Chapter 50 Alaric
Alaric
Raven’s inky black hair flashed into view as she crossed the food hall with her friend, whose name I couldn’t remember.
I didn’t give a shit about witches from the lower-tier families who hadn’t lived my miserable fucking life of privilege.
None of them had a clue about the shit I’d endured as the son of the Mage Council leader.
I tracked the violet-eyed witch’s path, noting how all the other witches and mages shunned her. Since the news of her soul-bond with the bear shifter spread across campus, the magical community had split into two camps.
The first group despised her for bonding with a non-mage or witch. And the second, much smaller and far less vocal group, loved her for embracing magical inclusiveness.
It was all bullshit, no matter what my father liked to preach. Soul-bonds were a gift from the goddess. Who were we to say a witch shouldn’t mate with a shifter, an incubus, or a merman, for that matter?
I caught a flash of blue as the elusive merprince appeared on my left. He rarely visited the food hall. I had no clue what he ate, but at a guess, he had fresh fish delivered daily. The school offered a service for magicals who relied on non-standard food or beverage items.
Back in the day, when vampires still attended the academy, a vending machine dished out sachets of blood for vamps who didn’t have a blood source.
Not anymore, though. The vampire dorm had been empty ever since the last vampire students succumbed to the bloodborne virus.
The merman walked a path around the perimeter of the cavernous room, still tracking the witch. His troll friend wasn’t with him for once, which surprised me. Those two usually stuck together like glue. I guessed there was strength in numbers.
One of the more assholey mages commented loudly about the merprince but he ignored the dickhead.
I made a mental note to hit that mage with a lightning bolt the next time we had an outdoor class.
While my father loudly and proudly flaunted his disgusting ideology, his views weren’t my views.
When I heard mages and witches mouthing off about their superiority, I added their names to a list. So far, rather a lot of them had met with unfortunate accidents during bad weather episodes.
It was a wonder Montgomery hadn’t called my father to complain. Or maybe it wasn’t so surprising, given how much blackmail material I had on the old bastard.
I drained the last of my coffee and headed outside, taking a seat on a bench against the wall while I pretended to stare at my phone. A few minutes later, the little witch appeared with her friend.
They talked together in low voices and hurried off toward the library.
From the witch’s sneaky glances left and right, I had a feeling she was up to something.
The merprince appeared a few minutes later and trailed after the two witches.
The pathetic expression on his face told me the idiot was crushing hard while doing his best to hide it.
Did I look like that when I watched her?
Fuck, I hoped not.
I stood, intending to go back to my dorm, but the incubus blinked into view next to me. Before I could blast him with lightning, he’d grabbed me and teleported us away.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I yelled when Zane released me.
He’d dropped us in a clearing somewhere in the forest. I couldn’t hear voices or see much of anything in the murky gloom.
Densely packed trees and a thick overhead canopy blocked out most of the light.
The faint whiff of sulfur lingered above the smell of ozone and tree sap, which concerned me.
My father had mentioned in passing that demon activity had risen in this area. Dealing with a fucking demon attack was the last thing I needed right now. My head still hurt from the moonshine I’d consumed last night, and having some disgusting creature trying to kill me would not help my hangover.
Zane grinned, unconcerned about the murderous looks I threw his way. “I wanted a chat with you.”
“And you couldn’t have fucking sent me a message on Magigram like a normal person?”
“Why would I do that?” He seemed genuinely confused by my question. “I don’t want the Mage Council to know what I’m up to.”
I scoffed. “They don’t read our messages.”
“Really?” From his arched brow, he didn’t believe me, but whatever. I wasn’t about to get into a conspiracy theory about MageTech companies illegally harvesting data.
“Look, it’s getting late.” My jaw ticked in irritation. “Why are we here? I have shit to do.” Like finish the moonshine and smoke some witch weed.
“Raven needs help with a spell.”
My eyes rolled so far back in my head, I nearly fell over. “No change there, then.”
“It’s a very important spell.”
I tried unsuccessfully to stifle a chuckle. “Does she want to dye her hair pink? Or maybe she wants to make her tits bigger? I’m sure the witch she hangs around with can do the honors. Or you, seeing as how you’re so invested.”
“Her tits are perfect and pink isn’t her color,” Zane said, still grinning in his customary disconcerting way. He had a point. Her tits were fucking perfect, but I kept that opinion to myself.
“Why are you interested in the witch, anyway? You’re a third-year and leaving soon. I didn’t think you gave a shit about anything here.”
“I don’t usually,” he agreed in a breezy tone. “But she needs help with a tier-ten spell, and you’re the best mage for the job.” Before I could think of a suitable riposte, he had a wickedly sharp blade pressed to my throat.
My defensive magic surged up to protect me… and then… sputtered out. What the actual fuck?
There was no reason my magic would refuse to hurt him unless… fuck.
“You’re her soul-bonded mate.” Of course he was. Mate bonds were tricky. While my father skirted the boundary of what he could get away with without incurring horrifying pain and terrible karma, anyone connected by a mate bond couldn’t hurt each other even if they wanted to.
Not that most bonded magicals would want to cause each other pain.
It was pretty much unheard of for a mated couple or mates linked via a central magical to want to hurt each other out of malice. The bonds enabled everyone in the bonded group to form close, emotionally satisfying links.
At least they did if all parties accepted the bond.
I’d refused to consider it so far, despite the agony I experienced from the unfulfilled bond.
Fucking witch.
Zane withdrew his blade and patted me condescendingly on the cheek. “Well done. Gold star for our little mage.”
“I’m far from fucking little,” I ground out. I had half an inch in height on the bastard.
He leveled a look at my crotch and smirked. “So I’ve heard.”
The incubus had no boundaries. I shoved him back and wiped my neck, grimacing at the sting where his blade had broken the skin. It was a good job I had healing magic nailed.
And a great pity the goddess hadn’t blessed me with teleportation magic. If she had, I could have left this annoying bastard behind.
“Help our witch, and I won’t search for a workaround that lets me kill you. Deal?”
“There is no workaround.” If there were, my father would have found it. Then again, he derived sick pleasure from causing my mother pain, so perhaps not.
Karma was a bitch, and one day, she’d come for him.
“Like you stand a fucking chance of hurting me, Zane.” I sighed. However, it was pretty fucking obvious Zane would make my life hell if I didn’t agree to help the witch. “What exactly is this spell she can’t do on her own?”