by Mana Sol
“Uh -”
“Promise.”
I was glad she heard the secret meaning in that one word, that it would be all right. That maybe I even had a plan. In truth, I didn’t know if I could maneuver this unexpected visit to benefit us, but I had questions and he had answers I wanted to hear. At the very least, I would get those.
“Fine. Move aside, Nephilim.” To my surprise, Zedekiel didn’t argue when Addy strode forward with her tray in her left hand and mine in her right. He stepped aside just as her hair floated up and her body lit up with a warm yellow glow so the wards on the door could respond, but she paused just before pushing her way in. “You’re lucky I’ve got my hands full,” she said. “I’d give anything to put my fist in your face again.”
“You’re welcome to try. It’ll be a wasted effort.”
“Yeah? You think so? Fuck around and find out, then. Keep your hands off Blair in the meantime. And keep your dick under control, too.”
He said nothing, and she disappeared through the doors with a toss of her hair. His eyes hadn’t left me once in the entire exchange, and as the silence continued, it became clear he was waiting for me to speak first. Funny. He had come all the way here to seek me out, but he was going to make me ask why he had bothered in the first place? Sure, he’d said we would speak, but I hadn’t held him to it. How nice of him.
“Genie got taken because the headmaster says she’ll be useful beyond the Wall,” I said lightly. “It’s dangerous out there, I heard. And she only just learned about the existence of Nether beasts not too long ago. Seems like a hasty decision to me.”
“The headmaster’s been the commander of the Citadel’s entire army for over four decades. His decisions are sound.”
“Nephilim loyalty. I understand.” I smiled. “But if I ask you if it was deliberate, what would you say?”
“What?”
“He’s never seen us before. Never seen us fight, how skillful we are. He relied on reports. So he must have learned what little he knows about us from Olisanna since I know Octavius wasn’t the one he listened to.”
“And you know that how?”
“Maybe I’m just a good guesser.” I straightened, standing with my feet together and hands crossed behind my back in a mockingly deferential gesture. “But to have heard a report from Olisanna means she would have gotten it from you. You were the only one there. Both weekends you put us through your definition of training, and you took us to a deserted spot at the rear of the grounds where no one else could have seen the things you saw, knew the things you know. You couldn’t even find a water caster to put out the fire Genie started, right? You had to go look for one.”
“Say what you mean to say, Blair Kaine.”
“I thought I was. Maybe I should dumb it down. You’re the reason Genie’s gone. What did you tell Olisanna, that she went crazy on her own and started burning everything down? Or maybe you turned it into praise. Genie Watts, the ruthless mastermind who will do anything to win. Pyromancer, pyromaniac, the perfect weapon against Nether creatures and the only one capable of holding her own out in the Wastes. You got them to take her out on her own and leave us here, instead of taking us with her.”
“Genie Watts is out of control. My only praise for her was that she’s strong.” He walked toward me, closing the distance between us with menacing strides, and stopped only when we were nearly nose to nose. “What’s your real grievance with me?”
“So, you didn’t tell Olisanna any of that out of spite, then? To separate us? Weaken the fraternal bonds, demoralize us, something dramatic and insidious like that?”
“I don’t need to explain myself to you,” he said in a voice so chilly that even his breath almost felt cold against my lips. “You should thank me for whatever part I played in keeping you here. Genie Watts was not your friend. And she’s better suited out there than she will ever be with you.”
“Really.”
“You’ve lived with her for almost three weeks and still don’t know what she is, what she’s capable of, how dangerous she is. That’s proof enough you’re not ready for anything except remedial training. And at least she’s useful. You’re both useless and ignorant.”
“I don’t know how dangerous she is? So, what, you’re protecting us from her? You did us a favor and we should be eternally grateful, is that it?”
“Maybe it’s too much to expect of you, considering your kind thrives on destruction.”
I smiled. “You know, everyone calls the Nephilim holy. Fabled to be descendants of actual angels. Protector spirits. Guardians, right? That’s your thing?”
His eyes narrowed, and I forged on. I was so furious I wanted to reach up and wrap my hands around his neck, but at the same time, it fed me. Strengthened me. Burned me inside and out as if I’d swallowed Genie’s fire and let it take over.
“But the humans have these old, old stories about Nephilim. That they’re actually the bastard children of rebellious angels brought low by mortal lust. You know, disgraced. And those Nephilim went around killing and maiming and conquering left and right, up and down, inside and out to their heart’s content because they were twice as big as everyone else and knew how to throw their weight around…”
“Don’t play games with me, Blair.”
“I’m just saying,” I said. “Regardless of what people believe… Humans don’t have the market cornered on senseless destruction.”
He grabbed me by my blazer and shoved me into the wall so fast I barely got the last word out. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but it was what he did next that knocked the wind out of me. His lips smashed against mine, tongue in my mouth in a crashing kiss that stunned me so profoundly I couldn’t react for two seconds. And by the time I recovered from the burst of scorching, freezing, electrifying Nephilim aura, it was too late: I bit down an instant too slowly and caught only his bottom lip. But I was rewarded with a coppery tang on my tongue, and when he withdrew, the red cut on his lip sent a wave of almost sickeningly sweet satisfaction through me. But Zedekiel was Zedekiel, so of course he wouldn’t let me have the last word without a fight.
“Forget about protecting your friends,” he said as he used his thumb to wipe at his mouth. “You can’t even protect yourself.”
I let him go. Never mind that he’d done something so stupid that I was just as much of an idiot not to call him out on it, but better to get rid of him now that he had as good as confirmed my suspicions. There was that - and something else, too, another reason to hurry back inside. So when he disappeared around the corner, stridently angry and brimming with the rage I’d purposely stoked with such glee, I turned and entered the dormitory wing.
When Addy looked up, her eyes immediately went to my mouth. Before she could spew venom in my direction, I held up my hand and nodded. “Yes. Before you ask, he did. I’m assuming he left a mark.”
“It’s fucking glowing, what the fuck -”
“It’s okay. I got him back for it.”
“Is that - that’s blood! Did he -”
“Not mine. I bit him. Hard.”
“What the hell are you smiling for! I’m going to fucking kill him!”
She had already surged off the couch and marched toward me, but I held her back before she could yank open the heavy door. “We’re not going to do that,” I said. “Because he just gave us an out. Addy, listen. Listen.”
“What!”
I pointed at my mouth. It felt cool like a peppermint streak across my lips, and I resisted the urge to lick it off. No need to get Addy riled up any further. Besides, this was good. Very good. An unexpected stroke of luck from the last person I’d expected…
“I mean it. This thing is going to get us out of here tonight.”
32
It had to be tonight.
There was the unspoken worry that because it was the first night since they had taken Genie, the faculty would keep an even closer watch than they might if we waited, but I said nothing of it and neither did Addy. It wasn�
�t worth mentioning. Besides, even if she had, I would have countered with the other facts: the headmaster had already left as I’d overheard Pompey say he would, and Olisanna was still gone. That meant Professor Octavius, the lone senior faculty left at Jupiter Gate, would have his hands too full to worry about us. Or even if he thought to look for us, we had more time, more room to maneuver. Alone, there was only so much he could do. We had to take advantage of that while we could.
Not to mention that tonight, Zedekiel had made a crucial misstep I couldn’t not exploit, something so serendipitous that I could even forgive myself for having enjoyed it. He wasn’t a bad kisser. Frighteningly good, actually, for something that lasted only a few heartbeats and no longer. Not that I admitted that to Addy, nor did she ask. That was too tangential a concern to matter right now…and I suspected she dreaded asking me, anyway.
“There’s no way that’s going to work,” she protested when I laid out my plan. “You’re assuming she won’t go find the damn dude to ask him herself, straight up. If she goes and looks for him, we’re busted.”
I gave her a disbelieving look. “She won’t. How humiliating would that be? To go and ask if he’s about to hook up with someone else, right to his face. No chance. Trust me, she’ll come.”
“…I’m just saying, this all hinges on whether she’s a coward or not.”
“It’s not about being a coward. It’s about having some pride. Are you kidding me, she won’t go to him. I promise you that.”
“My God. This is the stupidest plan ever.”
I was about to retort that my last ‘stupid plan’ had won us a bout against Zedekiel, but suddenly I remembered that stunt I had engineered was the entire reason they had taken away Genie in the first place. I grimaced. I had no right to be exasperated with Addy, and I was the last person she should trust to bring Genie back. But there was no one else who could. No one else who even would.
It was just us now, the two of us against the whole world. And somewhere out there in the Wastes, Genie was on her own.
“I’m going now,” I said a few hours later. “If I don’t come back in thirty minutes, things have gone wrong, and you can go get Octavius just like we discussed.”
“This is horrible. They’re going to beat the daylights out of you and then I’m going to have to thrash them back, and then we’re going to be watched so closely that we can’t -”
“Just go with it. If it doesn’t work, we’ll try something else tomorrow. We can’t sit around and wait for the perfect plan. Every day that passes, Genie’s less likely to make it to the next. Okay?”
She closed her eyes. “Fine. Do it, then.”
“Don’t forget. Half an hour.”
Curfew. I was going to be skating far too close to it, but I had to if I wanted to make this work. The more students who were hanging about the common room, the better.
Second Form dorms were that way, the girls’ rooms to the right. I reached the doors and knocked, knowing better than to push my way in. It wasn’t tripping wards I was worried about, but the territorial instincts of the fae residing inside. I was crawling into the lion’s den with no one to back me up, not that Addy’s presence would have dissuaded them any if they jumped me. No matter how fiery Addy’s temper or vicious my spellcasting, those odds would have been impossible. Hence, my coming alone. I didn’t want to be a threat. I just wanted to get out of here.
Luckily, Addy and I weren’t the only ones who wanted that.
“You’ve got to be joking.”
“Sorry,” I muttered from behind the scarf wrapped around the lower half of my face. “Is Iaife here?”
“Who is it, what are you doing,” someone called from within the common room, but it wasn’t her, either.
“Don’t,” I said just as the girl in front of me opened her mouth with a sneering response. “It’s personal. I think she’s going to want to see me.”
“Why the hell would she want to do that.”
“Because it’s about Zedekiel.”
That was a gamble. Best case scenario had been if Iaife herself had opened the door, in which case I could have plunged straight into the next step of the plan. But I had to get her here in front of me first - and in private.
Luckily, the girl must have been well aware of the gossip surrounding the Nephilim and me, and with a sideways look, finally turned her head while keeping her slanted eyes fixed firmly on me. “Hey. Iaife.”
“What do you want.”
That was her. That was her voice -
“Guess who’s here to see you.”
“Don’t annoy me. I swear to every god.”
“No, seriously. Come here.”
Worryingly, I heard several sets of footsteps instead of just one, but there was nothing I could do about that. More eyes meant more volatility, more risk, so I braced myself for a violent reaction in the next moment once I did what I came here to do.
“Oh, gross.” Iaife appeared in all her green-haired and green-lipped glory, and she began sparkling as soon as she shouldered the other girl out of the way. A few of her friends crept up behind them, both curious and gleeful. Maybe they were already planning how they were going to yank me into the toilets or string me up outside a window. Before they could, I pulled down my scarf and revealed what I’d been hiding.
Iaife figured it out first. Her eyes blazed, and she grabbed me by my blouse with both fists as her friends made surprised sounds behind her. But she was too weak to drag me forward and I stood my ground.
“This is why I need help,” I said quickly, then pulled my scarf back up to cover my mouth. “I need to get out of here. I need to leave Jupiter Gate.”
* * *
Iaife was as much bite as she was bark. I heard several sharp slaps and exclamations of pain before she opened the door again and slipped out, closing it behind her with a too-hard yank. She glared at me, sparkling furiously and lips drawn up in a feral snarl. This was what fae looked like when they weren’t putting on their pretense of elegant sinisterness, though. Wild things, dangerous, vicious, instinctual beings who lashed out without mercy if someone trespassed and violated the boundaries of their scant goodwill.
“What the fuck is that about,” she hissed in the emptiness of the hallway. “Zedekiel -?”
“He doesn’t want me to leave. I asked him for help and this was his answer. I don’t know who else to go to; everyone else is too afraid of him.”
My words were carefully crafted, laced with a pleading tone and liberally doused with helpless regret. Not only that, but a flattering statement wedged in as well. It was all lies, of course, since I knew for a fact Iaife was just as much of a sniveling coward in front of Zed as everyone else was, but if there was any way to a fae’s heart, it was through clever praise that made them feel bigger than they were.
“You…want to get out of here?” she repeated. “And you went to him for help?”
“He wants to keep this thing between us a secret. But you know a human can’t be with a Nephilim. It would never work out.”
“You seduced him,” she accused. “How far has it gone? Do you suck him off before curfew every night? When’s the last time you let him fuck you?”
This was already going sideways. Her voice was curling with seething fury and murderous intent because fae never did anything by halves, and if this went on, she would attack me outright. I was sure I could handle her alone, but all her friends were on the other side of that door, and more importantly, it would get too much attention. I couldn’t have that.
“Look,” I said, shoving aside my pride and immersing myself fully in my role with a pathetic sigh. “He said there’s no way for me to get out of this place without making the wards go off. I can’t even leave my dormitory wing. And he said if I’m caught, he’ll never let me out of his sight. I know we got off on the wrong foot, but I’m desperate. I need to get out. Addison Dorne and me, both of us.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re both going to run away.”
; “I don’t have a choice. I’m not going to spend the next two years attached to his hip.”
The slap that stung my cheek came earlier than I had expected. I’d thought I would have to get out a few more whining objections and pleas before she realized what power she held over me, or acted on the fury that came from knowing her dear Nephilim hero had kissed a dirty human so passionately he’d stained her lips silver. But that was fine, I reminded myself as I fought back the urge to hit Iaife in return. I’d known this was coming, and I had to deal with it. No petty reactions, no vindictive retaliation. I had to quash all of that and remember why I was here. For once, I hissed at myself, I had to let them get one over me and forgive myself for slinking back.
This was for Genie. I couldn’t forget that.
She slapped me again, then again. My face burned on that side, stinging hot and raw.
“Did you have fun?” she asked. “Bet you thought you’re better than everyone else. You’re not. A dozen Nephilim dicks in you every night won’t make you any less trash.”
“I just want to get out of here. I came to you because I figured you want the same thing. Unless you think Zedekiel and I are a good match, in which case I disagree but I’ll have no choice but to be stuck here until graduation. He even told Olisanna not to send me over the Wall because he doesn’t want me in danger.”
I was purposely not mentioning Addy. She was the fallacy in the argument, the weak link, since she was also here with me instead of sent away as Genie had been - but Iaife was too consumed by anger to remember her. Thank God. Her eyes were glowing a feral yellow in the dimness, and with her lips pulled back, I could see the sharpened points her teeth had become.
Well, shit. Had I pushed her too fast, too far?
“I’m not saying all this to shove it in your face,” I told her. “But this is how it is. If you don’t want to help me just to spite me, both of us are going to have a bad time…so help me get out of here before I get used to having the royal treatment. Zed’s only going to get worse, and sooner or later, he’s going to get what he wants. He came to our wing today, Iaife. To my dorm. That’s where this came from.” I pulled down my scarf again, refreshing her memory of my silver-painted lips. “He’s made it clear that the next time he comes by, he won’t stop at just this.”
