Chapter Nine #2
Finally, the professor claps his hands once, sharp. “Form up. Now we fight and you will give it your all.”
Now we’re talking.
Pairs are called. Students slide down to the central ring, the floor’s runes flaring faintly to life under their boots. The magic here is thick, like the air is holding its breath, waiting to see who bleeds first.
When my name is called, my opponent is a tall, narrow-shouldered boy with pale hair and the kind of smug face that makes you want to break it just to see if he can still smirk afterward.
“No magic for you either, Caelum,” Professor Orrith says, his voice like gravel ground against steel.
Caelum smirks and rolls his shoulders as if limbering up for a workout he’s already bored of. “Guess I’ll keep it light, then. Wouldn’t want to break her on her first day.”
My mouth curls slowly. “Aw, that’s adorable.”
The second the professor calls “begin,” he starts circling me. His posture loose, like this is a warm-up for him and a lesson for me. His eyes flicker over my hands, my boots, my stance, judging everything he sees.
I move before he finishes that little assessment.
One step inside his guard, my hand catches his wrist and twists. Not enough to snap it, just enough to lock him in place.
My palm drives up into his jaw in the same breath, forcing his head back hard enough to make bone crack. Before the sound’s even finished, my other hand’s already drawn the dagger from my thigh.
The blade flashes once. Quick and clean across his throat.
Three seconds.
He collapses to the floor with a wet, choking gasp, blood blooming bright against the black stone. His wide eyes fixate on me but quickly lose focus.
I crouch beside him and tap his cheek. “What was that now?”
Gasps erupt around the room, sharp and panicked. A chair screeches back, someone shouts for a healer, and the faint metallic tang of blood floods the air. The runes on the floor flare to life in a blaze of gold, binding my arms to my sides in a cage of light.
I glance down at them and smirk. “Cute trick. Are these magical bars?”
The heavy doors at the far end of the chamber slam open.
And what do you fucking know. It’s the bossy big brother himself.
Creed walks in like the room was built to make an entrance for him.
Honestly, it might have been. What do I know about royal rituals and whatnot? Never had one of those on the island before.
His long coat sweeps behind him as he moves with the kind of stillness that makes everyone else feel like they’re fidgeting too much. The ropes pinning me don’t disappear, but they yank my arms back out of his way.
His eyes find me instantly. “Of course it’s you.”
I grin at him, leaning forward just enough to make the chains hum. “You’re a real dick, you know that?”
The entire room gasps, an actual wave of sound rolling through the students. I’m confused until I remember this is one of their kings.
I’m guessing kings don’t get talked to like this. At least not in public or without repercussion anyway.
Creed doesn’t react in the slightest, his gaze never breaking from mine as he speaks to the rest of the room.
“Class dismissed. This little thing is coming with me.” Without another word, he turns on his heel and stalks toward the door.
He must just assume I’ll follow because he doesn’t check to see if I’m behind him.
The ropes vanish with a hiss, and I roll my shoulders. “If I had known you were the school’s new babysitter, I would have tried harder to kill the guy. Make your little trip down here worthwhile.”
That earns me a ripple of horrified whispers from the stragglers who haven’t scurried out yet. Creed doesn’t so much as twitch.
We step into the corridor, the heavy doors sealing behind us with a solid thud.
Out here, the air is cooler, and the sound of the class vanishes into a silence thick enough to chew.
The hall stretches long and vaulted, ribbed with black stone arches and lit by braziers that burn with slow green fire.
Every step echoes like the building’s judging me.
Creed’s pace is measured, unhurried, each stride a study in control. I match it out of pure spite, refusing to jog just to keep up.
“Is this the part where you lecture me about playing nice with the other kids?” I ask, dragging my fingertips along the rough stone wall. It hums faintly under my skin, old magic prickling like static.
“This is the part,” he says without looking at me, “where I decide if you’re worth the trouble of keeping you alive.”
I grin. “Aw, that’s practically a compliment. You must really like me.”
“I don’t,” he says flatly, and gods, it’s so dry I almost laugh. “But my brother does because he’s not in his right mind.”
That digs under my ribs in a way I don’t like. I mask it by sighing dramatically. “Oh, so this is about Legend. You’re jealous.”
That gets me the faintest flicker of his eyes in my direction, cool as winter steel. “Jealous implies wanting something he has.”
“Right,” I say. “You just wish you could pull off black leather like I do.”
His mouth twitches. It’s tiny, but it’s there. Victory.
We pass through an archway into a side hall, this one lined with narrow windows that leak pale light onto the floor in broken stripes. Creed stops without warning, turning to face me. “You will not kill another student.”
I tip my head. “Even if they deserve it?”
“Especially if they deserve it.” His voice is calm, but there’s a razor under it.
“This place is held together by politics and the illusion of civility. If you shatter either, you make my life harder. Make my life harder, and I will ruin yours. You agreed to behave. We had a deal and you are not holding up your end.”
I pretend his words don’t draw a hint of panic, tapping my chin. “So what you’re saying is…kill them where no one can see.”
“Haide.”
“Creed.” I mirror his tone exactly, mocking him with a straight face.
For a heartbeat, we just stare at each other: the cold, immovable king and the chaos he probably wishes he could catapult back to Exile. Then he exhales through his nose like he’s had enough of me for one lifetime.
“I don’t have to tell you that you don’t belong here.
You know it as well as I do. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re the one in control.
There is something going on and you are at the center of it.
I will find out what it is, what you did or the part you’ve played, and I will end you if that’s what it takes to fix—” He cuts himself off, his chin lifting as his eyes harden.
He’s clearly said more than he wants to.
Not that I’ve got any fucking clue what he’s trying to say, but whatever.
I just need to pee. “Are you almost done?”
His mouth thins into a hard line. “You’ve got classes again tomorrow,” he says. “Be on time. Wear the uniform. Try not to cause chaos in the first five minutes.”
“Okay, in my defense, the professor said fight. He didn’t tell me not to kill him and back home, fight means kill…because you know we can’t die there.”
His expression grows thoughtful. After a moment, he gives a small nod.
“Okay. Fine. That’s fair. Still, I am telling you now and my word overrules anything you think your professors want you to do.
Or what you’re used to. If you’re not sure about something, ask.
Trust your Pathway Codex. It won’t lead you astray. It’s incapable.”
He watches me closely, and then his head tips slightly. I feel a brush of something against my temple. No, it’s in my mind.
He’s in my fucking head!
“Dude!” I jolt, shaking myself as if that will change anything.
I think of that one time back home when Zevryn and I hid in the trees and threw animal bones at a couple getting down in the mud until they spotted us.
One of them slipped trying to get to us and broke his wrist. Zev laughed so hard he fell out of the branches.
He dislocated his shoulder. I reset it with a rock.
I force the image into my head on repeat like a war drum. Bones. Blood. Zev’s unhinged cackle. Anything to keep Creed from sniffing around in places he doesn’t belong. Not that I have anything to hide.
Creed’s brows snap together and he takes a step forward. “Who is he?”
My smile is slow. “Ahh…so that’s the part that stuck. Does everyone know your gift is Mind Mirroring? Pretty fucking wild to be able to see inside someone as if you’re them.”
“Who. Is. He?”
I chuckle lowly. “You’d have to take a trip to the isle to find out.”
Creed huffs, shaking his head. “There is no mating bond within you, is there?”
Something annoying inside of me heats at the reference to the little king.
Aches a little.
But I’m not about to tell him that.
“I told you. I’m not his mate and even if I were, which I’m not, I don’t even know what a mating bond is.” Not really, anyway.
He steps up to me, toe to freaking toe, though he is a whole ass head taller. “Bond or no bond, Legend believes a bond pulses within him, but I know something is twisted. So you need to behave, or he will lose his shit.”
“What makes you think I care?”
Creed’s features harden, his eyes glowing white as he pulls his power to the surface. “He watches, because the so-called bond demands it, but he’s yet to arrive. Don’t give him a reason to abandon his current task until it’s done.”
Okay, that is basically an invitation.
I grin to myself, already thinking of ways to piss off my—
No not my.
Just Legend.
He’s just Legend.
Right?