Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
~ Shade ~
The next few days pass in a blur. When I’m not at classes or having private training sessions, I’m spending time with my mates or I’m in the secret library reading the oracle’s journals.
Things at the academy fall into a rhythm with the demons picking up the shadow fighting techniques quickly, and the students learning a lot from the generals.
Germain and Ambrose continue to bring zenali creatures to the dungeons for questioning, and I only agree because my mates assure me the creatures will be freed when we’re done. I know I don’t really have a choice, but I’m glad I stood up for the zenali.
I’ve questioned five other creatures, but so far none of them can tell me what the Xalgrith want or where we can find the fold.
Like the nemins and Borshoz, the zenali all call me mistress and speak as if they think I’m going to help them somehow.
Which is…awkward. The last thing I want is more expectations on my shoulders.
I tried to tell the last zenali that I’m not who she thinks I am, but she only let out a dry, brittle laugh muttering something about my denial.
At this point, it feels like the creatures are all part of some inside joke that I don’t know about.
It’s the second-to-last night that Blake, her mates, and the demons will be here, and I convince my mates to let us have a girls’ slumber party in my dorm. Thankfully they agree, not that Blake would have taken ‘no’ for an answer.
I sit cross-legged on my bed as Blake returns with a mattress from an empty dorm, and she drops it onto the floor, dressing it with a couple of blankets.
“Think your guys will survive without you?” I ask as Blake relaxes, and she stretches out on the mattress.
Her lips twitch. “Yeah, they’ll be fine. What about yours?”
I shrug a shoulder. “Girl, I need this, and I made sure they know it. I don’t think they’ll be interrupting us.”
“And thank the sweet souls of the shadow realm for that. We could use a night without the usual theatrics,” Elgen croaks in my mind.
By theatrics, she means me and my mates having fun times. Which have been admittedly a little less fun with the shadows in my head. Thankfully, Elgen and Tarlaz mostly stay silent when it’s happening, but I guess I didn’t think that part through when I decided to bind us.
“I’ll find you guys your own bodies one day. Then you can enjoy your own fated mates or whatever,” I comment.
Elgen tsks. “All I need is somewhere dark and quiet and away from here.”
Before I can reply, someone knocks on the door.
Blake gives me a look. “I thought you said your mates could handle a night without you?”
Grinning, I don’t get up. Instead, I send out my shadows, opening the door wide to reveal Satine standing awkwardly in the doorway with a mattress propped against her leg.
“What the hell?” Kenzie shadow whispers to me as she sits up on her bed.
“I know,” I whisper back. “But all her friends are gone, including her two lovers or whatever Craig and Ian were to her. I think we should give her a chance. Besides, she saved me during the games.”
“A chance to what? Stab us in our sleep?” Kenzie retorts. “She only saved you because you saved her first. Have you forgotten how horrible she was? How she tried to kill you?”
“I’m with the dog girl,” Elgen rasps. The shadow has called Kenzie that ever since she discovered what animali Kenzie has.
I wince. Honestly, that incident with Satine feels like it happened so long ago. “Of course, I haven’t,” I reply to Kenzie. “But look at her.”
My roommate raises a brow. “Yeah, I’m looking. It’s Satine. Not some cute puppy to be adopted!”
I stifle my smile as Kenzie gives me crazy eyes.
“Okay, fine. It might be a terrible idea,” I admit, “but I don’t know, when I saw Satine in the hallway earlier the invite just sort of happened.
The demons and students have been training so well together.
I can’t shake this feeling that if we’re going to survive what comes next, we need everyone to get along. ”
Kenzie sighs heavily. “All right, but if I die tonight, you’d better find my damn lost soul and bring me back somehow.”
“Deal.”
Satine is still standing in the doorway, and she bites out impatiently, “Look if you don’t want me here, I have better places to be.”
I open my mouth to speak, but Blake beats me to it. “No, you don’t,” she says simply.
“Excuse me?” Satine splutters defensively.
Blake stares her down. “You’ve got three of the strongest females on academy grounds willing to share the night with you.
And I know you. You’re a survivor, aren’t you?
Let me guess, you’ve always thought one of the best ways to survive is by getting close to the biggest baddies around you?
Well, here we are.” She opens her hands wide, and the tiniest bit of embarrassment goes through me.
The three strongest? I don’t know what Blake has been smoking.
Kenzie blushes and ducks her head, and I wonder if my roommate is thinking the same thing that I am.
To both our surprise, Satine doesn’t question Blake’s statement. Her gaze roves over the three of us before she sniffs and meets Blake’s stare.
Blake gestures toward the empty section of floor beside her, and Satine stays silent as she drags her mattress in and drops down onto it.
“Oh,” Blake adds, “and it goes without saying that if you hurt my girl, Shade, you won’t survive what happens next. The same goes for her friend, Kenzie.” The demon queen says it so plainly like she’s simply discussing the rules of the sleepover.
I’m suddenly glad that I haven’t told Blake about how Satine tried to kill me. Yeah, that would have been a disaster. Thankfully, all I’ve said is that Satine used to give me a hard time.
“Have I mentioned that I like this friend of yours?” Kenzie whispers to me, and I smile because Blake is pretty great.
“Yes, you should keep that one around,” Elgen croaks.
A single nod is the only acknowledgment Satine gives Blake, and I’m glad Satine was smart enough to agree. Kenzie relaxes, and I wonder whether she really had been worried that Satine would stab us in our sleep.
In any case, things calm down after that. We gorge ourselves on snacks (much to the delight of Elgen and Tarlaz), braid each other’s hair, drink wine like consumption is a competition, and laugh about the guys.
Kenzie rests her wine glass on her knees. “I hate to say it, but the academy will be quieter when the demons are gone.”
“When all the demons are gone, or are you just talking about a particular demon named Vethrak?” I tease.
Kenzie glares at me. “I mean all of them. It was annoying having them here at first, but I don’t know, somehow I feel safer with them here now.”
Blake smirks. “You only think that because they’ve been on their best behavior.” The demon queen releases the knife in her hand, sending it flying into the centre of the bullseye on the back of my dorm door. It lands right between the eyes of a Xalgrith she pinned up there.
I make a face. “You’d better not be leaving that up there tonight. Having that thing staring at me is creepy as hell.”
Blake laughs.
Satine leans back, resting her head on her hands. “It will be quieter without the demons,” she says softly.
My lips quirk up. “Well, we knew you’d say that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Satine replies.
“Girl, please.” I snort. “You and Sebastian?”
She gives me a clueless expression, and I facepalm.
“Back me up here, won’t you?” I say, nudging Blake.
The demon queen grins conspiratorially. “Demons are more in tune to sensing sexual energy,” she states simply. “You can hide it from yourself but…”
The color drains from Satine’s face, and the rest of us burst out laughing, clutching our stomachs as we wheeze.
“He’s an asshole!” Satine snaps.
“So it’s a great match then,” I blurt, before realizing I’d said that part out loud.
Satine is still for a long moment, but then she snatches up her pillow and throws it at my head. I’m so surprised, I yelp when I get a face full of cotton. “You didn’t!” I squeal. “That’s it, Blake, you’re up.”
For a heartbeat, Satine stiffens and true fear crosses her face, like she actually thinks Blake might punish her for throwing her pillow at me.
I quickly put Satine out of her misery, tossing a pillow back in her direction.
I was aiming for her face, but it goes wide, slamming into Kenzie’s bedside lamp instead and breaking it.
Oops. Either way, the effect is the same, and a grand pillow fight ensues.
Blake might be protective, but she’s not a monster. Yeesh.
“No powers!” Kenzie shrieks when Blake sends her pillow flying and it lands squarely in her face.
“That was me using only a fraction of my strength!” Blake laughs.
We’re well and truly bruised by the time we collapse on the floor in a fit of laughter, tears leaking from our eyes. I’m sure I’ve used muscles I never knew existed, and I wonder if this should be added to the shadow warrior training schedule.
Even Satine is relaxed now, smiling as we stare at the ceiling.
“I get the feeling my generals are going to miss this place, too,” Blake says softly. “Despite the circumstances, it has been a pleasant getaway.”
“Like a forced staycation,” I quip.
“Exactly,” Blake chuckles.
We’re still grinning when shadows pool on the other side of the room, and a sheepish Raith pokes his head out of a shadow pathway.
We lift onto our elbows as we stare at him.
“Uh, we heard screams?” he says uncertainly. “Just wanted to make sure—oof!”
His words are cut off as Blake’s pillow soars into his face, and considering the way it explodes into a mess of feathers, I’m guessing she was using more of her strength. We erupt into fits of laughter again, and I feel bad for my mate as he hastily disappears, closing the pathway behind him.
“I’m not sure what’s cuter—that your mates wanted to check on you, or that your adorable Raith, who I’m guessing must have drawn the short straw, looked so embarrassed I thought he might combust,” Blake says, smirking.
“So you think he’s adorable, huh?” I say, still wondering if I’m going to be the one paying for Blake’s blatant attack later.
Kenzie rolls her eyes. “Come on Shade, the professors are gorgeous and you know it.”
I grin. “True. All too true. Shame that they know it as well.” That’s followed by more laughter.
When the room grows quiet again, Satine’s voice is soft when she speaks and I get the feeling she’s been holding onto this question all night.
“How do you do it, Shade?” Her gaze lands on me.
“How do you keep going? Queen Krosia wants you dead, you’ve got no chance of immortality, plus, you’re trapped in this place.
We all know the agreement with the demons might not last. At first, I used to think you were just naive, but I’m starting to realize you’re… something else.”
Blake and Kenzie tense, but before either of them can speak for me, I joke, “Well, the amazing dick helps.” I don’t begrudge Satine when she’s simply stating the truth.
Blake snorts, and Kenzie facepalms, but no one laughs.
I bite my bottom lip before answering more seriously, “But I’m not sure.
I guess it helps knowing there are people out there who would give a shit if I died.
” I think of my mates and their animali, of Blake and her guys, of Kenzie and the shadows, Elgen and Tarlaz, of my phoenix in her egg, and even of the zenali who keep calling me mistress.
Satine nods, still staring at the ceiling. “I guess that’s why I got with Craig and Ian. I was hoping someone would give a shit. That somehow, they’d help me survive this place. And that once I was immortal, I would stop feeling so…alone.”
I frown, unable to stop myself from feeling sorry for her.
I mean, not only had Ian not given a shit, but he’d literally tried to kill her just to make himself look good.
As horrified as I was to end the man’s life, right now a part of me wishes I could do it again.
Or more so, that I could offer him up to Satine, so she could get some closure.
“I’m sorry,” Satine adds quickly, almost like she’s embarrassed to say it, and I’m pulled from my thoughts of murder. “For how I’ve treated you both,” she says, staring at me and Kenzie. “I could come up with excuses, but I don’t think there’s any point.”
I’m completely stunned by her apology, and I’m guessing Kenzie is, too, but my friend recovers faster than I do. “I’m sure this place didn’t help,” Kenzie replies. “They pit the weak against the strong from the moment we’re brought here.”
Blake doesn’t comment, but I know this conversation must be affecting her too.
Being born half-demon meant that despite her lineage, the demons looked down on her for a long time.
That is, until she showed them she could cut off their tongues and make them eat them.
Then she helped win the demon war and became one of the strongest beings in all the realms, with her five powerful mates at her sides.
I push the demon war from my mind. “Don’t worry,” I tell Satine. “We give a shit.”
There’s silence for a beat as my words sink in, and Satine sags against the mattress. Like just hearing me say those words gives her…hope.
Blake clears her throat. “Sebastian definitely gives a shit.”
That’s all it takes, and then we’re all laughing again, pretending like we’re not in the middle of a war and battle isn’t in our near future.