by Meg Xuemei X
“You know how,” he said as he dipped his head to kiss me.
The kiss was hot, raw, and hard, scorching my soul.
A moan escaped from the depths of my throat. As usual, he was going to carry me home and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Since it would be futile to fight the demigod, I clasped my hands around his neck, and wrapped my legs around his waist to make myself comfortable.
“They sent you to collect me?” I asked.
He chuckled. “You caused a lot of distress and panic among us. If I hadn’t persuaded them to let me come first, they’d all be here.”
“How did you persuade them?”
I hoped he hadn’t resorted to his fists, flaming sword, or lightning. That was how he usually persuaded people.
“I warned them that you’d run again if we crowded you, and that you’d complain the whole day.”
“I didn’t run, Alaric. I teleported,” I said, peeking into his gorgeous, cruel eyes that always scared other people but never me. “But I don’t know if I can do it again. It was fun and spontaneous. It just happened.”
“You can do it again, sweetheart,” he said. “That’s why we need to carve a new training program for you.”
I groaned. I’d find a way to kick Alaric out of any training sessions. He was all steel and no fun in the field. I still remembered the last time he had made me do a horse stance for an hour. It had been brutally boring.
He strode toward the door carrying me like a feather.
“You forgot my friend, Amber,” I said.
He looked over his shoulder at Amber and paused. “Why aren’t you following, girl? You won’t live in this bunk anymore. You have a tie to Cass, and now that they know who you are, you’ll be a target. We can’t chance it.”
“But—” Amber murmured.
“Come along,” Alaric ordered. “We don’t have much time. I need to get my mate home. Ambrosia will come pack your stuff.”
Amber bowed her head and sprinted after Alaric as his long legs strode away. Wow, I needed to pick up Alaric’s commanding tone, which would be useful if I needed someone to do my bidding. But first, I’d have to practice a deep voice.
Two of them walked through the campus, with me hitching a ride. Curious eyes shot toward us but instantly darted away at Alaric’s glare. His menacing power rolled off him wherever he went. I bet that the whole Academy now knew a demigod walked among them, and I was his luggage.
Just then, the top two buttons on my shirt popped open, exposing my breasts. This was super embarrassing. I pressed myself tightly against Alaric’s chest. I could no longer demand he put me down.
“What was that sound?” Alaric asked, looking down at my breasts, his eyes turning to liquid gold. “What happened to your buttons?”
“They just broke and dropped because you hold me too tight.”
“You borrowed the clothes from the girl, and they’re too small for you. Why are you wearing her clothes? What happened to yours?”
“I teleported to the middle of the pool for elite students.”
Alaric threw his head back and laughed. “It’s never boring with you around, sweetheart.”
“The point is we got into the pool for the elite students without an invitation.”
“You can go wherever you want. You don’t need any fucking invitation,” he said. “And I know what happened in your history class. That little rat fled as soon as he learned who you live with. If he’d stayed, I would have fried him.”
I wanted to protest and demand he not kill anyone on my behalf, but then I shut my mouth. Helmer was a bad man.
I’d thought that since we were all going to fight the gods, we were all good guys. I was naïve about world affairs and humanity. There were plenty of bad people in the Academy.
But just as Amber had said, there were a lot of good people, too, and we’d fight the gods and save Earth for them, for my mates and their warriors, for Amber, and for me.
I leaned my face against Alaric’s chin, taking comfort from his scent of ice and sandalwood and steel strength. I wouldn’t fear the gods and the badness of the world as long as I had my mates.
16
As soon as we entered the foyer of the heavily guarded, silver and lilac building that housed fae, my other three mates stalked up to us. Lorcan tore me from Alaric’s chest and hugged me to his. I snuggled closer to him.
“Careful with her,” Alaric grated. “Cass is sleepy.”
“Dulcis, are you all right?” Lorcan asked. “I heard you suffered today.”
They all treated me as porcelain instead of a lethal weapon.
Amber followed us into the building, and her eyes grew huge again. She now had met all of my mates.
“It’s nothing,” I murmured, a bit embarrassed by my mates’ overprotectiveness. I preferred to keep my badass image, especially in front of my new friend, but it was impossible to maintain when my mates came into the picture. “I’m unharmed, as you can see. But my energy is a bit low lately without Phobos.” I tried to talk as elegantly as the High Lord of Night, but it wasn’t easy.
“Your energy will return, dulcis,” Lorcan said. “I’ll make sure of that. You don’t need the terror god.”
Just then, all of my shirt’s buttons broke free and dropped to the ground because of Lorcan violently yanking me away from Alaric. My shirt’s front fluttered open, completely revealing my breasts.
“What did you do to her?” Reys demanded. He tried to take me from Lorcan as we walked through the corridor but Lorcan refused to let go of me. “Why did you tear her clothes off in public?”
“She was half-naked when I took her from the demigod,” Lorcan hissed.
“Why did you make our mate indecent, Alaric?” Pyrder glared at Alaric as they escorted me to our suite on the top third floor.
“It wasn’t his fault,” I said on a sigh. “I borrowed the clothes from Amber, and they were a bit too small for me.”
I suddenly realized that I’d returned to my round, womanly shape. My mates had been taking good care of me.
They whisked me into the vast sitting room in our suite, put me on a couch, and helped me put on new, comfortable clothes.
“I thought you were having an important Council meeting with Noah,” I said.
“We sent him away as soon as you disappeared,” Pyrder said drily. “He went to search for you as well. And then Alaric returned. He was under the impression that he was best suited to track you down.”
And the males threw me hundreds of questions at the same time. Amber glanced at my wild look and stepped in to explain everything.
Just when I thought all was settled, Lorcan said, “Run this by me again: Why did you accept that male’s offer of an arm? No male should touch you other than us—your own mates.”
I got it. Lorcan was the most jealous one. I had thought it was Alaric. Sometimes I just got them all wrong.
“I’ll say this one last time,” I said with exasperation, waving my hand and pacing on the couch back and forth. “I have no interest in Noah or any male. He has this vibe I couldn’t figure out. I just wanted to know if he was like Phobos—a disguised god among us. I laid my hand on his arm to see if I could drink his energy.”
“It was a dangerous move without us around you,” Pyrder said.
“I couldn’t pass up the window of opportunity,” I said. “How can we be sure there isn’t a god among us in the Academy? Don’t you know your Academy is out of control? And I don’t trust this Noah dude. He has too much power for a mage, and my magic can’t find the pulse of his magic. I think he’s hiding something.”
“They’re all hiding something,” Pyrder grunted.
“Noah is the head of the mages,” Alaric said. “Their collective magic allows him to siphon a portion of power out of any mage under his thumb. If he turns out to be a problem, he’ll be formidable. We must keep an eye on him.”
“We watch everyone,” Reys said. “We’ll follow through on our former deci
sion. We don’t present Cass to the Council. We keep her a secret as long as we can.”
“She might have blown her cover on her first day in school,” Pyrder said. “She spewed fire at a bunch of students, turned a fae girl bald, and melted Helmer’s magical whip.”
When he put it that way, I suddenly sounded horrible. Hadn’t Amber explained all the incidents?
Alaric laughed. “That’s my girl.”
“Noah demanded that we let him in our circle. He’s okay with us not informing the Council for now,” Pyrder said.
Reysalor rubbed his temples. “In the end, we won’t be able to hide the fire with a paper wrap. We’ll present Cass to the Council when the timing is right. We need their support.”
And then they discussed spying on Noah. They all had extensive spy networks. They’d find Noah’s source—the ones who fed him intel about me.
After that, the day went by in a blur.
Amber was sent to share a room with Ambrosia. She was now officially under the protection of the fae princes and me.
I took a nap.
17
My mates trimmed down a lot of my course load. I didn’t fight them, considering how the history class had turned out for me. Sometimes, I might have to acknowledge that occasionally they knew better.
They also altered Amber’s classes without consulting her and made her schedule fit mine. She didn’t complain, so I shrugged it off.
Poor Amber was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that I had the four hottest, most powerful males as my mates. I couldn’t contain my smirk just thinking of them. That was the biggest jackpot I’d ever hit. I not only landed one. I landed four.
I whistled a marching tune as I jogged toward the training field, Amber falling in step beside me. We had a weapons class. Amber appeared more nervous than I. Whenever the classes had something to do with reading and knowledge, she scored the highest. But when it came to the physical, she wasn’t that confident.
“Don’t worry, pip,” I said. “I’ll do all the fighting for us.”
“I don’t think the instructor will allow it,” she said, biting her lower lip.
“Who the hell is the instructor anyway?”
“Sir Louis.”
“As long as he doesn’t use a whip, we’ll get along with him.”
“He’s a demi-fae, and he’s strict about training.”
“Damn, so he’ll work our asses off.”
The outdoor training field was four times the size of a stadium I’d once dream-visited in the mortal realm. I saw many different groups in the field, doing all sorts of cool shit. My gaze followed each group and their gear, until I found the archery range at the left end of the field.
“That’s our class!” I pointed at a small gathering at the range. “C’mon, we don’t want to give the impression we’re tardy.”
I broke into a run, and Amber sprang behind me, panting hard. I had to stop a few times for her to catch up. “Hurry up, soldier!”
“I’m not your kind of soldier,” she said. “Not in a million years could I run as fast as you.”
“We don’t want to be late!”
“You go,” Amber said. “I need my own pace. I can barely breathe.”
“Fine, let’s teleport, because I really don’t want to be late and give the instructor an excuse to yell at me.”
I grabbed her.
“No!” She tried to struggle free. “You aren’t trained in sifting. I don’t want to end up in the high sky again. And this time, who knows where you’ll dump me?”
I didn’t let her go, and since I was stronger—I was as strong as my mates, and they were stronger than any mortals and immortals—I overpowered her.
“I won’t drop you into icy water or horse manure, I promise,” I said. “Now, close your eyes.”
I shut mine anyway and pictured the archery range. Nothing happened. There was no wind whirling in my ear.
I peeled open an eye. “Up now.”
Still, nothing happened.
“Why did it not work this time?” I asked.
Amber broke free from me and ran as fast as her feet could carry her while I stood puzzled over my failure to teleport.
I jogged after her, and we reached the training field by our hurrying feet.
The students who’d arrived before us had lined up. I found an empty space and squeezed in.
No one smiled at me, and everyone looked like a veteran. I dropped my smirk and tried to look like I belonged. My heart pounded in my throat. These military peeps evidently knew their shit, and I would probably make a fool of myself again.
But at least I could stand as straight as them with my chin raised high. Amber snuck in at the end of the line, as far away from me as possible. The chick was afraid I’d sabotage her and dump her in the midst of my next chaotic path.
The instructor paused before us. He was tan to his ears. The man must have spent all his waking hours in the sun, and that’s why he had deep lines around his tough, gray eyes.
His gray was different from my Lorcan’s gray eyes. Lorcan’s was so piercing that it looked like the clearest sky before dawn. And when he held me in his arms and thrust his cock into me, his gray eyes turned—
“Pay attention, rookie!” the instructor yelled, his sharp eyes homing in on me.
Damn! I thought I was invisible to him. He hadn’t paid any attention to me when I joined the group. He hadn’t even acknowledged my existence. How did he know I was daydreaming?
“Yes, Saint Louis!” I shouted and gave a salute that I’d learned from watching a war movie the day before yesterday.
Saint Louis narrowed his eyes at me. “What did you just call me?”
“Uh, are you not Saint Louis?” I said, stabbing my head out of the line to find Amber, and seeing her try to shrink from my eyes. Had she said Saint Louis or Sir Louis? If this dude wasn’t pleased with saint, then it must be sir.
The students all tried to keep their faces straight, but one of them, who had less discipline, let out a short, coughed laugh.
“Sir Louis, then,” I said, glad that I suddenly remembered.
“Where was your mind wandering?” he asked sternly.
My eyes went wild as embarrassment decorated my cheeks. There was no way I would tell him I was thinking how good it was to have Lorcan’s cock inside me.
“My mind stayed with you, sir,” I lied. It came easily.
“Really?” he said. “What did I say then before I called you out?”
“You asked, ‘What did you just call me?’”
A vein popped on his jaw. That wasn’t a good sign. I immediately put on a puppy look, which usually worked with a tough guy who had a soft heart. I was now testing whether Sir Louis had a gentler side.
But I also sighed inwardly. I might really not be good at this school thing. I wasn’t cut out for nice education.
“Before that line, what did I say?”
I eyed him warily. “If I answer incorrectly, will I be punished?”
“Yes, you’ll run twenty laps and then five rounds of stairs,” he said.
Running was easy for me and I loved it, but I didn’t want to be made to run as a punishment. I wouldn’t look good if my mates found out about it. I failed in my first day and I was determined to make up for it.
“You spoke about control and strength and hitting the target with accuracy, all the shi—nice stuff.”
See, I could multitask.
“And you know how to hit the target?” Sir Louis asked without any expression.
The students shuffled nervously. That meant it would be bad for me if I didn’t. “I guess so, sir,” I said.
“Then why don’t you show the class how good you are,” Sir Louis said, and it wasn’t a request. It was an order.
“Uh, with what to hit the target?” I asked.
“Any weapon you pick,” Sir Louis said, gesturing at the weaponry lined up on the side wall.
My gaze slid from the crossbows to machine
bows to daggers. I had never used bows before, and it didn’t seem to be the best time to fumble with one with so many eyes fixed on me, and all expecting me to shoot my own foot.
My eyes landed on a spear. Phobos had a silver spear. If he could use it, so could I. I stalked toward the wall, pulled out the spear, and run toward the shooting station without a break.
“Be careful, Cass,” Amber called from behind, sounding really worried. She thought I was as clumsy as her just because that one time I had dropped us in the pool.
Flinging my arm backward then propelling it forward, I threw the spear at the wooden target nearly fifty yards away. The iron spearhead pierced the bull’s-eye, buried deep in the wood.
No one cheered. Not a single voice uttered a word. I turned and saw everyone’s jaw dropped in shocked silence.
Sir Louis kept his unreadable, natural-harsh look.
I decided to cheer for myself. “Wahoo, Amber, Saint Louis—” Shit, I shouldn’t have called him that again. “—Not a saint, Sir Louis, and everyone, did you see what I just did? I hit the mark!”
“Beginner’s luck?” someone in the row murmured.
No matter, with my confidence boosted, I was itching to get my hands on the real bow. I flip-flapped in the air in an incredible mood, landed in a crouch by the wall, and grabbed a crossbow with a quiver of arrows.
Nocking an arrow on the crossbow, I strode toward the shooting station. On second thought, I figured, why not shoot five arrows at once, just for fun?
It was as if I’d just found my natural talent from a genetic memory.
I nocked five arrows, pulled the string, and let them fly. They all landed in the bull’s-eye of the wooden target, evenly spaced in a circle around the spear I’d thrown earlier.
I laughed amid complete silence. Let them say beginner’s luck.
“Shit, I was born for this!” I cried.
As soon as I said it, I shut up, realizing a fact—I was a natural at anything related to fighting and killing. I was born to be a weapon. I thought of the time that I’d killed the vampires who had waylaid me. I’d matched their speed and fighting styles though I had never fought a day and they were all well-trained warriors.
