Faeling Hard: An Eight Wings Academy Novel: Book Two

by Akeroyd, Serena

  ❖

  Riel

  Hanging out with my Virgo was beyond fun. In fact, it was like hanging out with family. There was a deep connection there, one that had blossomed so swiftly, and had somehow managed to outbloom everything else.

  I could feel my link with my kin, and knew it was as strong as ever, something even their distance in the recent past couldn’t counteract. But this link? It somehow went deeper, cleaved to different parts of my nature, and with it, the pain from how my parents and brothers had been ignoring me abated, and I settled into the knowledge that I was cherished.

  We spent the rest of the evening just shooting the shit in Linford’s kitchen. As my grandfather worked out in the yard for hours, even deep into the night, we stayed in the kitchen, munching on snacks, and just chilling out.

  Getting to know a ‘boyfriend,’ or in this case ‘boyfriends,’ had never been so much fun.

  “You can’t be serious,” I rasped at Matthew. “Your grandfather told your mother that she had a spike shoved up her ass?”

  “She was being particularly snooty one day,” he admitted with a laugh.

  “I can’t imagine my grandfather, my dad’s dad, saying that to my mom.”

  “Ril vil der Soe isn’t like most grandfathers,” Matt replied dryly. “My mother makes yours look warm and cozy, Seph.”

  Seph grimaced. “Yeah, because she’s a regular Mrs. Brady.”

  “You know her?” I asked Matt.

  “Barely. Met her, in the loosest sense of the word, at the tourneys Seph and I both competed in when we were kids, and then, caught another glimpse of her when we visited yesterday.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked with a frown. “How can you loosely meet someone?”

  “She was standing on the landing when we walked in,” Daniel explained, after swallowing a huge mouthful of a soft pretzel I’d pinged into being—even though I’d told him magical food didn’t taste as good, he’d said it was better than nothing.

  Until he’d sampled it, of course.

  His wrinkled nose had said it all, but he’d eaten every last crumb so that had to count for something, right?

  Made up for me almost slicing off a finger when I was trying to cut through the bread for our sandwiches earlier.

  “She didn’t even greet Seph,” Matt said softly.

  I frowned at that. “She didn’t?”

  Seph sighed. “We’re not very close.” He made a shape in the crumbs of the snack he’d requested—nachos—and when I saw it was one of the five runes Daniel had shown us how to form, I had to marvel at it.

  I could barely remember any of them, at least, how to form them, but seeing the shape in the crumbs triggered the memory in myself.

  As Seph explained how cold his mother was, I bit my lip and began to repeat the action. I wasn’t sure when the pink glow appeared, or why it did when it hadn’t earlier, just knew it did as I finished forming the rune.

  Out of nowhere, the air around the table was turbocharged, and my Virgo fell silent.

  “What was that?” Seph demanded, his eyes wide.

  “Riel, what’s going on?” Daniel queried, his tone softer than Seph’s as he asked me.

  “I-I don’t know,” I stuttered. “I was just drawing the rune and somehow…”

  “What stirred the glow?” Matt muttered. “It didn’t appear before.”

  “It shouldn’t have appeared at all—not with a single rune. Did you do something differently?” Daniel insisted, his tone loaded with urgency.

  “What could I have done differently? I don’t understand any of this enough to change the process.”

  He heaved a sigh. “True. But, think. That was weird. Even for me. And I’m used to the runes and what they can do.”

  I licked my lips, trying to think about what was different now than only an hour before. After the first five runes, we’d swiftly started chatting about nonsensical stuff that friends would share, and I appreciated that. Last night, learning Daniel was addicted to coffee and that I hadn’t known it, had really put me out.

  But why would that have manifested the glow?

  Those were the things people learned in time. There was certainly no reason to get mad, and thus far, I’d seen that the glow easily manifested during moments of high emotion.

  If anything, I was currently feeling relaxed.

  Calm.

  The exact opposite of high.

  Unless…

  I bit my bottom lip harder. “I’m happy.”

  They blinked at me in unison. “Well, I’m glad you are, sweetheart,” Seph started to say.

  “Me too,” Daniel replied.

  Matthew’s contribution was, “That’s great, honey, but—”

  I raised a hand. “I think that’s the only difference. I’m happy. We’re relaxed, we’re not stressed, we’re being normal people, doing normal things…” Releasing a sharp breath, I said, “That’s the only difference.”

  Seph, glancing at Daniel, murmured, “What was that rune supposed to do?”

  “On their own, they don’t do anything. It’s when you tie them with others that stuff starts to happen,” he explained.

  “That figures,” I reasoned. “They make up a language, don’t they?”

  “They do,” Daniel agreed. “A single word in our tongue might be an order, but in runes, it doesn’t work like that. Each rune has an intent behind it, and that intent is narrowed down with the addition of more runes.

  “We shouldn’t have felt anything just then, but we did.” He shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

  He wasn’t the only one.

  “If she has two types of magic to call on,” Matthew began slowly, “then will the rune react differently to each one?”

  Daniel shrugged. “You know as much as me on this score. Fae magic is tied to blood. The only way we’ll know how her Fae side reacts is to cut her.” He winced. “That’s really not how I wanted to end the night.”

  “Well, try it with the witch side first,” Seph inserted wryly. “No blood that way. She evidently did something without spilling blood so let’s try to repeat that.”

  Dan blinked. “True. I should have suggested it first,” he muttered, angry at himself.

  Unable to help it, I snorted, then after sliding the small sword he had tucked back at his waist out of the sheath, I sucked in a breath. “Well, I’m okay with it so don’t worry, babe.”

  His lips twitched. “Witch magic first, then you can slice your arm up.”

  “Don’t you know how to show a girl a good time?” I teased, wiggling in my seat as he laughed.

  Leaning over, he hauled the little pile of tortilla chip crumbs over to him and repeated his creation of the runes he’d shown us earlier. Seeing them again helped me recognize them, and I watched as he drew little shapes into the crumbs.

  “Draw them,” he urged with a gentle smile.

  But, without even knowing it, I knew things were different. Different enough where what had worked earlier, wouldn’t work now. Before, everything in me had responded. I’d felt the glow of my magic start to warm me, bringing that intent Daniel had mentioned earlier into focus. For him, I recognized, the intent worked via the rune, but for me, it was channeled through the magic.

  Now, that wasn’t there.

  I tried to will the intent into the drawing as I replicated the little shapes he’d created as best I could, but wasn’t surprised when nothing happened. That sudden atmosphere that had pinged out of nowhere didn’t make a reappearance.

  Dan frowned at the runes. “I don’t get it.”

  “I do,” Seph murmured, his eyes glued to mine with an intensity that had me gulping. “Fae magic might be bound by blood, witch magic might be elemental or, I know a lot of witches prefer to believe it’s Gaia driven, but witch born Fae magic is evidently forged from emotion.”

  My gut agreed with him. “He’s right. I was happy before. Content. Now? I’m a little confused, a lot wary.”

  Matt blew ou
t a breath. “Figures that this would be new ground for us all.” He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure if that makes your using the runes with your other magic more or less powerful.”

  “More powerful in its own way, but inherently weakened.” Seph grimaced. “Means we can never piss her off if we need her to use her runes.”

  I snorted. “What every woman wants to hear,” I mocked, grinning when his grimace morphed into a dry smile. “If it’s founded in emotion, I wonder what the runes would do differently when channeled from that source.”

  Dan sighed. “Won’t know until we can practice again, I guess.”

  No, we wouldn’t, but I had a feeling what I’d unintentionally unleashed would cause a stir.

  A big one.

  A huge one.

  Enough for an organization of rebels to seek me out since I was a child ‘kinda’ stir.

  Linford seemed to believe they wanted me for a spy, but what if they knew this? What if this unusual magic was what they were after all along?

  A shiver whispered down my spine, one that made me feel like kismet was at work once more. For a second, I hesitated over the notion of sharing this with them. I’d been a closed book for so long, had held everything to my chest from all my loved ones and my friends. Sol, it made me wonder if I’d ever been open to anyone.

  “Riel? What is it?”

  Seph’s soft voice had me shooting him a look. It was on the tip of my tongue to say, ‘Nothing. Why, nothing at all.’ But… these men weren’t my friends. They weren’t kin. Soon, when I could claim them, they’d be my all.

  How could I keep something like this from them, even if it was only a theory? A theory that could be totally wrong—

  They’d never know how hard it was for me to whisper, “That magic felt powerful to you, didn’t it?”

  Seph, his eyes glued to mine once more, nodded. “It did.”

  I gulped. “What if that’s why the AFata have been hunting me down? They don’t just want a spy, they want access to my magic?”

  Daniel stiffened, but he didn’t argue. If anything, his shoulders folded in on themselves, hunching as he muttered, “Fuck.”

  “Fuck isn’t the word,” I concurred warily, eying them and wondering if I’d been stupid to place my faith in them. Would they let me down? Would they suddenly be reminded of the duty that had brought them to Eight Wings in the first place, a duty that was more important than me?

  As fear shivered through me, proving to me just how much these men had come to mean to me, I almost sobbed when Seph grated out, “The bastards will never get close to you ever again.”

  My throat closed up for a second, until I choked, “You can’t promise that.”

  “Just you watch us,” Daniel agreed with a grim smile as he reached for my hand and squeezed my fingers.

  The connection, that purely magical bond that existed between us, seemed to flare to life, making me shudder with its potency.

  “We’ll keep you safe, Riel,” Matthew promised.

  “Or die trying,” Seph stated.

  My brow puckered. “No! That isn’t something we can reverse. You want to condemn me to what those witches are going through at your father’s place, Seph? Want me to turn into Noa? A miserable old bastard?”

  His jaw clenched. “No.”

  One word. So simple, and yet, so powerful. Enough for it to feel like a command, one that he refused to allow be countermanded.

  I felt my entire world begin to shake and throb, rattling at the very seams as though the atoms which made me me reacted to my Virgo’s intent. And it wasn’t just him. Dan and Matthew looked just as resolved, just as determined.

  I wanted to whisper, ‘Don’t leave me. Not when I’ve only just found you,’ but I couldn’t. Wouldn’t put that on them.

  Instead, because I couldn’t say what I needed to, I whispered, “Looks like practicing with Fae magic is all we’re going to be able to do tonight.”

  Dan shook his head. “No. I don’t think that’s wise.”

  “No? Well, I do. I’m not going for the nasty bastard of a cut that you went for though. Sol, that went too deep. I’m starting small,” I told him, forcing cheer into the words, even though I felt the exact opposite of cheerful.

  Before they could argue, with a wince, I pressed the tip of the blade to the fleshy part of my forearm. I sucked in a breath as I processed how weird it was, actively wanting to hurt myself, then I sucked down another gulp of air and pressed down harder. The blade was sharp and it slipped through my skin like warm marzipan—the stuff my mama made during the holidays and shaped into little fishies. The stuff I gorged on and made a pig out of myself over. Way too often.

  Though I’d anticipated the, ya know, blood, when it finally began oozing out of the wound, I stared at it, utterly aghast.

  “What the fuck?” I squeaked.

  Daniel squeezed my shoulder. “It’s normal.”

  “Is it?” My eyes widened at their lack of surprise. “It doesn’t look it.”

  “Mix red and blue together and you get purple.” Matthew shrugged.

  “You say that like you expected it. How could you expect it?”

  Seph laughed. “Of all the things that happened today, that’s what freaks you out the most? A bit of blood?”

  I scowled at him, then grunted at his amusement. Jackass. “A bit of blood? More like my body’s entire volume of blood. It’s purple. Frickin’ purple, guys. I mean I’ve had plenty of cuts before and it’s never been this color, dammit.”

  “You cut yourself earlier. They were that color then,” Matthew replied calmly.

  “They weren’t!” I stared at the Band-Aids on my palms and fingers aghast.

  He frowned. “The blood was dark, Riel.”

  I blinked. “Dark, but not purple.” I gulped. “I refuse to consider that purple.”

  “You can refuse all you like but that doesn’t change things,” he replied, his logical answer making me scowl at him.

  “Why?” I whispered, staring at that beyond bizarre color and wondering what in Gaia’s name was happening. I plucked at the Band-Aid on my palm, rolled it away from my skin, and winced when the little pads did indeed show blotted purple specks.

  Daniel’s hand came to my shoulder to squeeze me there gently, but it was Matthew who replied again, “Must be because of the glow. Or us. You’re coming into your powers.”

  I huffed at yet another of Matthew’s prosaic answers—it made me determined to do something one day that actually surprised him. Enough for him to actually, ya know, react. “More likely to be your fault,” I grumbled.

  Seph snorted. “Blame us if it makes you feel better.”

  “I will,” I said gloomily, but I had to admit, his sudden foray into humor did reassure me.

  Thus far, in the short space of time I’d known them all, I’d come to realize that Daniel was the most light-hearted of them all. He could smile without it looking as though his face wanted to crack from the pressure. He was also the most relaxed, which made me see how the Virgo bond was affecting him. It made me grateful for how chilled he was, because only Sol knew what would happen if he’d had possessive traits in the first place. Sheesh. The dude had been my stalker back at Eight Wings in the run up to us actually doing the deed, so I had to thank Gaia for making him relatively happy-go-lucky. Or as happy-go-lucky as the Fae actually got.

  Seph was the bridge between Matthew’s straightforward self and Daniel’s blithe nature. Which surprised me considering his past. It made sense that Matthew’s grandfather, Ril, had claimed his daughter-in-law had a stick shoved up her ass because, to be fair, Matthew had one lodged up there some part of the time. Seph wasn’t in possession of an overstuffed asshole but, and it was a huge but, he wasn’t exactly the life and soul of the party. Still, he was capable of a glibness that had begun to appear since I’d been snatched away, and his humor, though a little acerbic, came as a relief. Even if it had been at my expense. He was capable of utteri
ng the most intense statements, then washing it away with dark whispers of cutting humor that reminded me, oddly enough, of my elder brother Enrique. His humor was black too, and when I was on the other end of it, I usually smacked him upside the head. Maybe I’d do the same with Seph at some point… In time, who knew?

  Matthew was a bit like an iceberg—so deep that not even the Titanic could knock him off course. Until… My lips curved as I realized how utterly the Virgo bond had derailed him. He was logical and calm with it, so even-tempered that my fiery latina nature rebelled against him on principle, and yet, he was like a life raft. One that I knew I could cling to no matter what. He was the cold to my heat, and when the two storm fronts clashed like they had in my bed earlier?

  Well, one word.

  Yum.

  That was one tornado I didn’t mind being swept up in.

  There was a lot left to learn about my Virgo mates, and I had a feeling I’d barely scratched the surface with any of them. But, damn, I looked forward to the journey. Even if that was potentially fraught with a rebel group who wanted access to either my magic or just me…

  “I don’t trust that smile,” Dan said wryly.

  “I wouldn’t either, if I were you,” I confirmed, then, with another wince, stared at the sight of the wound that oozed purple. Yet another thing I had to get used to.

  It felt like my life had been moving in hyper slow-mo until now, when everything was being sped up to ridiculous chipmunk-squeak levels. It was a wonder my three mates weren’t talking like Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. Maybe if they were, I’d understand them better.

  The thought had me hiding a laugh, because if you couldn’t laugh when your arm was weeping blood and you were potentially your people’s idea of Luke Skywalker then you really were fucked. So, I dipped my finger into the pool of liquid that had gathered beneath my arm as I’d whined about having blood the color of Barney.

  With the runes still delineated by crumbs, I traced the same shapes as Seph had made on the table. I could feel us all sucking in a sharp breath, waiting on the edge of our seats for something to happen…

  When nothing did, when zero changed, I shrugged. “Maybe I need to claim you or something first?”