Sleipnir ducked his head. "Huh, I'm no hero. It was a chaos moment."
Marcus' yellow magic fluttered around him like a decadent outfit.
Pan's balls, he was powerful.
Had Damelza truly expected us to survive this mission?
"And what is this then?"
Sleipnir's breath hitched. "Love."
Marcus raised an elegant eyebrow. “Was it love that made the witch’s hand hesitate? Didn’t they teach you at the academy that an assassin’s blade must be swift to strike down their enemy?”
“Do you wish to interrogate us to death?” Bask’s eyes glittered.
Bask was drawing Marcus’ attention away from Magenta; I flinched.
Flambe incubus coming up…
Yet Marcus’ gaze was fixed on Magenta like she was a puzzle that he couldn’t figure out. Then I noticed the way that his hands shook, and he hadn’t stepped closer to her.
He was frightened.
Sometimes, I forgot that Magenta was a witch. Considering that I’d spent a lifetime at the mercy of my own family and now suffered as whipping boy in a coven-led academy because mages were the witches’ enemies, the truth should’ve always been a nagging presence in the back of my mind.
Yet Magenta was simply the woman who I loved. She was dangerous but she’d never be a danger to me.
“You’re not our enemy,” Magenta insisted. “The Principal who sent us here and forced us into becoming assassins is. It was a mistake to hesitate, of course, but I’ve never hurt an innocent on purpose before and I find that it’s not as easy as it looks to be that type of wicked. If you wish to punish anyone for such actions, then please punish me as the Prefect.”
Marcus’ chuckle was weary. “It’s kind of you to believe me an innocent in one breath and the type of wicked who’d hurt others in the next.” When he plucked the collar out of Bask’s pocket, I expected him to hurl it against the wall, grind it beneath his boot, or melt it with his magic. Instead, he only strolled to his desk and placed it on the top. “My magic has destroyed your Sleep Charm. The fae magic would’ve been given to you by our cruel keeper, I suppose. He knows only how to control and subdue, the same as the Princes.” He shuddered. “My dear brothers, are they…?”
He bit his lip like he hadn’t meant to allow himself to ask after his brothers, who were still kept in their dragon form back in the academy.
“They’re fine.” Bask’s expression gentled. “I look out for Rayn.”
“My thanks.” Marcus tapped his fingers on top of the collar. “Well, if your plan had worked, I assume that I would’ve been with them again right now in the stables or was my punishment already set up to take place first?”
Ouch…
Marcus gestured at the shimmering gold, which still pulsed pleasurable waves through me. “This is a trap, which my most talented sorcerers cast to keep me safe inside my Court. It can sense the Gateway and ensnare all users. Did you not imagine I knew that students would be sent after me? I was ridden to the ruins by Prince Lysander on many missions. Since he saw me as nothing but a beast, he didn’t guard his words in front of me.”
Okay, Lysander was one fae who deserved to have his wings pricked. I might kiss the feathers afterward but that was only because they’d taste of cherry blossoms.
“We can’t imagine ourselves back in the academy,” Magenta breathed. “We can’t escape.”
“Ensnared,” Marcus repeated.
On my prickles, us Immortals were trapped in the heart of the dragon court with the archduke who’d we’d been sent to kidnap. If we didn’t return within less than twenty-four hours, then it’d be judged an escape attempt, and I’d be executed, just like I’d die if we failed.
I was one dead mage.
Wait, I was leaving out the best bit: the enraged dragon who’d caught trained assassins attempting to drag him back to slavery. Perhaps, there was a torture and then death option.
You had to be optimistic.
Desperate times called for desperate measures.
I squealed.
Shocked, Marcus winced. Yeah, Mr. Fierce could still battle a dragon archduke with the power of his squeal.
Then Marcus snatched the paper off his desk and marched up to Sleipnir. His eyes blazed, and his magic whipped out from him like ethereal bat-wings.
Uh-oh…
“By my wings, you’ve already captured another shifter.” When Marcus yanked me out of his pocket, the air was pushed out of my lungs with a grunt. “You truly are dishonorable.”
Sleipnir’s eyes widened in alarm, but he still couldn’t move. “Hey, give him back, asshole.”
“I’m not the asshole who’s stolen a member of royalty from the Hedgehog Court,” Marcus roared. First, woah that was both hot and terrifying. Secondly, there was such a thing as the Hedgehog Court...? Brilliant. “How many others are on your hit list?”
Marcus cradled me to his warm chest. He smelled of aromatic Frankincense, which was smoky, but with a single piercing sweet note that made me snuggle closer. His magic stroked across my prickles, and I could move again. I pushed my nose against him, and slowly, his breathing calmed.
“Wise up! We’re not the mafia, although I’d look pettable in an Italian suit.” Bask rolled his eyes. “I know Lysander’s a prick, but if you eavesdropped on him, then you’d know that he also had no choice on going on the missions or being in the academy. We’re all prisoners, see?”
Marcus’ hand tightened around the paper at his side. “Yet are some not more prisoners than others?” When he lifted the paper, the letters gleamed in gold. It was mesmerizing. “This is Letter Magic. It’s powerful and contains your truth. It’s a type of prophecy and riddle. It’ll also bind you and your magic to the reader of the letter, until they grant it back.”
“In Hecate’s name, don’t do this,” Magenta warned.
Marcus gave a small smile. “But you see, I don’t answer to Hecate.”
“Three unwilling assassins…” Marcus started to read; his voice was like a lulling echo beneath the mountains, and I could’ve slept forever beneath its power.
The words coiled sinuously like tiny dragons out of the letter, before appearing in the air above each of my lovers’ heads and then winding around their bodies.
Four unwilling assassins: the monster, the wicked, the sinful, and the innocent. They invade with collars and curses, but their life is held in the wings of the one, whom they’d capture.
The last of the dragon words coiled around Magenta and then faded.
Why did I get to be the innocent? That was only one step up from being the idiot or worse, the virgin because they were sacrificed to the dragon.
The paralysis broke, and my lovers tumbled to their knees.
Marcus studied them. “Your magic is bound to mine, so I don’t need the trap. Letter Magic is an ancient method of…controlling…the more unruly amongst us.”
“What a coy way of saying enslaving,” Magenta hissed, as Bask and Sleipnir scrambled to stand beside her. “This is worse than the collar.”
Marcus blinked. “I have never…never…used such magic before. Yet you come into my kingdom, my inner Court, my own study and… I am defending myself.” His magic reached out like wings behind him. Wow, he was going full on archduke. “Would you have me meekly bow my neck for you? Kneel? Beg to be punished…?”