Field training: Day 48, hour 17
“Boom,” I sang and mimed throwing a grenade into the air as the lyrics crooned about cigarettes and explosives.
You might as well glamorize violence.
It’s all about the aesthetic, I chuckled to myself dreamily.
Because if it wasn’t a vibe, then it was just torture. So I rocked my shoulders back and forth and closed my black-lined eyes.
I pretended:
War was easy, killing was fun, the voices in my head screamed encouragements, assassins were chill, Aran was a man, and Arabella had never existed.
Sari passed the bottle of demon brew back to me, and I took a swig as I shook my hips against hers in rhythm to the music.
We rocked together.
The beat coursing through me, my head flung back, my electric-blue hair glowed under the blue lights and reflected in the windows.
Pipe hanging from my lips, I lost myself in the darkness.
The windows of the great hall were covered in enchanted mirrors, and black light cast the arched ceiling in shadows. A sparkling dance floor surrounded the white tree that had tinsel and candles hanging from its branches.
It was pretty.
I tipped my throat back and guzzled the demon brew.
So fucking pretty.
At the high dais where we took our meals, a DJ booth was set up, and Lyla played a mix of ethereal and modern music.
Her runes glowed bright. Green hair hanging low, eyes wide, she was completely still as she channeled her power into song.
Witches were rumored to possess a sixth sense that allowed them to experience music differently.
It wasn’t a rumor.
The sounds pounding through the room had every student, assassin, royal, and commoner gyrating in a frenzied mass. A few family members, but mostly lovers, had visited for family weekend, and everyone was on the dance floor.
The room reeked of sweat and sex.
Demon brew, pills, and enchanted pipes were passed through the room like candy. Kisses were exchanged, dresses drawn aside, and zippers unzipped.
There was one constant throughout the realms—the greater the power, the better the party.
Something about strength, intelligence, and energy inspired people to get fucked up.
If you were at the top, then you saw the playing field. You understood the corruption. The desolation and bullshit.
The irony of it all.
And no one was more powerful than the people in this room. We were a mass of greedy bodies unapologetically taking their pleasure.
When sweaty fingers passed me a glowing green cigarette, I greedily stuck it into the side of my mouth and sucked deep.
Two pipes hanging between my lips, demon brew coalescing through my veins, the voices had quieted down to a manageable level.
I was just a normal girl dancing.
Sari pulled her friend Tara closer, and the three of us ground to the music.
I grabbed their hips with each hand and pulled them against me as we rocked back and forth.
Their hair glimmered in stunning curls, and their skin glowed with an otherworldly shimmer. Rosewater wafted off Sari, and warm vanilla surrounded Tara.
Their unnaturally pretty eyes were vibrant in the dark, and their heritage was written when they licked their lips.
The ends of their tongues slightly forked.
They were demons but not just any kind. They were the most loved and coveted creatures in all the realms.
Two succubi.
Commoner and royal men had been pawing all over them as they struggled to free themselves from the unwanted advances. So I’d come in and grabbed them.
Now there was a wide berth around us.
No one messed with the assassin recruits.
It also might have been the stains that covered my pale skin under the black light; I was covered in blood.
No amount of cold showers could change the reality—death clung to me.
Don’t think about it.
I grabbed the crystal bottle from Sari, tipped it between the two pipes at the corners of my mouth, and concentrated on the music.
“Baby, lightning is our fuse,
Cigarettes and smoke,
Nothing left to lose,
Arsenic on tongues,
Suffering’s our muse.”
Lyla was my musical hero.
Maybe it was the runes that appeared to be carved into her skin, or maybe it was the distant look in her eyes. But my gut told me the witch fucking got it.
She understood the pain.
Tara tipped her head back and licked her forked tongue slowly along my jaw. Vanilla drowned my senses, and my skin came alive.
My back burned unmercifully.
I laughed at the pain.
“What do you say, Aran?” Sari turned around so she was facing me, her black minidress leaving her exquisite tanned skin exposed as she rode my thigh.
I exhaled a cloud of blue-green smoke and traced my fingers over her sparkle-covered cheeks.
Everything would be way fucking easier if I was into women. They weren’t the problem. Most times; RIP Mother.
But I wasn’t.
“I’m not the one for either of you,” I said honestly.
I wasn’t meant for anyone but myself. Just showing up every day and fighting was too much for me.
Still, my heart plummeted as I waited for their response. They were my only female friends at this fucking place, and their cheery chatter made meals tolerable.
“You’re one of the good guys, Aran,” Sari said as she patted my cheek, and Tara nodded. Then we resumed dancing like nothing had happened.
Lightness flooded through me.
Thank you, sun god.
I tipped my head back into the darkness and resumed trying to lose myself, desperate for the silence of a buzz.
Warm hands clasped around my upper arm, and suddenly I was pulled away from Sari and Tara.
Blue lights danced, and the music crooned.
Orion’s face hovered a few inches above mine. His breath mingled with mine. Decadent musk wafted off him.
Before I could ask what he was doing, the quiet king turned me around and dug his fingers into my hips. His front pressed against my back.
I forgot how to breathe.
My back burned.
Orion dug his fingers into my hip bones, and he pressed his hard erection against my butt. Then he swayed to the music.
I relaxed back into his arms.
Fingers trailed upward across my chest and grabbed my jaw firmly. Warm breath tickled my cheeks as the fae leaned forward and just breathed against me.
We rocked.
The cocktail of drugs in my system allowed me to ignore the excruciating pain radiating from my wound.
Lyrics repeated as they pounded through the enchanted speaker, and I mouthed them as I squeezed my eyes shut.
Orion gripped me like he was holding on for dear life.
His lyrical voice was decadent as he whispered against my ear, “I’m going to ruin you, pretty boy.”
I shivered with anticipation.
He spoke like he was obsessed. Just like me.
Something pricked my awareness, and I opened my eyes to find there was an open space in front of us on the dance floor.
Malum and Scorpius stood still as statues. Silver eyes stared like they were unable to look away. Scorpius has his head tilted toward us like he was listening to each of our raspy breaths.
I trembled in Orion’s arms, expecting him to see his men and shove me away.
Warmth trailed across my cheek.
Teeth nipped at the sensitive skin between my neck and collarbone. Then cold air was blown. A tongue lapped gently.
My knees buckled.
Orion’s arms were the only things keeping me upright.
His breath was hot as he whispered, “I want to dominate you until you forget what it’s like to not be mine.”
I whimpered.
“There’s something about you that drives me crazy.” The lyrical words were like an intoxicating fae wine. “How are you so gorgeous?”
His voice was the most potent drug in all the realms.
I was an addict.
Suddenly, fingers tangled in my curls, yanked my head back at a harsh angle, and plucked the pipes out of my mouth.
Bee-stung lips slammed against mine and ravaged.
Plundered.
Consumed me whole.
The kiss tasted like whiskey, salt, chocolate, and smoke.
It tasted like freedom.
I groaned with pleasure, and Orion swallowed the sound into his mouth as his tongue brought me to my knees.
“Break for me,” he ordered as he kissed.
I’d mastered rolling a pipe against my tongue at just the right angle to get the sweetest high, and I devoured him back with skill.
He moaned. “This mouth.”
Unimaginable pain throbbed from the enchanted slur, and it reminded me of the lightning in the halls.
My nerves sizzled.
I didn’t care.
Death himself couldn’t pull me away from this kiss.
Suddenly, when I didn’t think it could get any more intense, Orion wrapped his fingers around my throat and tightened.
His lyrical voice was honey in my ears. “I’ve talked to the men, and I’ve let them know that I’m claiming you. You’re going to be my little toy.”
There was nothing to say to that.
Yep. One hundred percent. I would be his toy.
Gladly.
Whatever he wanted so he’d keep kissing me like this.
Our bodies rocked against each other in the darkness, and we lost ourselves. The music wrapped around us, and I swore it matched the intensity of our kiss. The beat of his heart against my back.
The next time I opened my eyes, Malum and Scorpius were still standing in the same place.
Intensity radiated off them. They wanted to ruin us.
I looked around and sighed at the endless pleasure, streaked with violent pain, that Orion was bestowing on my senses.
As I took in the partygoers gyrating, something seemed off.
It took me a moment.
Then I realized I couldn’t see the girls anywhere, and the girls had said they were going to dance together all night.
It took all my strength to pull away from Orion’s divine embrace.
I searched the room. “Did you see where Sari and Tara went?” I shouted over the music.
Orion’s eyes widened as he mouthed, “They left the hall with Horace.”
The weight in my stomach intensified, and I struggled to breathe.
I didn’t pause to think.
I ran.
