Chapter 33 Rune
rune
. . .
My dagger slid clean between his ribs, right through his beating heart. There was no hesitation and no mess. It was a precise puncture, ending my target’s life easily.
I caught his body before it hit the ground, cradling the collapsing weight like a dance partner as I laid him on the bench inside the tent.
He gurgled once before going still.
Wiping my blade on his suit jacket, I walked out of the tent undetected.
Our Weapons to Kill mission was to kill our target. As spies, we won’t be carrying out assassinations; those were reserved for Blezen’s assassins. However, we had to know how to kill because, as an agent, killing would be something we would have to do someday.
They wanted each house to take a similar course.
The lanterns strung across the simulated festival flickered. Around me, dozens of illusory attendees laughed, browsed vendor stalls, and tossed coins into a wishing fountain. None of them had noticed that one of their honored guests had just died in a tent behind a brewery stall.
I sheathed my dagger beneath my thigh holster underneath the sundress the simulator put me in and pretended to adjust my cardigan as I walked through the crowd as another nameless girl at another nameless outdoor event.
Across the square, Seth took his shot with a poisoned dart disguised as a festival dart game.
Dimitri pinned his vampire target silently behind a drink tent, pulling his heart out so fast it never had time to beat twice.
Zara seduced her way close to her mark and slit his throat between two laughs.
Ominous had already vanished, and that probably meant his target was long dead.
Cora had shoved a needle into the brain of another target, and it dropped hard.
Everyone passed.
Except for Brynn. She wasn’t here because she was sick in the infirmary after being poisoned a couple of days ago.
So many of our students had been getting poisoned that the professors were allowing make-ups for the assignments missed while in the infirmary.
It was something the academy never used to allow.
I wasn’t thinking about that today, though. I had too much built-up desire simmering in my veins. Between term two classes, spending time with my mates and potential mates, and the human issue, I had very little time to indulge in pleasure.
Jarvins dismissed us.
Dimitri and I walked toward our house, fingers brushing as we moved in calm silence.
As we approached our house, Zuko leaned against the wall of House of Twilight, arms crossed. His sunset-colored hair was wild, and both of his eyes were still bandaged with his house’s gift. His burnt sugar scent hit me low in my abdomen.
He hadn’t stepped forward, but I felt his gaze glued to me.
I walked up to him as if I were being pulled by a thread, my heart feeling like it was about to burst simply by being near him. The moment I stopped in front of him, he caught my wrist and dragged me away without a word.
“Zuko?” I muttered, glancing back and waving to Dimitri with my free hand.
Dimitri rolled his eyes, but I saw an amused smirk on his lips as he went inside.
Zuko didn’t stop until we crossed the courtyard into the House of Torment, and he kicked the door shut behind us.
Raze was there in the common area, lounging on the sofa and scrolling on his tablet. He looked up, blinked, and grinned. “Oh, shit.” Raze gave me a salute. “Hey. Been a while.”
“Hey, Raze,” I said. “It definitely has...are the rest of your housemates gone?”
“We’ve lost six of our ten already,” Zuko said flatly, not even slowing down as he dragged me past the couches.
“Have fun!” Raze called after us.
“Plan to,” Zuko growled.
The hallway lights flickered as Zuko pushed me into his room and locked the door behind us.
His breathing was heavy, and his aura flashed red, pink, and yellow.
“What’s going on?” I asked gently.
He turned and backed me against the door, bracing a palm beside my head. For a long moment, he just looked at me.
“I can’t wait anymore,” he said in a low growl. “I need your soul bonded to mine. We have to make this matebond snap, pretty little poison. I’m going fucking crazy.”
Heat swept through me like molten lava. “Then, mark me again.”
He smashed his lips against mine, kissing me.
We tore off each other’s uniforms until we were naked, and his fingers trembled when they skimmed my ribs. Mine shook when I brushed over the bandage covering his eyes.
“Let me see you,” I whispered.
“Take it off,” he purred.
I peeled it away and let it fall to the floor. “You’re perfect.”
“No, you’re perfect.” He grabbed my thighs and dropped to his knees, throwing my legs around his shoulders. “And I haven’t tasted you in so fucking long.”
I threaded my fingers through his hair to steady myself, but as his mouth covered my clit, I banged my head against the door with a strangled moan. “Zuko…”
His tongue began lapping at me, over and around my clit and dipping between my folds. He explored, tasted, and moaned in a way that just made me wetter.
His room filled with the sounds of his mouth on my soaked pussy, and it made me glad that it was soundproof, unlike the ones from the first-year.
Which also meant I didn’t have to hold back my screams.
I gasped between moans and screams and dug my fingers into his scalp. My thighs wouldn’t stop shaking as he licked me, and it made everything feel swollen and needy. My hips rolled against his face, but there was no escape from the pleasure.
Zuko’s hands gripped my thighs, pinning me in place against the door as he ate me out.
His fang cut me, and I let out a choked cry of his name as my orgasm shook me to my core. His tongue plunged inside me, and I arched, letting ecstasy take control.
He chuckled against me, sliding up until my legs were wrapped around him, and he walked us to his bed.
“Fuck, pretty little poison, you scream so beautifully for me, and you taste so Fates-damned good.” He laid me down and fell over me, his orange eyes burning into mine. “Are you ready to be mine forever?”
“I already am, toxin.”
He buried himself inside me with a ragged sound tearing from his throat. He pulled back slightly before shoving deeper inside me, over and over again until there was no time to breathe between his rolling thrusts.
All I could do was cling to him, and it made my magic buzz in anticipation.
“Mine!” My fangs wept with venom, and I pulled back and bit into his neck where I’d marked him faintly before. I bit hard, wanting it to brand and stay vivid like a fated mate mark did.
“Yes, yours,” he choked out, panting against the skin of my neck. “I tried being patient. I tried to stay calm. But I see the marks on your skin, and I fucking smell them. Jesper, Drecken…I smell Slater inside of you. They’re all getting pieces of you. And I—” He moaned. “—I need my piece.”
I bit down harder in response, feeling our magic gather around us like a storm about to crack open.
My nipples brushed against his chest as he drove into me harder, deeper.
“Rune,” he choked, like he was breaking. “You’re mine.”
I moaned, my fangs still embedded in his neck.
He bit down, grinding his hips against mine, and a white-hot orgasm slammed into me again.
His bite was claiming, branding, and my orgasm was so violent that I screamed against his neck. Our magic roared together, and the matebond snapped into place so hard my soul shook.
Zuko’s fangs ripped from my neck on a sob, and I pulled my fangs from his. He pressed his forehead to mine. “Finally.” He thrust again, his entire body trembling. “Finally, you’re mine. My mate. My fated mate.”
“Yours,” I whispered back, cupping his face while the bond wrapped around us like fated chains. “I’ve always been yours, Zuko.”
He broke at my words.
Raw, silent tears dripped down his cheeks while he drove into me until he came, his release shuddering through him so hard he shook.
Then, he kissed me again with the same desperate hunger to taste the bond. It reverberated through our matebond possessively.
“We’re not done,” he growled against my throat a moment later, his dick sliding in and out of me again. Each piercing hit a sweet spot that made me cry out. “I want to properly fuck my fated mate, bond intact.”
“Fates, Zuko…”
“We’re doing that again.”
“Take me again,” I moaned, delirious on our matebond and the orgasms he’d so thoughtfully given me.
My soul was another part complete.