by Cate Corvin
That light feeling was quickly usurped by irritation. Ivy would wrap herself around Dominic like a barnacle as long as she thought she stood to inherit nothing from her own family. Marrying into Steelblood was the only gambit she had left.
“Well.” I took a deep breath. “That part’s settled, then. But I don’t like the idea of either of you taking the heat from Gilt.”
“I’m sure it’ll be terrible.” Roman wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “For her.”
I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Roman to be utterly confident that any Counseling session involving him and his brother would be worse for the punisher than the victims.
Honestly, he might be right.
“We’re going to need Dominic in on this. He’s the only one of us with the necessary experience in curse-breaking. He’ll teach me how to unravel them, since I’m the only one who can do it. Hopefully he’ll agree to it.”
“If he doesn’t agree because you asked him to, just use pussy magic to coerce him,” Roman murmured. “Fuck, I’d agree to whatever you wanted.”
“Pussy magic?” I spluttered.
I was sure Dominic would press his advantage with me every chance he got, and I had no idea how I was going to resist him.
I didn’t even want to resist him anymore, and only the phantom sensation of the ouroboros medallion digging into my fingers kept me from seeking him out now.
Well, that, and the fact that my bitch of a coven-sister had coerced a claim on him, banking that he’d do anything to keep me safe, to keep Gilt from finding out what he was...
I practically felt a light bulb flicker on over my head. A mean, very ill-tempered light bulb.
Shane sighed. “Seriously, Roman? When you’re ready to take on the curses, we’ll-”
“No, I have our distraction,” I said. “I’m going to do exactly what my covenmistress wants.”
Shane raised an eyebrow as we got up from the table. “Please tell me it isn’t extraordinarily reckless.”
“No.” I looped my arm through his and Roman as they walked me to Discipline. “I’m just going to play along and be the perfect little Gilt.”
“So… a greedy, psychotic, grasping bitch?”
I smiled. “Basically.”
***
After Discipline, I strode to Dominic, who sat at his desk with a stack of essays from his evening Conjuration classes. He gave me the heavy-lidded look he always got when he was thinking dirty things.
We’d have all the time in the world for that later, after I’d shoved Ivy’s plans down a few flights of stairs. For now…
“Assign me a Counseling session. We need to practice curse-breaking tonight.”
His hazel eyes sharpened as he yanked his gaze back up to my face. “Curse-breaking isn’t the sort of thing you learn overnight, Lucrezia. It takes years for some witches to master it.”
I sat on his desk, shifting a few papers aside to reveal the Book of Agony. “In this case we’ll have to make an exception. My clock is ticking, Dominic.”
He scowled, his dark brows knitting together, then snapped his fingers. The door clicked as his locking charm activated.
His frustration stemmed almost entirely from the fact that the Headmistress’s geas prevented me from telling him a single detail about Cimmerian’s inner workings, and any truth spell he used to crack open my mind would probably drive me into irreparable madness.
All I could do was give them vague and obnoxious hints about exactly how fucked up it was down there.
“If you fail to break a single curse in that chain, you could set the entire thing off. These aren’t jokes or silly schoolyard charms.”
I inched closer, my knees almost bumping his arm. “I know. But you’re going to have to trust me for once. Going insane or forgetting myself would be much more pleasant than the alternative if I don’t get my hands on this book.”
He touched my ankle and slid his hand up to my knee. I tried my hardest to hold back a shiver.
“And there remains the problem of breaking into Mallory’s office long enough to break them.”
“I have that under control,” I said, my heels planted on either side of his thighs as I leaned back.
At least, I hoped so.
If not, our plans were going to take a drastic turn into utter insanity.
“A month of practice, at the absolute minimum.” He pushed my knees apart.
“One night.” Warm lips met the inside of my thigh and his fingers dug into the backs of my knees, pulling my ass to the edge of his desk.
My stomach flipped when his tongue ran further up my leg. One hand slid up and found the edge of my panties, which were already soaked. “That’s utterly insane, Lucrezia. Two weeks.” His warm breath on my inner thigh raised goosebumps on my skin.
I stopped him, his lips only inches from my panties, bracing my hand on his shoulder. “Two nights, or you go no further.”
This close, every gold fleck in Dominic’s green eyes was as bright as the sun when he looked up at me. Thick black lashes framed those beautiful eyes, and I thought of just how enraged they’d be when I set my plans into action.
I pushed him back another inch.
“Two nights,” he agreed, his voice husky. He hooked a finger through the panties and yanked them aside.
Making an articulate reply was beyond me. All I could do was grip his dark hair, every nerve ending in my body lit up in bliss. His tongue slid between my pussy lips and found my clit.
Breath hissed between my teeth when he wrapped his lips around my clit and sucked gently, my knees quaking every time his tongue flicked the sensitive flesh.
He slid a finger into my slick wetness and curled it back towards himself. My hips almost bucked off the table as stars flared to life behind my eyelids.
Holy. Fuck.
Dominic didn’t let me go, bringing me close to the brink of orgasm and backing off every time he felt me tense up. I groaned with unfulfilled desire, a complete need that had blacked out most of the room around me.
The bell rang, barely registering in my fevered mind.
He slid another finger in and I gasped, straining against him. My fingers clenched in his hair and he made a noise, drawing his tongue over my clit in a long, slow motion.
My climax was like every star in my head going off at once while my body shivered apart, pussy clamped around his fingers. His groan vibrated against my clit, drawing out the orgasm until I was shaking on his desk, biting my lip against hoarse cries.
“You owe me two Counseling sessions for being a stubborn tease,” he said when I’d stopped shaking and gone languid, kissing the two small scars Locke had left next to my pussy.
So much for my lines in the sand.
“No, you owe me two Counseling sessions for not telling me sooner.” I leaned forward and gripped him by the collar, tugging him almost close enough to kiss. His lips were full, eyes dark with desire. “You knew how much I hated Wardens, Dominic, but you were fine with letting me believe you were something else.”
He wound a lock of blonde hair around his finger, keeping me tethered close to him. “By the time I realized how deeply you hated us, I was already so far into the deception I didn’t know how to tell you. I know how weak that sounds, but… I’ve never had a reason to let anyone else in. This is the first time since my brother died that I’ve wanted to trust anyone at all.”
The crack in my heart split open a little wider.
Everything he’d done was to save a dead boy’s soul. He hadn’t set out to hurt anyone.
“I know.” An ember of hope flared to life in his features. “I didn’t stop loving you just because of who you are. If anyone could prove that Wardens could be good people at heart, it was you.”
He released my hair and pulled me down for a kiss, but I pressed a finger to his lips.
“But. You’re still engaged to Ivy.”
Dominic kissed my finger, then my palm. “Hmm. So I can kiss every part of you but your mouth.”
“Give me two days and perhaps I’ll let you kiss what you like.”
He let out a low sound that made me clench up again. Just a little. “What are you planning now?”
I was late as hell to Divination and couldn’t have cared less. One of Dominic’s evening-class students tapped on the door, their muffled voice just coming through. “Professor?”
With a quick grin, I slid off his desk, just managing to hide how wobbly my knees were, and ran my fingers over his chest. “Just a little something. See you tonight, sir.”
Better to keep him at arm’s length until I’d enacted my plan. He was going to pissed. Maybe even furious.
But hopefully he’d end up happy, too.
Ivy glared at me when I strolled into Divination late and sat next to Daphne.
“Now that is a post-coital flush if I’ve ever seen one,” Daphne said dryly.
I was really starting to like her. I could almost look back on our cataclysmic conservatory fight with fondness now.
I twinkled my fingers at my coven-sister and got to work divining Daphne’s inner self from her palms with a hidden grin.
Roman and Shane waited for me outside the conservatory, their massive forms nearly blending into the lengthening shadows of the forest. They surrounded me like an honor guard and walked me to the cafeteria, shifting into their human forms in the North Entrance.
I pulled two pairs of clothes from my overstuffed satchel and waited for them to dress.
“He’s going to teach me tonight and tomorrow, then we can make our move,” I muttered, ever-aware of the threat of listening charms.
“See what pussy magic gets you?” Roman yanked his shirt on and pinned me to the wall, capturing me in a rough kiss.
“Pussy magic,” Shane scoffed, but then he was kissing me too, right in plain sight of everyone.
He could make fun of it, but pussy magic was definitely a real phenomenon.
“I have Counseling tonight,” I gasped.
Shane cocked an eyebrow and Roman licked his lips. “I hope we’re invited.” They both looked at me like predators, huge, muscular, overprotective predators whose mating bites were throbbing on my shoulders right now…
“Do you want to spend two hours watching me cram on how to break curses?” I gave him an incredulous look. “It’s not going to be sexy.”
Roman opened his mouth to speak, probably to tell me he’d like to watch me cram something else, but Shane shut his twin up. “Roman, for once in your life, keep the sarcasm to yourself. Bambi’s gotta be able to do this.”
Roman rested his elbow on the wall over my head, leaning over me while he cupped my chin in one huge hand. “I know, I know.” Despite his light, joking tone, his eyes were dead serious. “Blondie, you sure you can get this down in two days?”
I wasn’t. Not one bit.
But it was better than sitting around and waiting to be brought down to Grandfather again.
“Dominic’s an excellent instructor. If anyone can teach me how to break a curse-chain in two days, it’s him.”
I had complete faith that he alone could help me do this.
We ate quietly, the twins both lost in their thoughts, and I kissed both of them in the North Entrance. “Tell Locke I love him, and to come to my dreams tonight.”
Shane nodded and shifted, landing on massive paws.
I made my way to Discipline alone and tapped on the door.
Dom pulled me in and locked it behind me, establishing an entire series of locking wards over the door, and tugged me to the back of the classroom. “Dominic, where-?”
My mouth dropped open when he pushed open a door hidden in the wall, revealing a narrow corridor.
“The only rooms I’m absolutely sure are safe against intrusion are these,” he said, gesturing for me to go through.
I followed the narrow hall to another door, and opened it onto Dominic’s other private quarters, the ones given to him for teaching here.
Like his house, it was like walking into a private sanctum that made me feel intensely out of place.
He shut the door and warded that one as well. “You can sit over there.”
The bedroom was divided into two halves. Another antique four-poster took up most of the far end, while a desk and couch were set up near a brick fireplace.
Unlike my bedroom, there wasn’t a single window, and the walls were covered in a wallpaper so deep a red it was almost black. The effect was suffocating and comforting at the same time.
I sat on the couch he’d pointed to, nervously picking at the hem of my skirt. Would curse-breaking hurt? I knew only a few cantrips: the destruction charm and a few wards, but anything besides those tended to go a little haywire for me.
Dominic brought me a little box. It fit neatly in my palm, made of polished ashwood and set with a tiny silver lock.
“This box is cursed, isn’t it?”
He nodded and leaned back on his side of the couch, resting his chin in his hand. “I placed a curse-chain on it: Astrictus, Cachinnatio, and Cantus. You’re going to let down your wards, find the end of the chain before it latches onto you, and unravel it.”
I stared at the box. “How?”
“Every curse has a loose end, or they’d be unstoppable. It’s like a built-in failsafe.” Dominic tapped the side of his head. “You need to feel for it. A curse should feel like a sigil in your mind. You need to find that weakness hidden in there and pull it apart.”
“You make it sound deceptively easy.”
He only smiled and waited.
I held back a sigh and closed my eyes. My wards slowly peeled away, leaving me as exposed to the curse-chain as it was to me.
It felt like a jagged branch of energy growing around the box, each curse snapping at me when I reached for it. They looked like sigils in my mind’s eye, glowing circles that filled my head, bursting and whirling.
I examined the first curse in the chain: Astrictus, which would lock up every bone in my body. The sigil moved too fast to make out clearly, but one line seemed to be loose, not quite as quick as the rest of the whirling curse.
When I reached for it, the rest of the sigil snapped.
Every fiber in my body locked up tight. I sat frozen in place, not even capable of straining, nothing but a panicking brain trapped in a statue of a body.
The next curse went off as soon as Astrictus had done its work, and my mouth was wrenched open against my will.
I started laughing so hard my lungs started seizing in my chest, not able to move so much as a finger to save myself or draw a deeper breath.
The last curse snapped, entangling itself in my mind. The next thing I knew, I was singing Pour Some Sugar On Me between guffaws, tears squeezing between my lashes and rolling down my cheeks.
I was going to fucking suffocate from singing Def Leppard. It just wasn’t right.
Dominic pulled the box out of my hands and touched my forehead. The curses vanished, leaving me gasping for ragged breaths and wiping my streaming eyes on my sleeves.
“You see how quick they can be,” he said, his fingers lingering on my face. “You found the failsafe, but it felt you coming first.”
If I tried to break into Gilt’s safe, I was dead. There just no way to evade a curse that quick.
“How am I supposed to be that fast? It’s not possible!”
Dominic muttered something at the box, renewing the curses on it. I took it back with trembling fingers.
“You don’t run at it with brute force. You lull it into complacency.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that before you let me run in headfirst?” I asked, but I already knew why. Now that I’d had a curse-chain go off on me, I knew what to expect. The worst was over.
I closed my eyes and tried again.
Two hours later, I was trembling, lungs sore from laughing, eyes gritty from crying, and I’d run through almost every eighties power ballad I knew.
I’d broken Astrictus, but Cachinnatio and Cantus were slip
pery and didn’t want to be fooled.
Dominic touched the box and reset the curses. His face was drawn tight with worry and regret.
“I’ve got more than half a mind to go back on my word. Curse-breaking usually takes a year to learn.”
I found the loose end of Astrictus, feinting my conscious thoughts to the side and unraveling the loose end of the sigil. Its thorny glow vanished and died.
Cachinnatio’s tail was far more obvious, but no amount of lulling, feinting, or brute force seemed to work. This time I tried to slip under, redirecting the majority of my attention elsewhere, but it snatched me up with a gale of laughter, Cantus snapped, and the next thing I knew…
“The question is will you please us all tonight? Tonight, tonight, tonight! We need a lover tonight!”
Dominic touched my forehead and released his curses. I gasped for breath, the box tumbling to the couch between us.
“I have to do this.” I drained the glass of water he’d brought me. “I don’t have a year, Dominic. Hell, I don’t even know if I have two days! They could come at any time!”
He scowled and refilled my glass. “When Mallory’s curse-chain goes off, you won’t be laughing and belting Mötley Crüe! You’ll be in mindless torment, or dead.” His glare heated me to the core despite my exhaustion. “Neither one of those outcomes is something I can live with.”
“What am I doing wrong? It seems impossible to fool them!”
Dominic shook his head and rubbed his temples. “You’re not doing anything wrong, Lucrezia. You just haven’t had months of intensive practice. Nobody manages this in two nights.”
I glared at the little box. “Do all Wardens learn curse-breaking?”
He glanced up at me warily. “It’s a mandatory two-year-long class for us, the one that disqualifies most potential Wardens. We lose over sixty percent of first-time potentials each year to that course alone.”
“Lose as in- they die?”
Dominic laughed softly. “No. Most fail out long before we get to the Malefica. Once we do…” He shrugged. “There’s a death toll. But all potentials know what they’re getting into. Nobody is forced to finish Warden training.”
