by Marie Mistry
Mute, I did as he asked, setting up my books in their usual spot. Jin slipped one leg behind me in a casual stretch, peeking out from under his arm at me.
“Figured you’d do something like this,” he muttered. “You hate watching us fight, don’t you?”
I frowned. “I can’t imagine anyone likes watching their mates squabble,” I retorted.
“But you run away from it,” he pointed out. “You’ll go toe to toe with any of us in a heartbeat, so it’s not fear of us that makes you disappear faster and quieter than a dormouse. So, what is it?”
I shrug, biting into my pastry. “It hurts, watching you all fight and knowing it’s because of me.”
“This time, it was less because of you and more because Bane was being a self-righteous prick,” Jin corrected. “But we’ll get to that in a moment.”
“Why do we have to get to it at all?” I asked. “Why can’t I just study in peace?”
He smirked. “Because that is also known as burying your head in the sand.” He sighed, pushing himself upright on the sofa.
“There are going to be eight people in this relationship by the summer solstice,” he began. “That is going to lead to arguments, only a very stupid fool would say differently. None of that is ever going to be one person’s fault. Last night, especially, had been brewing between Daron and Bane for a long time without any of us knowing. Now we all know, we have to figure out what to do about it together.”
He sounded so mature and relaxed about the whole thing, enough to make me jealous.
“How are you so calm?” I wondered aloud. “I shut things out, but you just…”
“A great river does not refuse any small streams,” he quoted. “My grandmother used to quote that all the time.”
I frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“I like to think that it means that a great life only comes through accepting all parts of life, good and bad.” He shrugged. “I’m probably wrong, but that’s the wonderful thing about wise sayings, even an idiot can quote them with conviction and seem to know something.”
“I like it,” I whispered, looking down at the book. “And I am sorry I ran away last night, but I really should get on with studying.”
Jin shrugged, raising an eyebrow. “So, you don’t want to know the truth about Bane?”
I peered upwards at his face, smirking as I realised that sleep had made part of his hair stick out from his head at a funny angle. But before I could answer, Bane’s voice boomed through the library.
“If anyone’s telling her anything it’s going to be me.” He glared at Jin from the doorway, followed closely by the rest of my mates.
Mrs Mogg walked around her desk, directing her beady eyes at him and shushing him louder than necessary, considering how deserted the library was.
“Sorry.” Bane gave her a charming smile that worked like magic to mollify her instantly.
She waved him through with a quiet, “Remember to keep your voice down next time.”
He approached the sofa, and Jin hurriedly lay back down, defending his territory. I smiled, liking the way that I was the only person he ever let share his sofa. It made me feel special, in a strange way. When they got close to us, Bane approached me whilst the others formed a sort of wall. Most of them were glaring at Bane, except for Kain who looked somewhat tired of the entire affair.
“I am your mate,” Bane confessed quietly, eyeing the empty library carefully. “I’ve known since I had my showing and stealing from you gave me ten times more power than stealing from anyone else. I was wrong to keep it from you.” He glanced at Jin. “But I won’t mate you.”
I couldn’t summon the brain cells to do more than blink at him.
“Tell her why,” Daron insisted.
“Because it’s too dangerous. I’m… I’ve done some, illegal things...”
“Spit it out!” Aeron was angrier at his brother than any of the others were, his entire posture stiff.
“I’m part of the Unshown Resistance,” Bane admitted, sending a dark look back at my other mates. “I steal for them from government banks to fund them, and I help smuggle the unshown who are abused out of their homes to safehouses. If I were to mate you, the chances that you would get hurt are too high, and I’m not willing to take that risk.”
At some point my hand had risen to cover my mouth, and I flinched at the coolness of my own skin against my lips.
“Okay,” I whispered, because what else is there to say? He’d made his opinion very clear; my best friend had important things to do and he didn’t want me getting involved in them. “Okay, that’s… yeah, that’s okay.” I looked down at my lap. “Thanks for telling me, but I’ve really got to study now.”
Aeron and Daron were looking at me like I’ve grown a second head. Blaze looked concerned and Kain just stared at me with sympathy. Avoiding making eye contact with any of them, I took the book from the table and curled my legs up towards me, resting it on my knees whilst trying to read past the buzzing feeling in my head.
“Lilith, are you… okay?” Bane seemed as lost as I felt.
I shrugged. “Yes. I get it. The Strange God only said I had to meet my mates after all… I never wanted to force anyone to be my mate, especially if they don’t want me.”
“I do want you!” Bane protested, and my head snapped up.
“No, you don’t. So kindly piss off, all of you, and let me study.” There was a shuffling of feet, and a murmuring that I ignored until finally I found myself completely alone.
That was when I let a single, angry tear fall, splashing onto the pages of my book.
That evening, twelve blue roses started to bloom outside my window. A vine had climbed several stories in one day, and the flowers bloomed in a single place, directly below my windowsill. No one else seemed to notice them, but I knew that Bane had created them with his gift of phytokinesis. Having a mother who was obsessed with girly, classy things like flowers, I knew exactly what blue roses meant (a longing for the impossible) and I scoffed at the idea of Bane leaving them for me. Then I sighed slightly because, as angry as I was with him, they were beautiful. When I wasn’t actively forcing myself to look away, I found my gaze drifting to them over the top of my textbooks. For a full week they never seemed to age or lose so much as a petal, and when I dashed out of my room on the morning of my practical exam, I couldn’t help but notice that they’d formed themselves into the shape of a four-leaved clover.
My mates had made certain I had enough power for today. Jin had cornered me in a dark corner of the library yesterday evening for a quickie that had turned my brains to mush and my body to a quivering pile of need. Aeron snuck into my bed last night for three rounds of scorching hot sex. My Lust mate sometimes expressed himself better with his body than he did with words, and last night had started out hesitant and uncertain, and even a little angry. It ended with the two of us peacefully entwined together, hearts beating in time. I was brimming with power in a way I hadn’t been in weeks, but what scared me was that I might need to even more in the middle of the exam. Jin and Kain had had their practical exams two days after Bane’s birthday, and afterwards they’d been so low on power that Kain had challenged me to almost a dozen thumb-wars to build himself back up. Jin had slept for two days straight, almost missing his next exam because of the power deficit that he’d fallen into.
I was worried what I might have to do if I reached those sorts of levels. I remembered the way that Aeron and I had come together after I mated Daron, and the thought of being made love to when I was all but unconscious was unappealing and more than a little weird.
“Are you ready?” Daron asked, meeting me outside of the tower. As usual, he offered me his arm as we were walking, which was an interesting experience since he was practically bouncing on his feet as we walked towards the Gatehouse where Maddox was assembling us all.
“Are you?” I replied, smiling. “I’m just happy this is going to be over, one way or another, in a couple of hours.�
�
Daron grinned. “We’re prepared,” he said. “We know what we’re doing.”
“Have you got enough power?” I asked, “Because I don’t mind if you want to claim me a few times before we get there.”
Daron smiled. “I spent the whole of last night going around my room claiming everything in sight as mine. I should be fine.” He paused. “Do you…”
“No.” I blushed. “If you need more, during the exam feel free to say ‘mine’ all you want.”
He nodded. “It goes without saying, the same applies to you.” His words were even, but my pulse leapt at the idea of kissing my reserved, gentleman mate once more. I’d desperately wanted to go further with him for months now, but he was so reserved and poised that I rarely found opportunities to broach the subject. When I did, we always seemed to be interrupted.
“Bane is trying his luck,” Daron said after a few moments of silence.
“You noticed?” I couldn’t help a secret smile that slipped onto my face, and Daron noticed.
“I didn’t take you for the kind of girl to go crazy at a few roses.”
“I’m not,” I whispered. “I know it seems a little… silly… especially given that they’re more of an apology than a declaration of courtship, but even a Succubus can want romance… is that crazy?”
He shook his head. “Of course not. If I had the power to bloom roses at my whim you’d likely have a whole room full of them.”
I grinned. “I’ve got flowers from you,” I reminded him, my fingers reaching up to point at the ring on my horn.
“I’m sorry that I knew about him for so long and didn’t tell you,” Daron admitted. “I kept pushing him, hoping he’d confess before you figured it out for yourself.”
I look around myself, checking for eavesdroppers. “Is the Resistance really so dangerous that he can’t take me as a mate, or is he just using it as an excuse?” I asked the question that had haunted my thoughts for the past few days.
Daron did a similar sweep of the area before replying. “Demonic government is dominated by powerful people, some of whom treat their unshown servants like dirt. To their minds, the Resistance is stealing their property and their gold, and they have divisions of their private military forces dedicated to hunting Resistance members. Often, there is no trial. Once probable guilt is determined, the suspect just disappears, and if they can’t get the person they’re after, they have been known to attack the families.”
I sighed. “It’s nice to know he’s not just using it as an excuse.”
Daron snorted. “No, my tricky friend is actually being noble, as much of a pain as it is for the rest of us.”
“But still, I only have two weeks left,” I whispered. “Two weeks to find my mate from Gluttony.”
“Nelly’s plan didn’t work?”
I chuckled. “I won’t say that flinging tiny stones at random boys with terrakinesis wasn’t fun, but no, my mate isn’t a student here.”
We’d had a list of students in Gluttony, and then for good measure we’d tried a few of the girls. Then to make sure our experiment wasn’t faulty, I tried to throw a stone at Aeron and watched as it fell to the floor between us as usual.
“Lots of people travel here for the ball,” Daron reasoned. “Blaze isn’t a student, so clearly your mates aren’t limited to just students… Perhaps it may be best to ask the priests to help you try and receive another vision. The Strange God could have more to show you.”
I went to reply, but we reached the group of students waiting by the Gatehouse. Bane was there, and Rina had chosen – no doubt deliberately – to stand right next to him, almost too close. I was pretty sure she was touching him.
I viciously clamped down on my jealous train of thought and pasted a bland smile on my face. “Is Maddox here yet?” I asked her, refusing to meet Bane’s brown-eyed gaze.
But Bane was the one to answer. “He did, but he ran off pretty quickly.”
There was an awkward pause, and I busied myself by shifting from one foot to the other. I felt weird without my bag, since we weren’t allowed anything in the exams apart from ourselves. Self-consciously. I plucked the ring from around my horn and held it out to Bane as my peace offering.
“Do you need more power?” I asked him, staring at his feet.
When he cleared his throat, I looked up quickly, only to discover his palm open beside mine, my earring resting innocently there.
I sighed and tipped the ring into his palm anyway. He tipped both small items back into my hand, so careful to make sure our skin didn’t even touch. The temptation to investigate his face to try and guess his thoughts was nearly overwhelming, but Maddox’s return granted me the reprieve that I desperately needed.
I slipped the ring over my horn and poked around my ear trying to find the hole just as Maddox started to speak.
“Good morning!” He called over the gathered students. “And welcome to your first practical Demonic Foundation Studies exam!”
The group’s silence created a thick atmosphere of tense anxiety, but Maddox appeared immune to it.
“Today, each of your groups will be placed somewhere in the forest beyond the castle. Each group will be equidistant from an old arena, inside of which will be fifteen tokens. You will collect a token and make your way through the forest back here. Some of you may be wondering why I said fifteen tokens when there are seventeen groups. This is because the last two groups to arrive at the arena will not have a token and will have to battle other groups to take their tokens by force.”
There were murmurs all around at that announcement and fear clenched my stomach into a heavy knot.
“This does not mean that two groups will be failing this exam,” Maddox continued. “Sixty percent of the mark is based upon how well you overcome the obstacles and traps which have been placed inside the forest to make obtaining the tokens and getting back to the castle more difficult. They are designed to be incredibly dangerous, and failure to take caution may lead to your death or serious disfigurement.” A man suddenly appeared by Maddox’s side, literally emerging from nowhere.
“This is my good friend Professor Fraxis from Transgression College in the west,” Maddox introduced the young man, whose military-strict appearance and strange walking stick carved with screaming figures up the shaft gave me the creeps. “He has the gift of telekinesis, which will enable him to deposit all of your groups in your respective locations at the same time.”
Fraxis gave the group a once over, his cool eyes revealing a disapproving look that showed how much he considered us all to be beneath him. He was a heavy-set, bull-necked Pride. His crystal was chipped and jagged like his teeth, and that, combined with his wonky nose, gave him the impression of a bruiser. I instantly pitied anyone who had him as a teacher.
“Remember, if you get into trouble at any time, simply send a pyrokinetic missile into the air above your head, and I will come and find you. I must add that doing so will severely decrease your chances of passing the exam. The exam ends at midday, anyone not back by then will instantly fail.” Maddox looked around the gathered groups, beaming as though he hadn’t just been talking about us getting maimed and killed for a damned exam. “Any questions?”
Nobody spoke, even though there were probably plenty of questions we should be asking.
“Right then. Oh, before I forget! The special prize I mentioned on the first day, the one for guessing my sub-caste.”
There were a few bleary nods, although to be honest, I thought we had all forgotten about the whole thing with all our work on this exam.
“The special prize will be revealed during the exam.” Maddox smiled. “Right then, on your marks, get set.”
I didn’t hear the word ‘go’ before the world was yanked away from underneath our feet.
Chapter 33
The forest was dark and smelled damp, despite not having seen rain for several weeks. When my group was deposited in an undignified heap at the base of a giant oak, it took us sever
al seconds to gather our bearings enough to untangle ourselves.
I stood up first, brushing twigs and bits of leaf out of my uniform as I did so. Daron did the same, looking around, mind whirring behind his spectacles. Rina however, just looked around grumpily. “I don’t do the outdoors,” she whined, staring at the dirt in dismay.
I smirked. “That much is obvious,” I observed. “Where are we?”
Daron was looking at the path in front of us with suspicion. “The path leads this way, but school is that way.” He pointed in the opposite direction.
“How do you know?” Rina grumbled.
“I can feel the electricity,” Daron explained. “There are other sources nearby, but I know Vice’s generators like the back of my hand.”
