Chapter 3
Three
She had been hyperventilating after Esmirra said her name. Something triggering her, but now she’s as still as the gargoyle statues around the school.
She’s bracing, Callahan murmurs in our minds.
I had linked me, him, Castiel, Thorne, Darian, and their fathers.
After it became apparent that she didn’t remember the battle on the eastern field and select events before that, I linked mine, Callahan’s, Thorne’s, and Darian’s.
Telling them not to mention my brother before I linked their fathers as well.
But Jerusil hadn’t initially been in the room after we learned Mavyn was awake. He had been with the Dean before making his way here, so Mavyn didn’t see him.
She doesn’t remember, Callahan says in our minds. His face twisted in pain and looking like he wants to comfort Mavyn but doesn’t know how. She had shoved his hand off her. She doesn’t remember meeting Uncle Jerusil on the terrace and is bracing because she only sees that devil who hurt her.
My brother, the gentlest devil I’ve ever met says, I can’t even imagine what he’s done to the poor girl.
Callahan shifts in front of her, though her eyes are emotionless on the sheet covering her legs.
“Mavyn,” he whispers. Tenderly, because she looks like she’s about to break. “Mavyn, can you look at me?”
She was about to kill Kolasi when not even I and Hecia together could even slow him down, Aslan flutters through our minds.
Mentioning the demigod councilwoman, her and Aslan being the most powerful races on the Mage Board as a demigod and a devil.
She was about to wipe them all out with a power more dominant than a true form devil.
. . and yet now she is as weak as a newborn human.
Callahan whips his head to his father and seethes. How dare you!
His aura blasting through the room with embers and cedar as the black ringing his eyes fluctuates.
Aslan immediately takes a step back and slowly dips his head. I meant no disrespect, son, he adds cautiously. I only mean the Sun Devil of Miy must have truly tortured her for her to be like this only hearing Jerusil speak.
Mavyn’s eyelids flutter as Callahan’s power pulses again and Jerusil speaks to us.
Lyalthil may have been my brother and my twin, but I had wished you both had sentenced him to death instead of allowing him and his fated to leave Miy.
Speaking to Aslan and Thorne’s father, Edmond.
His mind was twisted in a way that would have been better laid to rest instead of continuing to live. He and that water mage.
Darian cocks his head as his intrigued but frowned expression doesn’t waver. Despite having his psychotic moments and demented nature, I sometimes think he may be even more calculating and intelligent than Thorne.
She can’t drink water mage blood, he adds.
Castiel said after she drank from him and Thorne asked why she wouldn’t drink from me or Callahan it was because she wouldn’t drink devil blood.
Because he would try to force her to drink his.
She wasn’t human then, isn’t a vampire now but still needs blood, so I think she did drink from him.
And I think she was forced to drink from the mage as well.
I’m about to respond to that when Mavyn’s head lifts and she glares pale pink eyes at Callahan.
“I thought I told you to keep a lock on your devil,” she snaps. Which shocks all of us and jolts Callahan. His aura dissipating and he leans back to fully look at her.
“Are you alright?” he croaks. His hands lifting before flinching back from her.
I wish I was that close to her as well.
I keep that thought hidden within myself though.
I’m already in disbelief that she had known we were fated before the battle on the field.
Of course she had known though, that had to have been the reason she stepped in and saved us.
Callahan was out of reach from the death blow from the blood witch.
She looks away from him and to the rest of us. Her eyes snapping to all of our eyes until they land on Jerusil’s who is beside me.
“This is not a nightmare.” She sounds like she isn’t speaking to us but saying it out loud for herself to believe. “You are not the sun devil.”
From my peripheral I can see Jerusil nod. “He was my twin.”
Her jaw clenches as she hardens her stare at him. “I hadn’t know Darian’s surname was Kyros. . .” Her voice drifts off. Then she looks off to the side at nothing. “But I already told you that.”
Jerusil nods again even though she doesn’t see. “Yes. I signaled. . . on the field. You saw it.”
The corner of her lips slightly curls up. “Did it answer your question?” She looks back up at him and her eyes flinch but she holds his gaze. “How I had been able to face the devil who is one with his true form?”
Jerusil’s shoulders just barely relax as he grins at her. “A fractured blood art and blue flame. Who are you. . . Syngenia the Vampyr?”
You can hear the joke in his voice, but with what I have seen I wouldn’t take it so lightly.
“Speaking of. . .” All eyes focus on me but I only care about a certain pale pink that I know are not her true color. “How did you lie to me?”
Her eyes widen as her lips thin. At least she doesn’t look hurt anymore. She looks normal – whatever that actually means.
I narrow my eyes at her and pull my shoulders back while straightening. Her eyes dip down, gliding over my chest and glares.
There’s my brat.
A throat is cleared in the back of my head as Callahan rolls his eyes and I can feel Darian and Castiel smirking. I cut the link connecting all of us and ignore them all hearing that thought.
“Mavyn. . .”
“Varian.”
My blood starts rushing hearing her say my name. That’s the first time she’s said it to me. She lifts a brow as she straightens and her eyes drag down my body.
So it wasn’t runic magic that turned you on when I was in your office.
Callahan, Aslan, and Jerusil all choke hearing her thought.
Since they all have mind magic and she threw that out there – I’m assuming so I would only hear without her having to allow me into her mind – but she didn’t take into account other’s able to hear straying thoughts.
Esmirra of Ebony chuckles to herself and gives an approving nod to Mavyn.
Her cheeks flush an incredibly cute pink before she rolls her eyes and pulls her legs in to crisscross under the sheet.
“Anyways. . .” she drawls. I clear my throat to remind her she still hasn’t answered and she glowers. “I did not lie.”
I take a step towards the bed and now she’s glowering at me instead of an empty space. “You said you did not burn down Thorne’s rooms.”
She smirks. “I didn’t. Blue flame did.”
Her conversation with the Dean after the first time she faced Percius crosses my mind. Her answers to his questions had nagged at me. Answering the questions without giving us the answers we wanted.
How did you face Kolasi?
Her answer had frustrated me to the max, but looking back at it I realize how fucking clever she was.
Magic. The only way you would be able to face a being who uses magic as powerful as his is with magic.
It was obvious she used magic. You can’t say the Dean didn’t ask that because he quite literally did. He asked how. She answered how.
And when the Dean asked what kind of magic she used. . .
She did it again.
The kind of magic that goes against death. And I wielded it like how everyone else is able to wield their magic.
Clever little fox.
Elaycia Sorenli of Havebeth steps forward with a proud expression. “Elsa will be gloating for an age when she finds out you deceived a devil truth-puller, Mavyn. Well done.”
Thorne clears his throat and when I glance at him he’s glaring. “You are congratulating her on lying to Varian about burning my rooms down.”
The succubus neutralizes her face and steps back as the witch scolds Mavyn. The bloodsucker who currently has her lips smushed into a line to hide a smile. She doesn’t quite manage it as Esmirra of Ebony lashes out at her.
“Mavyllora Sanivin Tsukkenai! You burned my boy’s rooms down! Of all the disastrous things! Oh my goddesses, you could have killed him!”
She tisks and rolls her eyes, but her grin drops as she sulks. “It’s not like he was in the room.”
Thorne growls. “You still reduced them to ashes. The priceless objects and knowledge. . . I had books in there that dated back to the birth of the first vampire.”
Mavyn straights and growls right back at him. “Says the one who shoved me into sunlight to let me burn to ashes. If you actually think about it, if I died then you would be dead right now too.”
Thorne grinds his teeth. “You said you were clumsy and it was an accident.”
Mavyn scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Don’t be delusional, demon. You know – “
“You’re not a vampire,” he interrupts. Cutting her off as they glare at each other. “So why can you still burn in the sun anyways? And what are you? No more bullshit evasions or answers. Esmirra only ever said you were powerful. And none of them will say what you are.”
Mavyn snaps her mouth shut, crosses her arms, and looks away from all of us. I glance at the witch but she’s glaring at both of them now – like a disapproving parent.
A rumble in my chest vibrates as I sigh and try to find any patience to deal with my fated. Despite how much I like thinking – knowing and saying – that, we still need answers.
“Mavyn. . .”
I softened my tone and relax my body. I’ve noticed she pays attention to our body language. I can’t just let her know I’m calm, I need to show her it.
“Mavyn can you – “
“You know he was obsessed.”
Her words silence me and for some reason the room goes still. She’s still glaring at a blank spot on the wall but I can tell her mind is elsewhere.