by JA Wren
If she stayed a dud, she might not have to worry about Apollo—or anyone else—coming after her.
Again.
She shoved the thoughts aside and swung the door open, and was greeted by the hottest guy she’d ever seen.
Literally and figuratively.
While he wasn’t currently sporting the flames he could summon, Asher was sexier than any guy had a right to be. Of course, she was biased. But who could blame her when he looked at her with those deep brown eyes like molten chocolate swirling with just a hint of copper?
He casually leaned one leather-clad shoulder against the wall outside her room, one leg crossed over the other while the tip of his boot rested on the stone floor. The picture of relaxed. He gave her a slow smile that showed a lone almost-dimple in his cheek and she practically swooned against the door she shut behind her.
God, that would’ve been embarrassing.
He didn’t exactly look like your average student, but Labyrinth Academy was far from a regular college.
His gaze travelled down her body, pausing at the couple inches of bare skin between the hem of her skirt and her over-the-knee socks. Heat coiled through her a moment before he reached out and hauled her closer, until they were pressed together. Chest to chest. His arms banded around her, holding her to him. Tight. His heart beating against her sternum like a jackhammer.
“Morning,” he whispered, lips brushing hers.
Her response was swallowed up by his searing kiss. Definitely a good thing because she was likely incapable of more than a few mumbles. Sometimes she almost missed the Moon Thread—indestructible string only a daughter of the night could remove—that had bound them together.
Two months ago, on the very same day she was supposed to attend her trials, she’d woken to Asher in her bed. Naked. Tied to her with glowy string. She’d assumed they’d had a hot, drunken night together she couldn’t remember. Turned out Nyx, her mother, had bound their wrists with Moon Thread.
Since she’d been sans-memories of her past life, it meant taking her trials with Asher literally tied to her. It was only after they’d been granted entry into the academy, and her memories had started to trickle in, that she’d been able to break the Moon Thread and free them both.
And sure, it came with its challenges—not the least of which was the lack of privacy and awkward bathroom breaks. But it also meant they were never apart.
He pushed her up against the door, his body flush with hers as he kissed her deeper. Harder. A kiss full of promises she wanted him to see through. But they really had to get going or they’d never make it to class in time.
Just five minutes.
She’d soak up five minutes with him and even sacrifice breakfast if she had to. All a girl really needed to stay alive was his taste on her lips and some coffee.
Her hands wandered over his wide shoulders, the leather warmed from the heat always radiating off of him. She slipped her fingers beneath the supple leather collar and groaned, her touch meeting the skin of his neck, light stubble pricking her hands.
Asher pressed her even closer, wedging her between the door and his hard body, trapping her exactly where she wanted to be. He nipped her bottom lip, then licked away the slight sting before devouring her mouth again.
The veins in his neck pulsed beneath her fingers. Like the beat of a drum, steady and strong. Full of life. She tore her mouth away from his and buried her face against his neck, dragging her teeth across his skin. Tempted to sink them into his flesh.
“Rayna,” he groaned. His hands fisted around her hips, holding her tighter, but she wasn’t sure if he was pulling her closer or trying to push her away.
“Two more minutes.” That’s all she gave herself. Just enough time to soak up more of his warmth, let it spread through her to heat her bones. “Please. Just a little more.”
He let out a fierce growl and slid a hand into her hair, gently tugging her head to separate her teeth from his neck, his eyes gone liquid copper. “Not yet. You’re not ready.”
She frowned, confused about what the hell he meant. She was more than ready. Had been ready for weeks, if she was honest. And tired of her own damn rule. But before she could voice her desperation, he swept her into another deep kiss, his fingers digging into the skin of her neck to hold her steady for him.
She was panting and vibrating when he pulled back. All she wanted was to drag him back into her room and forget the academy for a few hours.
Maybe days.
He rested his forehead against hers, his breathing just as ragged. “Soon, I promise.”
“Yeah, before I spontaneously combust from sexual frustration.” Was there a female version of blue balls?
If there was, she was sure feeling it.
Asher smiled and kissed the tip of her nose, so affectionate after the frantic make-out they’d just had against her door. “You have my word. But preferably when we have more than five stolen minutes. And something a bit more private.”
Shit.
He was right. She was so engrossed in him, she’d forgotten they were out in the hallway, standing there for anyone to see. Good thing her room was at the end and barely anyone strolled that far down.
She gave Asher one last—too-quick—kiss to his lips, then reached for his hand. Together, they headed downstairs, passing through the carved woman in the door who always flirted a little too much with Asher. She twirled her wooden hair with fingers that didn’t look like they should move, but did.
Downstairs, students milled around, textbooks clutched to their chests, bags slung over their shoulders—reminding Rayna she’d left hers in her room in her haste to get to class on time.
She cursed under her breath and was about to rush back upstairs when the excitement in the air caught her attention. Or, mostly excitement. One guy rolled his eyes at the girl squealing in front of him, bouncing like a toddler on a jumping castle. The guy lifted his hands in a sort of I’m-not-touching-that gesture and headed towards them.
“What’s going on?” Rayna asked Asher.
He shrugged, then grabbed the shoulder of the eye-rolling guy as he passed them. “Hey, man. What’s everyone talking about?”
Eye-roller groaned like he was in pain, his eyes practically disappearing into the back of his head this time. “December Solstice Ball, dude.” He clapped Asher on the arm and walked off, saying over his shoulder, “Good luck.”
As he sauntered off, the bobbing girl followed him, her voice high and pitchy enough Rayna wondered if she was a banshee. “Braden, you promised you’d take me. Don’t you dare even think of backing out.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, babe.” He laughed and the two disappeared into the crowd.
Rayna frowned at Asher. “Solstice—?”
“Knox!” Delilah’s gleeful holler cut her off. “OMG, where have you two been? You’ve missed all the excitement this morning.” Delilah linked her arm through Rayna’s, the Nature Mage’s grip surprisingly strong for a human, and leaned closer. “I swear this is better than whatever hot make-out session you guys were having.”
“Doubtful,” Asher murmured from Rayna’s opposite side.
Delilah waved a hand through the air at him and Rayna swore she caught traces of dirt caked under her friend’s nails and brown smudges on the back of her hand. Clearly she’d been visiting the Orthros puppy again and probably feeding him more magical flower treats.
Maybe she’d even had her own hot make-out session with Ethan, her horse shifter boyfriend. They’d started dating a few weeks ago and were already inseparable.
Autumn had been scarce ever since.
“So? What’s with all the buzz about this Solstice thing?” Rayna asked her friend, directing the conversation away from her make-out sessions with Asher before her skin matched her hair because she blushed so hard.
Delilah gripped her arm tighter. “You have to see it.”
She led them to the front of Alpha Dormitory, the first year student accommodations, right there i
n the foyer with the huge gold statue only a few feet away. They still caused goosebumps to break out over Rayna’s skin, imagining them coming alive the way the marble ones had inside the labyrinth during her trials.
It was kind of hard to get over being stabbed in the stomach with a marble feather. She shuddered at the memory of the headless woman, glad she’d somehow turned her to a pile of dust.
At least the golden statues outside each of the academy buildings were there as a security measure. No chance of them attacking students. She only spared the woman with her bow and arrow a glance before something new glinted, demanding attention.
A large orb. Like those clear crystal balls fortunetellers liked to use. Except this one was pitch black and roughly the size of a beach ball.
It sat on a dark wooden table polished to such a glossy sheen, it almost matched the orb. Below it, raising the glass sphere from the table surface nearly two feet, was an intricate stand made of antique gold.
The three legs were shaped into a trio of women—of course—their arms curved into crescent moon shapes as the orb rested on their backs. Their gossamer dresses swirled around them, the thin, glittering gold sheaths swaying in the breeze as if they weren’t made of metal.
Rayna dropped Asher’s hand and slipped from Delilah’s grip, stepping closer to the huge sphere. The black depths shimmered, flickering like a night sky filled with millions of tiny stars. Deep red swept through it, weaving like a swath of blood across the twinkling darkness.
Rayna jerked back as it poured from the surface of the orb, coiling down across the table and spilling over the edge like bloody fog creeping through a forest. She gasped as it pooled at her feet, then swirled around her, crawling up her legs and over her hips. It touched her hair, seamlessly joining the wine-colored strands.
Her skin tingled, and she was seconds away from losing her shit when she realized the red fog hung from her like a freaking eerie dress.
A ball gown.
The damn creepy-ass fog had created a red ball gown.
Flashes of light drew her attention back to the orb. The little stars inside the inky blackness shifted like sand inside an hourglass until she could make out two figures. They embraced inside the globe, linking hands, then twirled and danced gracefully, growing smaller until an entire hall of miniature dancing figures flickered inside the orb.
Delilah squeaked from behind her and the red fog dissolved back into the glass ball. “I’m so excited! Ethan’s gonna look hot in a tux.”
“Tux?” Rayna asked, trying to imagine Asher in a penguin suit.
The man in question stepped closer and circled his arms around her waist, holding her against him as he rested his chin on her shoulder. She leaned back into him and clutched his hand hovering over her belly where tendrils of lingering red smoke still drifted around her.
Delilah nodded at her question. “Hello? Did you miss the whole ball gown thing?”
“Kinda hard when you literally have a smoky red gown draped over you.”
“Maybe the globe was trying to tell you something,” Asher whispered, his breath tickling her ear.
“Oh, that’s just a simple enchantment. It does it to all the girls. Picks up whatever color it fancies, then makes a smoky dress. Mine was champagne colored, though I’d never wear something like that.” Delilah flicked her hand through the air again, brushing it off. “A charlatan magician could pull it off. The real spell’s in making those starry lights dance around. Look, they’re still going and probably won’t stop until the ball. I wonder if they get a Mage or a Warlock to do the spell.”
Just as Delilah had said, the figures inside the orb continued to dance, the tiny stars sparkling as they moved. As she stared at the dancers, Delilah musing about Mages and Warlocks and possible spells, Rayna could’ve sworn fiery embers joined the figures inside the orb.
Sparks of red, orange, and yellow rose like cinders off a fire, drifting higher and higher until she expected them to burst from the glass ball and engulf the whole thing in flames.
But she blinked and they were gone.
She would’ve thought she imagined them, a glitch thanks to her over-tired brain, but the dancers had all stopped twirling, instead glancing around. As though they’d seen them, too.
Two
“Come on, Rayna. Fight me.”
She glared at Asher, ignoring the burn searing its way across her butt after she slammed onto the floor. Sure, there were safety mats positioned over the hard stone, but it did little to cushion her fall. Especially when she’d been repeatedly landing on her ass for the past hour.
Just like every other training session she had in hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately, it was one of her required classes for Physical Education. One she was basically failing.
Hell, she’d take another scolding from Kally over this.
“You’re barely even trying today,” Asher said on a long sigh, his gorgeous face etched into a serious mask with a light trace of sweat dotting his forehead.
He was always too stoic during these sessions. She tried to bait him, tease or deploy some sexy innuendo. Never worked. Any other time, he was more than happy to engage in some flirty action, but inside the training gym, he got annoyingly stern, determined to teach her how to defend herself.
“I am trying,” she gritted out at him. She pushed herself from the floor where she’d landed after he’d knocked her on her ass for the billionth time. Her body would likely be a mass of blue and purple marks by the end of the day. Again.
Asher bounced lightly on his feet, staying in motion so he didn’t cool down, and shook his head. “Not hard enough.”
“That’s what she said,” someone snickered beside them.
Rayna turned her glare from Asher to the guy on her right, adding a groan when she recognized the blonde guy with clear blue eyes. “Stay out of this, Xander.”
He’d been messing with her for the past few weeks, making snarky comments, and being a general pain in the rear end. Worse, he was also a first year student and in Spiritual Realm, which made getting rid of his smug face kind of hard to do. Especially when he found excuses to take the empty seat beside her in almost every class.
So far, he’d avoided her during training sessions—possibly due to Asher’s presence. It was the only class they had together since he was stuck in Physical Realm with his own schedule. They were still keeping it a secret that he was far more than a regular old phoenix shifter, that he was really the son of Apollo, which should have put him squarely in Spiritual Realm.
For the most part, the three individual realms—magical disciplines, for lack of a better term—took part in separate classes. Except when it came to Physical Education.
The bane of her existence.
Delilah was damn lucky the Psychic students weren’t required to attend any PE classes.
All around the gym, students engaged in combat training. Spiritual versus Physical, as if the professors knew that was a sure way to get students to put everything into their lessons. Each pairing was filled with tension as they faced off, both students determined to best their opponent in some deep-seated need to prove one realm was better than the other.
Xander held up his hands in pseudo-surrender. “Hey, I’m just trying to point out this really isn’t the time to discuss your relationship issues.” He gave a mock look of outrage she wanted to slap off his face. “Some of us are trying to learn here and you two talking about your sex life is really throwing me off my game.”
Rayna narrowed her eyes up at him. “You are such an annoying—”
“Is there a problem here?” a heavily accented voice asked.
Professor Bjerk stepped into view, coming up from behind Rayna. She had no clue what exactly he was, but unlike a lot of the Spiritual Realm professors, he was probably in his fifties…and looked it. Crow’s feet lined his eyes and his brown hair twinkled with gray. Despite showing his age, he was still handsome and she suspected women had swooned all over him twenty years ago.
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Probably still did.
If he didn’t have that grumpy expression that said back the fuck away permanently etched on his face.
Most students called him Professor Jerk when he turned his back, probably because he was a hard-ass deluxe, but she didn’t mind him so much. Which was weird since she was flunking his class. Much to his disappointment, as he continually reminded her.
You have to master the art of hand-to-hand combat, Miss Knox. One cannot always rely on one’s powers. Especially someone with your capabilities.
Yeah, he was determined to see her pass PE, no matter how much she fell on her ass. But there was something kind of—nice, about him. Stern and emotionless, true, but underneath all that there was…something.
Maybe it was the accent. Or the way he never yelled at her even when she couldn’t get a basic punch right. Maybe he had a soft spot for the screw-ups. Offering gentle, but firm encouragement, while never making her feel like the disaster she clearly was.
“This guy was interrupting our training, professor,” Asher said, his voice smooth and controlled, belying the tension Rayna felt radiating off of him.
Bjerk analyzed the three of them with cold, calculating eyes. “Then perhaps he’d like to join, since you don’t seem to be making much progress with Miss Knox. We all know how vital it is for her to succeed in this class.”
He walked off as if that settled it and Rayna groaned. She really didn’t need to fail against two opponents. One was embarrassing enough. Especially when it was your boyfriend.
Or should she call him her husband?
They hadn’t quite cleared things up beyond soulmate. Though she was remembering more of their past together—including their wedding day—she still didn’t feel like it was real. Like he was truly the same guy from a thousand years ago.
More concerning, however, was the fact she didn’t feel like the redhead from her memories. It was as if those things had happened to someone else even though she remembered them. Like a filmstrip inside her head that belonged to someone else.
