,” he murmured, brushing my lips with his. “Never. But you did.”

  I had. I’d run away from him and the succession of disasters were from my running, or from my not thinking. He was right. I couldn’t let some mage carve his name into my skin. What would Revere think? What about my mother? I was here to save her and instead I was letting myself drown in a mage.

  Just some mage who made me forget loneliness, who filled my life with sparks of light, pleasure, joy, love, where before had been nothing but shadows and pain. I touched his face, brushing my fingertips over his cheekbones beneath the soft flutter of his eyelashes. He smelled so strongly of black cherry, rich, dark, and just a hint of blood and ashes. I kissed him, slow, soft, like we had all the time in the world.

  He melted against me, holding me gently, and I clung to him like I was a koala bear. The world hung suspended in that bright perfect moment, sweetness bordering on pain until he kissed me gently and drew back, his hand cupping my cheek.

  “I need to get back. I have to prepare for the Blackheart tourney.” He kissed me once on the lips, once on my nose and once on my forehead then tried to pull away.

  I clung to him, desperately koalaing him before I felt a rush of shame and let him go. “Right. Sorry. Yeah. You should go and do the important stuff.”

  He froze, staring at me, for a moment all expression wiped from his face. “You know that I want you.”

  I shrugged and turned away, wrapping my arms around myself. My chest pounded harder and harder until he gripped my shoulders and forced me to face him.

  He half shook his head. “I’m not good at self-denial. I’m giving you one more chance to withdraw the offer of your skin.”

  I swallowed and my heart pounded. “If you really want me, even if it’s only for today, my skin, my heart is yours.”

  He studied me for a long moment before he nodded, pulled away, ran his hands through his hair, glanced at me again then reached into his inside jacket pocket and took out a very small knife. “If I’m going to cut you, it’s going to be precise.”

  I nodded and unbuttoned the top three buttons on my blouse, pulling back my hair to bare my shoulder to him. I gasped as he ran his fingertips over my skin, then he grabbed me around the waist, pulling me against him so he could stare into my eyes while his right hand, the one holding the blade pressed into my skin. He stared at me for a long time, the knife there but not breaking the flesh. I leaned back until I felt the bite of the blade slipping through my skin. I inhaled sharply, my chest rising and falling against his while his eyes grew darker and darker then began glowing green.

  I tangled my fingers in his hair while he shifted against me, the blade slowly sliding over, around, his hand pull
ing me painfully close, his heart pounding against mine, his breathing rapid. The piercing in my shoulder grew to a burning, glowing ache that eclipsed every other pain I’d ever had, but the sweetness of it had me searching for his mouth. The pain burned pleasantly, rolling through my bones, muscles, joints, until it echoed inside me, easing all the other pain, the ache I felt in the space where Poppy had filled up my heart.

  In that moment, until that very last sweet cut, I was whole, perfectly whole and happy.

  Chapter 41

  Mage

  I left her in her room, closing the door behind her firmly. She felt how I’d felt after she’d engraved her name in me. Her eyes unfocused, euphoria blending with reality so everything was beautiful and fuzzy. Hopefully the bliss would last a long time. I felt like ripping apart the world and burning it, running and not stopping.

  How could I have done that to her? I stood there, palm pressed against her door while I tried to get it together. Yes, I’d been pushing her towards this conclusion ever since the woods, but this wasn’t the right moment. It should have been later, after she came back from winter break, after she’d been without me just long enough that the craving was unbearable, and then I would take it slow, and not leave her alone to discover the depth of my betrayal on her own.

  I didn’t have time to coax her into calm acceptance of the inevitability of our lives being entwined. I’d broken her as she’d broken me. I could not step away from her, not from the moment I’d seen her standing in the orchestra pit looking up at me with love glowing in her eyes.

  She did. I could taste her love when she kissed me. I could smell it on her skin as she clung to me, feel it in her nails as they scraped over my skin. Love. And now she belonged to me.

  “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for the tourney?”

  I turned to see Viney standing, short, arms crossed, glaring at me but looking tired. “The tourney.”

  She pressed her lips together for a moment. “You’ve been preparing for it all year. Blackheart students should be arriving any time. It’s going to be chaos.”

  I swallowed and nodded. I should go. My hand rose again, fingers brushing the wood of Penny’s door. “What happened today? You were supposed to keep her away. She saw me.”

  Her mouth twitched. “And we all heard you.”

  I shook my head, anger coming to life. “If I hadn’t seen her, then I wouldn’t have…” I ran a hand through my hair and took a shaky breath. I had a whole school of mages to break. This wasn’t the time, Viney wasn’t the right target.

  “She must have suspected that I was up to something and slipped away from me. I should have tied her up, but she doesn’t seem capable of being devious. Your debt is void.”

  Zach’s lazy drawl interrupted us. “Come on, Viney, you can’t give up Drake’s debt. They’re rarer than hen’s teeth. Drake, the whole school is mewling for you.”

  I glared at Zach, his blue eyes alight and glowing. I wasn’t the only one close to the edge then. “Why? There are other mages in this school who can manage things.”

  Zach gave me a smile, a wild one that made him look crazy. “It’s the people that you manage so beautifully. Only you could turn what should be hurt betrayal into devoted ecstasy. Penny is in the palm of your hand.”

  I looked down at my hand, clenched into a white fist. Yes. She’d been in my hand and I’d crushed her. I’d meant to. This was all part of the plan. I’d wanted her, and now I had her, and I felt like throwing up and destroying the world, and hurting as many people as possible. Which was why I was walking past Viney and Zach, out into the hall, through the other students and out of the building, taking the long way through the cold wind that didn’t cut through the heat that pounded through me. Green flooded the world, anger and heat merging until I stopped, opened my phone, ordered a pizza and sent it to Lilac Stories. It wasn’t a Tuesday. It was a holiday in Pisa. Or something else that didn’t seem very funny at the moment.

  The rules were to keep me from falling stupidly down this rabbit hole, of acting recklessly with Penny. Maybe she wouldn’t notice the bond between us. I wasn’t going to use it, not until she got used to the idea. I had no interest in developing a relationship with her akin to Ian and Wit’s. She wanted me. I wanted her. Revere spoke as though she were eligible for marriage. These days it was unusual for marriage to be arranged, but Revere seemed from a different world, a different time.

  How could I get Penny to want to marry me? Reluctance worked to a certain point, but she really didn’t want to need me. If I gave her too much space, she’d simply enjoy it. I didn’t have to persuade her. I could force her. I had a bond engraved deeply in her skin. It had bled too much. I still had her blood staining my fingers and it would soak into her adorable pink blouse. I’d used magic to hold back extreme blood loss, but it was inevitable. I looked at my fingers but all I could see was her skin beneath them. I closed my eyes and her own gazed back at me, gold burning bright in her eyes, lips parted, waiting for me to devour them. I could still taste her love, sweet and bitter at the same time.

  “Drake, where have you been?”

  I hunched my shoulders and ignored Pete’s voice. My pace wasn’t fast enough unless I flat out ran. I turned my head to glare at him, but he only grinned back.

  “The Blackheart senior mages have arrived and are arguing that the locker room we’ve given them isn’t large enough.”

  “Switch them.”

  He looked surprised. “But Rosewood mages can’t be expected to change in that tiny damp space. It’s barely heated.”

  “I should have thought of this. They’re our guests. Give them our apologies and change rooms.”

  “Me?”

  I growled at him. “Have Ian and Oscar help you if you can’t manage it on your own.”

  “Where are you going? You’re headed towards the woods.”

  I broke into a jog. “I need some air. I’ll be back shortly.”

  I hit a run and focused on each step in the snow, my dress shoes not entirely appropriate footwear, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was making my body do something until it ached, something that wasn’t going to rip someone apart.

  I was in the woods when my phone buzzed. I glanced at it then froze. Penny’s eyes gazed at me. I leaned against a tree, chest rising and falling while I wiped my forehead.

  It was only a text.

  Thanks for the pizza.

  I texted back with shaky fingers.

  Are you still hungry?

  It was only a moment before she responded.

  Only for you.

  I stared at that message for a long time, unable to quiet the pounding in my heart. She was still floating on bliss. Maybe she wouldn’t notice what I’d done to her.

  Cannibalism? I like it.

  When are you coming back?

  If she was already starting to crave me, to ache without me, the euphoric state wouldn’t last long. I should have stayed with her instead of, what was I doing? Running around in the woods?

  Let’s have breakfast tomorrow. Waffles?

  Yes. Her response was immediate. She added in a moment, I miss you.

  I ran my shaky hand through my hair and almost crushed my phone against the nearest tree. “I’m sorry, Penny. I’m sorry that I fulfilled your expectations so completely.”

  I texted back. I need to dress for the tourney. I’ll see you again soon.

  I turned off my phone and put it in my pocket. I had to get it together. I’d won. I did not run away after I won. I stepped into Darkside, stood for a moment in a street watching a screaming monster race towards me before I stepped through again, barely avoiding a messy death. I stepped out in the hall outside the locker room beneath the Tourney stadium.

  I slipped through the mages who milled around aimlessly, trying to look unimportant until I could get to Pete.

  “When the prince gets here, we’re not going accept such insults!” An enormous boy, black haired, black eyed, the usual Blackheart MO loomed
over Pete who grinned back at him manically.

  “And when Drake gets here, you’re going to really wish you had.”

  I cleared my throat and Pete whirled around to stare at me, his eyes getting larger while he swallowed. I stepped through the suddenly quiet crowds towards the Blackheart mage who seemed to represent the others crowded behind him.

  “Good evening. Welcome to Rosewood. I’m sorry for the mix-up. You are welcome to whichever lockeroom suits you best. You can have both we’re so utterly delighted that you were able to make it. We’ll simply strip here.”

  The kid’s nostril’s widened and his lips curled in disdain as he looked down at me. He really was marvelously tall but perfectly proportioned. I looked him up and down while I smiled back at him.

  “I didn’t expect the great Drake Huntsman would be so shrimpy and pathetic,” he said.

  Someone laughed, but it was a laugh that filled my cantankerous heart with fond and terrifying memories. I actually smiled as I turned and looked down the hall to the mage who lurked in the shadows. “Speaking of shrimpy and pathetic,” I drawled.

  He stepped out of the shadows, having them stretch out longer than possible until he revealed his impossibly perfect face. He even looked gorgeous in the terrible florescent lighting. “Drake. You weren’t here to greet us.”

  “My apologies. I had some energy I needed to get out of my system. I’d hate to hurt one of your mages irrevocably.”

  The tall mage made an outraged sound. “Are you saying that you needed a handicap against us, against the prince?”

  Teddy held up his hand, face amused. “Such little control. I’m delighted to hear it. Maddox here forgets that after graduation he’ll be applying for a position among your mercs.”

  I glanced at the tall mage. “You should apply early. We do have several openings this year.” I turned back to Teddy. “You know that I never let my personal feelings interfere with business.”