Chapter 8 Rune
rune
. . .
The closet reeked of dust and herbs, but all I could breathe in was Zuko’s burnt sugar scent. His naked body pressed mine against the locked door.
The new black bandage across his eyes brushed my temple as he growled against my mouth, “Fates, I’ve missed you, pretty little poison. I’ve missed this sweet pussy choking my cock.”
His words cracked me open.
Every lonely night since moving into the House of Twilight slammed into me at once. My nails dug into his back, and I wished I could pin him inside of me forever.
“I’ve missed you more,” I gasped, the confession ripping free as he thrust into me over and over.
His kisses were frantic, like he’d been starved of them. It wasn’t just lust between us. There was relief, grief, and need in our devotion to each other.
He kissed me as if I were the only thing keeping him alive. And Fates, I needed that.
I needed him.
My body tensed as pleasure built, spasming tight around him. I was desperate to prove I was still obsessed with him, that I hadn’t forgotten about him even when we were apart.
“Fuck, Rune…” His voice broke on my name, and my heart swelled with it. “You’re drenching me.”
He kissed me harder, fangs scraping against my lips and tongue bruising mine. His hands roamed everywhere. My ass, my hips, my waist, and my boobs. He held me as if I were something precious and fragile, even as he fucked me raw.
All I could do was hold on and let him.
“Zuko!” I bit his lip, copper blooming on my tongue.
His fingers slid between us, rubbing my clit with desperate reverence. “I can’t go that long without this again,” he whispered against my mouth.
“Then don’t,” I breathed, and the words shattered into a cry as pleasure ripped through me.
We came together in muffled gasps against each other’s mouths. My ecstasy tore through me so hard I had to bite his shoulder to keep from screaming out. His climax shook through him, a strangled growl vibrating my body.
When it ended, he didn’t let me go.
His forehead pressed to mine. “Never make me miss you that long again.”
“Same to you.” My voice was raw, breaking, because, Fates help me, I couldn’t survive going this long without him again.
Trying to get even a stolen moment alone was a miracle with how demanding year two’s curriculum was. Still, we lingered for at least a minute before he pulled out.
It felt cold without him inside me.
His hands trembled as he cleaned me gently, careful in his haste.
We dressed quickly. I was still dizzy from the collision of desperate longing I’d felt for him.
I leaned on him as we slipped out of the closet, only to slam headfirst into Darian.
Darian’s nostrils flared as his face went scarlet. “Rune,” he spat, voice cracking. “Could you just stop cheating on me? I get it. You’re mad that I cheated on you first. I’m sorry, okay? You’ve had a year to get over it. Come back to me, okay?”
I barked out a bitter laugh. “Cheating? On you? Zuko’s my boyfriend, Darian. You’re not, and I’m never going back to you. You were a stupid mistake I made.”
Zuko didn’t spare him a glance. He just wrapped his arm around my waist and steered me down the hall, leaving Darian sputtering in our wake.
Darian had become less of an issue as of late. Ever since Drecken teleported him into the ocean at placement exams.
Outside my classroom, Zuko kissed me again, slow and all-consuming. “We have to do this again.”
“Of course.” My lips still tingled when Slater broke off from his class and ran right toward me.
“Unfair,” he complained as he kissed me, quick and shameless, before wrinkling his nose. “Ugh. You smell like Zuko. That’s so unfair, venom baby.”
“Rune!” Jarvins snapped from inside the classroom. “Are you coming in or not?”
“Coming!” I hollered back.
“She did just come all over my cock,” Zuko teased Slater. “Can’t you smell it?”
He pouted. “I can.”
Koa caught my gaze down the hall as he headed to his classroom. I wiggled my fingers at him, and he waved back with a shy grin.
“See you guys later,” I told my boyfriends and slipped inside the classroom to take my seat.
“You are not late, but for the future, and this goes for everyone, please no sex inside the academy.” Jarvins's nose twitched. “Most supernaturals can smell it, and we need to focus on your training.”
My cheeks flushed, and I nodded. “Um, sorry.”
Dimitri choked on a breath, but I couldn’t bear to turn and look at him.
“We’re all adults here.” He waved me off. “For your assignment for Break and Enter today, you’ll be breaking into a staff member’s office or classroom, bypassing protection wards, and planting a coin without being detected…”
By the end of Jarvins's lecture, we were assigned our targets.
I got Drecken, and Dimitri got Pops, again. We had to plant a simple little coin in their space without them noticing.
It was an easier assignment than the one last year.
The corridors blurred with shifting wards, but I slid through Drecken’s classroom defenses much easier than I’d expected to…until he caught me.
One second, I was three steps away from his desk; the next, his body pinned mine against it. His hand braced beside my head, and his pure magic and ancient tomes scent filled me with danger and heat.
“Clever viperling,” he murmured, voice heated. “Did you think that because my class was in the simulator today that my wards wouldn’t warn me?” His thigh pressed between mine, and I felt just how hard he was. “What’re you doing here?”
A static, all-consuming pull flared between us.
I kissed him before I could stop myself. His lips responded quickly, and his erection ground against me through his pants.
I barely remembered to slip the coin under one of the papers on his desk.
He pulled back, blue eyes blazing with raw desire. “I know you put that coin on my desk,” he mused, brushing his thumb against my jaw in wonder. “But I don’t care.”
The door opened, and his entire class flooded in.
I jerked away, fixing my hair, my breath ragged. “Thank you, Professor Grimsworn,” I chirped sweetly, bolting past the confused students.
When I walked into class, Jarvins had a twisted look on his face. “The coins hold recorders. Safe to say you failed.”
My cheeks heated again. “I was close.”
Why was it that Jarvins always caught me doing something?
“Sure sounded like it,” Jarvins muttered, his cheeks turning red as he rifled through papers on his desk.
Dimitri stepped in with his coin in hand, wearing a frown. “Professor Bloodwyne is too sharp.”
At least I hadn’t been the only one to fail the assignment.
In Weapons to Subdue, we had a sparring duel assignment at the Elite Training Grounds. Jarvins had decided my partner would be Brynn, and I wasn’t shy to admit that I was excited to punch her in her smug, Dimitri-smitten face.
The Elite Training Grounds stretched like a scorched rectangle, a stark contrast to the glittering spires and glowing wards of the academy. The golden wards around it pulsed faintly with healing magic. Inside the boundary, the soil was packed hard and flat.
Brynn stood on the other side of the grounds, with her black hair slicked back in a perfect ponytail, her fang blade already drawn.
She smirked at me. “Try not to embarrass yourself.”
I pulled my bone and glass dagger out with a feral grin. “Aw, I was going to say that.”
Jarvins blew the whistle, and she moved first with vampire speed, blade arcing for my side.
I twisted away, venom hot in my gums.
Sparks burst as her blade smacked against mine.
I kicked her ribs, but she blocked with her forearm, pivoted, and came in again. This time, the dagger was aimed at my throat.
She wasn’t fighting to subdue; she was fighting to kill.
Our blades clashed, and my venom leaked from my fangs as I hissed. The vibration rattled through my wrist.
She shoved harder, pressing me back. She might’ve been faster, but I was stronger and more experienced.
I ducked under her swing, rolled, and came up slicing for her knee.
She twisted just in time, laughing. “Is that all the supposed venom-feared basilisk has?”
Her dagger whistled down. I caught the blade with my hand as the impact jarred my arm. It sliced through my flesh, but it couldn’t break my finger bones.
“Pretty sloppy for someone who thinks she can kill me,” I teased, but anger roared through my veins. “This is good practice to subdue a threat, though.”
She yanked the blade away, and the sear of pain hit my fingers as my blood soaked the ground.
“Shut up!” She lunged for my throat, blade poised to slice my throat open.
I’d wanted to subdue her with something other than my venom, but she kept dodging my strikes. My venom was already leaking down my fangs and pooling in my mouth, so I spat in her face just as her blade made contact with my skin.
Brynn’s pink eyes went wide. She couldn’t follow through with trying to slit my throat because her body seized.
The paralysis hit her all at once, but I didn’t just leak paralysis venom. Her fang blade dropped to the soil with her.
She hit the ground hard.
The smell that followed was instant, sour, and humiliating—for her, not me.
The entire class was silent on the sidelines.
I straightened slowly, wiping venom from my chin with the back of my hand. “Oops,” I said blandly, stepping back. “Guess I got startled when you came at me with a lethal strike.”
Jarvins's growl filled the air like thunder. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Rune…passes. Although, I would’ve liked to see you subdue with your dagger rather than your venom. You were clearly given no choice in the matter and had to act fast.” Then, his voice grew sterner.
“Brynn, you fail. You went for a lethal strike against a fellow operative. That is grounds for dismissal from this academy.”
He didn’t stop there.
He verbally tore into her, his words like lashes, stripping her arrogance until her face crumpled in red shame.
Ominous and Cora were waiting for me as I stepped over the golden ward, my fingers already healed.
Across the ring, Dimitri watched. His red eyes burned with anger and…bloodlust. He swallowed hard, but his gaze bore into me.
“I can’t believe you made her shit herself,” Ominous cackled.
Cora hid her smile. “That was…deserved, to be honest. This is weapons to subdue. Not kill.”