Page 10 of Angel Lost (Fates Academy #3)

Chapter Ten: Lorelei

I panic, lashing out, reaching for my aether. Chano looms over me, holding me down. His face is pinched with emotion, but he keeps chanting.

Pain ricochets around my body. I can’t do this. I can’t. My head spins, the mirrors spiral around and around, and the faces of the others twirl above me. I can’t tell which is real and which is a reflection. They need to stop. I can’t do this. The pain…I open my mouth, but my tongue won’t work.

“Stop!” a rage-filled voice screams.

Someone has realized. Someone will help me.

The chanting rushes to a crescendo before stopping abruptly. But it’s not the relief I was expecting. I feel them. Each of them. Inside my head. Controlling my power. Controlling me.

They finished the bond.

I wrench out of Chano’s grasp, roll over, and vomit. Acid burns the back of my throat and tears stream down my face. I wipe my arm across my mouth and, heaving in giant gasps of air, I slowly sit up.

I rub my hand across my eyes. Then I do it again. Chano didn’t just let me go. He was ripped away. They all were. Standing above me is a scaly, toothed, and very, very angry wyvern.

“Silas?” It can’t be.

It passes in a circle around me, tail whipping from side to side, teeth bared. Chano holds his hands up as he walks forward, slowly. The beast lunges. Its teeth snap shut on his arm, and it throws him across the cavern as if he’s a pesky rodent. He thumps into the glass, sending a hairline crack toward the ceiling.

Zephyr’s wings snap out and he takes to the air, swooping toward me, arms outstretched. I reach for him. His fingers graze mine, but in the same instant the wyvern’s tail slams into him, sending him spiraling into the silvery water. Wings instantly waterlogged, he vanishes under the surface. The wyvern snarls again and faces the others. Protecting me. Protecting me from them.

“It’s okay,” I croak. My voice is barely audible. I swallow, the back of my throat raw, and try again. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”

The wyvern half swings to face me, its gaze darting between me and the boys.

“They didn’t harm me.”

The creature paws the ground and shakes its giant head. If that’s not beast for disagreement I don’t know what is.

“I…asked them to.”

While I try to reason with a damn animal, Farrell edges forward on one side of it, Kai on the other. The wyvern roars, swinging its head between them. Shakily, I stand up. The room spins and I lean heavily on the giant scaly leg beside me. It twists, lowering its head to peer at me, huffing hot air in my face.

“Stand down,” Farrell shouts. “Stand down, Camille, and I’ll explain.”

Camille? I did sense someone following us, dammit.

Even once Camille shifts back, she’s hard to convince. She seems certain I need an intervention. She hates me. Hates my guts but…

It must look awful—a bunch of guys forcing a girl into a slave bond. Hell, it’s against the law. I can’t even give her a decent explanation. There’s no way I’m letting someone who viscerally hates me know that I’m a true aether.

“It was my idea, Camille.” I scrub a hand over back of my neck. “I asked them to.”

She crosses her arms and puffs out her cheeks, clearly as unconvinced in human form.

“It’s a kink,” I say, a hot blush creeping up my neck.

Camille throws her arms in the air. “Bitch, please. Do not come crying to me when it goes tits up then,” she snaps.

I force what I hope is a reassuring smile and push past her toward the exit. The boys follow behind, murmuring reassurances as they pass. After a long beat her stupid stilettos click briskly after us. As I reach the archway, she shoves past Chano and gets into my face. Camille points a manicured fingernail at my nose.

“I don’t like you. I really don’t like you, Lorelei Bal. But make no mistake, if any of these assholes abuse this stupid, stupid bond, you can and will tell me, right?”

I open my mouth—

“Right?” She stomps her foot. “Unless you agree this instant, I am reporting you all to the P.I.G.”

I nod mutely, and her nostrils flare. She reaches up, yanks a hairpin out and grabs my hand. Flicking her unfurling hair over her shoulder, she viciously stabs my pinkie finger, squeezing until a spot of blood wells out. I tug my hand away and she rolls her eyes, stabbing her own finger the same way. She lunges for me again, pressing our hands together. “Swear it.”

She’s nuts.

“Fine, Camille. If any of them abuse this bond, I’ll tell you.”

She starts to chant, linking her pinkie with mine. “Linked in trust, sealed in vow—break it, and fate marks you now.” Heat creeps up my arm, a funny tingling settling on my chest. Are you shitting me? An actual pinkie promise? Those things are notoriously tricksy. This is going to bite my ass. I just know it.

I snatch my arm back. “Happy now?”

“Rarely.” She turns on her heel .

“I am disappointed in you, Farrell Cuelebre,” she snarls as she struts away down the tunnel, leaving everyone gaping in her wake. Hewie rolls his eyes and trots after her, muttering about making sure she gets out. She damn well got in all by herself…

I stare down at my finger, rubbing it distractedly. The cool of the cavern seems to have seeped into me, and I shiver. Groaning, I hunch my shoulders and swing back to the others.

“We still need to test the bond and do the oath, right?” I ask. “Let’s get it over with.”

It’s like not one of them heard me. Each of them is stopped, like a statue, peering at their wrists.

Oh no. No, no, no. Not that.

With trepidation, I slowly turn my hand over, until my palm faces the mirrored ceiling. Taking a deep breath, I peer down.

But my allegiance mark is normal. Thank the goddesses. I couldn’t have coped—

“Welcome to the club, I guess.” Chano’s voice interrupts my thought. He claps a hand on Kai’s shoulder, his face a mixture of worry and excitement.

“Wait, what?” I ask.

The boys huddle around.

“You didn’t believe me.” Zephyr sniffs, waving his hand in my face. “Well, now you know not to doubt my abilities.”

His wrist is in my grip before I even think. All five corners of his pentagram are filled—an extra allegiance mark. A mark for Kai. No. I whirl on Chano. The same. My breath quickens. Farrell barely has time to react before I yank his arm close, fingers digging in. No! I fling his arm away from me like it burns.

“Whoa, chica, easy.” Chano wraps an arm around my shoulders. “I know you miss Naeve, and you don’t want this, but the Fates clearly have other ideas. ”

I shrug him off, taking a faltering step away. “He’s not our allegiance,” I hiss. “I don’t have a mark. Zephyr is wrong . It’s a trick. I don’t have a mark.” I strain up into Kai’s face. “I don’t know how you managed this, but un-fucking-do it, right now!”

Farrell takes my hand uncharacteristically gently and flips it over. His fingers play over my allegiance mark. Very clearly Naeve’s spot sits, still empty, on my wrist. Naeve’s spot. Not Kai’s. Farrell frowns, confusion marring his brow.

“I didn’t do anything, I swear,” Kai says over Farrell’s shoulder, his tone flat, emotionless, as he flashes his own wrist. A stubbornly solid pentagram sits on his pale skin. Each spot filled. My icon, my avatar, glaringly obvious. “This is not something I would choose.”

Not something he would choose? To be in our allegiance. Well, that’s not how allegiance works, is it? More proof it’s wrong; Zephyr’s wrong.

“You screwed up the tattoo,” I say, my voice more confident than I feel. “Maybe not deliberately. But you said it—you’re still learning. And…well…that explains what Zephyr saw. He saw this fuckup. And jumped to a conclusion. The wrong conclusion.”

Both Zephyr and Kai glare at me.

“Don’t you dare try to wriggle out of this, Lorelei Bal,” Kai snaps.

I chew my lip. The slave bond is made. I can feel them all, somewhere in the back of my mind. Each of them has a heavy, oppressive presence. He messed up, but he did keep his end of the deal.

Palming my knife, I grimace. “I’ll still make the oath, Kai. I keep my word.”

Farrell steps between us, taking my blade from me. Naeve’s blade. “She’ll do it, but the oath wording will be altered. Should Lorelei be found out because your weird tattoo magic is screwed up, her side of the bargain is void.”

Kai’s expression hardens, his eyes flashing. I swear his cheekbones get higher, his ears longer, and his hair almost dances with a will of its own. He screws his eyes shut and presses his fingers to his temples, massaging in slow circles. Eventually, he releases a breath of air and with it, his anger dissipates. He looks normal again…tired, worn out around the edges…but normal.

“I thought, if I ever found an allegiance…I thought it would be different.” He passes a hand over his face. “To find even you don’t trust me, because I’m fae, that’s…disappointing.”

He shrugs suddenly, grabbing the knife from Farrell and slitting his hand open again. “No matter. I know my end of the bargain is good.”

It’s anticlimactic. Over quickly, and then Kai is out the chamber, following Camille’s long-faded footsteps. Zephyr slinks out behind him, not even bothering to glance at me.

What a day.

A blood oath, a pinkie promise, and a slave bond, plus some kind of allegiance mark fuckery, and to top it off, a pissy Zephyr. Goddess give me strength.

I push the heels of my hands into my eyes, exhaustion rolling over me. Focus on the good bits, the positives. We found a workaround. I lean back against the cool of the mirrored observatory wall.

“I’m scared.” It comes out so quiet and the silence stretches for so long after I don’t think anyone heard.

Wood smoke drifts up my nostrils as Chano pulls me to him, his big arms encircling me. I’m still half-mad at him, but I can’t help it, I lean in, taking giant comforting gulps of his scent, my face pressed up against his hard abs.

“Nothing is going to happen to you, chica. I won’t let it,” he says. Farrell mutters something in the background, and Chano sighs. “We won’t let it.”

He dips his head, his mouth finding mine. He kisses me, tentatively at first. Like he’s not sure how I’ll react, then harder, his tongue claiming my mouth with a need that steals my breath. He pulls away, and I groan.

“We’re making a mistake,” he says .

If he’s about to tell me he doesn’t want this. Doesn’t need this…I press myself firmly against his bulging cock and smirk as his breath hitches.

“This is a mistake, Lorelei,” he says, moving me firmly away from him. “There’s a wounded puppy behind you.”

I peek around his muscular bicep at Farrell.

“I’m not a fucking…” Farrell sputters. “Whatever, Maverik.”

Chano rolls his eyes, maneuvering me to face Farrell. He curls his fingers in my hair, tilting my head to the side, then drops featherlight kisses down my neck, never once breaking eye contact with Farrell.

“Not cool,” Farrell grates, shuffling on the spot.

Chano grazes my skin with his teeth, then soothes the sting with a kiss before pulling away from my neck. “Then kiss her too.”

“Wait, I don’t know about this,” I protest, gazing around. Mirrored versions of ourselves stare back from every surface.

“I thought you wanted him?” Chano says.

“I do,” I blurt before I can stop myself. I’m way too tired to be sensible right now. To hold my tongue. And the way Farrell’s face has lit up…“Zephyr thinks we should talk.”

Chano chuffs behind me. “You want Zephyr too? Greedy little demoness,” he purrs in my ear.

“No.”

In front of me Farrell frowns, and Chano tenses at my back.

“You don’t want Zephyr?” Chano asks slowly.

“Stop. You’re taking this all wrong,” I splutter. “Zephyr thought it was weird we hadn’t discussed this.”

Farrell halves the distance between us and I press back into Chano.

“This, princess?” he says.

“Yeah, the three of us.”

“No Zephyr?” he asks, cocking his head to one side.

“What?” I take a deep breath. “I mean isn’t it weird we’ve not talked about what’s happening? ”

Farrell moves so close that when he dips his head our breaths mingle in the cool air. “What is happening?”

I swallow. “I don’t know!”

Farrell’s lips are almost touching mine. “Then what is there to talk about?”

Chano rubs circles on my back. “Just enjoy the moment, chica,” he says, as Farrell’s tongue teases the seam of my lips.

With a gasp I open my mouth. For half a second Farrell hesitates, then he’s pressed hard against me, sandwiching me between him and Chano, his mouth insistent, fingers tangled in my hair, while Chano strokes down my arms, across my stomach, teasing my waistband.

Chest heaving, Farrell steps away. The cold observatory air hits me, and I shiver, missing his heat immediately. Chano spins me, peering into my face, and I can’t help it, a tiny yawn slips out.

In one swift movement he’s swept me up into his arms. “She’s exhausted, and it’s freezing in here.”

Out the corner of my eye I catch Farrell nodding. “Your rooms, demon boy.”

I should protest. My legs work perfectly fine. But my limbs are like lead, and the heat from Chano’s body has me snuggling into his chest for just a moment.

Chano’s door creaks and my eyelids flutter open. He rights me in front of the bed, concern in his expression.

“Holding up?”

“It’s just a lot,” I say, rubbing the back of my head. “The whole thing. The Angel King threat, the blood oath, the slave bond.”

He reaches out, smoothing my brow, and jerks his chin at the bed. For the first time I realize that he’s wrangled a single room this year, with something that’s anything but a single bed. King, super king, giant?

I gaze at it before I feel the weight of the guys’ stares on me .

“Maybe…” Farrell shuffles his feet, looking uncharacteristically uncertain. “Maybe another night?”

His disappointment is obvious, both of their disappointment. Shit. “It’s all just so…raw. I don’t know what we’re doing together and then on top of that I can feel you. Like some kind of omniscient presence. Inside my head.” Chano frowns and I rush on. “I know you won’t abuse it, but just the idea that you could tell me to do something, anything, and I’d have to obey. It’s making me feel a bit sick.”

Farrell pales.

“I didn’t know it would feel like that. Zephyr never said…” He trails off. “You know we can’t command you unless the majority of us agree, right? That’s why the bond with all of us was safer than a bond with just one. You need at least three out of four of us to agree to compel you. Plus, it won’t come to that.”

Chano reaches past me and flicks the cover back on the ginormous bed. “Get in, chica. Rest. Sleep.” He yanks his own T-shirt over his head and shambles toward the other side of the bed.

Farrell tugs at his shirt collar before turning and heading for the door.

“Wait,” I say.

Farrell stops but he doesn’t turn.

“Can you…Can we…” This shouldn’t be so difficult to ask for. “Can we all just…cuddle?”

I sit with a soft thump .

Farrell darts toward the bed. Chano chuckles before pulling me backward, into the middle, making room for Farrell.

It’s not romantic in the slightest. It’s not sexy. Shit, I’m still in my tee, barely managing to wriggle out of my academy skirt before two sets of large male limbs drape over me. But somehow, I feel cared for. Somehow, it’s exactly what I need.