Was it wrong that I loved the way Fox burrowed into my long woolen coat, sniffing the collar kind of like my scent made him feel safe? I brushed a stray curl behind his ear, and he shot me a cocky grin, before setting off at a sprint like that’d impress me.
I gave him ten minutes before he was a gasping mess on the snowy floor…okay five minutes…wait, it looked more like one minute.
Bask shook his head in fond exasperation, before darting after the wheezing mage, and I jogged to join them. The morning’s breeze was like life across my cheeks. I took deep breaths; its freeze forced new clarity on me. I was imprisoned in these grounds, but right now, I chose to be free.
Discipline Runs were always around the frozen lake. Bask wound his arm around Fox who was rubbing his numb hands together. Next time, I’d better bring him gloves…and a scarf and…
Hey, when had I become his nanny?
With a growl, I put on a burst of speed, passing Bask and Fox. My blood pumped with sudden adrenaline at being in the grounds; the fresh air burned my lungs. Pink fireflies hung in glowing mists over the lake, lighting my way with an eerie beauty.
In the distance, the spires of non-magical Oxford hung like a mirage.
I could almost make myself believe that I could just keep running and reach it without the wards stopping me, but that dream wasn’t real. There didn’t need to be bars, locks, or walls to trap me.
Trust me, I’d been raised to fear witches because they were skilled in their cruelties. It kind of made me wonder what magic the Ghost Immortal had cast that I hungered for her the same as Bask did. I couldn’t help smirking as I glanced over my shoulder at the sexy incubus.
I didn’t love her in the same romantically obsessive way as Bask. I craved to consume her…
Loki had always told me that I had to stay away from witches and perhaps, I wanted to taste the forbidden.
When the forest glowed with a sudden burst of magenta magic, I took a step towards it like I’d been drawn that way. My breath stuttered. The magic from the forest was dark and ancient like Ghost Immortal was reaching out to me. My magic feathered within me, straining to join her.
She was seriously powerful.
I clenched my jaw. I could sense her pain and loneliness. I had to free her.
Except, it was our Ghost Immortal that I was feeling, right?
Without thinking, I took another step towards the throbbing magic, which pulsed in time to my own heartbeat. I could feel it behind my eyes, pressing on my skull, and in the twitching of my hard dick. I hadn’t come in my pants yet, and I wasn’t breaking that record, even for some sexy spook who had me by the balls in more ways than one.
Then there was a crack underneath me, and I froze.
I’d stepped onto the thin ice at the edge of the lake without even realizing it, which now spiderwebbed out. I drew in my breath, carefully lifting my foot off the lake, before it could plunge through.
Shove Mjolnir up my ass, that’d been close.
Why had I forgotten that this place was cursed? It wasn’t like a witch could love me back. If she wanted to play games, then I’d learned from the god of mischief.
You didn’t screw with a god raised on mayhem.
I touched the silver plectrum at my neck, which Loki had gifted to me; it was cool and sleek. Just like dad.
I grinned. I loved the academy’s grounds, but Loki would’ve hated them. He’d have moaned about the quiet, the cold, and the lack of prank opportunities. Honestly, he’d have been bouncing off the walls for something to fight against. Yet when my brothers and I had been young, we’d spent years camping in America in places as wild as this because it was the best way that Loki could keep us safe and he’d borne it…for us. Although, he’d still moaned, of course. He’d also shown my brothers and me how to fish on the Great Lakes buried in the forests of Michigan. We’d never known when we’d had to forage for our own food or make a run for it.
If Ambrose thought that he’d break me with early mornings and two-hour runs in the cold, then he had no idea what I’d endured. He’d need to get a hell of a lot more creative. Wait, maybe hold off on the whole more creative part.
When I caught sight of the way that Fox swayed, and his legs buckled, my guts squirmed. Was I hungry already? Wait, it felt more like…guilt.
I blinked. Screw the runes, how long had it been since I’d felt…that? I shuffled my feet almost like this guilt wanted to burst out of my ass. The messed-up thing was that the two-hour run in the early morning cold was nothing but an invigorating start to my day, but it was hell for my whipping boy, and hadn’t that been the point? To punish me through the one who could be hurt…?
Fae were fiendish, and when magic was banned on these runs, so that Fox hadn’t even been able to transform and run it in animal form, watching him struggle was the true punishment.
This was why I didn’t have friends: I broke them.
The only human who’d ever played with me when I’d been younger…well, he hadn’t played, he’d sat with his hands tied with rope. I’d found him hiking through the woods. I’d tried to talk to him, but when he’d screamed like I’d been a monster, I’d pulled off my top and stuffed it in his mouth.
Then I’d sat clutching my arms over my cold chest and rocked, until all of a sudden, Loki had been there, waving his hand with his magic in front of human’s eyes to make him sleep, before cradling me in his arms. I’d laid my head on Loki’s shoulder, and he’d rubbed my nape in the way that’d always calmed me.
“So, you’re kidnapping non-magicals now, huh? Since when did that overtake your guitar obsession? Honestly, you can never keep up with your kids.” I’d been able to hear the smirk in his voice, and I’d bristled.
“It’s not a kidnap; he’s my friend.”
Loki had pulled back, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. He’d gripped my chin, turning me to look at the snoring human. “Usually — as a general point — friends don’t need to be tied up to stop them running away.”
How should I know? I’d never been able to take one for a test drive before.
I wouldn’t have kept him anyway. He’d been far more boring than my brothers, Fenrir and Jormungand. We were each other’s worlds.
Yet, just once, I’d wanted to see if there was something outside our tiny universe of four.
I’d stubbornly jutted out my lip, but Loki had run his thumb over it like he had ever since I’d been little to smooth out the pout. “But you said that those witches were friends who tied you up…”
Loki had paled; he’d become suddenly serious in a way that made my heart thunder. “I was wrong. Witches can never be your friend.” He wiped his elegant finger through the kid’s tears to show me the wet shimmering on the tip. “Why would you want someone to be sad, little stallion?”
I’d pushed away from Loki, as anger flooded me. I’d clenched my fists. “You cry and try to hide it. I’ve heard you at night. Plus, Fenrir once saw, and you said—”
“Simply to imagine that I was smiling on the inside.” Loki had smiled then as well, but it’d been brittle and fake. I’d wished that he’d been crying instead. When he’d reached to stroke my hair, I’d pulled back from him. His smile had fallen. “You know that I have to take the non-magical back, right? If you have to force someone to belong to you, then they were never yours. Everybody deserves to be free.”
“I hate you,” I’d whispered.
I didn’t mean it… Don’t let dad think that I meant it…
I’d fought not to let my own tears fall because I was too old to cry, even if Loki did.
“I’d imagine that you would.” Loki had sounded weary, before he’d pressed his hand to his face. “Screw the Norns, I’m a terrible dad.”
My eyes had widened. What on earth had I done?
I’d launched myself onto Loki so hard that I’d knocked him backward into a laughing heap.
“I love you.” I’d kissed his nose, even as he’d chuckled, playfully wriggling to get away. “I love you
, dad.”
“I know, little stallion. Although from now on, you swear to me that you never imprison another. If you wish someone’s love or friendship, then you make certain that they’re free to make that choice.”
I’d swallowed and then given my oath.
Nothing would make me break it.
I shook my head, as my heart ached at the memory. Then out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a flash of long blond hair, ice-blue eyes, and wisps of black.
When I grinned, it was all teeth. Ghost Immortal was watching me with an amused expression, and she didn’t know that I could see her.
My dick was back to twitching, pulsing and heavy in the tightness of my pants. I sped up. My breath created spooks in the cold air, as I closed in on a real one. Just because I’d spent my life being hunted, didn’t mean that Loki hadn’t taught me how to hunt.
Loki lived close to death; he straddled the line between the worlds, and so did I. Since last night outside the stables, I’d seen the glowing outline of Ghost Immortal. She’d been beautiful in a way that’d made me want to pull her into a snowbank (in a far sexier way than Ambrose had thrown me into one), and show her every trick that I’d learned over the decades. Hey, I had godly skills, and just then, I’d hungered to strip off those Victorian clothes and lick over every curve, until I’d worked my way down to between her thighs.
Then I’d have made her scream.
I have a talented tongue, and everybody needs a talent.
I forced myself to smother my grin as I called over my shoulder, “Is this a Discipline Run or a Pamper-Yourself Walk?”
“It’s the tortoise who wins the race.” Fox bent over with his hands on his knees. “The hare ends up in the stew.”
Trust a fox to imagine the hare eaten.
“Not this hare, shell boy.” I pulled further ahead.
Almost there… Don’t let her vanish like she did last night… Almost…
I pushed myself to run faster around the curve of the lake, passing the groundskeeper’s cottage and the wooden pier that tongued the lake. This early, the cottage was silent and dark. The muscles in my thighs burned.
Ghost Immortal was laughing at all of us, just like she had last night. Except, outside the stables she’d watched me with a too knowing smile, as if she’d seen me breaking the collar.
Little…gorgeous…spy.
I snarled and just for a moment, my hair spiked to cinnamon red, before calming back to aquamarine.
I slowed, pretending to clutch my side like I had a stitch.
Only three steps away…
Ghost Immortal was stroking a pink crow on her shoulder. What in the nine worlds was that creature, and why was it singing “Beauty and the Beast”?
I grimaced. I might be a monster, but I was no beast. Just like that feathered asshole was no singer.
Two steps…
Ghost Immortal waltzed around to the tone-deaf serenading of the crow.
One step…
When I caught the witch around the waist and waltzed with her, her mouth fell open in a silent ‘o’.
Valhalla! I could touch as well as see and hear her.
My pupils dilated, and I flushed, at the same time as her breath hitched. Her crow stopped singing with a strangled caw. At least I’d surprised him to silence. When I drew Ghost Immortal to me, her blazing gaze met mine with such shocked fierceness that my throat became tight. She was terrifying and sexy in equal measure.
This was the chaos moment: the spark of mischief when everything changed. She now knew that the veil had been torn between her world and mine, although only for me. I clung to the sense that I alone had this connection, and until I knew more about her, I wouldn’t risk Bask or Fox knowing that I could see her.
I could delude myself as thoroughly as Fox, who knew?
When I leaned closer, until Ghost Immortal’s breath gusted across my cheek, I wondered whether mine was as hot to her, as hers was cold to me. My pulse fluttered in my neck.
Ghost Immortal’s yearning wound around me as thickly as the scent of yew trees.
“Are you stalking us?” I pushed her hair back from her ear; it was like silk. “Because that would be awesome.”
Her laugh was low and musical. It thrilled me.
“May I kiss you?” I murmured.
She pressed her thigh between mine, and I moaned, as she rubbed it against my dick. “Charming god, I must demand that you kiss me or I shall take matters into my own hands.”
I chuckled. It looked like I’d met my match.
“As long as I’m yours, and you’re mine…?” I hated the pang of insecurity, but even in my lust fueled haze, I couldn’t hide it. “I promise, we’re all working on freeing you.”
She stiffened, and her eyes sparked. “Why would you free me?”
“Because no one should be caged.” I swept her around in an even faster waltz.
Then she did take matters into her own hands, hauling me closer and kissing me with a passion that took away my breath. Her lips were cool and like life where I’d expected death. With a savage intensity, I pressed my tongue across the seam of her lips, and when her mouth opened, our tongues twined in a dance that equaled our waltz.
She lowered one hand from my waist to my ass and squeezed, whilst her other edged up into my hair, pulling hard. I groaned at the twin sensations like a claiming. Then her black dress wafted into mist, curling around my dick and between my legs, until my balls were rubbed as well.
My eyes widened. I shook, as she edged me higher.
I broke the kiss, caressing up and down the hollow of her back. “Who are you?”
Finally, Ghost Immortal’s expression became shuttered, and the mist between my legs squeezed my balls in a way that would’ve been painful if I hadn’t been so turned on.
I bit my lip, panting hard.
Seriously, she had to be kidding… I couldn’t hold back… I was going to…
I tasted tangy blood as I tore the skin of my lip to keep in the keen, as I came in my pants.
There went my record.
Damn it all to Hel, it wasn’t like the other Rebels would miss the wet spot on my trousers. I’d intended to make Ghost Immortal scream. Perhaps, I should’ve listened to Loki about witches.
I drew back from Ghost Immortal, glaring. She looked way too smug, and the crow hopped up and down with the bird equivalent of a smirk. But then she kissed my cheek gently, and I couldn’t feel cross anymore.
“I’m the original wicked witch who cursed this academy,” she whispered.
She looked at me with a gaze that was so broken yet hopeful that it tore me up inside.
I froze because honestly, that was worse than I’d been imagining. It was no wonder that her magic tasted so powerful, ancient, and dark. I’d just promised to unleash the original wicked witch.
And that’s why a guy shouldn’t be led by his dick. But was she truly wicked or just a Rebel like the rest of us?
When I stepped back, Ghost Immortal floated away across the icy lake, and I was flooded with an immense wave of loss.
Then Bask clutched his arms around my neck, and Fox collapsed in a panting pile at my feet.
Fox’s breath came in pained gasps; he looked like he was about to puke. “Y-you weren’t k-kidding when you s-said that gods loved r-running.”
I blinked. Had the punishment driven him mad? That squirming guilt was back roiling in my guts. I’d have to get him into a serious training regime or the Princes would wreck us in the Rebel Cup. After all, it was kind of my fault…okay, no need to be a hardass…entirely my fault that we were on this run.
When Bask sniffed and swiped at the wet patch on my trousers, however, I understood what Fox meant. I raised an imperious eyebrow.
On Bor’s beard, I wouldn’t blush.
“Dancing, kissing himself, and coming…is that a god thing?” Bask nipped at my neck on each word. “Are you practicing for later with us, Slippy?”
“Apricots are brilliant for pra
cticing kissing, I mean, that’s what I heard.” Fox couldn’t hide his blush, although he tried to by nestling down into my coat, which was too big for him.
There was something else squirming inside me, as I watched Fox with his adorably innocent pink cheeks looking to my coat to protect him.
I shifted, uncomfortable. How could I love him already, in the same way that I loved Bask? Why did I desire Ghost Immortal so intensely? I’d been taught not to have friends or love witches. Yet now I’d broken every survival instinct taught to me over the centuries. I’d brought the chaos moment, but it could destroy me.
Chapter Nine
Rebel Academy, Sunday September 1st
Fox
I stumbled through the narrow portrait gallery in the West Wing. My lungs burned like they were on fire. Only Bask’s arm around my waist and Sleipnir’s cocky gaze that screamed that he dared me not fall on my face stopped me from collapsing.
I’d begged Sleipnir not to take the gargoyle route back to our room because with the panting mess that was left of me at the end of my first punishment, I’d have puked on the floor. And I might be a shifter, but I wasn’t an animal.
Dawn’s cold light was finally edging through the arched windows, yet I and the Immortals had been up for hours. I sneezed, snuffling into the sleeve of Sleipnir’s overcoat that he’d wrapped around me. How had Ambrose been expecting me to survive if Sleipnir hadn’t broken the rules by giving me his coat? Or had the professor wanted me to become an ice sculpture?
Merlin’s balls, the muscles in my thighs ached, and my knees wobbled dangerously.
Maybe Ambrose had cast a Jelly Charm on them as part of his punishment?
Truth: I’d been locked in an attic for over a decade. I was one unfit foxy.
At least, I wasn’t fit enough to keep up with a wired god and well-fed incubus on a Sunday Discipline Run. It had sounded like a Fun Run, which is something that I’d watched on TV and always craved to take part in, although less with the fun and more with the pain.
Rebel Academy: Crave: A Paranormal Academy Romance Series (Wickedly Charmed Book 1) Page 11