“If anything, I think Professor Springer wants to join us,” Celeste offered, remembering some of the stuff she’d told us over the summer.
At this, of course, the student gave her a bug-eyed look, shrugged, then disappeared.
“Should we even go to this?” I asked Celeste. I had fully moved back into the same room I’d had the year before, since I couldn’t keep bunking with the boys like I had all summer long.
“What do you mean?”
“I just don’t know if it’s super safe,” I told her. “I want to keep on my guard as everything starts up.”
Celeste shrugged. “I think you’ll be just as safe at a party surrounded by other students as you would be alone in your room. Besides, Raphael and Quintin and Ezra will be there, won’t they? It’s not like they’ll let anything happen to you. And when was the last time we were able to dance together?”
“You mean all the dancing we did in your room over the summer doesn’t count?”
“No! Because I need to flirt with someone, or I’ll explode!” she said.
Grumbling, I agreed, and together, the two of us picked out our outfits for the party ahead, almost pretending that everything was normal and would always be. I chose a two-piece black outfit, with a crop-top and a skirt, while Celeste donned a light yellow dress that plunged over her large breasts and made her look both cute and provocative at once.
Celeste performed her now-familiar spell to change our water to wine. We played music as the day faded down around us, and sipped our drinks, chatting. Celeste mentioned she was a bit nervous to see Peter that night, since she’d heard that he’d gotten together with a few other girls over the summer. “I should really be over it. I mean, I broke up with him, didn’t I?”
Again, I relished the normality of this kind of conversation. At one point, Celeste demanded of me, “Which of the boys do you love the most? Come on, you must have an answer.” I told her I really didn’t. I told her that each area of my heart seemed reserved for one of them. I told her I literally couldn’t envision my life without them.
“That’s what I thought,” she said, heaving a sigh. “It’s so sappy but also so romantic at the same time. Ugh. I’m already drunk. When do you think we should go?”
Slowly, Celeste and I inched down the staircase and wound our way through the dark and humid night, all the way to the docks. As we walked, we joined streams of other students, all excitedly chatting and gossiping, their hands filled with drinks. There was a frantic energy to all of it.
However, when we reached the docks, I was surprised to see that not as many students were there as the year before. Celeste mentioned this, as well.
“I guess we were right. Not as many people came back,” she said, arching her brow.
“But the energy is different,” I said.
“True. Everyone is partying like it’s the end of the world,” Celeste marveled.
The music pumped loudly and people danced frantically, their hips grinding against each other, their laughs ringing out manically. As I strode through the crowd, I could feel the fear emanating off of each and every one of them.
They thought that, because of me, they would surely be slaughtered that year at Origins Supernatural Academy.
When Celeste and I reached the other side of the party, I turned quickly toward her. My eyes were lined with tears.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” she demanded.
“They think they’re going to die.”
“What?”
“Yeah. That’s why they’re partying so hard,” I told her. “They think it could be their last party, so they want to push it.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Celeste returned. “I’m sure everyone is just especially glad to be back. Like, it’s been even longer than it normally would have been. Everyone missed each other. And everyone wants to fuck each other. We’re teenagers. Of course that’s true.”
Raphael, Ezra, and Quintin cut through the crowd, forcing it to part like the Red Sea. I hugged each of them deeply, closing my eyes. The thud of the music made each of us quake.
“You okay, baby?” Quintin murmured.
“I think so,” I told him. “Just a bit overwhelmed. We haven’t seen so many people in a long time.”
“And I think we should dance through the pain,” Celeste said behind me. She grabbed my wrist and yanked me away from the boys. I grimaced at them, but the grimace soon turned into a smile. I allowed Celeste to drag me deeper into the crowd, and soon was able to shove away thoughts of other people’s fears, other people’s opinions. I fell into the beat, grinding against Celeste and spinning around. I cut my head back, my chin toward the moon and my hair floating around near my ass.
For a moment, I actually forgot everything.
It was incredible.
It was addicted.
After several songs, I grabbed Celeste’s shoulders and said, “Why don’t we have parties every day? This is insane. I don’t feel afraid anymore.”
Celeste giggled. “Maybe you’re just drunk?”
“Maybe we should get more to drink?” I said.
“That’s actually a very good point. You’re smarter than you look, Ivy Whitestone,” she said.
She grabbed my hand again and led me toward the drink table. As we rushed through the crowd, I turned my head to find Raphael, Ezra, and Quintin toward the back end of the party. Raphael’s eyes burned into mine. I knew they were there for one reason only: to ensure I was safe.
My protectors.
At the drink table, a kid I didn’t recognize passed me a drink. I lifted it and arched my brow.
“I don’t think we’ve met?”
“That’s probably because I’m brand new,” he said with a laugh.
“Cool! A freshman?”
“Yep,” he said. “My name is Rex.”
“Cool name,” I said. “What’s in the drink?”
“I got it from the other end of the drink table,” he said with a shrug. “The person who poured it said it was a dangerous spiked punch. To me, that’s a win.”
“Sure,” I said.
Maybe because he was a new student, he didn’t have any kind of negativity surrounding his perception of me. I was just a “normal” girl at Origins Supernatural Academy. There weren’t any prophecies around the fact that I shouldn’t have ever existed. Naw. Just a typical girl who wanted to drink alcoholic punch with my friends.
As I lifted the drink to my lips, I could sense just how alcoholic this thing really was. There was no telling what had been added to it. Whisky? Gin? Vodka? Maybe everything at once? I didn’t care. In fact, I wanted to forget the entire world existed for a while.
Suddenly, Raphael burst up beside me and smashed the drink out of my hands. Immediately, the plastic cup splattered across the pavement in front of me, and the drink oozed a river in front of me. I blinked up at Raphael, shocked, out of my mind.
Chapter Eighteen
“Raphael? What the hell?” I demanded.
Raphael gripped my hand and dragged me away from Celeste and Rex, who both looked incredulous. He snaked me through the crowd and back toward Ezra and Quintin, who also seemed at a loss for words. When we reached them, Raphael gripped my shoulders and said, “You have to be on your guard at all times, Ivy. All times! Do you understand me?”
“What the hell, Raphael? I just wanted a drink!”
“You can’t trust anyone but us, Ivy. You know that,” Raphael said. His words were fast and loose, and he spat them out at me a million miles a minute.
“It was just a drink, Raphael,” I told him. “You have to...”
“It wasn’t! While you went over there, I caught sight of Margot off to the side,” Raphael continued. “She was the one mixing up drinks, and she poured a little vial of something into the one that ended up in your hands. It was incredible. I watched it all happen in a series of thirty seconds. When I saw the new kid passing you the drink, I figured Margot had put some kind of curse on him or something. New k
ids are always much easier to manipulate.”
I don’t know what caused it. It might have been me, might have been the weather itself. Suddenly, thunder rattled over us, and rain droplets splattered across our cheeks. I groaned, as someone called out, “Let’s just take the party inside! The upstairs rooms in the boys’ dorms. Let’s go!”
Together, we rushed toward the boys’ dormitories as the rain grew increasingly thick. We hustled up the staircase, as my eyes scanned around for any sign of Margot, Zelda, or Riley. As we got closer and closer to the final destination, I knew one thing:
I wanted revenge for whatever they’d tried to do to me.
I wasn’t prepared to just let them get away with knocking me around. Not this year. I’d been through too much bullshit.
When we reached one of the senior boy’s larger bedrooms, he flung open the doors on either sides to reveal that they connected into his friends’ rooms. The party soon extended out into the foyer and various staircases, allowing every student space to dance, to drink, to grind, to flirt. My mind was a million miles away from any kind of “fun,” and I knew you could see it in my eyes. Celeste mentioned that I looked like a “crazy person,” before squeezing my hand and saying, “I want to come help you find them. I want to get them back.”
But I shook my head. I’d noticed over the past hour or so that Peter, Celeste’s ex, had begun to make out with someone in the corner, while another few guys had their eye on Celeste. I owed it to Celeste to give her this freedom.
“You need to have fun after the shitty summer we had,” I told her. “I swear, if you don’t make out with someone tonight, I’ll be so pissed...”
Celeste waved her hands in front of her, in mock fear. “All right! All right. Whatever. I’ll do it.” Her eyes glittered. “Just let me know how you end up repaying the girls for whatever they did.”
I scoured the boys’ dormitory for any sign of the girls for what seemed like a half-hour, maybe more. Finally, I stumbled into Raphael again on the staircase and heaved a sigh. Outside the rain had stalled, and he suggested we head out onto one of the boys’ balconies and take a breather.
“I can’t take this music anymore,” he admitted. “It’s making my skull crack.”
I grumbled and walked out onto the balcony after him. It was oddly quiet out there, since most of the students remained inside. I leaned my head on his chest and blinked up at the moon. Love for Raphael enveloped me. I wanted to say it, to tell him how thick and powerful this was for me in this moment.
But before I could open my lips, somewhere down below, someone ripped open a balcony door, and a flurry of girlish giggles spilled out. Immediately, I recognized the giggles. They belonged to Margot, Zelda, and Riley.
The dynamic trio.
“Oh my god. She just took the cup without even thinking about it,” Riley said. “It was incredible. She’s such an idiot.”
“I know, right? By now, she must have drank all of it, right?” Zelda said.
“I want to be the one to tell her that she drank my pee,” Margot said. Her voice was almost daydreamy, as though she was endlessly proud of what she’d done. “I just want to see her face when she knows.”
The girls fell into another round of giggles. My stomach seized with anger. I was so fucking glad I hadn’t drank that. I turned toward Raphael, unsure of what to do next. In response, he lifted his hand and whispered, “I know what to do next.”
“What?” I murmured.
Raphael didn’t answer. Instead, he removed his cock from his pants and leaned over the railing. Suddenly, a spurt of pee shot away from him, in a perfect curve, and landed directly on Margot, before splashing out to both Riley and Zelda.
“Is it raining again?” Margot asked.
“I don’t... think so...” Zelda affirmed.
There was a strange, sinister pause. Then, suddenly, Margot gave a gut-wrenching scream.
“It’s pee!” she cried. “Oh my god! It’s pee!”
Their screams ran out through the night. As quickly as he’d taken it out, Raphael finished and returned his cock to his pants. We then rushed into the school, both of us huffing with laughter, and burst out toward the staircase, racing down and then back up into another corridor. It was like we couldn’t get away from the scene of the crime fast enough. In my heart, I knew that Margot and the others couldn’t possibly track us down. Not now. Not so late in the night, when they sizzled with drink.
Suddenly, Raphael pushed me into an alcove and whispered, “I wish it was always that fun to take care of you.”
I giggled and lifted up on my toes to kiss him. “I really never know what you’re going to do next.”
“And you love that about me,” he said.
“Of course,” I whispered.
Before I knew what had happened, Raphael had slipped me out of my panties and pressed me harder against the stones. His hands gripped my breasts, before he lifted me higher and plunged his cock inside me. It was hot and wild, the kind of quickie that had to be swift and good, both of us coming like lightning within a few minutes. I gasped and kissed his neck, his nose, his ear, and then whispered it again—how much I loved him. How much I needed him. His cheeks glowed with excitement and adoration.
Still reeling from coming, I slipped my panties back into place and watched as he secured his cock again. I had no idea how we would return to the party, not now. If anything, this entire affair had proven to both of us just how much we didn’t need anyone else.
“I wish we could go back to summer,” he said.
“I know. I was just thinking that,” I returned.
“We didn’t need anyone but each other.”
“And now?”
“Now, we have to deal with them.”
Suddenly, there was a flurry of sound. Someone mighty erupted up the staircase through the dark and found us, gasping, gripping his knees. It was Quintin, and it was obvious that he’d been looking for us for a long time. I reached out and placed my hand across his check to feel the racing beat of his heart.
“Quintin. Are you okay?”
At this point, I was prepared for even more bad news. It seemed to come around us like never-ending rain.
“A bunch of people saw you,” he finally mustered. “They saw you pee on the girls.” His eyes flickered as he turned them toward Raphael, labeling him as the pee-er himself.
At this, Raphael gave a mock-bow. “It was me, in fact. I take full responsibility. And I’m proud of it.” He arched his brow. “Actually, Margot was the one to initiate the pee-thing. If I learned anything in history, it’s that you’re supposed to match warfare with warfare. Pee for pee.”
Quintin seemed to refuse to match Raphael’s jokes with more of his own.
“This is serious,” he returned.
“What do you mean?” I asked
“I just know she’s going to do anything she can to get back at you,” Quintin affirmed. “You already had a mark on your back, and now it’s just even darker.”
At this, I could only laugh. “Is that all?”
Quintin and Raphael just blinked at me.
“It’s just. After all the bullshit that happened this past summer? I’m pretty sure I can take anything that Margot throws my way. I’m not afraid of her at all. Do you actually think I should be?”
Quintin and Raphael exchanged glances. After a long pause, Raphael cut out one of his own gorgeous laughs.
“You seem so different now, Ivy,” he said.
“Yeah. Compared to last year? You’re like a completely different person,” Quintin affirmed.
“So confident and strong,” Raphael said. His hand found my shoulder and glossed over it, as his eyes traced the line of my neck, my breasts. “It’s so fucking sexy.”
“I can’t afford to let anything Margot does bother me,” I said with another shrug. “And actually? I’m pretty fucking bored of this party now. Do you guys want to find Ezra and head back to my place? Let’s sleep off all this stupid high scho
ol bullshit.”
Chapter Nineteen
Over the next few days, it was bizarre to find that a “typical” school year began to transpire. Like, we were given schedules; we were told our routines. A few different couples from the previous year broke up, which resulted in a few screaming matches in both the dining hall and the arboretum. One of these included Celeste and Peter, since Celeste had, in fact, hooked up with someone at the party and totally enraged Peter as a result. I knew that Celeste was in her element when she fought with anyone. You could see the glow in her eyes. I told her that she made fighting with exes an art form.
Like last year, my classes were mostly with Professor Binion. Since we’d worked together all summer long, I’d assumed that we would pick up where we’d been at the end of August. When I reached his office, however, he said that he’d done a great deal of thinking over the past few days and decided to move us in a different direction.
“I want to explore the lengths you can go with your powers,” he said. “I think we’ve been too specific with it, which hasn’t allowed you to really elongate yourself and find new boundaries. Does that makes sense?”
I told him it made about as much sense as everything else, which, thankfully, made him laugh.
“I’m sure it’s been hard to transition back to school from summer,” he said. “I know you haven’t always found... peace with the other students. I always hoped that would change.”
“I guess the nature of being an oracle means not having a lot of friends,” I said.
Professor Binion scratched his beard for a moment and formed mighty wrinkles between his eyebrows. “What I mean regarding broadening and elongating your powers is this, Ivy. When you’re the all-powerful oracle you’re meant to become...”
“Allegedly,” I interjected.
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