I had slipped once, but like hell if it was going to happen again. First, she bats her eyelashes at me with such intensity she might be able to take off. Now she wants information.
“It’s a shame that none of your family inherited the gift, imagine what you could do with it?” She continued on when I didn’t answer. She would have more luck talking to the trees.
“What did you inherit anyway? How does all that work? I’ve heard rumors about differing strengths and abilities among the Eternals, that must be why you are eager to start school, isn’t it? Hone your skills. Find out which magical branch you fit into at the end of the first year with the rest of us? I’m glad to see you are able to attend, so many were so worried that you would be too sickly to join our class.”
I broke her rambling off with a laugh, the sound cutting through the carriage as we changed course, the break in trees and road giving us a tiny glimpse of the ancient monastery my father had turned into the school.
Rioseco.
I don’t think she saw, she was still looking right at me, batting those damn eyelashes.
I leaned forward, green eyes digging into hers. Her breath caught, eyes widening as she sat back in her chair as though she had been thrown there.
“Is that what everyone has been saying? That I’m sickly?” I laughed again. “What bullshit. I have no interest in this horse and pony show. I would rather step away from the whole thing and live my life in peace.”
Starting with a quiet cabin in a forest somewhere far north from here.
Sia smiled as I slipped for the second time, her hair swinging around her face in a sheet as she leaned closer to me, the two of us only inches apart as we pulled to a stop, the echoing voice of my cousin Cail bleeding through the sides of the rickety structure.
“It appears we have one thing in common then.” Sia stood as the latch on the carriage lifted, the door to the ancient thing squeaking as someone pulled it forward.
“Which is?” I asked, but she didn’t respond, she smiled and stepped closer, the top of the carriage brushing against her hair.
“I believe you are supposed to escort me.”
I wanted to do nothing less right then. The way she spoke, the low snarl in her voice, the confidence that dripped from her. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be scared of her or desire her. I wanted neither.
I stepped forward and gave her my elbow, thankful that I was wearing the awful crested blazer that was the uniform of this place. I didn’t want to feel her magic. I didn’t want to give her power any reason to try to mingle with mine. She didn’t have enough control of her power to know how dangerous that was.
I felt her magic anyway when she weaved her arm through mine, the rumbling strength pulling through the fabric as the out of control ability tried to infect me.
Sia wanted me, I could feel it in her power. See it in the look in her eyes as she turned to me and smiled.
“Well, this feels nice, doesn't it? It’s like we are a perfect fit.” Damn. I guess there was no hiding her end game.
Or what I had been forced into.
The truth was compressing against me, closing in from all sides in the iron bars of the cage I had been forced into. The walls were solid, I couldn’t breathe, but I gave her a smile anyway, forcing my back to straighten as she reached up in an attempt to tuck the longer strands of hair behind my ear.
I dodged and pulled her forward, wishing I could chuck her out of this carriage and be on my way.
The walls were growing tighter, just like her fingers against my arm.
“Presenting, the third son of our king and our queen, Prince Rowan.” My cousin had put extra flair into my title and I almost sat back down, but the girl was pulling me forward, right out of the carriage and toward the hundreds of students who had gathered to witness my arrival.
Although, with the way Sia was acting, she clearly thought the display was for her as well.
“They forgot me. I did sleep longer than anyone after my bite. Do you think they told him about that? They must have forgotten,” she mumbled, and I would have corrected her, but we were already out of the carriage, facing the students.
Facing her.
I hadn’t seen her in person since that first night, but there she was, standing with the other Undermortals, arms folded over her chest, pierced lip snarling, eyes digging right into me from behind the soft curls of what used to be a spiky pink mohawk.
I had waited for that moment, but now my emotions were a twisted mess after what she had done. After what her actions had forced me into, and who was hanging on my arm. After everything that Talon and Sia and my parents had said.
Malice. Resentment. Exhilaration.
“Gemma.” The word was more of a gasp, a pained call that sent my heart into a vice. Her lavender eyes widened beneath her pink curls, Sia clutching her heart in shock.
Sia little mattered, however. I couldn’t look away from the girl that I had seen so often I could have sworn I knew her. Well, until Sia had grabbed my collar, pulled me down to her and planted her lips right against mine.
Her magic flooded me, mine recoiled, and the crowd screamed and hollered in joy at the showcase.
By the time I was able to get away from her grip, however, the sound didn’t matter, only the smug laughter on Gemma’s face did.
“See, perfect fit,” Sia sighed and snuggled against me. “You know there’s nowhere else to be but right here. With me.”
I nearly slugged her.
Would have, if my cousin Cail wasn’t staring at me. If everyone wasn’t looking right at us, right at the prince.
And all the rules, and expectations, and power that came with that. All of the responsibility.
Damn it.
I had officially stepped into hell.
16
Gemma
All of my life had been spent in hiding, and now these damn royals thought they could tame me by locking me behind enchanted walls. Watching their damn prince lock lips with the bitch who had tried to kill Aria was all I needed to see to know how much of a farce this was.
The whole thing was a damn joke.
“What’s so funny?” Eddy asked in a whisper, leaning over to hiss in my ear as I laughed at what was easily the most awkward kiss in history.
“Everything, Ed, everything is just so freaking funny,” I sighed, turning away from the display and back towards the room they had assigned me after they had shuffled us here last night.
Even more Eternals had escorted us than the last time. Probably because both Eddy and I had some kind of super magic.
Well, he did. I swear I could still feel a dead weight of whatever weird magical mass Mira had put in my chest. I still wasn’t sure what she had done there but it made me feel trapped, but with a cage that was inside of me.
‘Your new home,’ they had said upon dropping us off. Funny, we all knew it was a prison.
I raced around a corner and away from the hollers and excitement over two idiots swapping diseases and tried to remember the way back to the line of cells they were calling a dorm.
From the outside, this place looked like the stone castles I had always imagined the Eternals to live in when I was a child. Inside, this place was more of a maze then the sewers back home. Steps went to locked doors, hallways were blocked off, and at least one hall went around in a circle.
At least that was what I had discovered in my attempt to escape last night. Well, not escape so much as find every single crack in this place’s security and make my plan of escape.
So, close to the same thing.
“Does this everything have something to do with the fact that they have locked you inside a castle with a prince?” Eddy hissed as he ran up beside me, checking around the corner and down the hall for Goldens or the CCC or who knows what.
“Yes,” I smiled back at him, following him around the corner to a hall lined with doors, this looked familiar. “Well, that and they are planning on teaching me how to use my magic so I
can fight and kill him, so, you know.”
“Is he your new target then?” He was serious. His exhilaration twisted through my already tight muscles.
“More like a stepping stone,” I turned to Eddy, the guy was still beaming with his signature smile.
Although he looked nothing like he usually did. His ripped Hawaiian shirts and stained cut-offs were gone. Replaced with weird beige pants and a blue blazer that barely buttoned round his middle. Even with the gauged piercings in his ears, and the tattoo of a spider that was peeking around the collar of his shirt he looked like the rest of them.
I may have been forced to flatten the height in my mohawk down to loose curls, but at least I had the dignity to “lose” my skirt, cut down my jeans to shorts, and refuse to give up my sewer stained army boots. There was no question who I was.
“The target has always been to bring down the Eternals from the inside, Ed. We have gotten this far, it’s clearly fate that he is here with us.”
“Forget fate. Maybe it’s prophecy,” Ed chuckled at his own joke.
“We’d have to ask their freaky ass Queen about that,” I said. He laughed, I didn’t. “You wouldn’t be laughing if you had seen her eyes go black in that interrogation room.”
Or saw your supposed future play out for you in the palm of her hand. But I kept that part to myself. Knowing that the witch could actually see into the future was freaky, but it was also putting a damper on this whole plan. How do you stay one step ahead of someone who can see the future anyway?
Hopefully, it won’t be too bad, she hadn’t seen me explode that room after all.
“I’m still going to put my money on it being a prophecy.”
We turned into another hall full of identical doors. Judging by the numbers above each entryway, we were getting close.
“Prophecies are for children and weak people who need to be prodded to become strong. I don't need help to be strong. I chose that. I am that. Go tell your soft-souled prince kisser about your damn prophecy. Maybe she won’t need to push kids off ledges to feel good about herself.”
“No thank you, she would probably push me off a ledge just for looking at her,” Eddy shook his head, held up his hands and backed away like I was the one about to hurl him off ledges.
“Be glad there aren't ledges here, Ed. Or I’d be dangling you by your toes and watching you piss yourself.” I gave him a smile and turned toward the door labeled “Gemma’s Prison.”
Just kidding, it was labeled five-oh-four but that was essentially the same thing.
“Not anymore. Don’t forget I have magic now, too.” Gah! The guy was oozing with pride. As much as we hated the world we were raised in, you have to admit that having magic was pretty damn cool.
“Baby magic, Ed.”
“Baby, super powerful magic,” he whispered, leaning into me.
“Doesn’t matter, I can take it. Get ready for some ledge dangling.”
“Sorry, Gem, no ledges. Plenty of windows though.” He was already eyeing the one at the end of the hall as though it was lined with his death certificate.
“No go, I tried those last night.”
“Of course you did,” Eddy folded his arms over his waist and leaned against my door, fixing me with the know-it-all look he always gave me when I was being a pain in his side. “Bet you tried every door, walked every hall, and even launched yourself off the bell tower?”
“Naw, I saved that last one for you.”
Eddy laughed, I laughed, and so did the girl who tore her way around the corner, an entourage of those damn Golden butt-kissers right behind her.
“Throwing a nasty Drain off of the bell tower,” She sneered, “sounds like a great initiation activity. The higher they bounce, the higher the points. I call tubby behind you there.”
Eddy only laughed, causing the girl to flinch over what she thought was a great insult. She seriously didn’t know us very well if she thought those petty clap backs were going to do anything but leave her with welts.
“Why waste my skills, pretty girl?” Eddy said. “I could make you bounce in other ways, well if I was into your type. I don’t usually go for the bitches.”
Speaking of welts. She had officially been slapped, and she didn’t even realize Ed meant girls, although she was still a bitch.
“Ugh! Like I would… You can’t talk… How dare you?”
“I guess the royal brat sucked her brains right out with that kiss, Ed.” It was true, and some of the Golden snobs in the back tittered until she gave them a look, silencing them and returning them all to sheep with hinges on their necks.
“Jealousy doesn’t look good on you, Gemma.” Damn, could her lip sneer anymore?
“Really? Jealousy. You think I am jealous?” I laughed and took a step away from my door, closer to her.
There was no way in hell I was going to let her see where my room was. I had lived with shallow bitches like her my whole life. Giving her easier access to some petty scheme was not on my day one in Academy Hell list of activities.
I would have to deal with her the way I dealt with all the others.
“Honey, you live in your golden palace with your shimmering lies, and you think you know the world.” I took a step closer to her, all of her cronies stepping back as I lifted my hand. Her feet shuffled, but she didn’t step back, the hatred in her eyes didn’t fade. That’s fine. I had my own to match.
“I do know---”
“Do you? Because it didn’t take much for me to knock you off your tower inside the Gauntlet, and it won’t take much for me to do it again.” I snapped my fingers, willing the magic I had used a million times before to come to life. But instead of bringing the whirlwind of magic and lightning that I had planned… nothing happened.
No spark.
No flash of light and a bomb blowing up in her face.
I stood; the thunder of magic that was running a marathon in my veins trapped inside.
Rat fuckers be damned. So that’s what they meant by restrained. Whatever Mira had put inside of me with that Štít thing had turned my magic off.
“No,” I gasped as I looked up, right to her smug smiling face as a flash of yellow that slammed against my chest and sent me back a few feet.
Everything hurt, my knees buckling as I fell to the ground, trying to suck in air from the lungs that didn’t seem to be working.
“Shame. Looks like all that drippy illegal magic is broken.” She and her minions laughed, the cackling noises echoing in my head as Eddy tried to help me to my feet, mumbling something about getting out of here.
I pushed him away.
I could still feel my magic; I could still feel the buzzing energy.
It was possible to fight this. It had to be.
“You’re not knocking anyone anywhere. Unless it’s you sending yourself back to the sewers,” she said, her eyes boring into mine as I slowly lifted myself to stand, every bone aching with the motion. “You’re already on the fast track to that.”
She smiled with a grin as long and slimy as her ego, her ugly ass shoes knocking against my boots as I stepped closer.
“I give you a month.” She said, her fingers sparking again as she prepared to attack.
This time I moved first, punching her hard in the face and sending her to the ground.
“What in the name of Imdalind is going on here?” Someone shrieked from the other side of the hall as one bolt of magic sparked against my palm.
Newcomer be damned, I sent it right into her smug smiling face.
The attack froze in the air, falling to the floor like Eddy’s vomit.
Shit. I had no idea how many of their dumb rules I had broken, but it had to be more than two.
My magic sucked back into me like a rat in its hole, Sia gasping as she stood, blood dripping from her nose.
God, it would have been an amazing image, but the furious scowl of the woman who was staring at me made the flow of her blood turn to the drum beats to my death.
It w
as going to be really hard to carry out my plan if I was expelled, and she was clearly a teacher, ready to do just that.
“Thank you so much, Professor Analine,” Sia said, her voice shaking in fear as she rushed to her friends, all of them fussing over her still dripping blood. “She cornered me and used her magic… I… I didn’t know what to do.”
Great. So, this is how it was going to be. The bitch was sobbing now, and I had a feeling it had nothing to do with her nose.
“Oh, please,” I groaned, folding my arms over my chest and tapping the heavy toe of my work boots against the tile floor. “You weren’t singing the same song ten seconds ago--”
“Because I was scared for my life!” She shrieked before I could continue, causing this Analine woman’s face to blanche. “I think she still wants to kill me.”
“Aw, fucking hell…”
“Language, Miss---” Professor Analine stopped mid-sentence, her eyebrow lifting as she waited for me to finish for her.
Like hell if that was going to happen, even if I could.
“She’s a Drain, Professor. They don’t have last names,” Sia continued to sob, not even bothering to correct the slur that everyone else had been actively avoiding. Analine didn’t move to correct her either.
So, I can’t swear, but bitchy mc-bitch here can call me that.
“Very well, as term has not yet begun, and the rules have not been explained, I will not be handing out punishments for either of you. But watch yourself, Miss...” She paused, smiling right at me, emphasizing the fact that I didn’t belong to some family or title. “I would hate for your stay with us to be unceremoniously cut short.”
I had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen, but I had no interest in fighting either of these two over it.
Another punch, however...
“Is that clear?”
“Sure… ma’am,” I added that last part on when her eyes narrowed like she was going to shoot lasers at me.
Bet she could. I wondered if they would teach us that.
“Wonderful,” the professor said with a grin, “We will turn you into one of us yet.”
The Gauntlet Page 17
