Читать онлайн "Rebel Academy: Curse" - Johns Rosemary A. - RuLit

“The Alphas merely wish me to play the piano for them,” Emperor’s mouth curved against my head on each laughing word.

Thank Hecate…

I already knew that my second Charm, Amadeus, was being punished in the Isolation Room. But what about my first Charm, the Prince of the Wilds?

“Moon’s with you, right?” I struggled to stand, but Emperor yanked me down.

“He’s in the Pleasure Pool.” Emperor grimaced. “I don’t imagine that it refers to Jacuzzis and fun water slides. I wish that I could rescue him from the appalling name alone.”

Okay, so it was a name plucked out of an incubus’ dream, but I still desired the pleasure of Moon’s angelic eyes and sinful body. I couldn’t imagine a better named pool for him, unless it was the Lake of Defiant Rebels or The Snuggling Tree.

Emperor’s eyes narrowed like he’d caught my thought. In turn, I widened my own eyes in pretend innocence.

“I don’t trust the Alphas here,” Emperor explained. Hey, I never said that I could pull off the innocent act. “The danger is greater than I’d imagined. Some of the Alphas in my own kingdom, who I grew up with, at least strive to treat Omegas as more than objects to hide in shrines. These ones, however, are broken.”

I glanced out at the shimmering sea of Alphas with their mage lovers. “Huh, so you truly can screw too much…?”

Emperor traced over the bite on my neck, and I winced. “How sweet that you believe them safe. They train to protect their Omegas but they never can because of witches—”

“Like me…?” My voice hardened. “Harsh.”

Emperor arched his brow. “But entirely fair. Training but failing to protect the Omegas…for decades…has damaged these Alphas.” He glanced between Aquilo and me. “Can’t you see that this room is set up for war?”

I scanned the computer screens and table, which although it was littered with ice-cream and chocolate sauce, also had what looked like one badass chess game going on. Yet it could just as easily be…a war plan.

Emperor had been trained as a diplomat, and my aunt had called wolves princes in diplomacy. I needed Emperor for his skills now.

Aquilo settled back into the cushions, unraveling an ivory thread. “Who do they believe that they’re fighting and how could they win?”

Emperor studied Aquilo with such tenderness that it made my heart ache.

“War with fanatics is rarely about winning as you or I would consider it. They believe themselves already to be dead. What would someone be prepared to do who believed themselves no longer alive?” When I shuddered, Emperor rubbed his nose against mine. “A trick that I learned in my days as my mother’s entertainer: everybody talks in front of you. The Alphas bringing me here spoke of a delegation from all three kingdoms in two days to discuss the events in the covens and you…”

Two days…?

My shadows rose and fell in uneasy waves. How was I meant to stop what’d been planned maybe since the end of the Wolf War itself a hundred years ago…?

I wet my dry lips. “Don’t I feel special.”

Emperor’s teeth lengthened, as his claws bit into my shoulders. “As special as a reason to start a war. If we don’t discover what’s awaiting my kingdom and Moon’s within two days—"

“Enough gossiping, Omega.” Rubber Mage gazed down at me, raising his scarred eyebrow, and I stiffened. He crooked his finger at Emperor, and Emperor stiffly rose to his feet, brushing off his suit and straightening his robes. “We want a sing-along.”

Emperor ducked his head, but winked at me. Then he strode to the piano in the far corner of the room. He sat on the stool with a flourish, before pounding on the keys in a wild rendition of “Sweet Transvestite” from the Rocky Horror Show.

I blinked. Okay, I hadn’t been expecting that.

Aquilo chuckled as he crawled closer. “Hidden depths in that wolf, I believe.”

“Trust me, he’s not hiding.” I studied Emperor; he was a ray of sunlight in the night.

The Alphas laughed and joked, jostling around Emperor like he was already their favorite Omega. When they joined in the chorus, Emperor was as comfortable with them as old friends. Perhaps, he truly had spent time around Alphas in his own kingdom, and not ones who’d wanted to step on him like the Alphas in Moon’s Kingdom of the Wilds.

I’d imagined that the Kingdom of the Alphas would be filled with psychopathic elitists like Stella had told me, but maybe they also dressed up in top hats and suspenders, while dancing to “The Time Warp”.

Seizing the distraction, I nudged Aquilo’s shoulder, before edging out of the alcove on my hands and knees. Aquilo followed at my heels.

Who’d notice the two bad Omegas, when they had the star of the show performing?

If I only had two days to discover Vala’s plans for war, then I needed the power of my Charms united.

I had to rescue Moon.

I crawled towards the door because if the Alphas were in here and entertained, then I had the best chance to reach the Pleasure Pool.

Crack — I yelped as my head smacked into something bony.

I reached out to slide my hands up the surprisingly smooth column, which was blocking my escape.

“Look up,” Aquilo hissed.

When did anything good come of following that order?

When I raised my gaze, I met Vala’s stormy eyes. Her hair was twisted in two coils on her head like twin moons, and her thick eyeliner was surrounded by glitter: an asshole playing at siren. My hands were clamped around her thighs through the slit in her dress.

Huh, so it was possible to feel embarrassed, even after being forcibly Wolf Bitten.

I stared at my hands, and so did Vala. I pulled them away like a retreating army. Then I gasped, as the bite on my neck seared at her displeasure.

I doubled over, clasping my fingers over it, as if I could pretend that I wasn’t kneeling at the feet of my enemy, whilst she burned her hatred through her bite.

I was at the mercy of the first werewolf princess to dare transform a Wolf Charmer into a Bitten.

It took strength to submit, as much as to conquer.

Yet what if Vala didn’t crave submission? Instead, she sought to spark my powers and the crimson tide of blood.