Rise of the Red Queen: A Why Choose Academy Romance (Major Arcana Academy Book 2)

by Ana Calin

  “Just look at me, Ramses,” she says, her voice changing. She sounds like an enchantress. By the cursed realms, what happened with Silas and Maverick increased her power. “Do you really think my sole mission in the world is to fornicate? You really think I would risk a life at the Academy which, however dangerous, ensures me a magical future, in order to spend my days in hiding? It doesn’t make any sense, does it?”

  “Your mission in this world is deeply ingrained in your DNA, Red Queen. Your purpose doesn’t have to make sense to you. You’ll just act according to what your maker encoded in you to do.”

  “My maker. You mean Lucifer.”

  “He’s the Lord of Hell.”

  “The witches I saw in my vision, they were talking about my parents. Even if they didn’t mean it literally, they did speak of ancestors. Of people. I haven’t just sprung out of Lucifer’s head like Athena from Zeus’.”

  It’s outrageous, but the way she stands up to me turns me on. It makes me want to grab her and force a kiss on her. I can still smell her shame, her hormones scream it, but she keeps her head high.

  “You want to know exactly what you are, Lucia Reid.” My voice turns into that of the Grim Reaper, filling the room. My shadows billow around me, swallowing the light. Lucia’s eyes widen, emitting sparkling blue light of their own. By the cursed realms, she’s beautiful.

  I push the Book of Prophecies in her arms. Maverick’s wrappings allow her to move as she turns the heavy tome in her small white hands, but I can’t help wondering what she looks like underneath, naked.

  “I tried to protect you from the truth, Lucia, but maybe it’s best that you know. It will hurt, but apparently there’s no other way.”

  “Silas and Maverick told me—”

  “They didn’t tell you this, so listen. Here’s what’s going to happen.”

  She lowers herself down to the eighteenth century sofa with the tome in her hands. I circle her slowly, my shadows rippling around me like trails of black smoke.

  “I will take you back to the Academy, tonight. Your room-mate the fae will be beyond happy about it—she went through hell trying to keep your absence hidden. Not to mention that Professor Jones disappeared at the same time. And he won’t be coming back.”

  She stiffens at the news, and jealousy stings my heart.

  “Why not, what are you going to do to him?”

  “He’ll have to pay for what he did.”

  “If you hurt him, Ramses, then you might as well throw me into the pit yourself.” It should anger me that she uses my first name, but instead it breaks my heart that she’s protecting Maverick.

  “And if you don’t, I’ll tell the Headmaster the truth myself. I’d rather die than know that Maverick is suffering because of me.”

  “Relax, I won’t be throwing your lover into Hell. But I’ll ask him to renounce his office at the Academy. He’s not suitable for the place anymore, now that he got involved with a student—deeply involved. He’s no longer master of his emotions, so he’s no longer master of his choices. And neither is Silas. So both of them will be relieved of their duties.”

  “You can’t do that to them.” She jumps to her feet, her fingers clawed over the tome. “They’ve been by your side for decades, Silas for thousands of years, you can’t take that away from him because he fell in love.”

  “I can do precisely that. You refuse to understand what falling in love means for mighty supernaturals like your two lovers. They’re supposed to be highly evolved beings, above lowly human emotions such as falling in love. Or even lust. But they both risked everything in order to be with you. They’re no longer able to work for the greater good, their horizon has now shrunken, is now limited to, well, to you.”

  She stares hard at me, thinking of ways to save her two lovers from the destruction of their careers, of course. It enrages me to see that she’d do anything for them.

  “I told you,” she says with determination. “If you do that, to one or both of them, I’ll give myself over to the Headmaster. That way at least we’re sure the world is safe. Lucifer won’t be able to send me back from the pit, and that will be that.”

  “Silas and Maverick wouldn’t be able to live with that,” I grunt. “They’d follow you into the pit. At this point, they’d take death over a life spent without you. I mean, look at what you’ve done to them.” I snort. “You even manipulated them to accept each other. Over the span of a few hours, their deadly jealousy has turned into sharing the same woman as if polygamy were the most natural thing.”

  “I know it’s not exactly the norm,” she says. “But Silas, Maverick, and I, we’re meant for each other. We’re destined to be together.”

  I grin against the sharp ache in my chest. By the cursed realms, jealousy can turn into physical pain.

  “You’re talking about that vision you had at Maverick’s hut. But that vision gave you three symbols, not two. You’re supposed to have Magic, meaning Maverick, War, meaning Silas, and Death.” I cock an eyebrow. “Meaning me. Which means that I have a claim on you as well.”

  She holds my gaze. “That’s right.”

  My shadows still. Is she really staring at me with that truth in her eyes?

  I burst into laughter, throwing my head back. The sound fills the hall.

  “You really would add me to your little harem, wouldn’t you, Red Queen? By the cursed realms, you’re more audacious than a demoness.”

  “It’s the truth, Ramses,” she says, her voice like a siren’s.

  “Are you trying to bewitch me?” I fill my voice with menace. I can smell in her chemistry that she’s using deep powers on me.

  “Silas and Maverick are mine,” she muses. “But so are you, Ramses. You’re the crowning of the trio.”

  “So Lucifer has sent you here with the mission of getting my cock, too, has he?”

  “If he sent me here or not, I don’t remember. And if the information is encoded in my DNA, like you said, I’m not aware of it. But I know that I’m in love with you, Ramses. I didn’t want to even admit it to myself until now, but it’s the truth.”

  She walks closer to me, and I can’t bring myself to move away. She unwraps Maverick’s magic off of her, pushing it off her shoulders. She now stands naked in front of me.

  My cock rises, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I look her up and down, stricken dumb by the perfect mix of innocence and sexiness. She stares up at me, her perfectly round breasts rising up and down as she breathes, her lightly freckled chest flushing. My eyes fall to her hardened nipples, and I wonder if it’s from the instant cool after she lost Maverick’s magic, or if my closeness turns her on.

  I can’t help it, and my gaze falls to the light bush between her legs, an orange triangle of curls. I lick my lips, and she rubs her white thighs together. I imagine what they’d feel like around my hips.

  The smell of woman reaches me, and my nostrils flare. She’s aroused.

  “Look at me,” she whispers, and I’m compelled to do it. Her small plump lips are like a magnet for my eyes. Fuck, how I want to kiss that sexy mole above her upper lip. She lifts her hands, placing them on my chest through the layer of rippling shadows covering my body.

  “I often dreamt about the two of us,” she whispers. “Even when I was only Silas’ lover. I judged myself for it, you wouldn’t believe the names I called myself, but I still imagined the two of us, naked, in my dorm bed.” She closes her eyes and inhales my scent, making my cock throb painfully. By the high realms, have I ever wanted a woman so badly?

  “I remembered us on that first night when you removed the barriers from my magic,” she continues in a low, musical voice, her hands moving gently under the shadows on my bare skin. I bend my head, craving a kiss, but I stop just short of her lips.

  “Our bodies,” she whispers, her breath touching me, “skin on skin, that’s the scenario I played in my head before sleep. Your hands, caressing me like that night. Massaging those oils into my skin, your kind voice rippling
into my body. I want you, Ramses, I always have, but I lied to myself about it this entire time. It was impossible for me to admit that, even though I had the lover I desired, Silas, I still craved another man. For a long time I thought something was wrong with me. That I should be grateful to have Silas.

  “But whenever I saw Maverick, dark desire pooled in my core. I knew I should resent him for what he did, for what the both of you did together in order to separate me from Silas, but I couldn’t. And the moment I gave in to those feelings, as forbidden and unthinkable as they were, things started to fall into place. I started to feel happy, and fulfilled.”

  She rises on the tips of her toes, and I can’t resist anymore. I close my mouth on hers, so plump and delicious, tasting of fresh fruit. I moan as the taste of her fills my mouth, my shadows coiling around her and pulling her close. I pull her through the shadows until her breasts crush against my naked body.

  I moan in her mouth, knitting my eyebrows as I force myself to peel my lips off of hers. I sink my hand in her rich hair, cupping her head, and causing her to lean it back.

  “Oh, Ramses,” she whispers sweetly as my lips touch the fine line of her jaw. She feels velvety and cold against my mouth, or maybe I’m just hot all over with desire.

  My arms lock around her under her armpits, and I raise her up to keep her plastered to my body while I kiss her down her neck, to her bare collar bone. She pushes herself into me, her naked thighs brushing mine.

  “No,” I whisper gruffly, so filled with desire that my eyes burn, bloodshot. I see them mirrored in her clear blue gaze when it meets mine. “I can’t lose my head.”

  “Please, Ramses. I want you so badly.”

  And I can’t resist her. I know she means what she says. I smell her arousal, and the cocktail of chemicals that her body releases. Both of us are growing mad with desire, because we’re made to be together. My fingers dig into her flesh, crazy to have her.

  “I don’t know if I can accept sharing you with other men, Lucia,” I grumble. My chest vibrates against hers.

  She caresses me with greedy hands that glide over my back. Her head is bent back, her locks caressing the back of my arms.

  “I will love you and only you now, Ramses,” she says sweetly. “And that way you’ll understand you’re just as loved, or even more loved, with them.”

  I want to snap away from her, but I can’t bring myself to. My fingers curl into her flesh, taking possession of her body. She takes my hand and walks backwards, guiding me back to the desk. She grabs the edge with her hands, and hoists herself up, exposing the light bush between her legs.

  I hiss as I look down at her, grabbing my erect cock. I don’t remember the last time I was with a woman, and my body hasn’t responded this way in so long, I don’t remember.

  “I cannot take you, Lucia. Read the prophecy of the Red Queen, and you’ll understand why no man can ever make you his.” My voice breaks over the words. Saying them out loud puts that never in a perspective that hurts.

  “We might find a way,” she says. “But not now. Now, it’s not about possessing each other. It’s about loving each other.”

  Her voice seeps into my body like the smoke of a drug. She parts her legs, opening her pink, wet pussy to me. She’s creamed, she wants me. She still smells of the other two, but for some strange reason it doesn’t bother me anymore, not now.

  I come down to my knees, filled with just one feeling—she is the queen, and I am her servant. I can tell she’s ruled by her instincts when she pushes her fingers into my hair, guiding my face gently to the triangle of pubic hair between her legs.

  “I dreamt about this, Ramses,” she says. My lips burn when they touch the curls over her folds. Our skin still doesn’t make contact, but hers pebbles with anticipation. She loses a sigh, and her inner thighs tighten.

  This is it, the whole world is going to Hell because I have failed to resist this woman, but if I’m going to do this, I’ll do it well. I flick my tongue between her folds, making her buck. Her clit tastes of her arousal, of her pure cream that no man has pierced yet. I stroke her with my tongue, my eyes closed to give my sense of taste all the sharpness it can. I want to enjoy this to the fullest.

  Lucia white knuckles the edge of my desk, her breasts quivering while I’m on my knees in front of her, her legs over my shoulders. My shadows radiate from my body, betraying how intensely I feel on the inside.

  I sense Gordon when he opens the door slowly, peeking inside. I smell the chemicals exploding in his body when he sees us, his eyes popping out of their sockets—that’s right, the great Lord Protector is licking the Red Queen’s pussy. I’m becoming a beast, and it feels so damned good I wish I’d met her many years ago, and not wasted so much of my existence. I realize how empty it has been without these feelings, no matter how base other high-placed supernaturals like myself consider them. If they could feel what I do for at least ten minutes, they’d see things very differently.

  As for me, I have to admit I’m no longer the creature I was before I met Lucia Reid. I’m a man whose heart belongs to a woman. Unacceptable for someone with my power, I know, but I can’t change it.

  “Fuck my face,” I order in a thick voice, joining my hands behind my back as if I were restrained with cuffs. “Use me as you please, and don’t hold back.”

  My encouragement drives her crazy, she’s so horny. She sinks both of her small hands in my hair, and pushes her hips forward, basically stuffing her pussy into my mouth. My cock throbs painfully, and I know the butler is getting an erection, too, from watching this. But he deserves to see it. He always thought little of Lucia, and now he discovers just how valuable she actually is. Not just any woman could get the Lord Protector on his knees.

  It takes the Red Queen.

  “Jerk off for me, Ramses,” she demands, and I can’t refuse her. I reach between my legs and grab my cock. She looks down and takes a sharp breath.

  “My God.”

  I grin. Let’s say I’m bigger than average. In the end, I am Death turned flesh, the Grim Reaper. I stroke the thick shaft in my hand.

  “Let me touch it,” she says, and I come up to my feet. She bites her lower lip, eyes fixed on my cock as she touches it.

  “Come on, Red Queen,” I say under my breath. “It’s not like you haven’t seen a man’s member before.”

  “You are not a man. You are a god.” She grabs my girth, and her hand is just big enough to wrap around it. Her fingers barely meet at the tips.

  “I wanted you to, you know, take me from behind, but I don’t think that’s going to work.”

  “I’m too big for that. But—” I could eventually part the walls of her pussy safely. Dryness scrapes my throat as I realize once again that I can never have her.

  She reaches around me and spreads her hands over my loins, pulling me close and causing my cock to press against her folds.

  “What are you doing, Lucia?”

  “Please, just rub between them, let me feel you.”

  She rubs her pussy against my cock, causing it to strain upward, the big crest turning purple with the rush of blood.

  “Lucia,” I say hotly, taking her face between my hands, my fingers clawing into her hair. “I swear I’d take you like a mad man if the world weren’t at stake. I wouldn’t mind spending eternity in the pit, for only one night with you. But we’re not the only ones who’d pay the price.”

  She smiles. “And you said Silas and Maverick were no longer suited for their positions because they became taken with such lowly feelings.”

  “And I stick to that opinion. Only that it now also extends to myself.”

  I crush my lips against hers, plunging my tongue inside her mouth the way I’m dying to do with my cock inside her pussy. I can imagine her slick tight walls sucking on my cock, pulling me deeper inside of her. The need to see her writhing under me on the desk overwhelms me, and I push her back gently with my body, while still kissing her deeply.

  I kiss her neck, her ch
est, her breasts, cupping them with my hands like they’re treasure, while sliding my cock between her folds as if fucking her. I’m aware we’re giving Gordon one hell of a porn show, but I can’t stop.

  Not until two men barge in—Silas and Maverick, their eyes bloodshot with rage. Their clothes are torn, and Maverick has a cut on his face. They’ve been fighting my people in order to get to Lucia, driven insane with fear I might have done something to her.

  Both Lucia and I stare at them now, and they stare back, stricken dumb. My mouth slowly stretches into a grin. “You didn’t expect this, gentlemen, did you? Close the doors.”

  Gordon tries to sneak away, but I can’t let him. The danger is too great that he’ll run to the Academy and tell the Headmaster.

  “Stay,” I command him. “I’ll deal with you later. Now turn around, face to the wall.”

  He looks confused at Silas and Maverick, who stare form him to Lucia and me. The shock is still clear on their faces, but I suppose they’re too relieved to have found Lucia safe and sound to fly into a rage of jealousy.

  Or maybe they accepted she is meant to love three men. The way I am starting to accept it, even though I’m madly in love with her. Connecting with her at such a deep level has helped me understand things differently. With my emotional body, rather than my mind. Then I get a brilliant—however dirty—idea.

  This is it, this is the solution! This is how Lucia will enjoy her men, without fully becoming the Red Queen in the process.

  “Please, gentlemen, approach,” I say as soon as Gordon has turned to face the wall.

  Silas and Maverick look at each other, uncertain. I know them well enough to understand they’re weighing obeying me against fighting me. They’re completely taken with their love and lust for Lucia, her safety and happiness is all they care about. And I’m starting to understand that actually makes them superior to who they were before they met her, instead of inferior, as I initially thought.

  “Don’t be afraid,” I insist. “I feel just like you do about her.”

  “It was always supposed to be the three of you,” Lucia says from the desk. She speaks like a priestess, but offers her body like a sex goddess. She lies down, her arms slowly stretching above her head. Her fiery locks tumble over the edge of the desk as she gives all three of us bedroom eyes.