by G. Bailey
“Morgan! Don’t do this for me. Please!” I shout at him. He simply shakes his head at me and moves his gaze to Nikoli.
“Begging doesn’t suit you, Alexandria,” Nikoli tells me, reaching out and grabbing my arm. “For every action, there is always an opposite and equal reaction,” he quotes Isaac Newton like that makes everything make sense. “Let’s see if she survives what she made you do.”
“No!” I say as he goes to lift his other hand, and I grab it to stop him signalling Morgan. “We might be demons, but it doesn’t mean we have to be evil. This feels wrong. Doesn’t it feel that way to you?”
“Oh, Alexandria,” he pulls his arm out of my grip and cups my cheek for a brief second. “No, it doesn’t feel wrong to me. It feels like revenge.” He lets go of my cheek and signals Morgan. Everything slows down as I twist around, hearing my heart pounding hard in my ears to see Letitia falling down through the air, her body rapidly spinning as she falls, her long blonde hair hiding her face, and her red pyjamas standing out in the dark night. It’s beautifully tragic. It’s beautifully wrong. Her body soon disappears under the water, and I push Nikoli’s arm away as tears fall down my cheeks.
“It had to be done, Lexi. Don’t you see that?” Claus shouts at me as I walk away from him toward the door. I need to be away from them all. “She would have never stopped until you were dead.”
“It still doesn’t mean it was right to murder her!” I shout at him, and he seems shocked at my outburst as I walk away into the building, wishing I could put every part of tonight behind me.
DA has never seemed so dark as it does this night.
Chapter 23
A kiss to stop everything
“Are you ready?” Morgan asks, and I nod once at him, bracing myself to move. I watch closely as he lets the orb go, and it floats off, rapidly disappearing around the bookcases. I close my eyes and run, knowing I trust my instinct to find the orb for me. I run faster around the corner of a bookcase and swiftly turn to the left, avoiding Mr. Morganach, who always catches me in this point, in the same place. I’ve done this so many times the last three weeks that I know where he is going to be, I sense his movements like my own.
Left.
I sharply jump to the right into the passageway, opening my eyes and grinning when I see the prize inches away from me now. I trust my demon, the little words she sends to me to guide me how she wishes. I know I will pay the price when she eventually becomes stronger, but I feel like we are on the same path. I look back to see Mr. Morganach running at me, using his wings to propel himself fast, but I reach out and grab the orb, hardly believing I just did that. The orb is much colder than I suspected it would be, and it is about the weight of an orange.
“Holy fuck, I won!” I shout, jumping on the spot and holding the orb in the air.
“Congratulations. Your demon powers have excelled to such a point you are moving three times the speed you were when we started, and you are trusting your demon to guide you. Is she speaking to you?” he asks, holding a hand out for the orb for me to give back. A little part of me doesn’t want to give it back because I finally have it. I sigh and drop it in his open hand, knowing it’s not the orb I wanted. It was simply winning.
“Sometimes. When I need her,” I explain to him.
“She will try to take over soon. You’re eighteen soon, right?” he asks me.
“Two months away. It’s my birthday three days before the trial for my parents actually,” I say, sucking in a breath as I remember how much shit my parents are in, and I really have no idea how I can help them.
“Shitty birthday present,” he states.
“Not if they are freed,” I remark, raising an eyebrow.
“Right.” He smiles, but I can tell he doesn’t mean it. “If it doesn’t all work out, I will be here for you.”
“You can’t promise that, Mr. Morganach,” I remind him.
“I’ve told you to call me Morgan. I mean it,” he firmly tells me. Here is this thing again...something that I can’t quite decide what it is. I think it’s just over protectiveness because of the angel blessing I have and how frustrated he is that he hasn’t heard back from his professor with answers. Apparently, his professor could hardly believe it and wouldn’t if anyone but Morgan had told him it.
“Morgan,” I mutter.
“I feel like you’re mine, so yes, I mean it when I say I will be here for you.” He shocks me into utter silence as I meet his green eyes. Even in the dim library, they are like a light in the dark that I want to chase.
“As my teacher?” I ask. “Or as someone you need to protect because of what you saw on my thigh?”
“I’m not a good teacher, Miss Cameron,” he reminds me, and I chuckle. “And it’s not just about that. I feel like I must be here for you and protect you.”
“As a friend, yes?” I ask, and my heart pounds as he doesn’t reply, his jaw tight and his eyes burning much brighter than before.
“Well, well. What do we have here? More teacher-student moments I want to interrupt?” Nick drawls, and I turn to see him at the start of the corridor, though he is watching Morgan and doesn’t look at me. Nick’s white shirt is undone by a few buttons, showing off nothing but golden skin underneath, and his sleeves are rolled up to his elbows, giving him a more casual look than I am used to. It’s ridiculously sexy as he leans against the bookshelf. Every librarian’s dream guy right there.
He just needs glasses. Sexy glasses.
“I won the prize. Isn’t that great?” I ask, picking up how pissed off Nick is as his eyes flicker to me for a second before back to Morgan. I’ve been ignoring him and Claus since what happened with Letitia, even more after her body was found a few days later and I had to explain everything to Mr. Bisgaard. I ignored Morgan for a little bit, but he has a way of getting under my skin and not making it easy. Claus and Nikoli made it more than easy to have time away from them. I told Sera everything, and Sera no doubt told Javier a lot as he keeps sending me homemade food.
Not that I mind the sympathy cookies.
“She is not yours.” The words so carelessly escape Nick’s mouth as Mr. Morganach moves to stand in front of me.
“Say it again, you little prick. I dare you,” Mr. Morganach growls, and with how much he loves a fight, this cannot end well. I doubt I’m anything but an excuse for these two to compare their demon and angel dick sizes. Nick walks right up to Morgan, and they both stare each other down as I slip past them both and start walking backward to escape this. They aren’t going to listen to me.
“She. Is. Not. Fucking. Yours.”
He said it.
Mr. Morganach laughs, a pretty sexy and equally scary laugh before slamming his fist into Nick’s face. Nikoli hits straight back, not missing a second and clocks Mr. Morganach in the jaw, and the sound of it cracking makes me cringe. The ground starts to shake as Nikoli and Mr. Morganach fight, hitting each other time and time again, knowing their healing is going to fix it anyway. Neither one of them is stupid enough to fight with holy fire. I know it’s a power that angels can use to kill demons and take their souls, but because Nikoli and Claus are both half angel, they both can use holy fire. So can their father, and it’s said he used it to open the doors of hell. I watched a lesson in survival basics where Claus and Morgan made bows and arrows out of holy fire and shot targets. I also know some teachers have bracelets made in hell that allow them to use holy fire to travel around the academy.
As soon as I thought it, green holy fire shoots out of the ground around us, and they both grab a handful, shaping it into swords before swinging it at each other—fire in a library, great fucking idea. I back away because that stuff can actually kill me.
The lunatics.
“What a pair of tools. What the fuck are they arguing over?” Claus shouts behind me, and I turn back to him, running over to his side.
“Me,” I mutter with red cheeks.
“Then stop them before someone actually gets hurt,” Claus suggests.
“Or before they burn all the books in here.”
“Why is that my job?” I ask.
“Nikoli is your fated mate, and we all know you and the teacher are getting dirty,” he carelessly remarks. “Jealousy is a nasty problem we need to erase.”
“We aren’t—” I get cut off as Claus grabs me by the waist and kisses me. The moment our lips touch, it feels like sparks light up my whole body, bursting to explode into a million pieces for Claus to pick up. He expertly controls my lips, so much so I don’t notice anything but Claus until he lets me go. I never wanted a kiss as much as I don’t want Claus to stop kissing me in this moment. I’m speechless and in shock, seeing Claus’s amused grin and something else shining in his eyes. “That’s how you stop them.” Claus walks away like that was nothing, leaving me panting with sore lips and an even more confused heart. I turn around to see Mr. Morganach is walking away; I can only see his wings, and Nick is gone altogether.
That’s how you stop a fight, I guess.
Chapter 24
Hexes and spells
“Good work, Miss Cameron. Your hexing skills are becoming a force to be reckoned with,” Miss Herman states as a woman I’ve just hexed walks around in circles like I asked her to. I hate this, doing this to someone, but I know it’s them or me in the end, and Miss Herman is too kill-happy to risk annoying with my morals. I look across to the other table where Maggie is sitting, her arms crossed as she stares down at her spellbook. I’ve wanted to say something to her...but what?
Sorry your best friend was thrown into the sea because she tried to kill me.
It’s not something I’m going to find a card for.
If I have any morals left at this point, this class is making it impossible to keep them.
“Go and walk yourself back into your cage and shut the door,” I tell the woman with gray hair and empty eyes. They all have empty eyes, and it helps me to think they aren’t people at all. I always pick this old lady, mainly because she looks so lost and she is the only one not crying in those cages. At least I know they did something so bad that their government decided to give them over to us to be used like this.
Only it doesn’t make me feel all that better. I know the guys Nick and Claus use to hex can’t have all done something wrong.
“Have you heard about the ball?” Lela asks me as I sit back down in my seat and start writing the final symbol of the hex that worked today. My spellbook has four complete pages of hexes, ones that can do anything from making someone spin around or make someone make you a cup of tea. I’m just happy I’ve gotten better at this and everything else, it seems.
“What ball?” I ask her.
“The ball in a couple of weeks. Have you not heard or seen the posters on the walls?” she asks me.
“Oh, the snowflake one? I didn’t bother to read it,” I explain.
“Yes. It’s a winter ball. Ask Sera to get a dress made for you; you will need one, and everyone has to attend it,” she tells me. “It will be fun.”
“Sounds fun,” I say as we come to the end of the lesson. I don’t mind dancing and music, not sure about balls as I’ve never been to one. Time to try something new, I guess. “See you later, Lela.”
“Later,” she says as I walk out, holding my spellbook tightly. I walk out of class and bump straight into someone, feeling hands grab my waist to hold me up. I look up and lock eyes with burning green ones, a swirling green fire that is destroying my heart. It damn well beats so hard it could stop when I’m around him now.
“Hey, you cancelled class this morning again. Can we talk?” I ask. I haven’t seen him since the library last week and everything that happened there. He hasn’t been attending survival basics either. It’s like he has given up on me.
“No,” a simple answer, but it is anything but simple.
“Morgan—”
“Mr. Morganach is my name, and don’t you have somewhere to be? I sure fucking do,” he snaps at me before walking away and getting lost in the crowd of students that are coming out of their classes. I gulp down the embarrassment of that moment and head back to my room. I walk in and put my spellbook on the side.
“Good afternoon, want a drink?” Sera asks.
“Sure, thanks. Hey, do you know about some ball?” I ask her.
“Yes, and I ordered you a dress for it too. Is that okay?” she asks.
“Perfect actually,” I reply, and she smiles at me as I go and sit down on the sofa, resting my head back as I hear the familiar sound of the wooden panel by the window being moved. I look back to see Javier change back from his wolf to his very naked self and smirk at me. I briefly wonder how he manages to have perfectly tanned golden skin on all of his body. Not one pale bit at all.
“I’m really sorry, I have to go to a meeting tonight,” Sera explains to us after Javier finishes pulling on his gray shirt. I swear he could get dressed in one of the rooms—not in front of me—but that doesn’t happen much.
“Show’s over. I’m going to nap,” Amethyst says, purring as she walks off into my bedroom. It really was a show with all the muscles, tattoos, and goddamn sexy body Javier has.
And he knows it.
“Another one?” I ask, leaning forward on my seat as Javier crosses his arms, leaning against the wall by the window panel he just snuck in through.
“Something big is happening soon, I think. The heads of the management for wolf slaves are giving us all extra jobs, everything in the academy needs to be cleaned, and they are even making us repaint most of the rooms. I don’t know why though,” she explains to us.
“Maybe they just wanted an update,” I suggest.
“Maybe,” she says, shrugging her shoulders. “I have to go; I will be back later, brother.”
“I will stay and wait,” he replies, and she waves at us before opening the door and leaving.
“What movie did you pick this time then?” I ask as Javier walks over to me, and instead of answering, he hands me the DVD.
Tarzan.
“You want to watch a movie about yourself? How very vain of you,” I remark with a grin.
“You’re not funny, you know,” he tells me, but he is grinning.
“I am, and you know it. That’s why you are smiling,” I point out with a slight chuckle.
“You make me smile even when it’s been a shit day, but you still aren’t funny,” he tells me, and I shake my head at him.
“Go and get drinks, Tarzan. I’m going to put the DVD on,” I tell him, hearing his mutter about a demon bossing an alpha wolf around as he walks off to get some drinks that Sera had already left out for us. I sit on the sofa, and Javier moves to sit at my side, offering me Diet Coke in a glass, which he knows is my favourite thanks to all the movie nights we have with Sera. He always has Fanta. It’s becoming scary how damn well I know Javier now. He feels like a regular part of my life. We sit comfortably watching the movie for a little before my eyes drift to Javier, liking how he laughs. The sound is comforting and sexy all at the same time. Even though he is smiling and laughing, I think something is wrong because he is so much tenser than he usually is.
“What made your day so shit then?” I ask.
“You really want to know?” he replies.
“We are friends, so sure,” I point out.
“Friends with a demon,” he chuckles to himself. “My parents would be horrified.”
“Well, they aren’t here, and they don’t know me. I’m pretty sure my parents wouldn’t approve of my friendship with an alpha’s son, but I don’t care. I think you are pretty awesome...sometimes,” I explain to him. He runs a hand through his silky black hair, pushing it back, and my fingers itch to touch it.
“Only sometimes? I need to work on my friendship skills then,” he states.
“Stop changing the subject, what happened today?” I ask, and he stretches his arm across the back of the sofa and sighs before meeting my eyes. I like how he always has to look you in the eyes as he talks to you.
“My f
ather has called all female wolves of good breeding to a ceremony. It’s an old wolf thing, a way of finding your soul mate,” he explains to me. “I have to meet each of them, and it will take weeks.”
“Why are you mad about that? Sounds like speed dating, but you actually find the right person for you in the end,” I say, ignoring how a small part of me doesn’t like it.
“I don’t want to date anyone, let alone find my soul mate yet. It feels wrong, and my wolf is not impressed,” he explains to me.
“What does your wolf want?” I probe.
“Maybe one day I will tell you that, but not right now,” he says.
“Why?” I ask.
“It’s complicated, Lex,” he tells me, and I nod in understanding, knowing when to leave a subject and when not to.
“Does your wolf talk to you like my demon sometimes does?” I ask, curious about how everything works.
“Yes and no. I don’t speak to my wolf as much as feel what he wants and needs. It’s hard to explain,” he replies to me.
“I bet,” I remark.
“Do you ever want to run away from everything?” he suddenly asks.
“Every single damn day,” I answer honestly. I rest my head back, feeling the tips of his fingers skim across the back of my neck, leaving me shivering and wanting to sink my head closer to him. I don’t move though. He is my friend, and friends don’t do stuff like that.
“Should we run away together? Leave the world behind, Lexi?” he chuckles.
“You’re awfully tempting, Tarzan,” I say, seeing his gray eyes flash for just a second, like lightning in a dark storm cloud.