Midnight Fae Academy: Book Two: A Why Choose Paranormal Vampire Romance Page 8

  Flowers wilted.

  Branches burned.

  Leaves fell like tears against the ground.

  And all the while, my father’s spirit hovered nearby, murmuring words I didn’t understand. A warning, maybe. But no. This was all tied to Emelyn’s cruelty, her wicked intent to destroy me in the harshest manner possible by attacking everything I cherished, including my memories of parents I barely had the chance to know.

  She’d taken the mean-girl act too far, had made this personal and shown her vicious nature.

  Vindictive.

  Evil.

  Bully.

  I crossed my arms and pretended to cower on the floor, then fought the binds she held on my mind, unweaving them one at a time while carefully keeping my magic hidden. I didn’t want her to feel my approach, preferring to take her by surprise.

  “Meet me,” my father whispered once more.

  His voice was a shock to my system, causing tears to well behind my eyes.

  I focused on that link next, ripping the anchor out of my heart, unable to take another second of his torment. He’s not real. Not real. Not real. Not real!

  Power blasted out of me, the focal point on Emelyn. I threw her vision into the death fields of the Spirit Kingdom, forcing her to see and feel every spirit’s pain of being trapped there. She thought to use it against me, not realizing I knew more about that realm than most Elemental Fae. I’d been taken there by a horrendous abomination who tried to plague my entire kind. I’d stood at the gates, blocking their entry in spirit form while I fought to dismantle her powerful hold and thwart her attempts at accessing the earth source.

  I knew pain.

  I knew death.

  I knew torture.

  And I allowed Emelyn to feel every ounce of it now, my anger singeing the air around me.

  She deserved this. How dare she try to hurt me. To make me believe for even a second that my father might still be alive. It was wrong. Unacceptable. She—

  “Aflora!” A wave of defensive magic accompanied my name, the source coming from beside me and knocking me off my feet.

  I blinked, unsure of when I’d stood up to begin with, or even how I’d managed it. And at some point, I’d returned to the reality of the gymnasium-style classroom, but now I gaped up at a seriously pissed-off fae prince.

  “That was fucking hot,” Shade praised as he stepped into my line of sight. Kols glowered at him, which only made Shade smirk. “What? Powerful females don’t turn you on?”

  The fae prince didn’t appear at all amused. “I’ll handle it,” he said, the words confusing me.

  “You’d better,” Headmaster Zankry stated. “Or she won’t be permitted in my class again.”

  “Emelyn started it,” Shade drawled. “Can’t punish one fae and not the other.”

  “I can when one is knocked out cold and the other is just dazed,” Headmaster Zankry retorted.

  “I said, I’ll handle it,” Kols repeated through his teeth. He held out his hand, his gold irises narrowing down at me. “Come. Now.”

  Part of me wanted to tell him to fuzz right off. But as I glanced around the room and noticed everyone staring at me, I decided not to make matters worse by fighting him.

  Pressing my palm against his, I allowed him to yank me forward, my body tingling at his touch. What magic did he use to pull me out of that spell? I wondered, electricity humming beneath my skin. It felt like a web of heat encasing my body from head to toe. A static net of sorts, yet my legs moved without any trouble as he guided me out of the Malefic Blood Education Building and back to the Elite Residence.

  I didn’t speak.

  Neither did he.

  But I felt Shade following, his presence a security blanket against my senses.

  It was strange to realize I felt secure around the male who’d forced me into this mess to begin with and nervous around the one who claimed to want to help me.

  They had all hurt me.

  Betrayed me in some way.

  Yet Shade was the one I sought now as I allowed Kols to guide me upstairs. I glanced behind me, needing to reassure myself that my Death Blood mate still trailed after us. His ice-blue eyes met mine as he winked, completely unfazed by the anger vibrating off the Midnight Fae Prince.

  As soon as we were inside Kols’s suite, he released me, and the weblike sensation left, bringing me to my knees as a burst of energy puffed out of me.

  “Dick,” Shade snapped before bending down beside me to press his palm to my lower back. “Are you okay, little rose?” he asked softly, his other hand going to my cheek to tilt my face toward him.

  “What happened?” The words were hoarse, my throat suddenly parched.

  “Kols cast a cocoon spell to trap your power beneath his. Then he released it without warning because he’s a fucking prick.”

  Kols snorted at the summary from somewhere farther away. The kitchen, maybe? I couldn’t tell because my vision was clouded by a sea of enchantment dust. At least, it looked like magic dust. Whatever it was, it made me sneeze and fire off another bolt of electricity.

  I shivered from the sudden coolness flooding my veins, the humming from before disappearing.

  Shade wrapped his arm around me and pulled me to him, his hand moving up and down my arm while his opposite palm guided my face to his chest.

  I melted into him on instinct, absorbing his comfort and allowing it to pull me back into the land of the living.

  My father’s whispers still lingered in my mind, making me tremble with memories of my past. I rarely dreamed of my parents anymore. Mostly because I trained myself not to. There were so many mornings I’d wake up with the hope that that day might be the day they returned to me, only for it never to happen.

  They were dead.

  I felt it in my soul the moment the earth source became mine. That only occurred when the former anchor perished.

  So it’d all been in my head. Because of Emelyn and her cruel—

  “Here.” A bottle of water appeared in front of me, courtesy of Kols.

  Shade took it from him, removed the cap, and brought the rim to my lips. “Drink, little rose. It’ll make you feel better.”

  For whatever reason, I listened to him, and the second the cool liquid touched my tongue, I was glad I did. Because, mmm, that felt nice. So nice that I closed my eyes and just let him hold me while I accepted the refreshment down my throat.

  He chuckled against me. “I think this is the most agreeable you’ve ever been in my presence.”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  But I didn’t have it in me to comment on it. I was too tired of everything. The bickering. The feelings. This whole experience. I just wanted it all to go away and leave me alone.

  Shade took the bottle away from my lips, the liquid gone.

  Silence followed, the noiseless activity blissfully welcome. I inhaled his peppermint scent, allowed it to cling to my lungs and fill me with comfort.

  It was wrong. I should push him away and tell him not to touch me.

  Instead, I leaned into him more, seeking his strength.

  The death fields always drained me; just the notion of their threat hurt my heart. They were gone now, thanks to Queen Claire and her mates defeating the abomination who’d created the vacuum of trapped souls.

  That didn’t stop me from remembering its existence.

  Shade’s lips met my forehead, his strong arms holding me tightly in the foyer of Kols’s suite. The reality of the moment should have drawn a disbelieving laugh from me, but I felt too dead inside to utter such an amused sound.

  Footsteps echoed around us as someone stepped through the threshold, the woodsy aroma warning me of Zeph’s presence. I snuggled deeper into Shade’s chest, longing to disappear.

  I felt weak.

  Alone.

  Just so done with it all.

  This helplessness would pass, the emotion residual from the illusions Emelyn had created. I hated her in that moment, despised her ability to make me fee
l so worthless and meek. She’d gotten off easy because Kols had stopped me.

  Why? Because she was his betrothed?

  My jaw clenched with the thought. How ridiculous that he would stand up for his fiancée after spending days in the human world bedding mortals.

  A growl threatened my chest, my annoyance mounting by the minute.

  He was a horrible mate.

  He denied me after our bond snapped into place, accusing me of planting the seed on purpose. Like I could control an Earth Fae connection on my own. A level-three placement meant he wanted it, too. But he burned all my things in response, sent me running into the LethaForest, and filled our bond with such exquisite power that I felt as if I were about to burst.

  Then he claimed not to hate me and, less than a day later, had me imprisoned.

  Well, technically Shade had me imprisoned with that recording.

  Kols and Zeph had just orchestrated the arrest and the collar around my neck.

  I frowned, touching the leather now with the tip of my index finger.

  It’d done nothing to stop me from blasting Emelyn’s power today. Or had it tried to thwart me and I’d just moved around it?

  A consideration for later.

  What was I even doing here, allowing Shade to hold me like this? The three males were conversing around me, their words slowly trickling into my ears.

  “…dismantled Emelyn’s spell,” Kols was saying. “Then she put the bitch on her ass.”

  “It was beautiful,” Shade put in helpfully.

  “She used her Quandary Blood abilities.”

  Shade shrugged, his hand still rubbing my arm gently. “No one noticed. She didn’t utter a single spell out loud. From what they could tell, she just sent Emelyn into a vision, which was today’s exercise, right? Not Aflora’s fault that Emelyn couldn’t handle a dose of her own medicine.”

  “Is Emelyn all right?” Zeph asked, his voice low.

  “She’ll be fine,” Shade replied. “Our mate will be, too, by the way. In case you were wondering.” The hint of annoyance in his tone created a tense atmosphere that caused the hairs along my arms to stand.

  “Are you trying to imply that I can’t see, Shadow?”

  “No, I’m suggesting you redirect your concern to the right female, Zephyrus. You know, the one who is our mate.”

  “Say that a little louder,” Kols snapped.

  “Is that a dare?” Shade countered. “Because you know I will. Unlike you two idiots, I’ve embraced my destiny. Perhaps you should try it.”

  “Or I could undo it,” I muttered, more to myself than to them.

  Shade froze against me, the air chilling in the room. “What did you just say?”

  Right. Time to tell the boys my thoughts on this whole mating business. As we were all together, why not now? It’d already been one heck of a day. Might as well end it with a bang.

  I pulled away from Shade so I could see all three of the males bound to my life and cleared my throat.

  “I said that I could just undo it.” They all gaped at me as if I’d lost my mind. “What? I’m a Quandary Blood, right? Redirecting power is apparently my thing. Why not apply that logic to the bonds and sever them?”

  Chapter Twelve

  Zeph

  Ice drilled through my veins. “Absolutely fucking not.”

  Aflora blinked up at me in surprise. “Excuse me?”

  “No. The answer is no.” I’d claimed her. Planned or not, she was fucking mine, and I wouldn’t allow her to undo it now.

  She bristled at my tone, some of her inner fire climbing into her gaze. “No?” she repeated. “No? I’m pretty sure that’s not your call to make.”

  “I’ll just bite you again,” Shade interjected, sounding bored already by the discussion. But I caught the hint of hurt in his icy gaze. He very much disliked this line of thought. For once, I agreed with him.

  Kols, however, remained quiet.

  I glanced at him, expecting to see rage but catching a glimmer of intrigue instead. “You can’t possibly be considering this,” I told him.

  “It’d solve a lot of problems,” he admitted with a shrug.

  “Yes, it would solve several problems,” Aflora agreed as she stood on shaking legs.

  “And create a thousand more,” I inserted, folding my arms.

  Kols gave me a look I knew well. The one that told me he was up to something. Then he returned his focus to Aflora. “Can you undo the Earth Fae bond?” he asked, the question making me realize his intent.

  He wanted to test her resolve and see how far she’d go.

  Which meant he didn’t actually want to dismantle the bond.

  Thank fuck for that.

  We didn’t go through all this bullshit just to undo it.

  The bonds existed for a reason. If Aflora fractured our ties, she’d implode, and none of us would allow that to happen to her. She belonged to us. End of discussion.

  “Um.” She winced, causing me to narrow my gaze. That, right there, told me she didn’t actually want to do this. Something else was driving her to suggest this insanity. “I’m not sure, but I’m going to try.”

  “No, you’re not,” I replied, done with this conversation. “You’re not going to do anything.”

  “Again, that’s not for you to decide,” she bit back.

  I grabbed the back of her neck and tugged her to me. “You’re upset. I get it. You don’t trust us. Fine. But those are not reasons to break a blood vow. Relationships require work. And I’ll be damned if I let you just Quandary-magic your way out of this, pixie flower.”

  She pressed her palms against my chest and tried to shove me away. “Don’t touch me.”

  “Too late.” I clamped my opposite arm around her lower back. “You’re angry. You think we betrayed you, but everything we’ve done is to protect you.”

  She huffed a laugh, her nails digging into my button-down shirt. “Right.”

  “Do you think I liked seeing them take you away?” I asked her. “It wasn’t my recording that landed you behind bars, Aflora. I did what I could to protect you.”

  “You mean you did what you could to protect you and Kols,” she corrected. “Without the collar, the Council would have sensed our connection. So don’t lie to me and pretend it had anything to do with me, because I know it didn’t. You will always look out for Kols first and foremost. Now I’m suggesting we find a way to free you both so you can go back to guarding him without me being in the way.”

  “The collar protected you as well,” I pointed out.

  “But it wasn’t me you meant to protect,” she tossed back. “Stop toying with me, Zeph. This whole thing is a big mistake. I’ll figure out how to undo it, and we’ll go our separate ways.”

  “What about your balance?” Kols asked, confirming my earlier assessment. He wanted to test her resolve and see if she’d truly thought this through. “Our biting you is what helped you stop imploding the other night. If you remove the bonds, you risk imploding again.”

  “Exactly,” I agreed.

  “So put me out in the middle of the LethaForest and let me explode,” she retorted. “I mean, really, it’s not like you care, right?” She tried to extract herself from my hold again, but I didn’t budge.

  “Stop telling us how we feel, Aflora,” I chastised her, annoyed by her inaccurate assessments.

  Her blue eyes rolled in response, causing me to tighten my grip on her neck. “Let. Go.” She uttered the words through her clenched jaw.

  So I uttered one back at her. “No.”

  Power flickered through her, and I welcomed the fight, but Kols chose that moment to speak again. “I would care.” The soft words had me glancing at him. “I would care a great deal, actually.”

  Aflora snorted. “Sure. Is that why you spent the last few days humping your way around the Human Realm?”

  Ah. There it is—the real reason she’s suggesting this.

  She was hurt, not just by our perceived betrayal but also
by Kols’s notorious behavior. He realized it at the same moment, his nostrils flaring as his golden irises pulsated.

  I released her, knowing he would grab her in turn, and he did, his palms going to her hips as he walked her into the wall.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded, her hands flying up to his shoulders as if to force him back.

  “There’s a problem with your theory, mate,” he said, his thigh sliding between her legs as his palms slipped up her sides to slowly memorize her curves.

  Her scent began to change as interest darkened her blue eyes. “What problem?”

  “Midnight Fae bonds occur when a male bites another Midnight Fae.” One of his hands shifted back down to her hip while the other lifted to cup her neck, his thumb brushing the underside of her jaw to ensure she held his gaze.

  “I’m aware,” she replied.

  “Yes, and it’s a permanent claim that your Quandary abilities might be able to unravel,” he conceded. “But you can’t unweave our Elemental Fae mating, princess. We’re already mated on the third level, which required agreement from both of our souls. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

  “You don’t think my magic can dismantle Elemental Fae bonds.”

  “No, sweetheart,” he murmured. “I’m saying I know it can’t.”

  She shook her head, the movement stilted thanks to his grip on her neck. “I haven’t even tried yet, so you can’t know that.”

  “But I do, Aflora.” He pressed his nose to her cheekbone and drew his lips across her cheek to her ear. “You would need my cooperation to even attempt it, and you don’t have it. Because my soul wanted yours, just as yours desired mine. Our spirits won’t allow us to break the vow now. It’s too late. Which makes you mine, mate.”

  Her lips parted on a quick breath, her pupils dilating. “I want to break it.”

  “No, you don’t,” he replied softly, pulling away from her ear to meet her gaze once more. “As Zeph said, you’re upset. I’m sorry. He’s sorry. Fuck, I think even Shade’s sorry. None of us meant to hurt you. And before you accuse me of not caring again, why do you think the three of us went to the LethaForest, Aflora? Why did we bite you?”

  “To hide my growing powers,” she answered without hesitation. “Everything you’ve done is to protect yourselves.”