Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Bloom
Shadows vs Storm
For one long heartbeat, the room held its breath. Everyone stared: Kingsley, the giants, the beast-headed beings, Headmistress Stardust.
Even Nero stilled above me, hellfire flickering in his eyes.
“It’s impossible,” someone whispered. “No one can break Hephaestus’s net.”
“Shut your mouth!” Kingsley barked.
Nero moved, faster than a thought. He hauled me into his arms, wrapping me in his power, his body a shield between me and the invaders. I’d woven shadow with living vines that clothed my nakedness.
In an instant, Nero’s armor appeared, half-covering his shoulders, chest, and thighs.
“You came for what is mine,” he snarled, standing in the ruins of his room, rain soaking his armor and murder smoldering in his eyes. “Now I will peel the flesh from your bones while you still breathe to feel it.”
His death power lashed out, faster than anything I had ever seen.
Kingsley and Stardust raised their shields instantly—Kingsley with battle-hardened reflexes, Stardust drawing on the academy’s bound magic.
But the beings Kingsley had brought were not so fortunate.
Over half fell dead at the first wave of Nero’s power, their faces blackening, eyes whitening, bodies collapsing onto the rain-drenched floor.
I struck in the same breath, before Kingsley’s shield fully solidified.
My thorned vines and the roses that had bloomed earlier when Nero gave me pleasure now turned into weapons.
My aim was true, but Kingsley was centuries my superior.
The thorns missed his eyes but carved a long, bloody line down his jaw.
“How dare you, girl!” he bellowed, his shield now solid before him.
He knew exactly who I was. He had demanded my punishment after catching me breaking curfew with Sebastian. Yet he still refused to speak my name, as if it would scald his tongue.
“You brought this upon yourself, Kingsley,” Headmistress Stardust said, and I didn’t miss the trace of satisfaction in her voice.
As Nero’s shadows coiled protectively around me, he summoned a shadow blade and charged. Kingsley stretched out his hand, and a trident materialized from the air and fell into his grip.
Shit. Was that the trident of Poseidon? Could Kingsley truly be the God of the Sea?
More likely, he was a powerful descendant, a demigod even, as Sindy had suggested.
She was the closest thing to an expert on divine legacies, though the idea of actual gods walking these halls as professors was enough to unravel anyone’s sanity.
Nero’s shadow sword descended in a brutal arc. Kingsley met it with his trident, the impact unleashing a shockwave that rattled the remaining walls. Water erupted where the trident struck the floor, surging upward into a defensive wall.
Nero pressed forward, relentless. His blade became a blur of darkness, each strike intended to kill. Kingsley parried, his trident spinning to deflect blow after blow. The water moved with his weapon, shaping itself into barriers and sharp spears that shot toward Nero.
Hellfire crackled along Nero’s blade. He severed the water spears, evaporating them mid-air. His shadows stretched out, seeking to tear Kingsley apart.
Kingsley drove his trident toward his opponent. Nero twisted aside, the prongs missing his throat by inches. He brought his blade up in a vicious counter, forcing Kingsley back three steps.
The floor cracked beneath their feet. Rain still hammered through the ceiling, sizzling and freezing around the combatants, steam rising where Nero’s hellfire touched it, ice forming where Kingsley’s power gathered.
Nero’s movements were fluid, lethal. Each strike flowed into the next without pause, his blade carving trails of darkness through the air. Kingsley matched him with his glowing trident.
The surviving beings scrambled back.
Nero feinted left, then struck right. Kingsley’s trident caught the blade, but Nero’s free hand shot forward, shadows coiling like serpents around Kingsley’s legs.
Kingsley slammed the trident’s handle down, and a shockwave of water exploded outward, shattering the shadows’ grip, but not before they left a gash that seeped blood. Kingsley bellowed in rage.
They circled each other again, weapons raised, the air between them searing with violence. Death magic rolled off Nero in waves; the space around Kingsley shimmered with deep ocean power.
Kingsley lunged, and Nero met him head-on. Their weapons locked, faces inches apart, both snarling.
“You’ll pay for this, Ravencrux,” Kingsley growled, straining against Nero’s strength.
“You’ve tempted the Fates. This was not meant to happen.
She cannot be this strong as a mortal—” He bit off the words as if gagged by some oath.
Then his eyes flared, rage renewed as he deflected Nero’s strike, a blow meant to cleave his skull. “You cheated!”
“You and your fucking brother are the cheaters,” Nero sneered. “You always have been.”
They broke apart only to collide again. The force of their impact sent cracks spiderwebbing through the standing walls. Their battle rose to a fever pitch, weapons moving in blurs of shadow and sea-lit silver.
“Stop!” Headmistress Stardust commanded.
She moved to my side. Though Nero’s power still shielded me, I felt his attention split, one eye on me even as he fought.
He did not protest her presence, and somehow, I knew she wasn’t a threat.
He’d cut down the lion-faced being that tried to grab me, opening its throat before it came within three steps.
Kingsley and Nero fought on, their mutual hatred a tangible thing. Nero found an opening and drove his blade through Kingsley’s shoulder, piercing armor and flesh. Kingsley managed to carve a deep gash across Nero’s left side.
Headmistress Stardust summoned four throwing stars, each etched with the symbol of a witch mark of crossed keys and triple moons. As she cast them to the four corners of the ruined room, a ward erected between Kingsley and Nero, a shimmering barrier that forced them apart.
“I said enough!” she barked, prismatic light glowing in her eyes.
Nero and Kingsley stood on opposite sides of the ward, glaring at one another with undiluted hatred. Their blades still dripped blood—Nero’s a dark crimson, and Kingsley’s tinged with the blue of deep ocean water. I filed the observation away.
“Look at the two of you,” Headmistress Stardust scolded. “Brawling like schoolboys over a girl.”
“I do not fight over a mortal,” Kingsley spat. “This was never about her.”
I didn’t give a fuck about his opinion, but I was trembling, despite the shadow and foliage I’d woven to coat myself.
Morrigan might’ve healed me after the kidnapping, but I hadn’t fully recovered.
And I was spent after weaving the blood threads to break the net.
My legs felt unsteady, my vision blurring at the edges.
Nero was at my side in an instant, his strong arms wrapping around me. He conjured a cloak and draped it over me. The warm fabric carried his powerful male scent mixed with a hint of sandalwood.
Kingsley jabbed a finger toward us. “Well, Stardust? Ravencrux and his little... friend have been quite thorough in violating the cardinal rule. What do you intend to do about it?”
Stardust rubbed her temple, then her gaze hardened. “What I intend is for the three of us to sit down and discuss this like adults—assuming any of you remember how. Everyone else. Get out.”
I swallowed. Before I could even think to flee, Nero’s arm tightened around my waist. Our secret was now in the open, and he had no intention of letting me go.
“Bloom stays,” he said, his voice hard and final. “As for the rest…” He flicked his wrist. A wave of merciless shadows burst outward, sweeping Kingsley’s remaining minions up through the shattered ceiling. Their screams faded into a violent twister above.
“You have no right to banish my men!” Kingsley hissed.
“You’re fortunate I did not slaughter all of your pricks,” Nero replied. “But mark my word, they’ll pay for their sins.”
“And yet you’re the worst sinner,” Kingsley snorted.
“Stop bickering for a second!” Stardust’s voice cut through their argument. “Nero, you broke the academy’s most fundamental rule.”
“The rule is bullshit,” Nero said.
“He simply couldn’t help himself,” Kingsley sneered.
“And you, Kingsley,” Stardust snapped, “you never should have brought outsiders within these walls. That, too, carries consequences.”
“You’re going soft on him,” Kingsley said. “Or shall we pretend there is no history between you? That you weren’t the one who helped him build this place to shield—”
Stardust’s gaze hardened. Kingsley swallowed the rest of his words, the silence that followed colder than any rebuke.
Stardust’s eyes flicked to me before settling on Nero. “Bloom must be punished.”
“No.” Nero’s voice was harsh, uncompromising. “She didn’t cross the line. I forced it.”
“No!” The word tore from me before I could leash it. Nero shot me a reproachful look, but this was where I drew the line. I would not let him paint himself a monster, a rapist, in anyone’s eyes, not even to spare me. “It was mutual. It was consensual. And I enjoyed it.”
“Fine.” Stardust sighed. “I’ll give you a choice, Miss Aurelius. Option one: you will be banished and never see Professor Ravencrux again. We will ensure it with a blood vow.”
My heart sank. The prospect of never seeing Nero again hollowed me out, poking a hole straight through my soul.
“Take this option, and you walk away unscathed,” she continued, her voice chillingly reasonable.
“I understand you never wished to come to Reaper Academy. You would lose nothing. All you have to do is wash your hand clean of him. We can make it easier. We will erase your memory of these months. It will be as if they never happened. You could return to your old life, precisely as you were. No one will touch you.”
I swallowed, my throat tight. My gaze flicked to Nero. His face was a storm, but in the depths of his eyes, I saw a flash of raw vulnerability before the shutters slammed down. This would be my choice. He would have to abide by it.
“And the second option?” I asked, the words scraping out of me.
Stardust’s expression softened into something almost like pity. “You won’t survive it.”