I hadn’t expected to face the Dean alone. I’d always had my mates by my side before. Now I’d have to walk in to be punished by the actual Dean without them.
I ducked my head, and my hair shielded my face. My wings curled around me.
Earlier, when the dungeon’s door had clanged open, I’d fought the guards who’d dragged me out to the Dean of Discipline’s office in the main campus but not because I was frightened of my punishment (although on Benelus’ prick, I was.)
Most of all, I hadn’t wanted to leave Beau behind in the dark.
I’d promised Beau that he was mine now.
Yet in the end, Beau had called, “Control yourself. You mustn’t hurt these guards because the Dean’s sent golems, can’t you tell? They can’t fight their orders. Please, Quince, for me.”
It’d been the Quince that’d done it.
I’d stilled, no longer resisting. If I’d realized how hard Beau could make me just by saying my name, then I’d have dropped my title from the start.
As the identical guards in their gray uniforms had first shoved my clothes at me, allowing me to dress, and then marched me away from the House of Fae, I’d understood what Beau had been telling me. Golems were molded from clay by the Dean to become staff. They had to do as they were told.
If there were any true innocents within this school then it was them.
Why could the supernatural world condemn us students and then use golems? It made me shiver because the Court Fae wanted to mold the Forest Fae just like the golems into a clay army of warrior lovers.
I couldn’t let that happen.
“Do you want a cookie?” Natalia, the Dean’s secretary, beamed at me as she held out a chocolate chip cookie like a distraction from the painful injection, which she knew that I was about to receive.
When I smiled back, her brown eyes lit up with surprise and delight like most students didn’t show her the same kindness. “Sure, thanks.”
I dragged my nails out of the couch with difficulty, forcing myself to swagger over to her desk.
Natalia was a pretty blond but everything about her was just a little bit too perfect like a doll…because she also was a golem. I sometimes saw her around the main campus running errands for the Dean.
The Dean had created her as his ideal secretary in tight pencil skirt and pink high-heeled stilettos. So, obviously demons hadn’t yet discovered the concept of sexism or misogyny.
Personally, I thought that the Wicked Reform School would be better run if Natalia was in charge, even if she’d spent the last hour trying to figure out whether she needed to water the artificial orchid on her desk.
Clearly, intelligence hadn’t figured highly on the Dean’s list of ideal requirements for his perfect secretary.
But then, the Dean was a jerk.
I took the cookie from Natalia, balancing on the edge of her desk.
When I took a bite, I moaned. Okay, maybe indecently. “By my wing, this is delicious.”
Natalia bounced in her seat, giggling. “You’re the first to try them! Dean Aero growled that I’d probably poisoned them, so I should offer them to students.”
I choked, swallowing with difficulty. I carefully placed down the cookie. “Brilliant. So, have you poisoned them?”
Natalia leaned across the desk, slapping me playfully on the arm. “Of course not, silly! Why’d I do that?”
I was having second thoughts on her running the school.
When something furry rubbed against my arm, I jumped and glanced down.
A skvader was curled beside Natalia’s phone. His long ears pricked up, as he smirked. Then he snuggled down again, never taking his dark gaze from mine.
“I don’t want to startle you, but there’s a skvader on your desk,” I warned.
Whatever the jerk was up to, he was certain to be taking advantage of the golem’s sweet nature.
Natalia stroked along the skvader’s wings. “Do you like my new pet?” The skvader shot me a smug look. “He just flew in my window this morning. I’ve decided to call him…” She tapped her chin in deep thought. “Treasure.”
The skvader looked horrified.
I rubbed his head. “That sounds exactly the right name. Such a treasure.” I leaned closer to the skvader, and by the way his eyes widened, I knew that my grin must be at its malevolent best. “Make sure that you cuddle, snuggle, and never let him go.”
Treasure squeaked.
Ah, sweet karma.
The skvader would flee out of the window again as soon as the secretary’s back was turned.
“I wouldn’t cuddle Dean Aero today,” Natalia whispered, conspiratorially. I glanced at the door on the far wall that led through to the Dean of Discipline’s office. It’d been closed since I’d arrived. “He was muttering about bears and has been grumpy as a bear. There’s another student in with him now.”
Well, I hadn’t heard any screaming, so that was a plus.
“At least that gives me some warning if he starts yelling,” I joked.
Yeah, I wasn’t joking.
Natalia broke up a cookie, feeding it to the squirming skvader. “He sets up…what do you call it if you don’t want other people to hear?”
“Magical soundproofing.”
The Discipline Floor was surrounded in it, and the Countess put it up whenever she wanted privacy.
Privacy was never good.
“You’re smart.” Natalia beamed at me again. “Just like Dean Aero.”
“For once, that’s a compliment that I can’t accept.” I caught Natalia’s surprised gaze. “Plus, you’re smart too, just at different things, right? And if you want to keep a pet or…by my wing, do anything…then go for it. I believe that you can.”
Natalia flushed. “Really?”
I nodded.
All of a sudden, the door to the Dean’s office opened, and Oscar stormed through, before slamming the door shut behind him.
I straightened off Natalia’s desk, and my eyes widened.
Was Oscar crying…?
When Oscar saw me, he froze, and his fangs shot out. His hand flew to his head like he could cover the fact that his hair had been shaved into a buzz cut.
For a pure blood vampire who was arrogantly obsessed with his hair, it was like being bald.
Oscar’s pretty face was streaked with tears at the humiliation of having his head shaved.
In other circumstances, I’d have laughed. Oscar had been the pain in my fae ass for nearly a decade. Yet there was a difference between battling him as equals and an authority above us humiliating him like this.
No one had a right to do that.
For a long moment, none of us spoke. Even the skvader stilled.
“What are you waiting for, Fae Lord?” Oscar’s voice was raspy, but he still managed a snooty tilt of his head, which was impressive. “Haven’t I sneered enough times about your punishments for you to know how it’s done? How about starting with a jibe about whether I’m broken and then move onto a description of how my House will wreck me now that I’m shamed? I’m certain that you know many hilarious bald jokes.”
I huffed. “You’re an asshole.”
He blinked. “That was weak.”
“Nope, I meant that you’re an asshole if you think I’d do any of that or maybe…I would’ve once…but I won’t now.” Oscar eyed me warily; I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t believe me. “I thought that you worked for the Dean with all that Prefect business. Why’d he cut off your hair?”
Oscar hugged his cape around himself. “That crazy bear shifter on the Paranormal Prefect Patrol reported me. He put in a complaint of harassment, saying that I was staring at his bald ass, so the Dean said I deserved everybody to stare at my bald head.”
I gaped at him. The Dean had to know that Barley’s report was false, right? Hadn’t he listened to Oscar’s side of it?
Wait, Barley had reported me as well during his counseling session with Emerald. Was I going to get the same treatment?
I ran my fingers through my hair like that could protect it. “We could all have told the Dean that wasn’t true. If you stare at anybody’s cute ass, it’s mine, right?”
Oscar reddened. “You’ve been summoned to the Dean yourself, yet you can still make light of such things?”
I shrugged. “It’s a gift.”
The way that Oscar’s eyes gleamed with shame and distress, however, made my guts roil. I’d never thought that I could feel sorry for a vampire from the Prick Patrol. But the Dean was playing with him. He’d been the one to give Barley the magical mange, and he must’ve known that Oscar was innocent. Did it turn him on to toy with the students under his control, even though they were ones who were working with him towards becoming reformed?
Wells truly believed that he was saving us. I had a feeling that the Dean was doing this for kicks.
I clenched my jaw. It didn’t matter what crimes the students had or hadn’t committed. None of them could deserve to end up in a place like this, and every last one should be fighting to escape.
The offer of reforming was an excuse to cull the majority.
How could that ever be right?
When I sauntered closer to Oscar, he stiffened.
“Don’t.” Oscar shook.
I slid the hood of Oscar’s cape over his head to cover him; he stared at me in shock at my gentleness. “Pretend you’ve taken a vow for the next month never to lower your hood. You’re good at pompous speeches; invent some pure blood nonsense. Get the witches to cast a spell so that your hood can’t be lowered, even by professors.”
For the first time since he’d staggered out of the Dean’s office, Oscar’s eyes sparkled with life. “For a fae, that’s not an entirely foolish plan.”
My lips twitched. “Stop it, you’re making me blush.”
When Oscar snarled, it was brilliant to see the return of his asshole self. He stalked to the door out to the corridor, banging on it like he was a prince about to step into his throne room, rather than a prisoner about to be led away by guards.
“Dean Aero probably won’t cut your beautiful hair.” Natalie offered me an encouraging smile. I tried not to shudder at the thought. “If he does, I’ll keep it as my second pet and call it… Fairy.”
Treasure snickered.
Oscar glanced over his shoulder at me; his face was lost in shadow. “Why would you help me?”
Good question.
I threw myself down on the couch, hugging my knees to my chest.
I was next in to see the Dean.
“We don’t belong trapped in this school,” I looked up, meeting Oscar’s scrutiny, “and they don’t have the right to change our bodies or steal our identities. They can call that reforming if they like, but it isn’t. Perhaps, you should reconsider your membership of the Prick Patrol. It only betrays the other students, and if you haven’t worked it out yet, it won’t save you from being culled.” I pointed my wing at him. “If you want to survive, every House needs to save themselves. Spread the word.”
By the way that his eyes widened, I knew that he understood me.
I didn’t know if it’d work, or whether every paranormal would continue in their own selfish attempts to reform or save only themselves.
But rebellions started from small flames. It was a start.
Oscar nodded.
Then the door to the corridor swung open, and a guard yanked Oscar out, before in a tumble of feathers and nervous joy, Radley and Felix with Apollo clasped between them were shoved inside. They descended on me like I’d spent a month in the dungeon, and they’d forgotten the sight, feel, and scent of me. Their relief was electric. After all, I guessed that they hadn’t known what had happened, only that I was missing.
I’d been terrified for them, after all.
The breath was knocked out of me. Warm lips kissed mine. I gasped, panting.
My hard-on pressed uncomfortably against my tight pants.
“No sexy times in the waiting room,” Natalia chirped. “I’ve just cleaned that couch.”
I flushed, allowing Radley to manhandle me up onto his lap, just as Felix settled with Apollo on his. Radley needed to feel me close to him, as one of his hands circled my chest and the other clutched my neck like I’d disappear if he let go.
“Don’t go off by yourself again, short wings,” Radley growled, as if I’d simply been out partying with the Almost Humans House. “Do I need to get a leash?”
“Only if you’re into that kink.” When Radley’s eyes glinted, I regretted my reply.
“Enough of that.” Apollo pushed his head against my leg, and I stroked down the curve of his neck. “My Lord would never willingly leave behind his sacred swan. He knows that I’d fly into the sun for him. Did they hurt you?”
“Number One, no cremating yourself in the sun.” I tapped Apollo on the beak. “And Number Two: I wasn’t hurt. In fact, even though I don’t remember it, I was healed by Emerald.” I stroked the back of my hand down Felix’s smooth cheek. “Like you, right?”
Felix smiled. “By my wing, she’s a goddess.”
I glanced at Radley. “Do you sense that she’s our bond?”
Radley flushed (okay, that was unlike him, but then Emerald had that effect). “She’s a hot succubus, who I bet would look even hotter around my prick, and she’s our bond.”
Felix chuckled. “Shakespeare missed a trick not writing a sonnet that starts like that.”
Radley bumped him with his shoulder. “Bite me.”
Felix’s pupils dilated. “I’d love to, but the receptionist banned sexy times.”
“Number Six on the Wicked Bucket List,” I said, urgently. “Bond with all my fae and shifter lovers. I’ve experienced a true bond with Emerald, but it’s not enough unless you’re wing by wing loving her with me.”
Felix looked hopeful. “I want that one too.”
“Good try.” Radley’s expression remained stern. “Where were you all night?”
Again with sounding like I’d been out after curfew partying.
“I was locked in a secret dungeon.”
“Bullshit,” Radley snarled.
“A hidden secret dungeon that we’ve never discovered because…” I glanced at Natalia who was busy combing the struggling skvader’s fur and pinning it with glittery clips, “it’s where the Duke of Wells punishes his secret son.”
So, I liked the dramatic too.
I hadn’t been able to shock my mates properly in years because we were always together and so knew the same things. It was fun just for once to know something that they didn’t.
Perhaps, like Beau had wanted last night, I craved to hold him to myself for a little longer.
My mates were staring at me with the same shocked expressions that I must’ve worn yesterday.
“The rascally bastard.” Apollo’s fury vibrated through him, as he flapped his wings. “He steals the cygnets, and calls the fae his flock of one hundred but he locks away his own son?”
“On my feathers, we have to free this boy,” Felix declared.
“He’s a Court Fae.” I glanced between them.
Did this mean that they’d accept Beau?
Radley shrugged. “He’s a prisoner. If you want us to save him, then we will.”
I caught Radley’s braid between my fingers, kissing it with a reverence that made his prick thicken; I could feel his excitement pressing against me through his pants. “Your loyalty honors both the forest and me. I’ll tell you more later when it’s safe. That’s if we don’t die now because of those backstabbing fae in our own House.”
I glanced at Natalia, who’d finished with Treasure. The skvader looked like he’d had the cute makeover from hell.
When I turned back, Felix and Radley were exchanging a glance.
My brow furrowed. “What?”
“They’re trying to work out how to tell you that for the first time in a decade, they slept cuddled up with the entire tribe last night, including those backstabbing fae,” Apollo explai
ned.
I bit my lip.
Dictate 766: Tears in the face of betrayal, simply prove the enemy right to have betrayed you.
“So, it was only me who they’ve been shunning all this time. Great to know. I guess that I owe you an apology. If you hadn’t been hanging around with me, then you wouldn’t have been rejected.” I ached inside like something had been torn.
“Don’t be an idiot.” Felix flicked me on the forehead. “They only let us sleep beside them because they were feeling guilty.”
“I thought that I’d have to slice off some fae wings, since they almost killed you.” Radley’s arms tightened around me to the point of pain. He meant it. “But the moment that the professors left, the fae knelt for forgiveness. They’d already confessed to Wells and begged that they alone be punished. It put me off my revenge stride.”
“Wells has them in the Kneel of Shame for the whole of today,” Felix added.
“But by the Shining God, why’d they say that they did it?” I demanded.
“One of the daft fae put them up to it. It turns out that he lost his twin brother in the Love Rebellion,” Apollo replied.
It must be the sour faced fae…
I’d lost brothers, and Quinn was exiled. But what would it be like to lose a twin who was like your other half?
I wound my arms around Radley’s neck. “All revenge is called off, right? We were kids when we left the tribe, and Wells has tried his hardest to keep us separate and marked as different to the others. They just want to live, and I don’t blame them because they don’t know that to join the Court would be like a slow death. To them, we’re the Hostage Lord outsiders.”
Radley pushed me back to scrutinize my face. “Who are you, and where’s the real Lord Spring?”
Wait, he was serious…
By the reddening of Radley’s neck and the way that his arm muscles were bulging, I’d say that I had about a minute to convince him that it was really me and not a golem spy or another fae under a glamor, before I’d end up tipped over his lap for some spanking interrogation, regardless that this was the Dean’s office.
“Hold up…” I licked across his lips like somehow that would persuade him. It didn’t. “Okay, okay, it’s me.”
My earnest face didn’t work either.
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