Chapter 31
EZRA
T he lights flicker above me as I head down the hallway, the silence a peaceful reprieve as I make my way past the empty classrooms and lockers.
All the other students had left as soon as their final classes ended, the corridors now void of any life or noise. Thankfully.
I drag a weary hand down my face. It had already been a tiring week, what with the attack on our operations out of town and some dumb lone shifter pack trying to take over our territory here. It was solved as it always is, a lot of broken bones and Annex bloodying up.
But it had been annoying nonetheless and an unwelcome trouble I didn’t want to deal with right now.
We had been kept so busy that we couldn’t even come to the academy or attend classes. And usually I’d be happy to escape it all, but lately it had been a bit different…a little fun even.
I push the unfamiliar thoughts away and head down the dimly lit corridor, thinking back over the past couple of days.
A disturbance that should have taken a day or two to handle became more meddlesome, pulling our attention away for far too long. And I could see it in Creed's face, that something else was up.
I’ll have to set my feelers out again tomorrow, slapping on my usual friendly facade and find out what information I can to relay it back to Creed.
His mind worked on a different level, seeing some bigger picture.
It's one of the reasons why we always turn to him, the grumpy leader of our little group. Our ‘Patronising Prince’ .
I chuckle remembering the face Creed made when Micai called him that. He wasn’t happy, but he wasn’t exactly angry either.
He didn’t know it yet, but he was already warming up to the little sea star.
Another chuckle leaves my lips with the memory of her little scrunched nose and drawn brows when I gave her the nickname. It had left my lips before I could think, fitting more naturally to her the more I thought about it.
A sea star; something so soft and pretty in appearance but with a thicker skin to protect itself from others. A creature bright and beautiful, but also strong and resilient.
There was something special about Micai. Something that kept drawing my attention back to wherever she was and always wondering what she was going to say or do next.
And she was also completely different from every other girl I’d met before.
She didn’t look at me with glossy or dazed eyes; the usual lust-filled look every girl and woman gives me when they see me. They want a taste of what they think I am; some Fae, Elf or halfling…little do they know.
Their carnal gazes twist my stomach into knots and make me feel like throwing up. Thankfully it's now something I’ve managed to master and hide behind the mask they see. But Micai, she doesn’t look at me like that.
My brows pull downward…why didn’t she want me like that?
Why was Micai any different? Why wasn’t she lured in like all the others by my appearance? Why did my fake facade and sweet smile not work with her?
I pass by another empty classroom, the dark sky flooding in through the open windows as the first few stars begin to flicker and wake.
How had she been without us? She clearly wasn’t well liked in her class. Or even in the years below her.
People were never short of ill words or looks toward her but all that was bullshit. She wasn’t anything like what they made her out to be and if anyone spent just five minutes with her they would see that.
They were all fucking idiots.
I clench my fists with the thought. Something just didn’t sit right with me about it all.
Why were so many people against her? Who was orchestrating all this aggression and isolation? And why?
I could read people better than most and I could tell she was genuine, and that she didn’t want anything from me and my brothers. That she might have even enjoyed our company, even Annex’s.
A small smile stretches my lips with the thought of Annex.
He had been moaning all week about seeing his ‘little Red’. Even covered from head to toe in blood, he would grin like some maniac saying ‘ She would probably enjoy this too’ .
She would have to be as demented as him and the rest of us to be able to stomach our daily lives and darkness.
We all had demons.
Each and everyone of my brothers and I had our own special brand of dark. No one could manage even one of us, let alone all four.
A girl would have to have been made for us to be someone that could storm the darkness that surrounded us. Someone made by the Gods and Fate itself… a Mate.
A wistful smile stretches my lips. Was I still holding onto that hope? That one day I would find my own mate and the one being made for me?
I shake my head as a small sigh leaves my lips. It's just a young boy's dream; one told by their mother when they’re small and naive and believe in fairy tales and true love. I, out of everyone, should know better.
A fated mate was almost as impossible as bringing someone back from the dead or travelling through time. It was a miracle in and of itself. And those blessed were so far and few between with just a small handful in the supernatural world being gifted with one.
Who was I to think I would be blessed with such grace?
I turn the corner and head toward the music room.
I had heard some new unsavoury rumours had spread about Micai while we were gone. They had been slowly dying down with our presence before we left, but I guess in our absence the assholes spreading shit got bolder. Annex would want to go on a killing spree if he heard this bullshit.
Even I was getting pissed.
I would have to find the source of these rumours soon, and make whoever spread them unable to spew anymore bullshit.
What did Micai ever do to deserve such crap?
From the little time I had already spent with her over the past month, I could tell she was the complete opposite of what everyone believed.
If she had a problem, she wouldn’t bite you behind your back, she would call you out and face you head on and have some cute snappy retort to throw back at you for every one sentence you had for her.
She was a cute little pitbull alright. One with bright blue eyes and plump rosy lips that make you wanna lean in and see what they taste like.
I stop walking.
Did I just think that? I want Micai…like that?
I shake my head, my brows pinching together.
I had never wanted to kiss any of the girls around me before. It was always them making the first move and me just going with it. But it had never crossed my mind to want to do it myself, not with anyone before anyway.
Micai…she was different.
I’m pulled from my thoughts with the sound of music…no a voice.
Someone was singing.
I take a step closer before freezing.
My feet are glued to the spot I stand on as a tremor works its way through my body and down to my very core.
A warm and tender feeling spreads in me; flowing through every vein and bone and filling me with it as it quickly consumes me whole. It takes even the air from my lungs as it moves.
A voice rings in my head, a feeling of surety joining it with a single word.
Mate.
A bond and connection intertwines and unravels within me, beckoning for the one whose voice floods my ears and calls to my soul. My breath comes back and catches in my throat, my heart racing faster than any adrenaline spike.
I take a step closer toward the music room's unused back door. It's slightly ajar as I get closer. The voice inside the room raises higher, words flowing seamlessly in perfect rhythm to her song.
A song filled with so much love and pain, it pulls at something inside me, willing my own voice to join her and to soothe and embrace her with my own melody.
I stop myself before I pull the door open, trying to rein in the overwhelming feeling of running to the girl inside the room and holding her. My fated mate.
Who is she? Have we met before?
Is that why her voice sounded sort of familiar?
But that voice…if I had heard such a beautiful and soulful voice like that before I would have remembered.
You couldn’t forget something like this.
Something so mesmerising, so heart-wrenching, so captivating…
I take another trembling step closer to the door, her voice luring me in before my movements still once again.
There, sitting across the room and singing that heart-breakingly beautiful song, is Micai.
My fated mate and the one made for me by Fate and the Gods themselves…was Micai.
A shaky breath falls from my stretched lips. I knew there was something about her, something different and special. I could already feel a connection with her…I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.
I bite my bottom lip, trying to stop the laugh wanting to leave my lips as an unexplainable emotion wells up from within me.
It was Micai. My little sea star was my mate and the other half of my soul.
I look back toward her dimly lit silhouette as her voice echoes around the room and seeps out to where I stand.
Should I wait until she finishes and then tell her? Explain to her what we were and what she means to me?
Would she even believe me? I mean fated mates were really rare.
And how would she feel? Would she feel the bond on her end or…I push the thoughts from my head.
Thank god we got to know each other a little before this. Hopefully she doesn’t believe all those playboy rumours about me.
I ruffle my hair as a slither of panic slides over me, thinking about all of them. And then the image of her at the fight hits me and I curse myself.
She saw me with those women.
It was just to get information for Creed and we didn’t do anything more than some light kissing, and I sure as hell didn’t enjoy any of it, but… Fuck .
I’m not like that. It was just for work and they meant nothing.
But what would Micai think?
I drag my hand through my now messy hair, giving it a pull.
I’ll have to explain everything. I was never interested in any of the girls or women, none of them. It was always information collecting for Creed. And that's done now.
I’ll tell her everything.
That no other girl ever made me feel anything. That there's only her; now and until our last breath together.
I look over to her; her hair is slightly swaying with the air flowing in from a nearby window. Gods she was beautiful.
Would she feel it too…the bond? She would have to eventually, right? Over time at least.
I’ll have to make sure I spend every minute I can with her.
Fuck, I wish I was a year younger, then we could have at least been in the same year. Maybe I could drop down? Failing a few classes could work.
I’m about to step into the room when I notice something that has me stopping again.
Tears.
The small tiny droplets fall down her cheeks as she continues to sing.
And that's when I realised…this wasn’t just some song. She wasn’t just singing for the sake of it. This meant something.
I rub my chest, feeling the pain and emotion bleeding through with each word. The song was about love, but I could feel it… loss .
How could I have missed that? So blinded by my own happiness, I missed her misery.
My gut twists, my fingers twitching at my sides, wanting to reach for her but I pull them back.
She had lost something, or someone , and this was her way of dealing with the pain.
I take a slow step back. Now wasn’t the time to go in grinning from ear to ear and telling her we were meant for each other. She was in pain, and as much as my hands itched to reach out to her, to take her in my arms and tell her it would be okay…I couldn’t.
Because I could feel it. That kind of loss wasn’t something that I could kiss away. It would take time to heal, and only when she was ready could I help her.
Right now, she didn’t need me to be lost in blissful thoughts of us being mates or me trying to push my feelings on to her. She deserved more than that.
I watch on as the tiny clear droplets fall from her cheeks, her beautiful soulful voice trailing off and echoing around the large music room as her song comes to an end.
My mate had a deep pain inside her, one that needed time to heal. And time I had plenty of. In fact every moment from now was hers; every second to have and every day to decide what's next.
Suddenly a clap rings out from the other door at the top of the class, pulling both our attention.
Mrs. Fleur bursts into the room from the main classroom door, a huge oblivious smile on her lips as she makes her way toward Micai.
Micai turns toward the window, wiping away her tears with her sleeve and I clench my fists. There was nothing to be embarrassed about.
I turn my gaze toward the woman making her way toward my mate. Couldn’t that stupid teacher read the room? Micai couldn’t even have this moment.
I narrow my eyes toward the annoyingly oblivious woman, who’s beaming from ear to ear and talking so fast that I can barely make out her words.
Beautiful voice’ and ‘Perfection’ are all I catch. But that's obvious . Anyone with ears would say the same.
Micai’s voice could make an Angel weep and any Siren green with envy.
And she was mine.
A feeling wells up inside my chest with the thought.
I watch Micai as she becomes a little flustered and I, in turn, become more angered at the presence of Mrs. Fleur.
I never had a problem with the music teacher before but this was a different story. How could she be so blind? Clearly anyone could see Micai was uncomfortable.
The overly enthusiastic teacher rambles on, and Micai’s anguished expression from earlier creases out. It's now overtaken with a slight look of annoyance; her cute brows are pulled down and her plump kissable lips are slightly pursed. It has a grin pulling at my cheeks.
She rolls her eyes when the teacher turns away and a small relieved sigh leaves my lips. At least she doesn't look in pain anymore.
But I’ll have to help her deal with whatever she's going through. Hopefully over time she’ll open up to me more.
I take one last glance at her, making sure her expression looks better before turning around and leaving.
There was a lot to do and I’d have to make sure I sort out as much as I can, to get every minute possible with her from now on.
Those rumours would have to be dealt with first. I’ll make sure no-one even thinks a bad thought about her from now on, let alone spew anymore shit.
And I know a certain deranged psycho that would be more than happy to help me with the clean up.
I crack my knuckles and make my way down the dark corridors. Annex wasn’t the only one who had a dark streak.
I wasn’t afraid to get bloody, I just never had a reason. Until now.
It's time the people around here remember why I’m a part of The Infernal Four.