by Meg Xuemei X
I looked at Mellissa through my lashes after batting them a few times. Everyone was taller than me, which was absolutely not cool.
“I came from Hell, cupcake, in case you didn’t know,” I said.
Maybe I was telling the truth. If I was Hades’ daughter, then I was from the Underworld originally. Underworld wasn’t far from Hell, was it?
Without a warning, Mellissa flicked both of her wrists. Something unseen slammed me in the chest, knocking the breath out of my lungs and the smirk off my face.
“What the fuck?” I cried, pressing my hand against my hurting chest.
Mellissa smiled smugly and cruelly.
My mates stirred, and Amber shifted foot to foot nervously.
Not wanting to give me a break, Mellissa pushed her hands forward, and an invisible whip swept me off my feet. I fell on my ass on the ground, wet with morning dew.
I heard a few laughs from the mage crowd since my fall was anything but graceful. Then an unseen force dragged me up, and somehow my feet shot toward the air, and my eyes gazed down at the crowd.
Mellissa was using her air magic against me. It must be her second power. Most magical users had only one kind of magic. That was one reason she had clout in the Academy. Her air magic was different from mine as hers still came from Earth elemental.
Mine wasn’t from Earth. I didn’t know where mine originated from, but now wasn’t the time to ponder it.
She started whipping at me harshly with her magic, but the air whooshed by me. As I said, Earth magic wouldn’t harm me. It’d strung me up because it thought I’d like to have a bit of fun.
I pushed my own air power out, meeting hers before striking because I was curious to know what she’d do next.
She commanded the air element to spin me around, to humiliate me further. My power even detected her intent and next move—she would send her fire to burn away my hair and permanently scar my face, after she spun me dizzy and defenseless.
She’d even picked where she would leave the disfigurement. The fae chick had been rehearsing.
My air power grabbed hers and bound it.
Mellissa pushed with all she had to break free of my iron grip. Her beautiful eyes bulged, and her pretty nose bled.
Since her air power could no longer hold me, I plunged headfirst toward the ground, but my own current rose just in time.
I flipped, turned myself around, and stood in the air.
“She can levitate like the gods!” someone called.
I gazed down at Mellissa. “Cupcake—”
A blast of fire hurtled toward me.
I had allowed her to keep her fire, because I wanted a taste of it. I’d been feeling low ever since Phobos left me.
I opened my mouth, sucking in her fire in a stream, and smacked my lips.
The crowd gasped in awe and terror, and instantly I felt better with the feed.
“I need more, fae doll,” I said. At least I didn’t call her cunt.
She screamed, and a sheet of fire rushed at me. I took it all in greedily. My tri-colored hair turned more reddish because of the fire. Yet it still wasn’t enough for me. Once I started feeding, my appetite was abyssal.
Mellissa nearly collapsed to the ground, but two of her pals hoisted her up on each side. And the three of them trembled together.
“What kind of freak are you?” she whispered weakly, her face gray as a corpse.
“You asked the question before.” I then asked politely, “Do you want some of my fire?”
“No! Please,” she whimpered. “I’m so tired.”
“Don’t you get it, Mellissa?” I said. “Don’t you all get it? We’re here, not to fight each other, but to fight the gods and their army. That’s what the Academy is for.” But it had diverged from that purpose as if some dark hand was at work, trying to make the Academy rot at the core and collapse from the center. “We have a common cause, a common goal, which brings us together. If we’re divided, we don’t need to wait for the gods to come finish us off. We can do the job ourselves.”
Wow, I’d just made my first speech. I didn’t know how. It just flowed out. My eyes flickered to my mates, and they watched me with sexy smiles of approval.
Something clicked in me. I’d always wanted them to be proud of me, and when they gave me that, it warmed me like nothing else possibly could.
I also saw some nods in the mage crowd.
Maybe I could be a superhero, as Amber had said.
Nay. I shook my head the next moment. Not that boring shit and burden.
His green eyes flashing darkly, Noah gestured at the mages.
Ice, wind, spells, and storm swirled toward me at once. Did the Noah dude want to tear me apart with all the elemental forces?
The mages had seen that I could counter fire, so they made an educated guess that I wouldn’t like the opposite of fire.
Ice hail hauled me to its center and a storm whirled around me.
But I was contradictory. My being contained both fire and ice. My being had all the Earth elements and more. I spread my arms, taking whatever the mages threw at me and absorbing their magic as my nutrition.
I must have been really hungry. I hadn’t realized how starved I was after Phobos’ departure.
“That’s enough!” I heard my mates roar. They’d also wanted to push me and test my limits, but in the end their protective instincts always won over reason and pragmatism.
The ice hail and storm vanished, all sucked in by me, and the mages looked pale and exhausted.
I threw a hand to stop my mates from coming to me, from picking me up from the air.
The bombardments of the mages’ collective magic had awoken something in me.
Darkness streamed out of my every pore, gathering into a mass of monster, and it needed to tear the world apart to sate its bloodthirstiness.
It twirled around me, seeking its prey.
I looked down at the crowd on the ground. Except for my mates, they were all my prey. I wanted to squash them, to destroy them, to see a flowing river of their blood.
That would be their sacrifice to me, and I would be even stronger and more glorious.
All creatures were created to worship me.
I was death incarnate.
My eyes glowed and my entire being radiated.
Who should I start with? Who should I devour?
The crowd recoiled. They stank of terror.
My mates called my name urgently, “Cass baby, we won’t let them hurt you again. It’s over.”
“Sweetheart, I’m coming to get you.”
“Dulcis, I’m coming.”
“No!” I said, denying them.
A raspy laugh left my throat.
Rage beat in my heart.
I needed to kill. I needed to set an example and let all fear and worship me.
Amber picked this time to fall backwards, her eyes glassy and pure white. A string of prophecy poured out of her mouth, and Ambrosia caught her just in time.
I watched her with a predatory smile. Perhaps I should start with her. She was annoying. She was spoiling my fun and stealing my spotlight. But then another part of me told me she was tied to me, and she was my friend.
“Cassandra Saélihn, the worthy One,” a voice that wasn’t hers shouted with great power. “It’s time to step into your role and defend Earth and all earthlings. Defend those who can’t defend themselves.”
At the mighty call, another part of me, the nurturing part, also awoke.
I was death, but I was also life.
Two desires and two forces warred in me, until Reysalor reached me, plucking me out of the air and into his arms. “Baby, I got you. Calm now.”
The darkness receded.
My mates surrounded me, their strong, comforting arms around me.
They were the Earth’s defenders, and because of them, the mortals and immortals were preserved.
I wouldn’t hurt them. I wouldn’t hurt what they protected.
Those below m
e weren’t my enemies, either.
All that was on Earth was mine. They were mine to protect.
But the magic from all the mages still coursed in me. I couldn’t absorb it all. I needed to channel them out.
“Clear out!” I shouted.
“Clear!” Lorcan snarled at the crowd.
The crowd obeyed, parting a path in no time and getting behind me.
I threw my hands up, and energy poured out of me.
The ground trembled. Some parts rifted. Trees rooted out and flew into the air. Dust and dirt rained down. My power kept surging forward, razing the concrete walls the students used for blocking, until no bricks were left.
Still, my power drove on, destroying everything in its path, ending with leveling the guards’ tower at the edge of the Academy.
Fortunately, no one was killed. My magic hadn’t detected any living thing inside.
When the building toppled down, my magic calmed, and the dark monster in me was partially sated and slumbered.
“She can conduct and channel all of our magic!” someone declared.
“I’ve never seen any power like that. What does it mean?”
“What is she?”
Awe, uneasiness, and apprehension mixed in the air.
“She’s the eater of the world,” Noah murmured. “She carries the power of death. She’s the heir of Hades, the God of Death.”
Fear spread amid the mass. Cries to attack burst out.
My mates summoned their flaming swords, ready to defend me, and their warriors formed a protective ring, drawing weapons.
Even Boone pulled out a wicked-looking dagger. Could he really fight? I didn’t want him to get hurt. I preferred he stay in the kitchen and make me cakes.
And Celeb, the half-demon, snarled savagely, about to unleash the nightmare.
It seemed that the war would start right here in the Academy, among us.
I’d called for everyone to focus on fighting the gods, but they’d forgotten it when fear sank into their flesh and bones.
They’d only seen that I could destroy them.
That was true. I could slaughter them all.
My dark monster was waiting for a chance to arise again. It yearned to inhale the pungent scent of blood.
“She’s Cassandra Saélihn, the One to come and has come!” Amber’s voice, unlike any human voice, boomed over the courtyard, reaching every corner. Power throbbed in her every word. “The One you’ve been waiting for. She’s your defender and the humility’s hope. She could have hurt you, but she’d rather hurt herself, so she took all of the powers into her instead of tossing hers at you. If she’d done that, you’d have all been dust. You’ve seen what she can do. She can gather your magic, channel it, and hit our enemies. She’s your conductor, and you’ll join her. She’ll lead you to fight the gods and drive them out of Earth. I was sent as the prophet, to pave the path before her. So listen, your prophet has spoken!”
The tension diffused, and a vibe of awe and hope dominated the crowd, replacing fear.
I caught a darkly amused look in Noah’s green eyes before anyone could.
The mass rushed toward me, wanting to surround their “assigned savior” or maybe lift me up onto their shoulders.
Amber the seer had just brought me another kind of unwelcome trouble, but I couldn’t chide her now, nor could I fend off the crowd, so I left it to my mates.
My knees buckled.
I wasn’t just spent.
Something fundamental was wrong with me as I felt the empty burn in my chest.
“Reys,” I whispered as I eyed him, then my other mates. “I don’t feel good. I might have a fever.”
“Get our mate out of here,” Lorcan ordered.
I blacked out in my mates’ arms as one of them scooped me up, and before that, I vaguely heard someone murmur, “They said she drained a god. Our hope has finally come. Just that she isn’t what we expected.”
20
Now that the entire Council knew of my existence, they demanded my mates present me for their evaluation. My mates hadn’t set up a date yet, though they knew the Council had to meet me eventually if they wanted the Academy to stand behind me.
My mates had planned for me to be their assassin before they met me, and now they just wanted to shield me. Despite their best efforts, the fight against the gods in the Misery Twist club had leaked. I could no longer be a secret, either to the gods or the earthlings.
News spread like a virus, which would only make the gods come seek me sooner. My mates had been stressed out, and they needed to adapt from shielding me and hiding me to fighting beside me while protecting me.
It wasn’t easy to be my mates, I’m telling you. If it was any comfort, there were four of them, so they could share the burden. If I had only one mate, he’d definitely get a stomach ulcer.
Before the Council met me, they wanted to punish me for blowing up half of the courtyard and the guard tower, as an example to others. Reys and Pyrder objected fiercely, but they were outvoted.
“Why do we even need the fucking Council?” Alaric said. “We’ll take Cass and move to my realm in Australia. I have a powerful hybrid troop. Lorcan’s vampire horde can join us, and then your fae army. We’ll also get the shifters to our side.”
“When the full-front war breaks out eventually,” Reysalor said, “we’ll need the mages and the human force. We’ll need every alliance. It’s not wise to divide us right now just because we don’t agree with the Council’s decision. They have a large military force.”
“We’ll only tell them to fuck off when we have no other options,” Pyrder said. “Right now, we have two seats, my twin and me. The shifter Council member is staying neutral at the moment. Dustin doesn’t lean toward us because he’s pissed that we didn’t let him in on Cass. That can be amended. We’ll give him an honor and take Cass to visit his Moonshine clan.”
“What’s the punishment the Council set for me?” I asked, painting my nails.
Each of my nails would have a different color since I had twelve bottles of nail polish and color in front of me on the table. Ambrosia gave them to me, but she warned me not to bring them to the conference. They were mine now, so where I brought them was no longer her business.
“Your mates tolerate only you,” Ambrosia sighed darkly as if she were wise. “If anyone else dared to pull that stunt, they’d make the person drink all that nail polish.”
That was gross.
But Ambrosia might be right because, for the first time, my four mates didn’t fight about sitting next to me. Instead, they sat on the other side of the table, and spread out to the corner. They didn’t like the chemical smell of nail polish.
I’d finish soon, so they’d just suffer briefly.
Only my faithful friend Amber sat beside me. She didn’t want her nails painted though. Ever since I teleported her into the middle of the pool, she was anxious all the time and constantly feared for my safety, not her own.
She kept telling my mates not to let me near the water that had sounds and that if I did I would be taken. When my mates pumped her for details, she didn’t provide them. She insisted that she should not tell all, or the vision would realize.
I warned my mortal friend not to worry too much or she’d have gray hair and wrinkles soon. And then who would want her as a mate? I didn’t want her to end up a spinster since no fun could beat the bedroom pleasure.
“The Council wants you to run twenty laps at the tracks,” Pyrder said.
I raised my head from my colorful fingernails. “I can do that. I’m good at running.”
“They want you to maintain a certain speed while carrying a magical bomb,” Reysalor added darkly. “If you slow down, the bomb will go off.”
“Uh, a bomb? I have to carry a bomb?” I blinked, and my hand knocked over two nail bottles.
Xihin peeled off from the wall and helped me right the bottles. Unlike fae, the vampires weren’t allergic to chemicals, except for Lorcan.
I thanked them and glanced at the elite warriors—fae, vampire, and hybrids—who stood against two opposite walls like marble columns. They could stand still like that for an entire day if required, which amazed me to no end.
“None of the students has ever been punished like that,” Pyrder said.
But then, none of the students had ever demolished half the courtyard.
“What happens if the bomb goes off?” I wanted to know.
“Who cares,” Alaric said. “Fuck it, you aren’t doing it.”
“Noah designed the magical bomb,” Pyrder said. “He’s the one behind the whole idea of testing Cass’s power then punishing her because of the outcome.”
“My men are still investigating his true background,” Lorcan said. “We must know everything about him since he rose to power so recently and rapidly.”
“I don’t think the bomb can harm me,” I said.
“We’ll turn them down,” Reysalor said. “The bomb might harm you. Remember the poison that fucker Phobos gave you?”
“Noah wouldn’t be so stupid as to harm me in public,” I said. “He won’t cross any one of you, and you are four. It’ll be his death if he hurts me. I think I should do it and send a message. There are rules for everyone, and I’ll follow the rules for the sake of unity. I’ll show the future army that I’ll take responsibility for my actions.”
“We won’t let you do it,” Alaric said. “We won’t let those buggers set you up as an example. You’re beyond that. If the Council wants to punish anyone, it should be that fucker Noah. He has too much interest in our mate.”
“I’m not beyond that,” I said. “As they say, ‘No one is beyond the law.’ It rings true sometimes. And this is my decision. You all want to shield me. Your instincts are to protect me, no matter the costs. Though I age differently than your kinds, I’m a full-grown woman. And I’m no longer the girl who just came out of the cage. I’ve learned, faster than you can imagine. My mental capacity also matures and evolves faster than any other kind. If you want to keep me, you need to allow me to grow and not leash me. Trust me as I trust you. Trust I have the power to defend myself and the ability to make good decisions.”
