Metamorphosis—Day 41, hour 23
“No. We need this.” I glared down at the blue-haired woman who’d somehow become the bane of my existence.
Arabella huffed.
She paced back and forth in front of the hearth in our bedroom and whined, “Well, I need time alone in the library. So figure it out.” She squared her shoulders and tried to look intimidating.
I swallowed a laugh.
I had at least a hundred pounds of muscles on her.
It would be so easy to crush her.
“No.” I tried to sound casual, but my voice came out rough and gravelly.
She rubbed her fingers against her eyes with exasperation.
Somehow her eyes were more bloodshot than they’d been after the first competition. Black-and-green bruises stretched across her delicate cheekbones and the sides of her temples. A deep wound curled beneath her left eye. Her blue curls stuck out in every direction.
Shadows covered her pale skin.
She looked tired and young.
Laughter died on my tongue, and my face fell.
A foreign sensation crawled up my chest, and I rubbed at my sternum to dislodge it. I hated seeing her like this.
Lately all my hours had been consumed with worry over Arabella.
She wasn’t taking care of herself. Her wounds weren’t healing. There was a darkness in her eyes I didn’t like.
Years ago, I’d seen the same dissociated look on both my mates’ faces. It was the look of someone who was suffering. Someone who didn’t have anyone.
Doe eyes widened at me. “Please, Malum?” Arabella stuck out her lower lip in a pout.
My name was Corvus, and Malum was the name of our Devil House, but for some reason, she only called me Malum.
It was infuriating.
“My name is Corvus,” I spat out more aggressively than I wanted to. I was trying to be calmer around her, but it wasn’t working.
I wanted to be gentler with her. She was still a woman and not just a fellow male soldier. But she was also a teammate.
It was confusing.
Each day that she persevered through these games, my respect for her grew.
Something had changed when she’d dragged my Protector across the field and risked her own life to save his.
How I’d thought of her as pathetic was beyond me. Her strength of will was impressive, and I was rarely impressed with people.
But for some reason, every time I spoke to her, my words came out rougher and harsher than I meant them to be.
“Okay, Malum.” Sooty lashes fluttered as she made a face and said sarcastically, “Whatever you say.”
I ignored the instincts telling me to wrap her up and protect her.
Heal her.
The thoughts were distracting and driving me near madness.
“No,” I said roughly, then coughed as I tried to clear my throat. I tried to soften my posture. “Scorpius, Orion, and I need this party to let loose and recover from the competition. You don’t get to take this away from us as well. Stop pouting. It disgusts me.”
It didn’t disgust me.
That was the problem.
Lately, everything about the blue-haired woman filled me with interest. Respect. It was becoming slightly obsessive.
Arabella’s lips thinned into a snarl.
I inhaled deeply.
Her scent was icy and dangerous—like pure adrenaline.
She was intoxicating.
Dark-blue eyes flashed black, and she blew out a cloud of enchanted smoke as she scoffed, “It must be exhausting being so aggressive all the time.”
Her words echoed in the silence.
Wrapped around my neck like a rope.
Tightened.
Did she know how much I struggled to interact with her? I was trying to be softer. To be nicer.
But I wasn’t built that way.
She’d always been disturbingly good at analyzing a situation.
Sweat dripped down my nose as flames crawled along my arms. The achy, feverish feeling intensified.
Arabella tipped her head back and twirled her pipe with her tongue.
Her countenance was blasé, expression tired, face bored, like she hadn’t just eviscerated me with her words.
“Nice try. You’re still not going.” I took a step closer into her personal space as flames danced faster along my skin. “And if you try to leave without us, you’ll just be hurting yourself.”
She shrugged. “But it will hurt you too, and that makes it worth it for me.”
I grabbed her wrist before she could so much as flinch toward the door. I hated how cavalier she was about self-harm.
Her skin was freezing.
A harsh contrast to my overheated flesh.
The fire in my blood was roaring and begging to be released. The fever intensified.
I wanted to warm her. Chase the chill from her flesh. Protect her.
I shook my head and breathed in strength.
Exhaled control.
Instead of staying still and letting me do what I needed to do to not raze this academy to the ground, Arabella yanked and struggled against my hold.
She was the antithesis of obedience.
Chaos.
I tried to sound unaffected, but my voice came out as a throaty rasp. “I’ve made the decision as captain. We’re having a party in our room tonight because everyone needs to let loose. Please don’t make this difficult.”
I’m trying.
She bared her perfect white teeth like a wild animal.
I inhaled deeper.
No one should be allowed to smell so good. It was overpowering and heady, with an icy burn.
I coughed and turned to the side as I discreetly adjusted my pants.
The slave brand was clearly messing with my head.
Arabella sucked on her pipe.
Her pink tongue wiped across her cracked lips, and she whispered, “So I should choose a man to get with at the party?”
A sick sense of dread filled my stomach, like icy water was washing over me.
Her cheeks hollowed as she rolled her pipe in her mouth like it was candy.
“No.” I tried to speak calmly, but my voice came out as a growl. “Touch anyone and I’ll kill him.”
Arabella tipped her head back like I’d made a joke. “Good one.” She slapped me on the arm like I was her pathetic human pal, John.
I blinked down at her.
“I’m not joking,” I said as flames rolled off my arms. “I have no limitations.”
The thought of someone else fisting her blue curls and inhaling her intoxicating scent—it was wrong.
I did not like it.
“Why?” She raised her eyebrows. “Because I’m your slave?”
“No,” I spat immediately. “It’s not like that.”
She narrowed her dark-blue eyes, and her face scrunched with confusion. “Then what is it like?”
I opened my lips, and no words came out.
I couldn’t identify the emotions swirling in my gut. She was my teammate, and we were connected by the tattoo, but she was also more.
“I don’t know,” I whispered.
“You can get with women, but I can’t get with men because of some weird, sexist double standard?” She scoffed at me like I was losing my mind.
I agreed with her.
I was.
“It’s not like that,” I repeated uselessly.
Crash. The bathroom door was thrown open with unnecessary force, and Luka sauntered out.
His eyes narrowed as he stared at me where I stood inches away from Arabella. My arms were on fire, and it looked like I was threatening her.
I made a point of taking a step back.
Arabella chuckled as she pushed past me like she thought I was pathetic.
Lately, I was.
The air around Luka shimmered black.
It was high time he explained himself. I turned to question Luka about what the hell kind of game he and John were playing, but a servant burst into the room.
Why would he keep his identity a secret for so many years but reveal it now?
“Here’s the enchanted speaker you requested.” The servant offered a glowing blue sphere to Zenith.
The demon stared down at it and furrowed his brow.
The servant explained, “Just tap it once while thinking of a song, genre of music, or general aesthetic.”
Zenith tapped.
A guitar tore through notes while a male singer screamed.
It was frenzied music.
Violent.
One corner of his mouth twitched up, and it was the happiest I’d ever seen him.
“Here we go.” Arabella climbed onto John’s bed and started playing the air guitar while shimmying her hips wantonly. She smiled and said, “Get up sluts it’s time to sin.”
My blood pressure skyrocketed.
Wasn’t she supposed to be depressed?
“What are you doing? You’re acting like a psychopath,” I growled at her over the unintelligible music blaring through the room.
So much for appearing less aggressive.
“At least I’m on a path,” Arabella said as she smirked and flipped the unruly mass of blue curls over her shoulder. “Also, I’m dancing like a whore.” She pretended to hump air.
She pointed both her middle fingers at me and scrunched them like she was waving.
“To everyone I’ve done wrong.” She gestured to the room like she was making an announcement. “I just want you to know.” She put a hand over her heart. “I’d do it again.”
I shook my head with disgust.
She laughed and tripped over a pillow.
I lunged forward, catching her before she hit the floor. My fingers tingled where they dug into the dip above her hips.
She scrambled out of my grip and climbed back onto the bed.
I took a step back and cleared my throat as I rubbed at my flushed face.
She resumed dancing provocatively.
The edge of my shirt sizzled as it caught on fire.
Lately, the servants were having to bring me new clothes every day because I was burning through them. I hadn’t been so out of control since puberty.
“Since you’re forcing me to be here,” Arabella said with a smirk, “I’m going to rage.”
She exhaled a cloud of smoke, and it formed into a guitar, then she pretended to slam the smoking mirage onto the comforters in a fit of rage.
I didn’t notice that she somehow looked both ferocious and cute pretending to be a rock star.
Nope.
I didn’t notice that at all.
Luka sauntered up to the bed and leaned against it so he stood beside her.
He didn’t smile or touch her like John, but he stood in her proximity with a scowl on his face as he studied her intensely. He was acting like he was her bodyguard or something.
I didn’t like it.
For some ridiculous reason, the twins were always hanging all over her. They were two grown men, but they were acting like clingy women.
It was embarrassing.
My Revered and Protector yawned as they crawled out of bed, where they’d been tangled together napping. Their hair was adorably messy, their eyes hooded. Sleep still clung to them.
I wrapped my arms around them and dragged them against my sides.
Their hard bodies felt so good pressed against mine.
Solid. Strong.
Orion’s brown eyes sparkled, and his full upper lip begged to be kissed. Scorpius had red marks on his cheek from where he’d been pressed into the pillow.
I held them close to me.
“What’s with all the noise?” Scorpius asked.
Orion whispered in his ear, “Arabella is pretending to smash a guitar. Now she’s swiveling her hips. Luka’s watching.”
They both made a harsh noise in the backs of their throats.
I concurred.
Rubbing at my chest, I said, “We need to let loose tonight. The slave brand is making everything so much worse. We’re having a party.”
“Are you sure?” Scorpius said uneasily.
Orion didn’t respond; he just stared at Arabella with his pupils blown wide.
A horrible pit expanded in my stomach as I agreed with my mates.
I didn’t want a random woman on my cock. I wanted… What was I doing?
No. “We’re all appeasing our fire tonight. That’s an order.” I clapped my hand against Orion’s shoulder to divert his attention.
“Whatever you say, Captain,” Scorpius drawled as he kneaded the back of my neck with his long fingers.
Somehow my Protector always knew when I was struggling with control.
“We raided Lothaire’s secret stash,” a female voice said from the doorway. The assassin legion walked into the room, holding up bottles of demon brew. The leviathan legion followed behind them and cheered.
Zenith tapped the enchanted speaker, and the volume increased.
Bottles were passed around.
Orion took a long drink, then handed it to me. The glass was still heated from his mouth, and I savored the remnants of him.
He tasted warm and expensive.
Someday we’d find our fourth and I’d always have the flavor of my Revered on my lips.
I couldn’t wait to worship him. I’d consume him morning, day, and night.
He’d be mine.
Unequivocally.
For all of immortality.
I licked my lips and enjoyed the precious hint of what was to come. It tasted divine. Tonight was going to be a good night.
