Chapter 28 #2
“That’s why I’m talking to you about it first.” Katri frowns, a small crease between her eyes appearing.
“She hasn’t taken any of our warnings seriously.
She’s always making a mockery of Kingdom of Convalescere, refusing to engage in Flight they are called the Wet Willows for a reason. The first willow I check has a full-on orgy taking place on a giant moss bed, but no Solis.
As I step under the second willow, there she is with Michi, seated on a bench, practically eating each other’s faces. What. The. Hell? My stomach turns sour. This is so much more than parading her around and dancing at my event. He’s trying to mount her right here.
“Michi.” I calmly address my teammate. “Sciathán team drinking game happening in five minutes.” I give Vladlena a cordial nod, letting both of them know their attendance is required.
“Bro, I’m obviously a little preoccupied,” Michi argues, glancing at Solis’s ample cleavage, making it overabundantly clear what he’s trying to initiate here.
“Be under the Oak in five. It’s mandatory.” I give them a tight smile and walk away with all my dignity intact. My stomach is still acting up. Maybe I should stop drinking, or maybe I should drink more?
Once at our seating area, I let everyone know we’re playing a game. I whisper to Katri, “Alright, make the changes to tonight’s entertainment schedule. I’m done with this shit.”
She gives me a wide and wicked smile before grabbing Connor to conspire.
I decided on Never Have I Ever as our game, figuring at the very least it might help me learn a thing or two about Vladlena.
The questions are mostly child’s play—places we’ve traveled, drugs we’ve tried, positions we’ve fucked in, the usual.
Most of us have known each other for so long that this game only helps us find out what the others have gotten up to since the last time we played.
However, I find it hard to focus when she is there, sitting in Michi’s lap, twirling his hair around her tiny finger.
Katri throws a particularly cutting Never Have I Ever toward Vladlena.
“Never have I ever fucked a human.” She flutters her eyelashes at the group but side-eyes Solis.
Magicae tend to stay away from humans outside of our covert diplomatic efforts.
And romantic relations with them are rather taboo.
I’m unsurprised when Vladlena is the only one who drinks, drawing attention to just how much of an outsider she is.
You could cut the awkward tension in the group with a knife.
Vladlena and the others throw a few barbs back and forth before Connor says, “Never have I ever been covered in leeches.”
Fuck. I have a feeling I know what’s about to happen. I should’ve asked Katri about her plan. Bodach feeding gives me the heebie-jeebies. But if Vladlena’s mental shield is as good as Nik believes, she’ll have no problem fighting off Connor’s hallucination.
Connor and Vladlena have a stare-off, locked in heated competition.
Vladlena glances down at her body, and her face flickers, her complexion transforming from a dewy flush to a pale sheen of sickly sweat.
I recognize that reaction; he’s feeding on her fear, and she’s not blocking him. At All. Why isn’t she blocking him?
She lets out a terrified scream, jumping off Michi’s lap.
She frantically brushes her hands down her body, gasping and sputtering.
I didn’t condone this. I should’ve known what was coming.
Katri is cutthroat, and Connor will take any opportunity to feed.
Vladlena’s stronger than we all feel comfortable admitting.
Her fear could fill him for a month if he gets enough.
She stumbles backwards, knocking into a low table, and then falling to the ground.
“Get them off me!” she screams, tears running down her cheeks while she rolls around on the ground, tearing at her dress and hair. Standing, she begins shaking and rips off her dress. She must see herself covered in parasites, but all we see is a crying mess.
The entire Sciathán team, all four wing captains, and most of our friends have clustered around Vladlena, laughing at this horrific display. The flashes from dozens of phones light up the night, spotlighting Vladlena as she screams and strips out of her bra and panties. Shit. Fuck.
This has gone too far. Bile coats the inside of my mouth—this isn’t what I wanted.
I should step in, I should help her. But I can’t be seen helping a Solis.
What will everyone think? If I go against Katri and Connor’s plan, it will look like I don’t have control of my people.
But if I don’t stop this, it will look like I support this type of free-for-all cruelty.
Callum tenses beside me, ready to jump into action, and I grab their wrist. We can’t interfere. It will make us appear weak. They look at me, their sharp jaw clenched and eyes blazing with anger. Cal thinks this was my doing. Is it my doing?
“Connor, shut it down,” I demand. “This is enough.”
He gives me a devilish smirk, drunk on Solis’s fear.
“Now!” I yell more firmly. I hide my nausea; I can’t look soft. Connor blinks, and Vladlena slowly comes back from her hallucination to the realization that she’s standing naked amongst all our peers. She snatches her clothing off the ground and runs into the woods, tear tracks staining her cheeks.
“Boden, what the fuck!” Callum turns on me, anger painting their face.
I shrug, trying to look nonchalant but feeling sick to my fucking stomach.
This shouldn’t have gotten so out of hand.
Callum wrenches their wrist from my grip and storms into the woods after Vladlena.
It’s my fault for not overseeing and controlling the situation.
How did I not have the foresight to make sure they weren’t going to do anything dangerous?
How did Connor break through her mental shield anyway? We need to know; Nik needs to know. “What about her mental shield?” I turn to Connor, my brows pushed up.
“That last shot she had was a piercing potion.” Katri laughs, wiping tears from her eyes and clutching her stomach.
“That, plus the alcohol, made it easier to crack,” Connor preens, full of pride. “I’ll say it was still difficult to get through.”
A piercing potion temporarily thins someone’s mental shield, just for a few seconds—only long enough to break through the mental barrier.
Usually, they don’t work on a strong shield.
But in combination with enough fae cocktails, if you plan it just right, you can get into a mind and do some damage before the shield pushes you out.
They’re also difficult to come by and fucking expensive.
If I had known he had access to one, I’d never have… fuck.
I glance around the group. “Alright. Enough. Show’s over,” I yell over the music. I catch Michi’s eyes. He’s standing at the back of the crowd, expression impassive. This is all his fucking fault! He pushed me to this.