by Demi Dumond
The two of us, here in the dark, had me distracted. She had no idea the effect she had on me or how hard it was to keep my hands off of her. The attraction was undeniable, it was like a bond that I couldn’t break free of.
It’s just that the mystery of whatever was going on here was eating me from the inside out. More and more often now, I felt like a warning light was going off inside my head. That somehow, I was running out of time.
That was why I was in such a hurry to get this over with. If I could just find those three books, I could take them with me and hide them in my room with the others. Hopefully they would tell me what I needed to know.
Once I fixed things, I could concentrate on her gorgeous hazel eyes, or the way her hair fell over her face. My heart pounded in my chest and I felt my body temperature rise. I hoped someday soon that the only mystery I had to solve were the curves I caught myself staring at. My cock twitched just thinking about it.
I forced myself to turn back to the bookshelves in front of me. Focus, Malachai. The textbooks first.
32
Keira
After a few minutes, I took a break in order to stretch and crack my neck. I had no idea how long I had been pouring over the tomes in the beautifully carved, ancient wooden bookshelves. In this room, time seemed to be frozen.
So far, no sign of the prophecy. I was starting to worry. Every once in a while, I would glance over at Malachai, who was lost in his own search. His golden eyes practically glowed in the dark.
I went back to my search, looking over the titles: Magical Realism, Magical Theory, The Emotional Science of Shifting, Paradigm Power Structures of Dark Magic, Care and Feeding of the Undead, and more.
It all looked fascinating. If I had time and there wasn’t a dungeon sentence hanging over me, students getting eaten by monsters, and an entire student body hating my guts, I’d have made a pile of my own of interesting reading material enough to last me through the semester and then some.
Then my flashlight came across a book that looked even older than the others. It had a red moon emblazoned onto the soft leather cover.
The title read Future Tense Blood Moon Reading. Oddly, there was no dust on the book even though the edges of the pages were tattered and torn. It was much thinner than the doorstops I had been searching through. And it had one of those attached, cloth bookmarks.
“Oh, Malachai, I found it!” I cried, hardly believing that I had it in my hands. As soon as I saw it, I felt better. There was no way a book this old and this crazy had anything to do with me.
It opened to the page that had the leather bookmark, page twenty-three. I started skimming from the top. Female student admitted after the semester on a waning blood moon with dark magic. Earthquake. Huh, so far that was oddly specific…and kind of accurate. Had to be a coincidence, though.
Malachai appeared beside me. “Hey, can you make any sense of this?” I asked him.
He skimmed along with me. “Female student will make the blood of the student body boil,” he said, “that’s you alright.”
“Funny,” I said. That’s when the realization hit me that I wasn’t going to figure the mystery out in the next few minutes even though I had the book. “Let’s get back to our rooms, then I can read the whole thing.”
Malachai nodded and turned back toward the door. That’s when I realized he was carrying three books himself.
“What are you doing? Checking those out?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “I thought they looked interesting. You got what you came here for too. Let’s just get back to our rooms, like you said.”
I stopped and crossed my arms. He didn’t seem like the reader type, but admittedly I didn’t know much about fallen angels.
He set the books down and stepped toward me, into the light from my flashlight. “Keira, I think this will work. This should be enough to clear your name.” He smiled and grabbed my hand, causing a warmth to flow through my body.
I looked up into his perfect, golden face. Gone was the scowl, for now. His expression was serene, sincere, and something else. I was still wondering what the something else expression was when he leaned forward and kissed me.
The moment his lips met mine, I felt his energy rush into my body. It was incredible. The heat of his lips on mine caused the flesh between my legs to throb with hot, naked, lust. I set my book down to run my hands through his hair. And then they worked their way down to his washboard abs.
His hands picked me up by my ass and he pulled me closer to him. I wrapped my legs around him and ran my fingers through his golden hair.
On some level I had wanted this since the first moment I laid eyes on him. Judging by the heat of his kiss, he had felt the same way. His tongue danced in my mouth; each movement of his tongue and his hands brought me closer to orgasm.
His hands ducked underneath my skirt, bringing a thrill across my naked, hungry flesh. The thong I wore this morning wasn’t hiding anything.
One hand came around and a finger teased my soaking wet mound. I moaned. He carried me to an empty desk and set me down.
Then with one flick of his hand he tore off my thong and threw it aside, into the darkness. I whimpered for his touch. A moment later, he reached down and kissed me. This time the kiss was hungrier, needier and his hand unbuttoned my shirt.
My hand went to his pants and unzipped them, freeing his huge bulge.
His hands freed the buttons on my shirt and then he moved the bra out of the way. He started sucking and kneading my nipples. It was enough to send me over the edge, my back arched on the desk, waves of ecstasy filling me as I orgasmed.
I let go of my flashlight after he dropped me on the desk, and that faint light now illuminated his lusty smile.
My need for him throbbed in my core. I jumped up off of the desk, using the faint flashlight to push him onto a dusty couch. Then I straddled him, already wet from where he had ripped off my thong.
His fingers continued their work between my legs, sending shivers of ecstasy through my body. Then he kissed me again, eagerly, as his hands went to my nipples. I orgasmed again, moaning and rocking back and forth on his erect cock while his eyes rolled back in his head.
Then in one thrust he was inside me. I bit my lip to keep from screaming in pleasure as he filled me. I pulled off his shirt and ran my hands up and down his muscled abs. As strange as it seemed, everything about this felt right, like it was meant to happen.
As soon as he entered me, I felt it. The familiar thrum of magic. It felt like the darker magic I was used to because of the ring, only it was washing over my body, sending me straight to the edge of climax again. I was overwhelmed with pleasure and magic, a combination I had never felt before. It pushed all of my senses into overdrive.
He must have felt it too, his thrusts were fast and hard. Instead of letting up, he went harder and faster until I couldn’t take it anymore. I screamed out as I came, forgetting where we were. Forgetting the danger we were in.
His hand covered my mouth to muffle the scream as he came at the same time. I thought he was being playful, but then I realized he was worried and listening.
I had screamed when I orgasmed, and when he moved a hand to silence me, he knocked over a small dragon figurine nearby. It fell to the marble floor with a loud clang.
I froze. Malachai froze. Neither of us moved for a few minutes as we both listened for signs of being found out. In the end, everything was okay. We put our clothes back on as best we could with the flashlights.
“We’d better get out of here,” I said.
“Right behind you,” he answered.
We walked through the hallways hand in hand. I didn’t relax until I was in my dorm bedroom with the door shut and locked.
33
Keira
The next morning came quickly. I dressed and got to the cafeteria early, looking for Malachai. As it turned out, he found me. He was there early too. I wondered if he had the same trouble sleeping that I did last night.
“Keira!” His golden eyes lit up when he saw me. At least I knew what side of the passive aggressive bed he got up on this morning. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the two of us in that dusty old records room last night. Maybe that was why he was in such a good mood.
We got our breakfast and then slid into a table for two. Either he wasn’t aware of all the evil stares I was getting, or he just ignored them. That was sweet of him.
I sat forward, trying to talk low enough so that nobody else would hear us. “Hey, Malachai, about the prophecy. Most of it I didn’t understand at all. It’s like it was written before modern times.”
He nodded gravely like he understood. “But some of it I did understand.” I got closer, close enough to kiss him, close enough so nobody in the room, even if they were eavesdropping could hear. “I think it really is me.”
His face didn’t register what I was telling him. “What’s really you?”
“The prophecy,” I said, my voice was barely audible. I was still trying to whisper, but I was getting annoyed. How was he not getting this? The point was to steal the book of prophecy and prove it wasn’t me. “I think it’s me. I’m the one responsible.”
Finally, his face turned serious. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” I snapped. I ran my hand through my hair. Now I had to admit to myself that I didn’t have a Plan B. “I was so sure it wasn’t me, but the prophecy was stupidly, oddly specific down to my birthday and the place where I was born and the exact day I would enroll in the academy. Plus, it mentioned the earthquake. And the dark magic.”
Dark Magic. Hey, there was an idea. Maybe if I took off Ian’s ring, my magic strength would go back down, and my magic would be normal.
“If my magic isn’t dark, I can’t be the girl from the prophecy. That part was very specific. What if I remove my dark magic?”
That caused him to raise an eyebrow at me. “What?”
“Never mind,” I said, putting the last bite of food in my mouth and grabbing my tray. “Gotta go,” I said even though my mouth was still full. He was already suspicious of the ring, so I didn’t want to take it off in front of him.
I had studied hard in the last few months and my magic had improved significantly. Maybe I didn’t need the ring of power. I glanced down at my hand, where the ring hummed along at me happily.
I didn’t want to take it off, it was like an old friend I would miss, but if it meant I could shirk responsibility for all this prophecy shit then it was worth it.
Once I was out of the cafeteria, I took off the ring and put it in my backpack. Here goes nothing.
I was the first one to file into Kiln’s classroom. I sat in my seat and waited for the rest of the students to show up, including Malachai. I waited for her to sashay into the room with her beaky nose and pointy hat.
Mostly I was waiting for the judgy, angry stare I knew would come. For once, it fit perfectly into my plan. I was on edge, waiting to see what would happen. I didn’t have to wait long.
She whooshed into the room like a cozy witch rock star and set her things on her desk. “Okay, students, settle down. Today we are going to try something different. We’re going to try one of the aggression spells.”
She rifled through her top desk drawer and then pulled out a yellow sticky note. For a moment, her frown deepened, then she put the note back in the drawer and her attention went back to the classroom.
“You’ll only know it if you’ve read ahead in the chapter,” she continued. “Up until now we have focused on defensive magic, but with, um, recent events, I think it’s time that we take a more proactive approach with our magic. And I believe you guys are ready.”
She stopped talking and her beady, dark eyes scanned the classroom looking for signs of fear. “Let’s see, who will my first victim be?”
I was way ahead of her, having scanned ahead weeks ago looking for something more powerful to protect myself, or even to attack, just in case I needed it. It was the perfect test to see how my post-ring magic held up. My hand shot up.
Professor Kiln saw my hand and looked very surprised indeed. Then she shrugged as she leaned back in her seat. “Okay, Keira. You can go first.”
I slid out of my seat, as usual feeling the hot dagger eyes of my classmates. If this worked, I could show them the book, and explain to them that the girl from the prophecy wasn’t me. Maybe we could all get along.
Malachai gave me a confused look. He was obviously wondering what the hell I was up to. Well, he was going to have to wait and find out with the rest of us, me included.
I got to the front of the classroom and assumed my stance. I cleared my head and concentrated. I could feel the ring, or the lack thereof. My magic was still there, but it felt different.
I held up my hands, did the spell, and held my breath. Knowing me, the students in the first few rows had already bugged out and retreated to the sides of the classroom.
The protection spell from before featured an umbrella pattern of fireball sparks casting a wide net. In theory, it would frighten away any would-be attackers. Most of the students cast a pattern of orange, blue, or pink sparks. Mine were purple.
From my reading on the subject, I knew that this aggression spell would work differently, I just wasn’t exactly sure what differently would look like.
Having completed the spell, I released my magic.
The flames that erupted from my spell were much larger, went in more of a straight level line outward from my body, and were nearly an opaque black color. I stood there with my mouth hanging open. Instead of my magic being more muted and like the other students without the magic ring, it was stronger and darker.
Students dove out of their chairs just in time as the dark flames traveled out of my fingertips all the way to the back of the room and hit the wall, leaving their own marks.
Professor Kiln’s face scowled at me and she stomped over. “I would like every one of you to review the safety procedures at the beginning of the textbook and memorize them for all future spells. Next.”
I returned to my seat. I passed by Malachai and saw the look of surprise on his face. I didn’t even know how to explain it to him. I was still confused by the turn of events myself.
Also, I had read and re-read the safety procedures dozens of times, and none of them would have prevented what just happened.
My shoulders slumped. I deserved all the evil looks from my classmates. I was the girl in the prophecy, and my magic was darker than I thought. Now what was I going to do?
Before I could come up with anything, Malachai got up out of his chair. That was odd, because there were still a few minutes left in the class.
Without a word, he left the room, with only a single look in Professor Kiln’s direction. Was he sick? What the hell was going on? Should I go after him?
The door slammed and the class went back to normal. Except Professor Kiln’s expression darkened and her brow furrowed up into her hairline, the scowl threatening to take over her entire face. Was she mad at me or Malachai or both?
The rest of the class and I watched Professor Kiln and waited for her to keep lecturing, or yell at us, or assign some homework or something, but she did none of that.
She stood there thinking, like she was a million miles away. Like the rest of us weren’t even here. It made me stare at her all the harder, wondering what was going on.
Then, without a word, she also walked out of the classroom. Just like Malachai. Without her purse. Without her books.
I didn’t know what was going on, but I got a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach as the class exchanged confused looks.
34
Malachai
I broke out into a cold sweat seeing Keira up there dishing out dark magic. She looked surprised, but I knew what it meant.
She had taken that stupid ring off, the one that idiot vampire gave her. And her magic was stronger. There was no going back now.
Professor Kiln gave me the look. It was go-tim
e. I was expecting it, and yet still I wasn’t sure. It was the only way, but now Keira was in the crossfire. I didn’t like it.
No, I wasn’t going to let it go down like this. Not anymore. I got up out of my chair and shot Kiln a defiant look. A minute later I was sprinting down the hallway toward the Headmaster’s office.
With any luck at all, I could take it all back. With any luck it wasn’t too late.
That’s when I turned a corner toward the administrative offices and a small, red bird flew by me. I stopped in my tracks.
A second later, Professor Kiln stood between me and the administrative offices, a savage expression on her face. She materialized out of nowhere. Either that or she was a bird shifter.
“What are you playing at, boy?” she asked.
“I can’t do it,” I said. “It’s not fair to her.”
“There’s a lot of lives at stake in this, Malachai. Keira’s is only one of them. Besides, you accounted for that in the plan.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But it’s too risky. And there are too many unknowns.”
“There’s no time and there’s no choice. You’ll do this or I’ll take you out of the equation and do it for you. If you leave me no choice, I’ll make sure none of you have a happily ever after. Besides, it’s already begun. Are you going to stick to the plan or not?”
35
Keira
The bell rang signaling the end of class as we all sat there wondering where the hell Malachai and Professor Kiln went.
I gathered up my things and headed out into the hallway, still distracted by recent events. What a weird day.
I scanned the faces of the students passing in the hallway, but I knew there was only one that could make me feel better.
It was Ian. As soon as he saw me, he realized something was wrong. “Keira, are you okay? You look like somebody ran over your dog with a hummer.”
