“Would you force the cursed collar on me? Tame me like Prince Lysander does?” Marcus straightened his shoulders. “Are you not a shifter yourself?”
My heart ached. “Aren’t you?”
He looked away, clenching his fists. “It’s kind of you to point out my faults. I should’ve risked everything to free my brothers before now, but the responsibilities of a leader are many, and as you’ve learned, I have enemies even within my own Court. But your mage is a clever negotiator, and I’m on your side.”
When Fox peered up at me, I arched a brow. He only smiled.
What did he have planned?
Magenta snorted. “Plans are perfectly fine, but they won’t save my lover.”
Marcus’ expression fell. “How long can a mage survive walled up alive?”
Fox was alive…in my arms…his raspberry scent wrapped around me… On the Valkyries, I wouldn’t let him go…
Magenta’s gaze glittered dangerously. “There are certain phrases that explode my magic, in a way for which I shall not be held responsible. Count yourself lucky that you bound mine with your Letter Magic or you’d be patting magenta sparks out of your burning hair.”
Marcus winced. “My apologies. How long could a mage survive…inside the walls of a castle?”
Magenta’s fists clenched. “I don’t know. Hours, maybe days. But why would it be better to survive longer and die slowly in the dark?”
A tremor ran through Fox, and if I could’ve switched to become the whipping boy to endure this for him, I would’ve done it.
Huh, that had to be love.
Marcus wet his lips, glancing at Fox. What had they been scheming? “Well, when the wards come down, wouldn’t also the magics that run through the academy? Couldn’t he then be rescued?”
“You took all that time persuading my whipping boy to risk his life for you on a guess?” Bask snapped.
When Fox squirmed out of my hold to march to stand next to Marcus, I missed the touch of him like I’d already lost him. “In fact, he took all this time trying to persuade me to collar and drag him back to Rebel Academy.” I stared at him in shock, and then Marcus, whose magic coiled around Fox’s shoulders with a gentleness that was entirely different to Lash’s. It sucked that I couldn’t simply hate him. “Then he showed me his Court. You know, I’ve seen Nero’s Palace and Elvis’ Graceland, but the Gold Court’s even more brilliant. And I can’t…”
Magenta tipped up his chin. “We’re listening, I promise. This is your choice.”
“I can’t take Marcus back as a slave,” Fox said, quietly. “His kingdom needs him. Look, I’ve lived most of my life inside an attic. Pan’s balls, I don’t know who I am, beyond a cat with funk in his Soul but I do know that I’m not selfish enough to risk an entire shifter kingdom burning just to save my own tail.”
“But,” Bask’s eyes gleamed with tears that he didn’t let fall (why wouldn’t he even now just let them fall?), “I love that tail.”
“Cheers, I’m pretty fond of it too,” Fox said. “I’ll die, but at least I’ll have been seen, right?”
“We see you.” Magenta wrapped her arms around Fox like she’d save him by strength of will alone.
“I shall erect a statue of you, little fox, in my courtyard garden,” Marcus’ voice wavered. “A cat, hedgehog, and fox to honor your shimage heritage. I shall be able to look out at you as I work every day.”
“Brilliant.” Fox’s lips tugged up at one side like he was trying but failing to smile. “I’ll be a distraction even when I’m dead.”
“Enough.” Magenta looked like she was about to hurl. “There shall be no more talk of…no more, do you understand? I’ll find a way to free Fox, and we will break the wards. And you, my sweet mage, will survive because no one here gives you permission to die.”
Fox struggled to pull back from her enough to salute.
Marcus glanced between us. “But I shall grant you permission to ride my dear brothers on Saturday in the wretched Dragon Polo Tournament. If it helps you to win and so break the wards faster, then I happen to believe that they’d gladly help save the High Ruler.”
“High Ruler?” I mouthed at Fox.
He shrugged.
“Whisper the words Yellow Orchid to my brothers before the tournament.” Marcus’ eyes narrowed. “They’ll know then that you’re sent by me to ride them not as slaves, driven by whips and spurs, rather as free dragons. You’ll see then how freedom gives wings speed.”
“We’ll win,” Magenta whispered the words into Fox’s hair like a spell, “and we’ll free you.”
She didn’t add before you die, but we all heard it.
I met Bask’s troubled gaze. He shook but what worried me most was the way that he held himself apart from the rest of us, rather than seeking our touch, almost like he was punishing himself for failing Fox.
He’d done the same after Hector had been torn apart on the mission.
Yet how could I reassure him, when I was as wrecked as him?
I shuddered. If I’d known that this was where the chaos moment would lead me, would I still have seized it?
As soon as the other Immortals and I returned to the Rebel Academy without a collared shifter as our prize, we’d have failed the mission, and as punishment, the man who I loved would be walled up alive.
Chapter Five
MAGENTA
Sleipnir clutched me as tightly as Bask held onto Fox.
Bask banded his arms around our mage like he was his crocodile plushie and if he didn't let go, then my witch descendants who ran Rebel Academy couldn't take Fox from us...and wall him up alive.
I shook, stroking along Sleipnir's forearms that bristled with werewolf tattoos, as in turn, tremors ran through Sleipnir.
Mist pawed furiously at Sleipnir's pocket, snorting furiously, like he could break through. I could sense the wildness within Sleipnir, thrumming to burst out in defence of our lover, as much as my own powers seethed within me to break free.
I'd cautioned control to Willoughby, but standing in this portrait gallery waiting for Fox's punishment, I was a single breath away from tearing the academy up by its roots.
It didn't matter that Fox had promised over and over on our agonizing return through the Gateway and snowy trudge back to the castle that this was nothing but a trick.
It was cold comfort that Fox had said he'd be secretly in charge because of our plan to free him from the dark. My terror had been equally undiminished that he'd placed his hand on his chest and sworn that he could hold his breath for a really, really long time.
On Hecate's tit, this was where Robin had been murdered.
The weak morning sun flooded through the arched window in the West Wing, just as it had back in 1891, heating my cheek and lighting Fox's curls like a halo. He forced himself to offer me a small smile.
Sweet Hecate, this couldn't be happening again.
Our Tutor, Professor Bacchus, had ordered us to wait here for Principal Damelza like obedient dolls.
How broken did she imagine us to be?
Yet there was no escape from the academy's wards for the students. My plan to free them meant breaking the Membership, which divided the Princes from the Immortals, and we'd already managed that with the elven Prince Willoughby.