The Legionnaire Games: Day 33, hour 12
My head throbbed as I opened my eyes.
For a second, the world was disturbingly silent, then sounds rushed back louder and sharper than they’d ever been.
Everything had a high-pitched quality.
“Thank fuck,” Corvus said shakily as warm fingers traced over my face. Orion smoothed hair off my forehead and massaged my temples.
I lay still and let my mates fuss over me.
Slowly I became aware of the rocks poking into my back and the overwhelming number of small noises that let me know I was near a crowd of people.
“What happened?” I croaked out as I licked my uncomfortably dry lips.
The last thing I remembered was standing on the edge of the field, waiting for the competition to begin.
Then everything had gone dark.
A long moment passed, and neither of my mates said anything.
Orion swallowed thickly, and there was the scraping sound of Corvus dragging a hand over his buzzed head.
“Tell me,” I demanded, panic rising in my throat as I thought about everything that could have happened while I was out. Was Arabella hurt? The thought made it hard to breathe.
I’d told her to stand behind me, but she’d charged straight ahead.
She was so bold.
She was too brave for her own good.
Who was protecting her from herself?
A tight, uncomfortable sensation pinched my gut.
Corvus exhaled with a loud whoosh. “They used an illegal enchantment that broke the sound barrier in the arena. You passed out immediately. Arabella and John dragged you across the field, and you all made it in time. One of the angel competitors was left on the field, and he was killed.”
Arabella saved me?
It was no secret that there was no love lost between us.
A warm feeling unfurled in my gut.
No one but my mates had ever stood up for me and saved me from my tormentors when they’d beat me for being blind.
No one else had ever cared about me.
The warmth spread.
Orion shifted back and forth like he did when he was nervous, and I narrowed my eyes. If that was all that had happened, then why were they both acting guilty? “What aren’t you telling me?”
I needed her to be all right.
Corvus didn’t respond.
My irritation grew, and right when I was about to snap at them, Orion whispered, “Arabella was the last to finish, so she has to perform a punishment.”
I dug my nails into my palm as something foreign welled up inside me.
Nothing could have prepared me for his next words. “The gods ordered her to have sex with John. They’re in the middle of the arena right now, hugging each other and talking.”
Something sizzled, and it took me a moment to place that Corvus’s clothing was on fire.
“Why would they have her have sex with him? How is that a punishment?” I spat as I pushed myself up into a seated position. My mates grabbed under both my arms and helped me to my feet.
The warmth was gone, and I was freezing cold.
She was being punished for saving me. It was so wrong.
“I don’t know,” Orion whispered.
His teeth gnashed as he clenched his jaw.
Corvus made a low growling noise in the back of his throat. “They’re not making love, they’re fucking. It’s not a big deal.”
Orion whispered, “I’m sure it means nothing.”
Tension strummed among the three of us as we silently contemplated just how messed up this was. None of us liked it or believed it was just sex. It wouldn’t have been a punishment if that was all it was to her.
Locking my knees together, I struggled to stand taller.
My mates lifted me higher, and both their grips were punishing as they channeled their energy into helping me and not going on a killing rampage. Both of them trembled like they were close to losing control.
“She’s my sweetheart. Mine,” Orion whispered miserably to himself.
The sizzling sound got louder as Corvus burned more of his clothes off his body.
This wasn’t good.
I tilted my head to the side and concentrated on filtering out all the background noise from the students. Finally, I located the familiar breathing pattern that had a small hitch every third breath.
My shoulders lowered with relief.
“I’m willing to,” Arabella trailed off, and it was obvious what she was referring to. “But everyone’s watching.” Her voice cracked, and she sounded despondent.
She choked, then stopped breathing.
Pressing my fingers to the top of my nose, I counted to ten and tried not to lose it as she continued to not breathe. Could no one else tell how unwell she was? Why did she do this to me?
“I can’t do this with so many people watching us,” she whispered to John shakily.
Once again, she stopped breathing.
At this rate, she was going to pass out and do some serious brain damage.
I dug my nails harder into my palms.
“Corvus,” I said harshly. “Make a protective circle of fire around them. Now.”
Both my mates stiffened.
“Do it,” I ordered. My tone was unwavering and left no room for argument because I wasn’t talking to him as Scorpius.
I was speaking to him as his Protector.
Corvus snapped his fingers.
Flames whooshed into existence in the center of the arena and surrounded Arabella. Through the crackling flames, John promised to take care of her, and she begged him to make it quick.
“Tell me,” Orion whispered against my ear.
Nails pulled chunks of flesh out of the bottom of my palm.
John said horribly sweet things.
Orion yanked me harshly against his side. “Tell me now,” he demanded softly.
“You don’t want to know.” I tried to focus on the blood dripping down my fingers, but the pain wasn’t soothing. Not at all.
I was a sadomasochist, but even I had my limits.
This was it.
“Tell me!” Orion said loudly, his lyrical voice causing people to go still around us. Feet shuffled over rocks as students gravitated toward him.
Corvus grabbed the back of our Revered’s head. “Shut the fuck up.”
I’d never heard him speak so roughly to Orion.
Orion whispered against my ear like Corvus wasn’t about to lose his shit. “Tell me now, Scorpius, or I swear to the sun god I’ll start singing.”
I faced it head-on.
My voice sounded dead as I said, “John told her he’s always viewed her as more than a friend. He said he knew she was going to be his the first moment he saw her. He called her perfect and precious as he stuck his cock inside her.”
Orion’s knees gave out, and we both tumbled forward.
Corvus caught us. He held us each up with one of our arms as he stood stoic and tall. His skin was feverishly warm.
Our Ignis gritted his teeth as he concentrated on keeping his flames at bay.
Sweat dripped off him onto me.
It was taking all his concentration not to engulf John and Arabella in fire. His problem wasn’t creating flames; that had never been an issue.
His problem was stopping once he started.
Control.
He barely had any.
Sounds filtered through the crackling of burning grass, and I almost wished they hadn’t.
If I were a better man, I would have stayed silent.
But I was a sadist.
“He’s fucking her, and she’s begging for him to hurry. Now he’s coming inside her.”
Orion trembled.
Corvus’s already flexed muscles went taut, and it felt like he was made of steel.
“Now John’s angry, and she’s talking about how she would have fucked other men?” I tilted my head, confused what they were talking about. Then. I realized. “Oh fuck.”
I fell silent.
Emotions coursed through me with such intensity that I couldn’t even begin to sort through them.
“Tell me,” Orion said loudly.
Corvus didn’t bother to admonish him as more students gathered around us. He held his breath like he was also waiting to hear.
I bit down on my lower lip.
They were still my mates, and I didn’t want to hurt them.
This one would hurt.
“Tell him,” Corvus said roughly, and the unspoken tell me hung heavy in the air between us.
I tipped my head back and rested it against my Ignis’s warm arm. “She bled. That was her first time with a man.”
Corvus’s skin sizzled as fire danced off his skull. He clenched his jaw and breathed roughly.
“Corvus, cut the flames!” John yelled across the field.
A long moment stretched.
My Ignis shook with rage and barked back, “I can’t.”
He trembled. He was losing control.
I put my hand on his shoulder to offer comfort, but my fingers shook. I felt the same way.
A few seconds later John jumped through the flames with Arabella in his arms. His footsteps rustled the grass as he walked toward us.
Corvus grunted.
There was an insidious crackling, then a loud fizzle. Half the lawn exploded into flames.
Somewhere behind us Lothaire swore and shouted at servants to put it out. He knew about Corvus’s inability to control his flames.
None of us said anything as they approached.
When John walked past, Corvus and Orion followed him toward the academy.
Fire spread across the arena, and it sounded like the world was burning.
You didn’t mess with my Ignis.
The ancient House of Malum was revered for a reason.
More and more circumstances were spiraling out of our control, and nothing good ever came from us and disorder.
You didn’t trap us.
We killed our way out of a corner.
A dark feeling stabbed my gut, and I dug my nails into the back of my Ignis’s neck to reassure myself. Orion grabbed my hand with his to offer comfort.
It didn’t work.
As I rubbed at the tattoo on my hip, I had an awful feeling.
This would not end well.
