“I want to watch you come,” he whispered.
Ezra moved down the flat of my stomach and then pressed his tongue against the top of my clit, his eyes directly on mine. It didn’t take long for me to crest. He had total and complete control over me. As I spasmed across the bed, Quintin unlatched his belt and plunged into me—wanting to take me so that he could feel me continue to come against his cock. He gasped as his chest splayed over mine, and he placed his hand across my cheek and his thumb between my lips.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Quintin murmured as he pumped into me, thrusting harder and harder. I pressed my fingernails into his back. I could feel every muscle across his frame, could feel his power.
I needed all of them—wanted to be close with all of them, to feel them in as many ways as possible. I gestured for Raphael to come toward me, and he kissed me tenderly. Quintin’s cock remained inside me, but he stopped thrusting, watching me. The immensity of our love felt like a blanket over all of us. It was the one thing that could possibly protect us. As Quintin’s cock pressed harder against my G-spot, I came again, this time deeper, and I moaned as Raphael removed his lips from mine and whispered, “I can feel you coming all the way through your body.”
The boys and I collapsed after that. Raphael put on a film, joking that he’d put on another scary one but instead flipping on another of my favorites, Rebecca, from the ‘50s. We collapsed in a heap, with Ezra lifted up on his fist so that he could fully engage in the film. I turned into him and pressed my face into his chest. I whispered how much I loved them, how it was wild that I loved them all so deeply and so differently. In just moments, I fell into a deep slumber. Thankfully, I had on dreams and no nightmares. I was allowed to exist somewhere else.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Early spring held one of the most remarkable smells. Although we lived in Louisiana, where winter didn’t necessarily rear its ugly head, the mud and the blooming flowers and the brighter air swirled together to deliver this sense of never-ending promise. On Saturday, March 29, I surged toward my window, yanked open the curtains, then forced the window wide open. Light cast across the boys, and Raphael stirred, then splayed his hands over his eyes.
“What the hell, Ivy?” he cooed.
“It’s such a gorgeous day!” I said. “Can’t you smell that beautiful spring air?”
The boys begrudgingly stirred from bed. Hurriedly, I dressed in a spring dress and turned on some music. Raphael rose up and lifted me in a big circle, making me giggle.
“I think we should go to the soccer game today,” I told everyone as he dotted me back on the ground.
Quintin rolled over and considered me. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” I said. “But it’s not like me being in any one place has stopped anything from happening elsewhere. Didn’t I tell you guys that I used to play soccer? It’s one of my favorite things in the world. I can’t miss it. No. Let me rephrase that. I won’t.”
Ezra scrubbed at his eyes, then opened them to reveal his bright blue irises. “Why can’t we just lay in bed today?”
I stuck my tongue out and then rushed toward the door. “Come on. We finally have a day off. Nothing to do but hang out in the sun and watch soccer.”
Finally, the boys got up, showered, and dressed back in their own dorms, then met me down in the arboretum several minutes before the soccer game. As we walked toward the soccer field, Celeste scampered up and grabbed my arm. I grinned madly back at her.
“You must be dying. You love soccer more than anything,” she said.
“You’re the one who is probably dying,” I told her. “You’re dating the soccer star!”
For the past two weeks, Celeste had gotten into something of an affair with the top soccer star at Origins, Cordon Paddington. They hadn’t told anyone about it, since Celeste didn’t want a full-fledged relationship again with anyone so close toward the end of the year. When she’d told me this, I’d wondered if Celeste would ever make her way back to Hillside Falls. We’d hardly heard much word about the town since Celeste’s arrival back the previous summer. I worried about the place intermittently; more than that, I worried about Aunt Maria, about where she was, about whether or not she was keeping safe. Professor Binion had assured me that we would know if she was captured or injured, but I wasn’t entirely sure about that. I felt that my powers had long-since surpassed Professor Binion’s—which meant I couldn’t fully trust his judgement.
When we reached the soccer fields, I strung my fingers through Quintin’s and beamed up at him. Already, the sounds of the students, all gossiping and overlooking the field, flowed out of the arena. When we entered, Ezra rushed off to buy us some popcorn, and then the five of us perched up mid-way into the stands, with a perfect view of the bright green field.
This particular soccer game was lycan versus faes, which was a traditional rivalry at Origins Supernatural Academy. As I beamed out across the field, watching as the players assembled, I caught sight of Margot on the further side. She glared at me, but then dropped her eyes toward the green. Since the semester had begun, she’d gossiped about me plenty, but hadn’t bothered much with actual physical abuse. As it stood, she was probably frightened of me.
The soccer game erupted. I watched with an eagle eye as the ball whizzed through the air, bouncing and cutting into various team members’ skulls and then ricocheting against the soccer goals. I found myself clapping and screaming, my voice carrying out across the heads below.
For once, it felt nice to act like a normal eighteen-year-old girl.
Mid-way through the game, some clouds formed over the field. I didn’t think anything of it; I was far too involved in the actual drama unfolding on the field. Quintin muttered something about it looking “ominous,” but I just brushed it off and thought, well: it’s spring, we’re in a swamp. It’s probably going to rain some time.
But that’s when the earth began to shake. At first, it seemed just like an average shift, just a little quake. Moments later, the stands beneath us began to stir back and forth. The students screamed and began to race down the steps toward the ground. Quintin grabbed my hand and yanked me into the aisle to follow the others.
“We have to get off of this,” he said, his voice low. “The quake isn’t going to stop any time soon.”
Quintin was right. The shaking ground beneath us continued on for ages. By the time we reached the base of the stands, many of the students had begun to cry and hold onto one another. Margot caught my eye again, and she looked ominous, volatile, and she whispered something to Zelda. I had a feeling she was putting it all on me.
Suddenly, the clouds overhead began to swirl and a wind stirred out from the north. I turned my face toward the sky. Was it possible that this was the day I’d felt coming for ages? Was this what Professor Binion and I had foreseen?
Celeste grabbed my elbow and squeezed it. “Don’t be reckless, Ivy. Everyone else is running for cover. We should, too.”
I didn’t even turn in her direction. Instead, I walked toward the center of the soccer field—my movements slow as the ground continued to shake. When I reached the middle, I turned around to see that only Celeste and the boys remained. Zoey rushed up at that moment, her face fearful. She grabbed Celeste’s shoulders and seemed to urge her to get out of there, to find shelter.
I had to focus on what I’d learned if I was ever going to stop this.
I closed my eyes and centered my emotions. With each breath I drew, I focused on a vision of the campus as I had once seen it. That very first day, when Celeste and I had arrived. I’d been fearful, sure, but at that time, I’d hardly known anything. I hadn’t had powers; I had been still a few months from my seventeenth birthday. I’d still been pretty fucking good at soccer.
Suddenly, my eyes burst open as a lightning bolt zig-zagged across the sky then drew a line toward the field, directly in front of me. Immediately, smoke burst from the flame. It was big, billowy smoke, the kind
of smoke you couldn’t see through for ages. Just before it cleared, several feet appeared at the base of it, and then a group emerged from the depths.
I realized, as the strangers revealed themselves from the smoke, that I had probably just made the biggest mistake of my entire life.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The beings who emerged from the smoke wore long, black cloaks, which didn’t seem at all affected by the whipping winds and chaotic storm. As the black clouds around us grew increasingly thick, and as rain began to splatter across the soccer fields, the smoke flung out from the field to reveal a large bubble that held all eight of the supernaturals. The one in the center, a woman, pressed her fingers together contemplatively and studied me. Her eyes were strangely familiar, as though I’d had a dream about them.
As the bubble grew bigger across the field, Raphael, Quintin, and Ezra swept toward me and joined me in the center.
“We mean you no harm, young one,” she finally uttered. “Don’t start a war with us. It’s not a war that you could possibly win.”
“What the hell?” Quintin whispered, just loud enough for the three of us to hear. “Ivy. Did you foresee this? What is going on?”
At that moment, but Zoey and Celeste surged toward us, blinking at the enormous bubble and the people within. Zoey balked, genuinely shocked. Despite all her years of witching, it was clear that she’d never seen anything like this before.
Suddenly, the bubble swept over us. Immediately, it was as though were cast into a completely different climate. Outside the bubble, the winds ravaged, but inside? The air was still and serene. It was easy to breathe. I blinked at the woman in the center again, waiting. Still, she seemed overly willing to stand there, to study me endlessly. She didn’t have any time for the others.
Finally, she spoke.
“You know, you really do look remarkably like your mother,” she said.
Rage throttled through me. “So. You’re a part of my mother’s tribe?” I demanded. “You’re the reason she and my father are dead. You killed them first, and now, you’ve come to kill me.”
The woman chuckled lightly. This enraged me even more. I opened my lips again, ready to flail whatever insult came out first.
But before I could say anything, she said, “That’s such a ridiculous thing to believe, Ivy. Why on earth would we want you, our savior to die? You see, we’re a portion of your mother’s tribe. We broke off from the others to ensure that you come into your powers correctly. Our mission, eternally, is to serve you.”
The words were a smack across the face. I gaped at her, genuinely shocked. “All I’ve been told is you want to kill me. After all we’ve been through the past year, how could I think anything else?”
The woman giggled again. “We wanted only to test you, Ivy. We wanted to see your development, your powers. We wanted to push you to the brink of every experience and see what your mind created out of it. As you’ve surely seen, you’ve grown into a stellar supernatural—far better than, I think, you could have pictured even a year before.”
“You cannot be serious,” I blared. I had never felt such anger in my life. “You’re telling me that—”
Suddenly, a large grey bird descended from the heavens, then immediately penetrated the bubble and landed atop the grass. Before I could speak, the bird transformed into none other than Aunt Maria. Her white hair was nearly phosphorescent; her eyes were alert; a smile snuck from ear to ear. She gazed at me with complete love, with pride. My heart leaped into my throat. It had been nearly a year since I’d last seen her. Since then, we’d become such separate people.
Zoey cried out in immediate alarm. “Maria? What on heart?”
Aunt Maria blinked at Zoey, her smile still plastered across her face. “Darling, Zoey. It’s so marvelous to see you. All of you. My goodness, you look older, Ivy. Beautiful.”
Still, everyone else was too stunned to speak. Aunt Maria turned her face toward me and whispered, “You really shouldn’t be angry about any of this, darling. It’s all gone according to plan.”
I arched my brow. Confusion mixed with my delight to see her. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s all been a part of the great mission,” Aunt Maria said. Her voice was all airy and strange.
“Are you saying that all the fires... all the snow... all the horror that happened over the past year... all of that was on purpose?” I demanded.
Aunt Maria nodded, grimacing slightly. “I’m afraid so.”
Suddenly, Zoey bucked up from the other side of the bubble and stormed toward Aunt Maria, one of her dearest and oldest friends. “Celeste nearly died, Maria. Are you saying that that was all just a game to you?”
Aunt Maria cast her eyes toward the ground. “Nobody was playing games. If Ivy hadn’t been able to bring Celeste out of her near-death spell, then someone else would have ensured she was released. It was never a life or death situation.”
“But Aunt Maria, several people have died over the previous year,” I blurted. “Are those people just going to come back from the dead, now that we know it was all an elaborate scheme?”
Aunt Maria’s smile slid off her face. She swallowed the lump in her throat and whispered, “That was unfortunate. Regrettable. I assure you, we didn’t plan for anything like that. Accidents do, in fact, happen.”
I staggered back, genuinely shocked. The Aunt Maria I had always known would have never been so blasé about the loss of a life. The Aunt Maria I’d loved and longed for, the Aunt Maria who had protected me throughout so much of my young life—was, somehow, a cold-blooded creature.
She’d suddenly appeared before me to tell me, yet again, that everything I thought I knew about the world was a lie.
“Think of it this way, Ivy,” she said. She stepped toward me, her eyes burning. “The loss of these lives in the faces of so many lives potentially lost means very, very little.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I turned my back to Aunt Maria, unable to look her in the eyes. I shook with rage. I could still feel the death of poor Margorie, could hear the last words she’d spoken. Margorie and the others had had hopes and dreams; instead, they’d been tied up in this cruel and horrible plan. This plan that had everything to do with me being a “good oracle.” Whatever that meant.
Aunt Maria marched closer to me. I knew she wanted to touch my shoulder, to tell me everything would be all right. I knew in my heart that no words would ever be enough.
“You don’t know everything, Ivy,” Aunt Maria whispered. “You’re still holding on to these old ideals. You’re clinging to the way things used to be.”
“It’s not like that was so long ago,” I shot back, folding my arms over my chest. “You were different. We were different.”
“But it’s time to transform,” she returned. “You have to extend your thoughts outside or Origins Supernatural. You have to consider the supernatural and human factions all over the world. Origins is the smallest drip in the biggest ocean. And in order for you to train properly, you need to come with me. With us.”
I turned back to face her, my lips parted in shock.
“Don’t listen to her, Ivy,” Raphael blared.
“There’s no way in hell we’re letting her go,” Quintin said. “Not with you. Not after what you and your tribe have done to our school.”
“How could we trust you?” Ezra demanded.
Aunt Maria studied each of the boys individually. She shook her head slowly and whispered, “You boys mean well. I know you do. But Ivy really must return with us. It’s time. There’s no other way around it.”
“I agree with them,” Zoey blared.
Aunt Maria turned her head swiftly toward her dearest friend. “Zoey, please. You must understand what I went through. Leaving you and my niece and Celeste behind...”
“Only to use Celeste in your twisted game!” Zoey said. Her face was blotchy with rage. “I’ve heard enough of this.”
“And if Ivy’s killed, what then?” C
eleste demanded. “She’s the supernatural world’s last hope. She’s our future. If she goes with you, she won’t be protected.” Her bottom lip bounced around, but her eyes were stormy.
It was exactly the same Celeste who’d trounced my bullies back in elementary school.
The same Celeste who put me above everyone and everything, no matter what.
Suddenly, all hell broke loose. Zoey lifted her hand and struck Aunt Maria with an undeniably violent amount of electricity. In response, the shapeshifters from Aunt Maria’s tribe began to cast spells, themselves, back toward us. Quintin looked on the verge of exploding into a dragon; there was an ominous red glint in his eyes, while Ezra’s fangs glided out dangerous toward his chin. Celeste flared all her spells back toward the other supernaturals, careful not to strike Aunt Maria. Enormous hairs spiked up across the back of Raphael’s neck, and his face transformed almost fully into its lycan form.
These people—some of whom were the people I loved the most in the world—now wanted to destroy one another.
And they wanted to do it because of me. Because of my safety. Because of nothing I’d ever chosen.
All the while, I stewed in the center of the madness, growing increasingly enraged. The mark on my stomach burned to high heaven, and I splayed my hand across it, willing it to calm.
“ENOUGH!” The scream came out from between my lips, but it truly didn’t sound like me.
Everyone stopped and turned toward me, their eyes enormous. I’d frightened them even more, but they weren’t sure, any longer, what they fought for or who they hated. They looked completely captivated with me. I realized that my toes floated just a few inches above the ground. I blinked down, mesmerized, then returned my eyes to the people before me.
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