Chapter 24 Zuko
zuko
. . .
House of Torment reeked of blood and incense. The stone was enchanted to mute screams, and Emberveil even had drains installed in the floor.
As much as I missed my pretty little poison, I definitely belonged here.
The acrid scent of fear on a human wafted in as two agents dragged one in. He already had a bruised cheek and split lip, but the defiance in his eyes told me he hadn’t broken yet.
Emberveil paced in a slow arc, arms licking with flames.
“This human’s accomplice gave us the location last night,” she said, not bothering to glance at the human.
“We don’t need the answer. We need a confession to bring this criminal to the Human Council properly.
The Supernatural Council wants to see whether our second-years can extract cleanly from a hostile target.
” Her gaze sliced to me. “Without…shortcuts.”
She meant my special power. My ability to pull the truth from a target with eye contact.
“That is why I have this bandage covering both of my eyes,” I said, pulling the bandage up over my free eye. Everything was darkened, but I could still see through the blindfold. “Let’s play.”
Raze wheeled a chair into the circle Emberveil had set up for hostile targets, and he grabbed the human from the agents, planting him in the chair hard enough to rattle his teeth.
He spat at Raze’s feet, but he just sidestepped him.
“Who gets to play first?” Raze asked.
She shrugged. “Let Pierce. He’s been lacking.”
Pierce, the hawk shifter, hesitated before grabbing his scalpel and walking over.
“Location,” he said sternly, scalpel in hand.
“You lot already know it,” he slurred, leaning back like this was a joke. “So why ask?”
“Because we need your confession.” Pierce placed the scalpel against his cheek and dragged it across, deliberate but shaky.
The human flinched as blood welled and ran in a single, trembling line down to his jaw. “Tickles.”
“Deeper,” Emberveil instructed. “Pain gets us our answers faster than patience in this instance.”
Pierce didn’t move right away. His shoulders were stiff. He took a moment to breathe before he cut again, faster this time, but his hand slipped.
The scalpel grazed the rope binding the human’s wrists.
A thin red line of blood was visible on the shallow fray of the rope, but one strand of the binding frayed just enough to loosen tension.
I frowned. “Careful,” I barked. “You’re supposed to bleed him, not free him.”
Pierce muttered, “It was an accident.”
Accident my ass. Nobody from the House of Torment’s aspiring agents just slipped like that.
“Convenient accident.” I rolled my eyes.
The human stared at the line of blood dripping from his hand, blackened eyes darting once to Pierce.
Something electric shot down my spine.
Emberveil noticed too, but she was mid-lecture, pacing. “Zuko, take over in two minutes if Pierce can’t break him. The rest of you watch Pierce’s control. I want you to notice the hand placement, the breathing, the—”
The human’s breathing changed.
He flexed his freed thumb enough to slide it into a pocket sewn on the inside of his sleeve. My attention sharpened, but Emberveil was too focused on her lecture, too trusting of her students.
Snap.
The human broke the rope, his hand flying to his mouth. His jaw clenched, teeth grinding on something.
My instincts screamed before my brain did. I lunged forward, knocking Pierce to the ground.
The human’s head had already snapped back against the chair, veins blackening. Foam poured from his lips. His body convulsed, and then he fell slack.
A bitter chemical stench erupted from him.
“Fates,” Emberveil hissed, rushing forward. She caught his chin and pried open his mouth, revealing the crushed shards of a capsule. “Suicide protocol. I trained you to avoid this.”
I turned my glare to Pierce. “You gave him the means to do it.”
Pierce didn’t look at me. He stared at the dead man with an unreadable expression. “It was an accident.”
“Funny accident,” I snapped. “Your ‘slip’ was right before he reached his sleeve.”
His jaw tensed. “Are you accusing me?”
“I’m noticing the fact that you’re suspicious as fuck.” I stepped up, getting in his face.
“Enough,” Emberveil cut in, her flames snapping high. “We can’t resurrect the dead. Pierce, you compromised an interrogation environment. You’ll stay after and practice on the dummy until you remember how to keep your hand steady.”
He nodded once. “I understand.”
I lingered by the chair, watching the thin trickle of blood come from the man’s nose, pooling beneath him before dripping through the drain.
The human’s face had gone slack, but his eyes looked like someone who had won.
He’d chosen death over confession. That kind of loyalty didn’t come just from orders. It came from a core belief.
What fucked with me was the fact that Pierce hadn’t even looked surprised.
I stayed behind after Emberveil dismissed us.
She exhaled a stream of fire and ash, turning her glare on me. “You did well restraining yourself.”
“I didn’t do anything.” I furrowed my brows.
“Exactly,” she scoffed. “Control is half the job. Don’t let suspicion blind you, Zuko. We can’t afford paranoia in House of Torment.”
“Right.” I glowered over toward Pierce. I could feel an itch in my veins that something was up.
Emberveil was right, unfortunately. Suspicion wasn’t proof.
Yet.
When the class was fully emptied, I watched Pierce still over at the dummy. He was driving the scalpel into it over and over with perfect rhythm and depth consistent. His strikes were too precise for someone who supposedly made a mistake.
The moment he felt my gaze, he stopped and wiped the scalpel out of habit. “Something on your mind?”
“Plenty,” I purred. “You ever think about what happens when someone asks the wrong question?”
His lip twitched in a ghost of a smile. “All the time.”
Rune was waiting outside the classroom as I stormed out.
Her hair caught the light like a radioactive poison, shimmering green. Her midnight orchid scent cut through the reek of blood and burning that clung to me from class, and everything just stopped moving for a second.
I couldn’t fucking help myself. I grabbed her wrist and tugged her into the storage room beside the lecture hall, the same one we’d been in before.
“Zuko—” she laughed, caught off guard. “What are you—”
“Shhh.” My fingers brushed over her soft lips as I pressed her back against the locked door. “I need you.”
Her smile softened. “You always have me.”
“Doesn’t count.” I tilted my head. The blindfold dropped low over one eye. “I need you whimpering as I pound into you until you come.”
She reached up, fingers tracing the edge of the bandage. “Then, take this off.”
“Not supposed to.”
“You’re not wearing that while you fuck me, toxin.” Her fingers hooked beneath it, slowly teasing, and peeled it away. The cloth fell to my collarbone, and the world bled into a more vibrant color again.
My world reoriented around her pretty golden fuck-me eyes.
“Much better,” she whispered, but I was already kissing her.
I wasn’t gentle. Her aphrodisiac venom filled my mouth, and it made my control slip.
“So much better,” I agreed against her lips.
My hands tangled in her hair; hers gripped my shoulders, nails raking against the suit as she managed to unzip it from behind.
“Zuko,” she gasped, “we have class—”
“Later,” I breathed. “I need you now.”
I didn’t give her a chance to argue.
Her laughter dissolved into a moan as I undressed her, grabbed her thighs, and drove into her in one solid thrust.
The door rattled behind her as I fucked her repeatedly, drowning in the way her pussy swallowed me.
My mouth trailed down her throat, and she tilted her head back.
“Bite me,” she moaned.
“Rune—” If I bit her, I was going to mark her.
“Do it. You want to. I can feel it.”
I grinned, fangs brushing her skin. “If I do, I’m forcing the bond.”
“I want that, too.” She trembled. “Force it, please.”
She broke my resolve.
My fangs dripped with venom as I plunged them into her neck, where it met her shoulder.
“Fates, Zuko!”
I bit down deep enough that her breath hitched and her fingers clutched at my shoulders. Our magic collided as I shoved mine into hers.
Her fangs embedded into mine, in the same place I’d marked her. It was a venomous paradise. Our essences reached for each other, trying to fuse.
For a heartbeat, it felt like the Fates cracked the barrier wide open between us. The air buzzed with power, and there was a faint echo of the Fates’ thread vibrating through our souls.
Our climax hit instantaneously, but then everything stopped.
The snap of our bond should’ve come when we did, but it didn’t. The magic recoiled like something wounded.
Rune’s breath hitched. “Why? Why did it stop?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted, voice raw. “Maybe it’s me.”
Her hand cupped my cheek as I slipped out of her and set her carefully on the ground. “Don’t say that.”
I couldn’t look into her pretty golden eyes without feeling that raw desperation. My hands shook where I still held her hips. “I need you, Rune. My soul’s been screaming for you since the day you stabbed me, and every time it reaches for yours, I feel you slip away.”
She slid her fingers up my throat, over to the bite mark that was now scarred. “Then we keep trying,” she whispered. “Every time it fails, we try again.”
I closed my eyes, pressing my forehead to hers. “You promise?”
“I promise. Right now, our marks will be faintly scarred on each other. It’s not a fated bond yet, but it will be.”
It would be.
I drowned myself in her breathing, the pulse in her throat, and the faint taste of her blood and magic on my tongue. The ache in my chest finally eased, just enough for me to breathe again.
She leaned up and brushed her lips over mine. “You’re not the problem, Zuko. We just need to give the Fates time.”
“Time,” I echoed with a bitter laugh. “Yeah. That’s the one thing I’ve never been good at.”
She swallowed hard. “Me neither. I love you, Zuko.”
I pulled her close again, resting my chin on her shoulder. “You shouldn’t say things like that unless you mean them.”
Her hand slid through my hair. “I mean it, toxin.”
“I love you so much more, pretty little poison. Not really sure when it happened, but fuck, I feel you in my soul, Rune.” I inhaled her deeply and pressed my lips against hers again. “Let’s try it again.”
She pulled back and sank her fangs into my neck again as I sank into her with both my fangs and my cock.