9. Aflora
All right.The Midnight Fae Academy uniforms weren’t bad. A lot of black, but my shirts were white.
I finished tying cloak number nine around my neck, testing the weight. All the others were too heavy, the fabric choking me worse than the leather collar around my throat. But this one was made of a light silk and fringed in dark red tones.
Smoothing my hands around it, I twirled, liking the way it feathered around my exposed legs. The Academy skirts were a bit short, hitting me midthigh. Hence, I’d requested some knee-high boots to?—
“Not bad,” a deep voice murmured behind me. “But I personally think you would look better in my family color, which is purple.”
I spun around to find Shade lounging in a chair that didn’t exist a moment ago.
“How did you…? Where did you…? What…?” I shook my head, biting my lip to keep from issuing another unfinished question at the willow stump sitting a few feet away from me.
“The collar is a nice touch. Does that make you my pet?” he asked, pushing to his feet to draw closer. “Or is Kolstov trying to claim what’s mine?” His fingertips brushed the leather around my throat, sending a hum of energy across my skin and eliciting a hiss from his mouth. “Bastard.”
Shade grasped the back of my neck before I could even think to react, pulling my body up against his in a move that stole my breath.
Electricity zipped down my spine from his hold and the rioting device around my throat. It didn’t hurt so much as send an unpleasant sensation across my skin. “Shade…”
“How are you, love?” he asked, walking me backward into a wall. “Are they treating you all right? Apart from the collar, of course.”
Some of my senses started to return as he pressed his body into mine.
Hewas the reason I had to wear a collar.
Because he had bitten me against my will.
And now he had the audacity to show up and ask me how I was doing? Like he gave a damn about my feelings?
“Oh, you!” I planted my palms against his chest and tried to shove him away. “You’re the reason I’m in this mess!”
“You seem to be enjoying said mess,” he returned, glancing down at my blouse and black skirt. “Playing fashionista on the royal dime. How fun.”
“Because I need an outfit for the Academy I have to attend because of you.” I attempted to push him again, but he didn’t budge an inch.
Instead, he leaned into me more, his hips aligning with mine as he anchored me against the wall. “Still upset, I see.” He drew his nose across my cheek, his breath fanning my face. “Allow me to make it up to you, little darling.”
“Make it up to me?” I repeated, my nails digging into his blazer. “You’ve destroyed my life. Possibly even earned us both a death sentence. There is no living way you could make it up to me, Shadow.” I was panting by the end of my statement, not because of his close proximity or the way his thigh had slid between mine, but because of the anger heating my blood. “I hate you.”
He chuckled and kissed the space below my ear, his palm leaving my neck to grip my hip. “Wrap your arms around me.”
“No.”
“Mmm.” He hoisted me into the air with both hands on my waist. I grabbed his shoulders in response, gasping as he pressed his groin into the apex between my thighs. “Grip me with your legs, baby, or you’ll fall.”
“Put me down.”
“Not a chance.” He captured my mouth instead and took full advantage of my shock by slipping his tongue between my lips.
What is happening?
Why is he doing this?
And oh, no, this… can’t… be… happening.
Dizziness shot through my mind.
Adrenaline fueled my limbs.
I wanted to hurt him.
Needed to fight.
Because this couldn’t be allowed to continue!
I clamped down on his tongue, only to be rewarded with the most beautiful taste in response. I froze. Then moaned. Oh my… Exquisite decadence filled our mouths, distracting me from my goal and throwing me into a whirl of oblivion that I couldn’t escape from. Instead, I fell headfirst into it, allowing my instincts to take over.
My legs were around his waist in a second.
My arms encircling his neck.
And his essence coated my lips, my mouth, my throat.
I groaned, craving another swallow more than anything else in the world. He gave it to me with his tongue, sliding along mine, feeding me that delicious liquid I desired.
One hand remained against my hip while his opposite rose to my hair, his fingers entangling in my strands as he tilted my head to better receive his kiss.
Some part of me was screaming at us to stop.
But I couldn’t hear her over the roar of need in my thoughts.
Heat unlike anything I ever remembered feeling seared my insides, pulsing through my veins with one driving thought—more.
His arousal grew between my thighs, his slacks rubbing the thin barrier of my lace panties. My skirt was up around my hips, my blouse unbuttoned to reveal my bra, and I couldn’t remember how it happened. Except it was my hand running down my shirt, my fingers unfastening the final button.
I shivered. “What are you doing to me?” I felt possessed. Owned. Hypnotized by this male. Yet completely lucid and aware. “How are you doing this?”
“This is all you,” he whispered, his lips brushing mine. “You bit me, Aflora.”
“To make you stop,” I remembered, though I couldn’t recall why. “I don’t like you.”
He smiled. “Likewise, baby. But that only makes this so much hotter.” His mouth recaptured mine before I could reply, his touch robbing me of my ability to think.
His hands were everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
His kiss a brand against my lips.
His dick throbbing against the place I needed to be touched most.
Too many clothes.
My wrists were caught in one of his hands and hoisted above my head. “Not yet,” he breathed. “Not here.”
“Not what?” I replied, dazed.
“Shh,” he hushed, his refreshing scent surrounding me in a jungle of sensation.
Trees.
Water.
Flowers in full bloom.
The familiarity of the aromas had me sighing in contentment while my body hummed to life with renewed passion.
I kissed him with all of my being, gifting him with the life thriving in my soul, only to be ensnared in his dark web in return. He tugged me under, filling me with a venomous energy that felt wrong beneath my skin.
“Shade,” I whimpered, writhing against him.
“I’ve got you,” he promised.
But I didn’t believe him.
I couldn’t trust him.
Just as Zephyrus said—I’d be wise to develop a similar armor. One outlined in distrust.
My limbs began to shake.
Tears slid from my eyes.
The world rumbled around me, and I couldn’t make it stop, even while an inferno built inside me, begging to be released.
It terrified me.
Enthralled me.
Owned me.
Shade’s tongue dominated mine, his cock a thick presence against my core, pushing me to the precipice of something terrifying. I clung to him with all my strength, horrified and captivated at the same time. Nothing I could do would stop this. I felt it in my very blood, an unerring compulsion to give in to Shade’s ministrations.
A part of me rebelled.
The other part… rejoiced.
I hated him more in that moment than anyone else in my entire existence. Yet my craving for him won.
Ecstasy erupted inside me, drawing a scream from my throat that was filled with self-loathing and pain. And also represented the most powerful orgasm of my life.
I wasn’t a complete innocent.
I’d played with Glacier countless times, and while the Water Fae was good in bed, he never made me feel quite like this.
Like liquid ice.
Hot on the inside, frozen on the outside.
A tremor rocked me from head to toe, my rapture subsiding beneath a fresh wave of horror.
I couldn’t discern up from down, right from wrong, or passion from hate. Shade’s lips were at my neck, his kiss far too tender for my liking. I’d prefer his bite so I could hate him more. Only, he held me with worship in his touch, his warm body wrapped around me in a false blanket of protection.
“I hate you,” I whispered, my eyes wet. “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.”
“I know,” he replied softly. “I hate myself, too.” He nuzzled my throat, sighing. “I’m not supposed to be here, but I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m not okay,” I told him, shuddering. “Not okay at all.”
He kissed my jaw before pulling back to meet my gaze. “You’re strong, little rose,” he said softly, the new nickname underlined in a deep caress. “We’ll both be okay in the end. You’ll see.” He pressed his lips to mine once more as he carried me to the chair. Lowering me into it, he hovered over me with a sinful look. “I need to go before Guardian Zephyrus finishes his spell. But I’ll see you again soon. In your dreams.”
Shade vanished into a cloud of smoke that seemed to take up the entire room, his existence touching every article of clothing and all the walls, until all I could see was darkness.
“Aflora!” Zephyrus’s furious voice slapped me across the face, jolting me from the chair. He stood before me with a livid expression, his wand in his hand.
I frowned at him, then whirled around the unfamiliar room. Wait… I glanced down to find myself fully clothed and wrapped up in a cloak like a blanket.
My skirt looked brand new, my blouse fully buttoned, and I even had on knee-high boots.
I blinked. “What…?”
“A sleep enchantment,” Zephyrus hissed. “That little prick.” He shook his head, a curse falling from his full lips. “He’s circumventing the rules with mind play. I’d be impressed if he wasn’t breaking a hundred protocols to do it.”
“So he wasn’t… That didn’t… I…” My cheeks heated, unable to finish. My damp panties were the only thing on me that matched my supposed dream. So either I’d woken up turned on or I’d orgasmed in my sleep.
Which meant Zephyrus had probably seen it.
Oh, Mother Earth…Warmth touched every inch of my being at the thought of what he’d witnessed.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem all that keen to mention it.
“We’re done shopping,” he said instead, turning on a wave of superiority, an array of bags forming around him. “I assume that’s your cape of choice. Same with the wand. The other items will be in your wardrobe by the time we get back.” He glanced at my boots and skirt. “A little schoolgirl for our trip back, but I doubt anyone will notice. Let’s go.”
“Wait, what wand?” I asked. “I didn’t pick one.”
“Check your pocket, Aflora. One already picked you.”
I patted the side of my cape, my eyes widening. “They do that?”
He just gave me a flat look and gestured with his chin toward a mirror. Assuming he meant for me to walk through it, I did and found myself in the cloakroom once more.
My cape billowed around me as I twisted in a sharp circle. “How…?”
“You have so much to learn about our world,” Zephyrus replied as he retrieved his cloak and wrapped it around his shoulders with a flourish. “Also, a wand isn’t a magical being. It’s an extension of our power.”
With a wave of his hand, a keypad appeared, and he punched in a code that I caught this time. Of course, it was to the place I didn’t really want to go, so not all that helpful.
“We use them as a conduit,” he continued, his arm sliding around my shoulders to hold me close while the portal began to whirl around us. “As I said, it’s an extension of your power. It helps you focus on a single book on a shelf rather than an entire collection.”
Cawing pierced my skull as the crows took over, welcoming us back to the Academy grounds.
In minutes, they were back to their rocky forms, dotting the courtyard.
Flames ignited along the paths again, illuminating the otherwise quiet campus.
“When do students start to arrive?” I asked as he led the way back to Kolstov’s building.
“Some are already here but keeping to themselves. The majority will return in five days’ time to attend the annual autumn bonfire.” He flicked his wrist, sending the bags ahead in a train that moved toward the residence. “Let’s take a tour before heading back. We can stop by the cafeteria as well and grab something to eat.”
My stomach grumbled at the idea, agreeing.
Aside from the tea he’d forced on me after waking up, I hadn’t eaten at all.
“Just be warned,” he added, already walking. “The food on Academy grounds is of the human variety. So either you’re going to have to learn some meal-conjuring spells or you’re going to need to change your tastes. I recommended the latter.” He snapped his fingers, a torch appearing in his hand. “Now try to keep up, Aflora. I’m going to give you a crash course in Academy life, and I won’t be repeating myself.”