I caught my breath, raising my head to stare at her. Then I wiped away my tears on the back of my hand. “Huh, maybe I am a legend.”
Magenta smiled, kissing the tip of my nose. “You’re mine.”
“You think that you’re the only one to be treated like the monster?” Sleipnir shifted uncomfortably. Mist circled his head in agitated laps, pawing the air. “It’s the monster who’s awesome enough to create their own tale.”
Bask brushed the air around my foot like he was desperate for the touch, but would take even the vibrations of my magic. “I know isolation too, see, and being broken. But you’re with us now, and we’ll protect and love you.” His eyes glittered dangerously. “Plus, if I ever meet that Mesilande bitch, I’d break my hatred of getting blood on my pretty gloves.”
Magenta nodded. “They’re decidedly pretty gloves. But unfortunately, when we catch the witch, both our pretty gloves will be shamefully stained.”
Bask preened, before lowering himself closer to me. I pushed away from Magenta because I’d had enough shocks today not to want to add electric ones into the mix. The way that Bask caged me, made me feel like prey, but I’d never hungered to be caught so much in my life.
“I want to kiss you now, but seeing as I can’t…” Bask’s eyes glittered. “Imagine that I am and then that in my mind you haven’t been a virgin since the moment we met.”
Was that me whimpering? I didn’t whimper. “Is that because of the eyefucking? I mean, I’m pretty certain that it was me eyefucking you.”
I yipped, as Sleipnir wrenched me by the curls, pulling me back towards Magenta. He held me in place for Magenta who silenced me with a kiss.
I melted into her, as her tongue twined with mine. The kiss was firm and possessive: a promise that I was no longer alone. When she drew back, I was panting.
“Soon, neither you nor I will be virgins, and it won’t be in our minds,” Magenta murmured, as her lips grazed my ear.
Okay, I hold my paws up, that time, I definitely whimpered.
Sleipnir traced down my spine, and I shivered. “I take it that you wish this?”
Did Mr Fierce love curling up and pretending that he was a ball that’d magically come alive…? Yeah, he did.
I grinned. “I knew that you were a jinni. Just don’t make my wish go wrong.”
“It’s already gone wrong.” Damelza tapped her foot next to my head, and I looked up at her, as she glowered down at me. Whoops, I’d forgotten that this was a lesson and not a snogging session. Maybe I could blame the trauma as a Get out of Jail Free card. The Princes crowded behind Damelza, watching our snuggling with way too much interest. “Enough with the disgusting PDA. You survived the Memory Theater, which is more than I expected.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
Damelza pulled her coat of feathers closer around her. “We all now know that you’re used to that.” I winced. Wow, right for the heart. “Here in the academy we believe in sharing both the good and the bad. Once your most private moments have been extracted, they no longer belong to you.” I frowned, realizing that the kaleidoscope of images was still turning on the wall. Had my memories been added to it? Bile burned my throat. “Your past and secrets now belong to the academy, like you do.”
No one could steal my past or pain, and no witch could. Just because they’d extracted a single moment from my life, didn’t mean that they knew me, or that they owned me, any more than my mum had or the House of Jewels, no matter what any of them thought. There’d been a time when I’d have allowed myself to be married off as the dutiful son, but because I’d had magic, they’d thrown me away. So, this furry cat was claiming his own tail back.
“What about your secrets?” My eyes narrowed. I was going for it… “Gateway.”
Damelza’s eyes flared. “Watch your mouth, mage.”
“Watch it say things like: we’re training to be assassins on missions. But what are the other secrets? This whole academy trades on memories, desires, and hurts.” I nodded at the feather charm behind her ear. “You can hide your lies from my power, but no one can hide secrets forever.”
Magenta’s smile was grim. “Your ancestors burned me because of my inconvenient truth, but witching heavens, look at this…I’m back. The past can’t be buried, any more than secrets can.”
Damelza gripped Magenta and me, hauling us both to our feet. “I’m the new generation of the House of Crows; you’ve no idea what I’m capable of. You fight for me or I can bury you, the past, and any secret that I wish. This academy offers you new worlds of opportunity, but I’m the Principal. I rule here, and no one has ever escaped.”
Chapter Nineteen
MAGENTA
I’ve never regretted the close bond to my crow familiars who kept me company for the long years that I was trapped in Hecate’s Tree. When their raucous calls awoke me in the bedroom of the West Wing, before the pale sun had dawned, I did regret, however, their timing.
It was almost as frustrating as the occasion when I’d lain on the forest floor and built up the courage to touch myself in the way that the Rebels appeared to in the Wank Count (although, my ladybits were shaped differently than the twins’ descriptions of their pricks, I was certain that they’d still work), and Echo and Flair had tumbled onto me, pecking at my intimates. I’d screeched, shoving away the familiars. It’d turned out that they’d thought beetles must’ve wriggled into my drawers.
At least, that was their excuse. Frustrating.
Caw, caw, caw.
I moaned, luxuriating for a final moment in the sensation of being held in my lovers’ arms. The bed was warm. Sleipnir’s arm was slung across my shoulder, and his pajama sleeve had ridden up. His skin lit my nerves on fire. Mist curled against his chest, snoring. Puffs of smoke blew against the sheets at each exhale. When I inched out from underneath Sleipnir, his brow furrowed.
He mumbled sleepily but didn’t wake up.
On my other side, Fox appeared calm and beautiful in his sleep like he was free from the cruelties that his family had made him suffer and the fear of the academy. Last night, the way that he’d shaken as soon as us Immortals had returned through the dragon statue had terrified me because I’d recognized his despair. He’d clasped my hand like I’d fade back into a ghost if he let go.
Fox still wasn’t safe here, however, even if his blond hair haloed on the pillow like he was at peace.
Wasn’t this the R.I.P Academy, after all?
I smiled, stroking over one of his curls, before kissing it. I breathed in his scent of raspberries, wishing that I could protect him…or devour him.
Perhaps, I could do both?
“Hey, wake up, Sleeping Bosoms,” Flair called. He hopped on the window ledge next to Echo. “We want to talk to you, boss.”
“Didn’t you miss us?” Echo asked, hopefully.
I sighed, wriggling out of the covers and slipping past Bask, who’d crawled in the middle of the night to the bottom of the bed. He was meant to sleep on the mattress that’d been placed on the floor, but he’d been shaken by nightmares for the last couple of nights, and I had a sense that they were about the visiting Duchess. Obviously, in the night, he’d sought shelter from the horrors by cuddling as close as he could to the rest of us. He clutched Nile in his arms like the crocodile toy would spring to life and snap off any attackers’ hands.