Chapter 24
We endedup leaving the headmistress’s office not much later, with nothing solved regarding the murder, and with Bruce not in trouble, thanks to the siblings and Hazel reassuring the adults that they had agreed to help willingly.
Bruce did have to return the memories of the others the next day, which he had already planned on doing anyway.
Clarissa had been cleared by the healers, after having been given several vaccines.
Aiden, Hazel, Bruce, Clarissa, and I were in the third year’s foyer when Lilia, Brom, Una, and Rhiannon found us. After a tearful reunion on some people’s parts, I got up and started pacing.
“Hazel, can you run through the argument with Richard for me again?” I said. “Maybe there’s something we missed. What did he do after you left?”
“Well, he left me. He went outside.” Hazel frowned. “I’m sorry, I don’t really remember anything else specific. Bruce came to talk to me at that point, so I was a bit distracted.”
“And you left by the kitchen door, so you wouldn’t have seen anything out front,” I muttered to myself. “What we need is someone who was in the front of the school, someone who saw what happened to Richard.”
We were all silent for a moment, just thinking.
“I was at the front of the school,” Clarissa said hesitantly.
My jaw dropped. “Do you remember anything?”
She shook her head. “No, I was essentially in a coma. But I was there.”
“How is that helpful?” Lilia groaned.
“No, no,” I said, holding up a hand. “Your eyes were open. You were facing the school. The memory might be in there. It’s just a matter of finding the right one. Can I... Can I try the memory scan spell? I promise I won’t touch any other than the one we’re looking for. You’ll be able to see it as well as me, kind of like a movie.”
“I’m willing to try,” Clarissa said. “What do I need to do?”
“Sit there and relax,” I said, trying to avoid thinking about the last time I’d been sitting where she was. I sat across from her. “Closing your eyes will sever the spell.” I cast the spell and her pupils widened until I felt like I was falling into pools of inky blackness.
This time, it was as if I was in a forest. Each tree had a set of memories tied to them. In the distance, there was a giant tree, wider than any I had ever seen before and taller than the clouds. “I think I found where the memory will be,” I murmured, walking toward it.
The closer I got, the stranger the bark seemed, until I realized that it was made of rock. “How am I supposed to find the right memory?” I asked, taking a deep breath. “There are so many here.”
“Be careful,” Bruce’s voice filtered through my consciousness. “Too many released at once, and there could be a shock to her brain.”
I hummed agreement. “I just want the memory from Sunday evening,” I said. At a thought, I was floating up the length of the tree until I reached the top. “Fresher memories at the tip?” I questioned. I took hold of one leaf. “Show me the scene I need,” I whispered.
Suddenly, I was looking at the academy from the outside. It was dark. The front doors slammed open and a student I recognized as Richard stormed down the steps.
He walked out of my peripheral vision, and I couldn’t change the angle I was viewing.
Of course not.
The statue couldn’t move her head.
I thought that would be the end of it, but remembered that his body had been placed on the steps, so I settled in to wait. There was no way of fast-forwarding a memory that I could tell, and I was already counting myself fortunate for having found the correct day on my first attempt. Possibly it was because Clarissa was so willing, or perhaps because she wanted to find the identity of the murderer as much as the rest of us. Memory work was tricky and not enough study had been devoted to it.
“What’s going on?” I heard Aiden’s voice as if he were talking in another room.
“I’m waiting to see who brings the body back,” I replied. “I think—” I cut myself off abruptly, as a figure appeared in the corner of my vision. It was struggling with something heavy. I leaned closer, trying to see what it was, but the grassy area in front of the school was too shadowy.
Not so the stairs though.
The figure was lugging a body.
“Come on,” I whispered. “Turn around. Let me see your face.” I crossed my fingers.
It was definitely a man, I decided. He was thin, not very well built, but definitely male-shaped. He dropped the body halfway up the stairs and sat beside it for a moment, putting his face in his hands.
“He seems sad,” I said. “I think he might regret what happened.”
“Who is it?” Una demanded.
I held out my hand.
And the man looked up, directly into the statue’s face. His lips moved for a moment, and then he got to his feet and walked down the steps, vanishing in the next instant.
I had seen enough, though. I knew who had killed Richard.
I marked the memory with a beacon so that it could be found again, and gently withdrew from Clarissa’s forest.
She and I stared at each other, the only ones who had seen the vision.
“I know him,” she whispered.
I nodded, even though it hadn’t been a question. I felt sick. “We have to tell someone,” I said.
“He helped save me,” she said.
“And he killed someone else,” I countered.
“Who is it?” Bruce asked, his voice shaking.
“Geoffrey,” I said.
A shocked silence rippled around the small group of us.
“What about me?” a timid voice said from the hall.
It was almost funny how everyone whipped around to face the voice.
Bruce was the fastest to recover, sending a binding spell to wrap around Geoffrey and immobilize him.
“Brom, Lilia, please go get Professor Dunlop,” Bruce said calmly.
Geoffrey’s face blanched. “What’s going on?”
“Where were you the night that Richard was killed?” I asked gently.
Tears filled Geoffrey’s eyes and dripped down his face. “No!” he gasped.
“Why did you do it?” Aiden asked.
“I didn’t— Please, no,” he choked out through his sobs.
Professor Dunlop appeared at a run, followed by Brom and finally Lilia. “You have proof?” he asked us. At my nod, he turned to Geoffrey. “Tell the truth,” he said, casting a spell.
Geoffrey stopped crying, his face going slack.
“Did you kill Richard?” the professor asked.
“Yes,” Geoffrey replied, a shudder going through his body.
“Why?”
“He was torturing me. I couldn’t take another year of it, so I attacked him from behind when he was on his way to the stables. I was only going to scare him into stopping, but...” He took a breath. “I couldn’t stop. My vision blacked out. I was so... angry.”
“I’ll take him from here,” Professor Dunlop said gravely.
“He helped save me when he didn’t have to,” Clarissa protested again.
“I’m sure that will be taken into account, but he has to answer for his crimes,” the professor said. “Off with you all.”
Clarissa had been given a spare room until the academy could figure out where to place her, so Bruce went with her.
“You’re coming with me,” Aiden said, steering me down the hall to his room.
I gave my friends a little wave over my shoulder and willingly followed him until we were alone in private.
“God, Siobhan,” he breathed, eyes closed and leaning back against the door. “This has been an exhausting day.”
“Then come cuddle with me,” I suggested, moving to his bed and making it big enough to fit both of us with a wave of my hand. I shrugged out of my shirt, and suddenly he was touching my skin.
He pressed me against his hard body, his arms wrapping around me, hands gripping and molding my breasts. “I need you,” he breathed.
I could only moan and grind my ass back against him.
“Sit,” he said roughly, giving me a nudge toward his desk chair. He modified it with a thought, tipping it backward once I was sitting down.
I let out a little squeak at the shift in gravity, but then I realized that my mouth was at exactly the right angle to suck his cock and I smirked. “Give it to me,” I said.
“Oh baby, you’re amazing,” Aiden groaned, pushing his pants down and stroking himself.
My mouth watered. “Aiden,” I whined, needing to have his weight on my tongue. Or would my tongue be on it, since I was partially upside down?
Either way, he fed me his cock and slowly started thrusting into my mouth. One of his big hands went to my throat, lightly rubbing along the length of it, getting my muscles to relax. He pressed down on my carotid with his thumb, releasing a second later. “Okay?” he murmured, at odds with the obscene act we were doing.
I held up my thumb in approval.
“I’m going to fuck your throat,” he said. “Tell me if you need me to stop.”
I hummed acknowledgement, and his thrusts sped up, shoving down my throat on each inward stroke. My eyes filled with tears at the pressure. His heady scent overwhelmed me. I reached up, grabbing his thighs for support, needing to touch him as much as possible.
“Siobhan!” he groaned, gripping my throat again.
I was starting to feel light-headed when his hips lost rhythm. I could feel him pulsing inside my mouth, cum going straight down my throat.
He released my neck, and blood went rushing back into my head. He pulled out, spraying the last bit of cum onto my chest.
I took deep breaths, the air feeling raw against my ruined throat.
“Are you okay? Need me to heal you at all?” Aiden asked, bending over me with concern in his eyes.
“Maybe a bit in my throat,” I rasped. I caught his hand. “Not too much though. I like feeling used by you.”
He smiled. “Okay.”
The burning in my throat eased, but I could still feel where he had been. “Thank you,” I said, my voice no longer sounding thoroughly abused.
“I made a mess of you,” Aiden mused, circling around me until he straddled my body. He pushed his cock down until it was nestled between my breasts. “Rub it in,” he ordered.
I flushed, but massaged his cum into my skin and over his cock.
“Good girl,” he said with a smile. “Squeeze your tits together. I’m going to fuck them until I’m hard enough to fuck you again.”
“You could shift?” I suggested eagerly.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he teased.
“Always,” I vowed.
Aiden sobered. “I believe you.” In the next breath, he was wreathed in flames, and I wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing. “Spread your legs. I still want you to play with your tits, sweetheart. Squeeze them for me while I plunder your depths.” His deeper, gravelly voice washed over me, sending shivers racing down my spine.
“Oh!” I gasped when he grabbed my hips and entered me in a swift movement. My legs fell to the sides and I slid down in the chair, my shoulders supporting my weight.
“Fuck, you’re so wet,” Aiden said between grunts. “Siobhan, I’m not going to last long.”
“Me neither,” I groaned, pinching my nipples. “Aiden, Aiden, come on, fuck me hard! Break me!”
“Siobhan!”
He said my name like a curse. His thrusts redoubled in force, sending shockwaves of pleasure down my spine. I came with a cry.
He buried himself deep, his cock pulsing as he unloaded his seed deep within me.
Our chests heaved as we fought for breath, coming down slowly from an intense high. I whimpered when he pulled out.
Carefully, Aiden helped me to sit upright. “Are you okay?”
“I need cuddles,” I said softly.
“Then you shall have them, my love.”