Wells’ gaze became frosty, before sweeping across all of us. “If you can’t behave like a Court Fae, then chores like a servant is precisely what you deserve. In fact, it’s the perfect choice for you all. The rest of the school can see the Marquess of Spring and his lords on their knees weeding.”
Why had Beau manipulated Wells into this punishment? I was sure that he had. Beau was a Court Fae who’d learned their scheming talents and he knew how to play his dad.
When Radley snarled, Wells’ smile widened.
“Humility under the sun may teach you where I’ve failed.” Wells straightened his cuffs. “You’re on Chores Duties for the rest of the day with Tom. He’ll be working outside the dining hall right now, but don’t even think about stopping for lunch.” He narrowed his eyes at Beau. “I know all your excuses for laziness.”
“Like breaks for eating, breathing, or collapsing from exhaustion,” I muttered.
Wait, rest of the day…?
That meant Beau had managed to get us out of Fighting Class. I peeked at Beau from underneath my eyelashes, but his expression was shuttered like it always was around his dad.
I’d have to show Beau later how hot I found it that one of my lovers was clever at plotting. My prick thickened appreciatively.
“Who’s Tom?” I demanded.
Wells spun on his heel, striding away down the corridor. His voice echoed back to us, “Tom’s a ghost.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Wicked Reform School, Main Campus
Thursday 29th April
I trudged down the library’s steps, squinting in the bright light after the dark. Apollo swooped overhead: a shadow across the sun. The air was fresh and like life after the stink of ancient magic inside the bowels of the library. When my mates jostled behind me, I wondered if I was the only one freaked out that ghosts were real.
Oh, and that there’d been one at the school all this time, but I’d never known.
How blind was I?
Imprisoned in the Court, I’d known little about other supernaturals until I’d come to this school, and now I knew far more than I wanted to know. But if ghosts existed, did that mean one could’ve been watching me sleep, screw, or shower?
I shivered. Were ghosts dangerous, rather than pervy?
I followed my mates across the immaculate lawns and around the clusters of buildings. Not a blade of grass was out of place.
I furrowed my brow. “So, ghosts are a thing then. You’re all remarkably calm about that secret, almost like I’m the only one who didn’t know about Tom.” Radley stared at me, and Felix blinked in confusion. “I’m the only one, right?”
“Secrets are hidden.” Felix snatched my hands, twirling me around a fountain and scattering a band of lounging elves who threw a flurry of cusses at him that he merrily ignored. “Tom’s just the gardener.”
“If you knew him,” Beau drawled, “you wouldn’t dare say that he was just anything.”
“But I don’t know him.” I wrenched away from Felix, staring around at the shrubs and flowerbeds. “By Belenus, is he hovering above the daffodils or haunting the rose patch?”
“He’s weeding outside the dining hall.” Radley crossed his arms. “You say that you don’t give a crap about status but then you’ve never noticed Tom.”
Was this Gang up on the Posh Marquess Day?
When Radley clutched me by the neck in an act of both possession and warning, I swallowed.
“Why are ghosts good at telling lies?” I asked.
Felix fought hard not to smile…and lost. “Go on, why are ghosts good at telling lies?”
“Because you can see right through them.”
Felix burst out laughing. “Truly awful.”
“I’m here all week and even better, on the last night, the audience gets to execute me.”
Felix stopped smiling, and Radley shoved me away.
Okay, that could’ve veered too much into gallows humor.
“Not funny, Quince,” Felix muttered.
Beau slipped his hands into his pockets in a way that made me want to slip my own hands in there and start something much kinkier. “You’ve never seen anything apart from the other Hostage Lords and Apollo.” My breath quickened at the sharpness of Beau’s glance. I craved the way that he’d looked at me in the dungeon like I was his world. I hadn’t known his love before, but now I had it, I couldn’t bear to lose it. “If you didn’t notice me, then why would you notice a gardener, even one who was cursed to work here forever after death?”
I gaped at him.
For the first time in a long time, I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
Then Felix’s soft feathers brushed against my cheeks, grounding me, and his wings wrapped around me. I snuggled into their warmth and touch.
Beau was right.
I’d needed the safety of the brotherhood to survive the Court but I couldn’t cling to it any longer.
We weren’t alone now.
“Still, weeding…?” I ventured. “What kind of life after death is that? Is chores a regular play date?”
Beau gave a moue of distaste. “I’ve spent hours on my hands and knees getting dirty…”
Radley smirked. “Sounds promising.”
“…With mud.” Beau marched faster down the path. Unlike me, he wouldn’t walk on the grass. But then, I was a rebel. “Such manual labor is dishonorable and excruciating in the heat. I’m atrocious at gardening, but Tom is excellent. How do you think it’s kept looking like a top academy?”
“Magic?” I ventured.
Radley snorted.
“Such a smart ploy to get us out of Fighting Class. Plus, you have something else planned, right? So, who’s a sneaky fae?” Felix teased, stalking closer to Beau.
Felix’s cheeks were flushed. He’d always been turned-on by cleverness.
Beau’s eyes widened in adorable confusion. “Me…?”
Radley caught Felix’s eye, before he nodded like he’d caught onto the game.
Did Beau realize that he’d just become the prey?
“The first one to catch the Court Fae,” Radley said, casually, “gets to claim him first tonight.”
Beau leaped back in shock, as Radley pounced. Then he grinned, vibrating with delight. Radley and Felix may be predators, but so was Beau.
Felix’s eyes glinted with delicious malevolence. He darted around Beau on the other side to Radley. Beau was faster than I’d expected, however, as he dived between them both and sprinted towards the dining hall.
Radley and Felix glanced at each other, allowing Beau a moment’s head start. It wouldn’t be fun if they didn’t allow him to think that he had a chance to escape. I knew, because they’d played this game with me. My prick was hard against my thigh at the memory of the wicked fun that we’d had when I’d been caught.
Well, Beau had always wanted to play chase with us when he was a kid.
“Play with us, Quince,” Felix called.
Wow, was it tempting.
The game thrilled with a joy, life, and love. In the midst of danger, my bonded mates and I would always have each other.
Yet I still shook my head.
Radley and Felix shot after Beau with growls that made the hairs on the back of my nape rise up.
I couldn’t play because I was too distracted by the incessant banging from the Trial Area. I edged past the stage on the way to the dining hall. Above me, a gleaming iron guillotine was being constructed by an identical team of golems.
Did the golems care that the guillotine, which was large enough to chop off ten heads at once, would massacre my tribe? Were they able to care? Did they have any freewill over what they did?
I struggled not to hurl, as I hurried past the stage. Instead, I concentrated on the struggling pile of fae up ahead, and suddenly, all I wanted to do was laugh.
Felix and Radley both pinned Beau to the grass in front of the dining hall. Beau squirmed underneath them like someone who desperately wanted to be caught.
“He’s mine,” Radley snarled.
“I touched his wing first.” Felix clung onto Beau with as much possessiveness as if he was a book.
I shook my head, leaning against the side of the building. The rich aromas of lunch being prepared drifted out of the open windows and made my stomach growl: garlic meatballs and greasy burgers. Apollo had already landed in a patch of sunlight and settled back to sleep, despite the battle.
Then I noticed the gardener who was pruning the ruffled yellow roses and watching the fae with a quirked eyebrow.
If there was an opposite to Wells’ regimented elegance then this ghost was it. Tom’s beard was bushy and wild; his eyes were dark and hidden in shadow by a baseball cap. His flannel shirt was rumpled over stained jeans. But then, how did ghosts launder?
Okay, I’d been staring at his legs for far too long.
Tom rolled his eyes. “What’s got into you today? Do fae go into heats?”
We all reddened enough to look like we might do.
Radley and Felix scrambled off Beau, pulling him to his feet but still wrapping him in his wings as if to be clear that they weren’t relinquishing their claims.
Beau was in for some fun tonight, if we survived the rest of today.
“My apologies, sir.” Beau’s politeness hurt me like a slap. I hated it. His back was stiff, and his face returned to its formal mask. “Professor Wells sent us here for a day of punishment chores.”
I didn’t expect the way that Tom pulled the petals off a rose in frustration. “Oh hell, boy, not again. What did you do this time to get your idiot self sentenced to work with me? It’s not right.”
Beau stiffened even further.
“He decided to hang around with wicked fae.” I shot Tom a grin.
“He’ll get himself killed, that’s what.” Tom scrutinized us, before holding up his gloved hand.
A glowing green light spiraled from his palm, before burning into all of our chests. I gritted my teeth at the searing pain, doubling over. Panting, I scrabbled at my skin, but it wasn’t branded.
There was no mark.
Radley stalked towards Tom, who didn’t even flinch. “You have three words to tell me what you did, or I’ll find out whether a ghost bleeds ectoplasm.”
“I only need two: Chores Pass.” Tom jerked his head at Beau. “This one is too smart to have been sentenced to punishment with me, when the whole school knows the House of Fae are being judged on Saturday. So, I’m thinking that you’re here for something else. I’ve spelled you all with a Chores Pass. It grants you access to the grounds equipment, allows you to move around the school between classes, and of course, to borrow my power of invisibility.”
“That sounds good…wait, did you say…invisibility?” When I glanced at Tom, he nodded.
“Small steps,” Felix whispered. “We can move around unseen.”
Beau had planned this so that we could safely follow Emerald.
He was a smart and sneaky fae.
I didn’t care that I hadn’t caught him. I was claiming him again tonight.
Tom stomped out of the rose bed, shaking the mud off his boots in a dark spray. He made a lot of noise for a ghost. “When the Dean brings dignitaries to visit, he doesn’t want them to see lowly staff or dirty students. In fact, he loathes seeing them too. So, that’s when you and I go invisible. Understand?”
My wings beat in excitement. “How?”
“Click your heels three times,” Tom instructed.
I blinked at Tom, confused. “Really?”
“No, not really. Just believe yourself not there, you idiot. Fading away is easier than you think.”
When Tom turned away to leave, I grabbed him by the arm. It was a shock to feel him solid and warm.
“I’ve been imagining myself not here for years. Why should we trust you?”
“Because Beau does.” Tom shook me off with surprising strength. “I don’t help anyone that I don’t want to. But for a decade now, he’s been working alongside me because of his bastard of a dad.” Beau recoiled, and Radley wrapped his wings more tightly around him. “Yeah, I know who that son of a bitch is. I’d do anything to kick his ass for hurting you all this time. So, I figure that you boys need something unseen…?”
Beau nodded.
Tom pulled his cap lower over his eyes. “Then I trust you to work on…what you need…without me overseeing you. Look, I’m forever trapped in this damn place, but I’d free every last one of you students if I could. Just remember that the spelled cyclops who guard the boundaries here will eat you up if you decide to try and walk out, whether you’re invisible or not. But I hope you survive the culling.” He was troubled as he studied Beau. He looked more like a dad than Wells. “You’re one of the good ones.”
“Thank you.” Beau extricated himself from Radley’s hold to rest his wingtips on Tom’s shoulders.
It was an intimate gesture from a Court Fae that spoke of deep gratitude.
Tom’s neck reddened. “Just don’t get yourself killed, idiot, or I’ll still find a way to haunt you.”
Beau’s lips twitched. “I shall do my best not to die.”
For a moment, the sunlight glittered off Tom, then he grew transparent and vanished.
“My turn.” I closed my eyes.
Thinking angsty Goth ghostly thoughts…I do believe in ghosts… I do believe in ghosts… I do believe…
I sighed. This wasn’t working.
Wouldn’t it be easier if I simply didn’t exist…? If I could fade right now, freeing my tribe? They’d have choice, and I’d have quiet?
Peace at last…no struggle, just fade into peace…
When I cracked open my eyes, my mates were doing the same, blinking back at me.
“Not that it wasn’t fun to make myself sink into an Emo depression,” I rubbed my palms down my pants, “but it didn’t work.”
“It did.” Beau slipped his hand into mine, tugging me to the corner of the dining hall and peering around to the entrance. “Those who turn invisible together can see each other.”
“Convenient. But also, how do I know we truly are invisible?”
Beau pulled away from me before I could stop him. He marched in front of a warlock with dangerous eyes and flowing black hair. The warlock towered over Beau; he could snap Beau’s wings in a heartbeat or burn them off.
A warlock had options.
Beau boldly crossed his arms. “What’s the difference between a witch and a warlock?”
Oh, he wasn’t going there…
“Nothing.”
He went there.
I leapt forward at the same time as Radley and Felix. My heart pounded, and my pulse raced. I expected to drag an enraged, fire wielding warlock off Beau, but instead, the warlock just continued to stand, moodily clutching his backpack.
I grabbed Beau’s arm, dragging him to the side of the building. “Hello, Mr Deathwish, what was that?”
“When we’re invisible, they can’t hear us either. And I’m here all week too.” Beau looked more uncertain now.
He met my gaze questioningly, like he was asking if it was okay that he’d made a joke.
Despite the danger, I had to taste his sweetness to prove to him that in the name of Belenus, it was perfect.
I kissed Beau, caging him against the rough brick, and he sighed against my mouth.
Radley settled amongst the fragrant sweet peas that grew beneath the dining hall’s entrance, and Felix flopped into his lap.
“We need to watch Emerald to keep her safe. She’s new here and won’t know how dangerous it truly is. She eats here every lunch.” Radley tightened his arms around Felix’s waist. “Do you think that I wouldn’t know her schedule? What’s wrong with some stalker love? We only have to wait for her.”
“We only have to enjoy being invisible.” I raised my eyebrow.
It was a couple of hours until lunch. I was going to enjoy the prankster’s wet dream.
It turned out that Beau enjoyed it a
lmost more than me. After I’d resettled Apollo as lookout for Emerald underneath the window, Felix, Beau and I took turns singling out a student and then playing a prank.
Radley scored us out of ten.
So far, I was winning but only by a point. The winner got to top tonight.
I was going to win…
If I wasn’t so hungry that I could eat a dwarf, I’d be enjoying myself.
Then the sour faced student who’d orchestrated the attack against us in Fae Ball sauntered out of the dining hall, clutching a cup of coffee.
“Don’t do anything daft, but a bad bastard is swaggering your way,” Apollo called.
When I froze midway in lowering the pants of a Nephilim who was casting a compulsion on a phoenix (let’s see how commanding he looked in his underwear), Radley nudged Felix off his knee and prowled to his feet.
“Don’t hurt him,” I insisted. I remembered the agony and fear as the iron balls had rained down. The way that Apollo’s wings had been broken protecting me. How I’d almost died… Then I remembered Beau’s quiet words to me in the dungeon. This fae’s twin had been killed in the Love Rebellion. There didn’t need to be any more death because of me. “Rads, listen to my leader voice.”
Radley only snarled.
“He’s not hearing your leader voice,” Apollo warned.
Radley paused in front of the other fae who looked smaller than I remembered. Then he knocked his coffee, spilling the hot contents down the front of the fae’s pants.
The fae howled, hopping up and down. When a gang of vampires laughed, the fae hurried away across the campus.
“I told you that I’d drench him in coffee,” Radley said with a self-satisfied smile. “What? You said don’t hurt him. Since when did a snarl mean I swear on my prick to obey you?”
Felix pushed himself up, brushing the dirt off his pants. “And that’s one fae who won’t be touching his burned prick for a while.”
We all winced.
Beau glanced between us. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but the first steps are in place. We have the run of the school and we’re unseen. So, what do you need next?”
Rebel: House of Fae: A Dark Fae Paranormal Romance Page 19
