by Cate Corvin
I gave a noncommittal shrug. What was he playing at, exactly? I hadn’t forgiven him for what he’d done, and I didn’t need him waiting on me hand and foot; I just needed to know he had my back when the time came to yank Mom out from under Percival’s hand.
She might fight me on it, too. If Will ran interference for me while I convinced her to go… well, that’d go a long way towards the forgiveness he seemed so desperate for. Maybe not in its entirety, but it’d prove that Will had a heart, however black and shriveled, hiding in him after all.
And Mom had genuinely laughed around him, her body language opening up and becoming less hunched. She might actually listen to Will if she needed convincing.
He crumpled some paper in the fireplace and piled a few logs of dusty kindling on top. Within minutes the Demonology room was filled with a warm glow as welcome heat washed over me.
I gazed into the crackling flames. Sparks floated upwards, dying out as the ash rose. I took a gulp of wine, the bite of it washing away the phantom scent of charred flesh. “I didn’t believe you at first, you know. About Percival. I kinda figured he was the rich, snobby, overbearing type, but I thought Mom needed some stability in her life, even if it came at that cost. I didn’t realize he was going to treat her like a doll, or a pet.”
Will returned to his chair, leaning back with both arms on the rests, his own wine cupped in his palm. “Who would believe it? It sounds insane.”
“Because it is insane,” I said, lowering my voice without thinking, as though Percival could hear me from here.
“That’s what life is here,” Will said gloomily. He took a deep draft of wine. “Fucking insane.”
I fiddled with my own glass, abandoning my books. “Has he always been this way?”
Will nodded. It was a tiny, sharp jerk of his head, but it told me all I needed to know.
“We needed to be the best. That’s all he cares about, making sure his friends-” He said it sarcastically, lifting a hand to make lazy air quotes- “know that he’s always on top. The best of the best. I needed the best grades, had to be the best in training. He kept Mother on a diet, too. I mean, she was already beautiful, but she had to be perfect. And I think… I think before she died, she was just so sick of his shit.” He tapped his nail against the glass and it chimed, but he closed his hand around it to silence the sound. “If she’d left, she would’ve taken me with her, I know it. She wouldn’t have left me with that.”
I raised my eyebrows. “And now history repeats itself. Percival has a new toy to perfect.”
Will finally tore his eyes from the fireplace and focused on me. I felt pinned to the spot by the intensity emanating from him.
“No,” he said fiercely. “It will not repeat itself. You and Connie are going to get out of here and never come back. You’ll have a degree from Libra; you can get a job with any clan with that, especially if you’re one of the final valedictorians.”
He’d sat forward while he spoke until he was perched on the edge of his chair, and a moment later he’d abandoned his glass on the coffee table and was on his knees in front of my chair.
I was so taken aback I was frozen in place, unmoving as he reached up and gripped my arms, a lot like Percival had… but I didn’t feel the same repulsion and sense of danger I got from my stepfather. Will’s hands didn’t dig in, but ran down my arms until he gripped my hands, holding them in my lap and lacing our fingers together.
“Don’t go to the Van Tassels or Cranes,” he said, gazing up at me in earnest. “They’re too close to Father. The Van Brunts are good people, or the Night’s Paladin. He’s bound to Shadowed Worlders, but he wouldn’t turn away a slayer in need, and he’ll take Càel, too.”
My breath exhaled in a rush as Will released one of my hands and reached up to touch the side of my neck. The tender place where two silver dots marked Càel’s love for me.
“How serious is it, Tori?”
For once, he wasn’t accusing or judgmental, just curious, which was why my mouth took off on its own. “Pretty damn serious, I’d say.”
I wouldn’t tell him that I was Morrígna or Càel’s bloodsinger, though. They’d made the implications of that knowledge getting out clear, and now that I’d seen Thraustila attempt to murder a slayer in the open… I wasn’t taking chances.
Will rubbed his thumb across the marks once more, and his hand drifted back down to where ours were clasped. “Then you need to bring him with you when it’s time,” he said. “Father doesn’t let things go easily.”
I nodded, my breath caught in my throat. Will, being understanding of a vampire and not warning me away from him for once? How odd.
Not like I hadn’t been that way either, I guessed. Only months ago I never would’ve believed a vampire would be willing to put his life on the line for me.
“Why don’t you go, too?” I asked. “You’re obviously miserable here, and let’s be honest, growing up with Percival for a dad has clearly turned you into a total asshole.” A wry smile crossed Will’s face, cutting through the concern. “Go do something else with your life. Go try to be a good person and do what you really want to do.”
He shook his head before I finished, already resigned to his fate. Fuck that. Sometimes you had to take life by the balls and make it do what you wanted.
Instead of letting him wallow, I squeezed his hands hard until his bones creaked in my grip.
“You don’t have to stay here,” I snapped. “You’re not Percival’s fuck-trophy to parade around so he can feel good about himself. You’re a person, Will. You have things you want out of life, and they’re not the things Percival wants, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You’re not him, because you can be better than him. You can make up for being a piece of shit by leaving this crap and going out there and becoming a genuinely good slayer.”
Will’s eyes widened as I grew more vehement, until I was shaking his hands on every other word and leaning forward so I was only inches away from his face.
And damn, what a pretty face it was.
“I said something shitty that kicked this whole thing between us off. I let Mom get married here against my better judgment, and now she’s trapped until I can help her escape. I told Càel he was unfeeling, like he was less than me just because he’s a vampire, and now I have to make up for that. But you know what? I’m not going to sit around and mope about it. I’m going to clean my shit up and be a better person, and so are you.”
My stepbrother was tense, his fingers curled around mine like iron bars. There was a fire smoldering in his eyes, hidden under those thick lashes when he looked down at our clasped hands. “Yes. I will.”
“You’ve been good to Mom since we came back.” My voice came out in a whisper. Last time I’d been this close to his face, I’d been punching him, and the time before that… it’d been a very different, but equally heated emotion. “You care about your team. I know you’ve got it in you, it’s just buried under the rich-boy brat who thinks he can get away with anything. You’re gonna kill that brat, Will. You’re going to replace him with the slayer you should’ve been from the beginning.”
Will nodded, turning my hand over to expose my palm. The gesture was a strangely vulnerable one, like he could read my secrets inscribed in the lines of my hand.
“I don’t suppose…” He ran his fingertips over the life line, then followed the heart line up to the pad of flesh at the base of my finger. “If I were to become- when I am this better person, if you could find it in yourself to give me a chance to make it up to you?”
Different answers flashed through my mind- yes, no, maybe, I don’t know- but nothing came to my mouth.
I’d taken my revenge, hadn’t I? Perhaps I hadn’t buried my blade in his back… but I’d gutted him emotionally, until he was a broken-down shell. A shell I could now build back up and release a better slayer into the world.
Will’s sea-green gaze dropped to my mouth, still slightly open as I summoned the clarity to answer him- by all righ
ts, I should be screaming no at him. No, how could I give anyone like you a second chance at anything?- but it was like a wall had constructed itself between my thoughts and lips.
We were against each other. He’d made that clear, pact or not.
Will’s hand was under my chin. I hadn’t even seen him move. Every cell in my body tingled to life as my stepbrother rose onto his knees, closing the small distance between us until his lips were only a breath away.
Kissing Will had always felt like danger and exhilaration all wrapped into one strong, pillow-lipped package, and that would be no different now. I still cradled the memory of water sluicing over a lean body as he forced me to tell him exactly what I thought of him…
And I’d told him how much I hated him, in no uncertain terms.
I hate you, Will. Cruel. Malicious. Cold. Heartless. Unfeeling. I hate you.
I was just as bad. Just as cruel and heartless, thinking of no one’s feelings but my own.
I planted my hand in the middle of Will’s chest, stopping him from going any further. His lashes fluttered when his eyes flicked up to mine, but he didn’t move back. That tiny breath of space hung between us.
“I can’t,” I whispered.
That was all it took. He sat back on his heels, lowering his head until it was almost in my lap. I resisted the urge to stroke his hair; I’d pep-talk this shithead into being a better person, but I wasn’t going to comfort him until he’d proven he could walk the walk.
“Maybe someday… we can be friends again. If you get it together and make up for everything. Then we’ll see.”
He released my hands and rose to his feet, his expression remote, but his eyes were pinched at the corners. “I’ll do anything, so hold onto that someday.”
I had just enough room to slide off the couch and pass by without touching him. Will moved to the fireplace, grabbing an iron poker off the rack as I stacked my books and put them aside for later.
I grabbed my wine glass. I needed it, after the strain of being so close to Will, torn between how much I liked him when he was being his best self, and how much I hated him for what that snotty brat side of him had done.
He was still staring into the fire when I paused at the door, holding the iron poker’s strangely blunted tip in the flame.
“I know you can do it, Will. If I can change my mind about an entire species of Shadowed Worlders, then you can figure out how to be honorable slayer.”
Will’s face was frozen in a terrible expression, somewhere between desolation and anguish. His hand was clenching the poker with white knuckles as the flames licked the metal.
I forced myself to walk away. I couldn’t do anything more; everything else was on him.
My bedroom was on the west side of Godalming Manor, a suite the size of a studio apartment. At least the white walls and marble floor were broken up by the brightly colored oil paintings on the walls and a bed piled with pale blue sheets and an indigo coverlet.
I set my wine glass on the nightstand and grabbed my laptop off the desk. I’d hidden the thumb drive, still encased in cold iron, in the back of my underwear drawer. Cliché, sure, but I was reasonably certain no one would go poking around in there.
I crawled onto the massive bed and opened the laptop, taking a deep breath as I shook the drive out of the cold iron case.
Doing this with Will’s warmth still on my hands, his breath on my lips, was probably unwise. I might’ve won, but the seething anger beneath the surface hadn’t quite abated, and I hated how much I’d liked him before he betrayed me. We’d felt like a team. A family.
I slid the thumb drive in, and the folder popped up on my screen.
To my surprise, it wasn’t Will’s.
Lots of essays, with SuraEnver in the file names, and one folded labeled ‘Vids’.
My guts churned, and I clicked on it. The thumbnail was very obvious: my face. Full of Will’s dick. Great.
What wasn’t great was the lurch of desire in my stomach. Even after humiliating me with this exact video, my body remembered how good it’d felt in the moment.
There were two versions: the original, and the shortened, edited copy, which had removed any flash of Will and Sura’s faces or voices.
I clicked the original, my heart in my throat and feeling numb. A healthy gulp of wine dispelled some of the nervousness as the video started to play.
The video was all too clear: I straddled Sura’s lap, unbuttoning his shirt with almost feverish need, revealing the brawny guy beneath the fabric. Then the pause, when his clan tattoo had looked off, somehow, like it didn’t quite exist…
I watched Sura’s hands tangle in my hair and he pulled me down to kiss him. If my breathing had been heavy before, it was nothing compared to after he released me, when it had seemed impossible to hold back a tiny moan with every breath, and I’d been writhing against him.
The wine soured on my tongue, and I frowned. I’d been turned on more than I’d ever been, yeah… but from the moment Sura kissed me, it’d been an uncontrollable desire, every inch of my body yearning to feel him on me.
Just like the incubus spit.
My chest tightened painfully as I clicked back to the beginning. I straddled Sura, unbuttoned his shirt, ran my hands over his bare skin… then he kissed me, and I lost my mind, ripping our clothes off in my haste to feel him inside me.
“That can’t be,” I whispered, chugging the rest of the wine as I struggled to breathe past the invisible bands around my chest. “That can’t possibly fucking be true.”
I exited the video, my heart pounding so hard I could almost hear it.
There was one more folder, labeled simply, Will.
I tried to open it, but it needed a password. For a moment my mind went blank; why would Will have a secret folder on Sura’s drive? But the point of it was obvious. It wasn’t Will’s; it was for him. And what did they have in common, a source of pride? I tried tenebris, but the log-in just flashed and reset. I followed it with libra, seventhheaven, and even suraloveswill2019, but no cigar.
I typed in victoria with shaking fingers.
The folder opened, revealing one last video file. The thumbnail was dark, obscuring the contents, but it opened to Sura, sitting at a desk in an unfamiliar room.
“Hey, Will.” He sounded morose, nothing like his usual cheerful demeanor. “I’m not going to drag this out or make it any more painful than it has to be. It’s going to hurt, yeah, but…”
The Sura on the video scrubbed his hands over his face and through his hair, giving the camera, his expression strained. “Just like ripping off a Band-aid,” he muttered.
Every muscle in my body locked up tight.
“This video is in case I get called home,” Sura continued, his jaw set. “In case I get called back to the courts and I don’t get to tell you- or Tori- the truth. I was assigned to be your best friend, but that shit obviously backfired, because there’re these things demons can see called the Cords of Fate, and they kinda run the whole fuckin’ universe, and- this isn’t making any sense, is it? Sorry. It’s a lot to ‘fess up at once. Look. You are my best friend. You and Tori are the only reason I’m making this video, because I want you to know that just because I was sent here didn’t mean our friendship wasn’t real.”
My lungs had slowly frozen to a halt. I forced myself to breathe, hands clenching where they rested on my thighs.
“I’m going to try to explain, but first I’m going to show you. Please just hear me out.”
Sura’s hands moved to the little nook under his chin, and he took a deep breath before pushing upwards and over his face, like he was taking off a t-shirt.
My stomach lurched. My own hand was against my mouth, holding back my shriek of comprehension and fury.
Sura’s carved bone structure and dark eyes were mostly unchanged, only deeper, like they were more real when he wasn’t masked by glamour. His dark skin was no longer a human brown, but shifted to a deep midnight when he turned his face. A pair of glos
sy black horns sprouted at his hairline and curled back over the sides of his skull.
He was fucking beautiful, every inch of him designed to be an object of lust a human would salivate over.
It was all so clear.
The demon on the video licked his lips. My eyes followed the tip of his tongue, the shine left on his full lower lip.
Oh god. “I’m an incubus, from the Court of Lust. I serve Prince Sitri, and on his orders, I was tasked with infiltrating Libra Academy in New York City. I chose you, Will, but… you were nothing like I’d expected. You were the one who made me more than this.” He ran a massive hand over his face, down the broad chest that glinted indigo. “More than a mindless creature from Hell. There is no Sergio Enver, in case you hadn’t guessed by now; the real Sergio’s been dead for like, thirty years. I just borrowed his birth certificate and amended it a bit.”
It was so odd to see a demon talking with Sura’s affable voice.
“So… my name. I know giving this away isn’t a smart move, but if nothing else proves that I consider you a true friend, maybe this will. If you have it, then maybe you can summon me someday when you’re not pissed off, and we can talk again.”
I leaned forward, my heart in my throat, and Sura gave me the key.
18
Sura
The last thing I expected the day after we’d all returned to Libra Academy was somebody pounding on my door in Tenebris Hall like they mean to break it down.
Even more surprising was the sight of Tori, face flushed and eyes sparkling, her fist still raised to keep beating on it.
I opened my mouth to say- what, exactly? Hi, Victoria the Lovely but Pissed? Maybe Come back when you’re ready to be less prejudiced against demons?
Or I’m sorry again, please use me as a footstool until you’ve decided I’ve atoned enough?
Her emotions flickered wildly, veering between excitement and anger, and I made to draw back. Whatever she was here for, it wasn’t good, not with that river of hot rage flowing through her-
