A hooded figure stood at the heart of the cabin, their face shrouded in shadow. As I tried to make mental notes about their height and build, their form seemed to change. They were shorter, wider, then taller again. I blinked against the strange magic and realised the culprit was hidden beneath a powerful concealment spell.
One by one, members of the Black Card stepped past me, approaching the figure and kneeling before them.
The voice that came from within that deep hood was feminine then masculine. It was the voice of a friend, a relative, a stranger and I cursed them for hiding so well. But one thing I did know, was they were hidden beneath powerful magic. And there were only so many Fae in this school capable of that.
“Forget this night. Forget the faces you have seen. Forget the deeds you have done. Forget the boy who died and the power I gained from him,” the voice sent a quake through the floorboards with its strength. This piece of shit was using Dark Coercion. A forbidden magic which forced those who heard it to comply with their commands without question. It was incredibly powerful and required an iron will to achieve but I had no doubt that that was what I was witnessing. The figure repeated the words as the members of the Black Card queued toward him then drifted back out of the cabin when it was done.
I stepped away, moving outside to look for signs of the body, but there were none. The other girl who’d been brought here to die alongside Elise and the boy was queuing in the line, held tightly by the members of the Black Card. So this ritual had only required one sacrifice…a willing one. Killblaze could taint the mind and feed on your darkest thoughts. If the boy who’d died had been depressed or ever considered taking his own life, the drug would have latched onto those emotions and quadrupled them, forcing his hand.
I stepped off of the porch and the vision faded, the world brightening around me slightly as the sunset dripped through the canopy.
I hadn’t gleaned much except that the Black Card were useless. Dark Coercion couldn’t be undone, so it looked like the killer’s helpers were no good for information. The only magic I’d ever heard of breaking a bind like that was Phoenix fire. And the Phoenix Order had been extinct for a thousand years, so there was no chance of using that.
I shed my shirt and stuffed it in the back of my jeans before releasing my wings and launching myself skyward. I pushed through the branches and broke into the light above the trees, the cool wind rushing over me as I flew back toward The Vega Dormitories.
When I landed on top of the tower, I texted Elise everything I’d learned. When I was done, I moved to perch on the edge of the building, watching the sun sink below the horizon and paint the sky in a thousand pastel tones of beauty.
I doubted whether she’d answer at all. I hadn’t given her any more leads. If anything I’d only made things more difficult for her, knowing that the Black Card had nothing to offer.
My Atlas pinged and I glanced at it on the wall beside me in surprise.
Elise:
Where are you?
I considered not replying but an ache grew in my chest and a vision drove into my skull of Elise in my arms. I fell apart as I drank it in. She was curled in my lap, her fingers trailing along my jaw and her eyes ringed with silver. I leaned in to kiss her and she kissed me back with a moan of pleasure.
I blinked to clear the fantasy, growling under my breath. My hand was on my Atlas and tapping a message to her before I even decided to do it.
Gabriel:
The roof.
She was at my side in a blur of motion a single blink later, her hair swept back from the speed she’d travelled at. She dropped down beside me, dangling her legs over the ledge and biting her lip as if it made her nervous to do so.
“I’d catch you if you fell,” I said quietly.
“I know,” she said, her fingers curling around the edge of the bricks. “But I won’t fall.”
“Even angels fall,” I pointed out, quoting her tattoo.
“Lucky I’m no angel then,” she said stiffly.
We sat in silence while the need to touch her burned through me. But I didn’t deserve that after what I’d done to her brother. It was eating me alive. No one in the universe could change it, not even the stars.
There was something I could offer her though. It wasn’t much and she might not want to hear it. But it was worth a try. “I didn’t know Gareth that well but…he was happy here. That much was obvious.”
Elise sucked in a breath, her grip tightening on the wall until her knuckles turned white.
“He had friends,” I said. “A girlfriend.”
“A girlfriend?” she balked, turning to me with wide eyes. “Who?”
“I thought you knew,” I said in surprise. “It didn’t work out between them but I’m not sure why. I witness a lot around the school, I notice things.”
Elise grabbed my arm. “Who Gabriel?” she begged, the need for this knowledge blazing in her eyes.
“Cindy Lou,” I said thickly, knowing they weren’t exactly close.
I wasn’t sure how she would react to that but I didn’t expect her to scream. She threw her head back and fucking screamed at the sky like it was falling down on her head.
I grabbed her, clamping a hand over her mouth and pulling her into my chest in alarm.
“Not her,” she said through her teeth as I eased my hand away. “Why would he want her?”
I stroked her hair, resting my chin on her head and drinking in the feel of her so close as I tried to comfort her.
“I don’t know, Elise,” I said gently. “Maybe you should ask her.”
“Oh I will. I’ll rip her heart out if she broke my brother’s.”
I raised a brow, leaning back to look at her face as my heart pounded harder. “You really will kill whoever hurt him, won’t you?”
“Yes,” she snarled, the fierceness in her eyes driving a hole into my chest. “Even if it kills me to. I have nothing left anyway.”
“Don’t say that,” I breathed, horrified that she was willing to throw her life away for this.
An awful thought occurred to me that she might turn this rage on me one day. And who would I be to stop her? I deserved what was coming for me. I certainly didn’t deserve to be sitting there with her cradled to my chest. And maybe she knew that because she pulled away, turning and dropping back onto the roof. She started pacing and I swung around to face her as thoughts ticked through her eyes.
“Tell me what you’re thinking, maybe I can help,” I offered.
She spat a laugh. “You’re one of my main suspects, Gabriel,” she said. “Do you think I’ve forgotten that you’re still lying to me?”
“I didn’t kill Gareth,” I growled powerfully and she turned to face me, her eyes flickering with hope.
“Swear it,” she hissed.
“I swear,” I said through clenched teeth, knowing she needed this. “On everything I am, on every star in the heavens, on every shred of ink in my skin and on every ounce of magic in my veins. I did not kill Gareth Tempa.”
She stood there for an endless moment, her shoulders rising and falling with each breath she took. Then she lurched forward, wrapping herself around me and coming apart in my arms. Tears rolled down my chest and I gasped, holding her tighter. As far as I knew, she didn’t show weakness to anyone but me and now she was letting me see it once again. Letting me in enough to crumble right in front of me.
“No one knows but you. You’re the only one I can talk to properly and I’ve been so alone. I still don’t know if I believe you but I want to, Gabriel. I really do.”
I cupped her cheek and she glanced up at me through watery eyes. I hushed her softly, wiping the tears from her cheeks as my heart fell apart for her.
She pulled away, turning to hide from me. “I don’t want you to see me like this.”
“Why?” I growled, moving around her to block her way.
She glanced up at me through wet lashes, her cheeks smeared with two horizontal black lines of mascara where I’d wip
ed away her tears. I’d painted her as a warrior and she needed to know that that was what she was, right down to her bones.
“Tears don’t make you weak, my little angel,” I said and more tears fell as I called her that name like it meant something to her. “It’s brave to cry over what you’ve lost. It means you feel it, it means it meant something, and it means you don’t shy away from those emotions even when they hurt the most.”
Elise reached out, sliding her hand around my neck and tip-toeing up, brushing her salty lips against mine. “I don’t know who I am anymore.”
“I know who you are,” I breathed, my hands curling around her waist as I drew her against me.
She kissed me again and I groaned, giving in to the darkest temptations inside me. I cupped her face between my hands as my tongue met hers with hungry strokes. A fierce need scorched my will and begged me to take her. I forgot the reasons why I shouldn’t. There was nothing but us and a haze of bliss caressing my soul.
She moaned against my lips and clutched onto me like the world would fall if she didn’t. I feared how little control I had right then as I gave in to the desires of the mate bond. It felt like the stars had threaded rope around my arms and were moving me like a puppet. But it was so good to give in to their call for once. Fucking divine.
“Tell me,” she begged as she kissed me again.
“You’re Elise Callisto,” I breathed. “An angel of vengeance.”
She pulled away and I missed the contact of her skin. She was the sun and I was the moon, the two of us forever cycling through night and day as we tried to evade one another, but eternally chasing the other too.
“You’re right,” she whispered, drawing in a deep breath. “And I can’t forget that again. I have to go.” She shot away from me and I called out to her as she disappeared down the fire escape.
The sun sank the moment she disappeared and I wasn’t sure if the horizon had shaded all the light in the world, or if Elise had taken it with her.
I headed down the fire escape stairs with my lips tingling from Gabriel’s kiss and my skin prickling with unease. Why did I let myself do that with him so easily? Time and again he lied or pushed me away but at the slightest prompting, I found myself in his arms again. I was half tempted to go back to him, half tempted to keep walking and never look back.
Maybe he was right about us being Elysian Mates, soul mates, true love…but then why did I feel such a pull to the other Kings of the school too?
Maybe I was more fucked up than I thought. Like one of those kidnap victims who got Stockholm Syndrome and fell for their captors. Except my brand of crazy probably didn’t have a name. I doubted there were many people who had gone undercover to try and find their brother’s killer and then started to feel things for all four of their main suspects.
I blew out a breath of frustration. Callisto Syndrome aside, I still wasn’t any closer to any answers. All I ever seemed to find was more questions.
My Atlas pinged as I sat in my bed, trying to make sense of what Gabriel had told me about the Black Card and cursing my luck for the fact that they were useless to me now. Their leader had done everything possible to hide their identity and I just couldn’t figure out how the hell I was supposed to get to them now.
Aside from that, my mind was now filled with images of my brother and fucking Cindy Lou which I just couldn’t erase no matter how hard I tried to scour it from my brain. I half considered confronting her but how could I do that? What plausible explanation could I possibly come up with for wanting to know about her dead ex boyfriend apart from the truth? But I sure as shit would be looking at that bitch a little more closely. A scorned ex could have motivation to kill after all.
I huffed in frustration and hooked my Atlas off of the nightstand, glancing at the notification as it flashed up.
Miss Nightshade:
Good evening, Miss Callisto. Your counselling session with me has been rearranged to tonight due to unforeseen circumstances. Please proceed to your session immediately.
Fuck that. I’ll just say I never saw the message.
Miss Nightshade:
Lack of attendance could result in expulsion.
Bitch.
I ground my teeth and shot out of my room with my speed, not bothering to slow until I made it to the couch outside her office.
I sank down onto the worn leather cushions as I heard her talking within the room, my attention sharpening as I recognised Ryder’s voice.
“-told you. I don’t see why we have to keep rehashing this shit,” he growled, the tenor of his voice sending a prickle down my spine.
“Because the nature of your relationship with Professor King is something that you should really look at more closely,” Miss Nightshade replied.
My lips parted and I sat up straighter in my chair, listening so hard I could hear their heartbeats. Did she just say Professor King??
“You know the nature of it,” Ryder growled. “Why do we keep having to go over this?”
“Because I wonder if the relationship you had with her was about more than just sex.”
Ryder was screwing a teacher??
“It wasn’t a relationship, it was a transaction,” Ryder replied, his voice void of emotion.
“Explain to me how you’ve come to that conclusion,” Nightshade pressed.
“Because the bitch was desperate for my blood and she wanted a man who would punish her while fucking her, so I made her work for both.”
My lips parted at the way he just discussed this like it meant nothing to him. How long ago had this happened? The faculty obviously knew about it so I guessed this Professor King had been sacked and power shamed. There would probably be newspaper articles I could look up. I finally had another lead but I hadn’t even considered the fact that there might have been another King in this school for me to look into before.
“And you still believe you were the dominant party in your relationship?” Nightshade asked.
My skin was tingling and a sick feeling in the pit of my gut was filling me with a sense of unease. I didn’t want to put a name to the sensation but I had the crazy feeling that I did not like the idea of Ryder screwing anyone else. Which was fucking ridiculous on so many levels.
“Of course I was,” Ryder scoffed. “She was marking Inferno down in all of her classes, making it seem like he was going to fail. She damn near made it seem like he was so thick he’d have to be expelled,” he said. “And then after doing all of that for me, she came begging for me to fuck her while tying her up and whipping her. In what part of that scenario am I not the dominant party?”
“I believe you weren’t dominant because she was the one who orchestrated the whole arrangement. She propositioned you. She used her position to manipulate you into-”
“No,” Ryder interrupted. “No one manipulates me. You think just because she was the one to keep me back after class and suggest we start fucking that somehow I felt I couldn’t say no? I can get plenty of girls, I don’t need to jump at every opportunity I get. I could have just as easily said no.”
“But you didn’t,” Miss Nightshade replied softly.
“I did actually,” he replied. “I told her I didn’t need the drama of fucking a teacher and when she pushed I told her she’d have to make it worth my while. Which is why she started sabotaging Inferno.”
“She knew you would do whatever it took to hurt Dante’s chances of success. She knew that offering to get him expelled would press the right buttons with you.”
“No,” he snapped.
“She was a predator,” Miss Nightshade pushed. “And you were her prey. She laid a trap and you fell into it.”
Silence fell in the room.
“Are the walls back up again then, Mr Draconis?” Nightshade asked eventually.
“If you’re just going to spout a load of shit and expect me to buy into it then I’m not participating. Professor King was my pawn. If anyone was taking advantage of the situation, it was me. I hardly even
enjoyed screwing her. It was just a means to an end.”
“So she got to enjoy your sexual prowess and to feed on your blood while you didn’t even enjoy it? And yet you see yourself as dominant still?”
“When you bend a teacher over a chair and whip them until they beg you for sex you feel pretty dominant,” he deadpanned.
“Do you?” Silence rang out again. “Think on that for next time.”
“Not likely.”
My mind was whirling with that information. When had Professor King been expelled from the school? How hadn’t I known that there had been another King here, one more literal than the others? She sounded like she was certainly ruthless enough to hurt someone who got in her way if she was willing to risk the wrath of the Oscura Clan by persecuting Dante.
There were so many questions and suspicions whirling through my mind that when the door swung open, I gasped in surprise.
Ryder stepped out, his dark gaze falling on me for a moment before he made to walk away.
“Why so nervous, Miss Callisto?” Miss Nightshade’s voice came from within the room and my heart leapt as I realised she was picking up on my fraught emotions already. I needed to hide them, needed to dispel the suspicion and curiosity, the hurt and grief beneath something powerful enough to disguise them. I didn’t want her realising I’d caught onto her connection to the Black Card. I needed to be able to figure out what she was doing without alerting her suspicions.
I jumped up and moved into Ryder’s path before he could walk away, reaching out to press a hand against his chest.
His dark green gaze found mine and I held it, silently begging him to snare me into his hypnosis.
With a slight frown, he complied and the corridor surrounding us slid away to be replaced by a plain, white room.
“What?” he asked, clearly still pissed about his session with the counsellor.
“I don’t want her prodding about in my head with her Siren bullshit,” I breathed. “Give me something strong to overwhelm me.”
Savage Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Book 2) Page 30