Page 47 of Angel Lost (Fates Academy #3)

Chapter Forty-seven: Lorelei

By the end of the day, I’m exhausted. Dead on my feet, eyes stinging kind of exhausted, but we need a debrief. Acting as normal has meant we’ve barely seen one another. Certainly not all together in one room. I shove my way into Farrell’s room, pushing past Alairik and Raff lurking in his hallway, elbowing Hewie off the giant loveseat. I collapse, head in Chano’s lap, and groan.

“Everyone here?” Farrell’s clipped tones bring the room to order. How does he do that? Lead effortlessly. Chano’s hands smooth my forehead, and I push myself up, batting him away. I’ll be asleep in two minutes, even with the blood top-up he gave me over lunch. And I have questions. Questions that need to be answered. My fangs pop out over my lip, and I rub my temple. Must not get snappy. Must not.

“So, this mark…” Zephyr gestures at my wrist. “It’s an illusion, right?”

Zephyr and Kai sit opposite each other at the big oak table, matching scowls on their faces. I rub my wrist, sensing it out, feeling the connection. It feels real. Very real.

Kai sniffs, peering down his nose. “Nothing to do with me, angel.” He stands and strides toward me, crouching down, face level with mine. “You finally accepted our bond.” He smiles, and his expression lightens. “An allegiance and no longer a slave. What a week.”

Zephyr scrapes his chair back and stalks over. He yanks Kai’s hair away from the back of his neck and peers closely. No slave mark. His fingers twitch .

Kai stays motionless for a second before turning, standing slowly. His hand lands on Zephyr’s shoulder. “Sorry, man,” he says. “You next?”

Zephyr stares down at his hand in disgust. He shoves Kai back, a flurry of moths exploding from under his uniform. “I killed one of my own, and I’m the one still bound? And you? You’ve shoved your way into my allegiance.”

Farrell strides across the room. “Since when were angels your people, Zephyr?” Farrell asks. “The Angel King has always been our enemy. And the angels he surrounds himself with.”

Zephyr rears back. His wings flick out, taking up far too much space in the room. “At least they would get rid of your father if I asked them to.”

“What?” Farrell’s tone is low, dangerous.

“They offered!” Zephyr snaps. “They offered me anything I want.”

Farrell snarls, and I move to stand between them. “Shit, Zephyr. We need to keep our heads down right now. After, if there is an after, we’ll deal with the Virrey.”

Zephyr looks between me and Farrell. He folds his wings away with smooth precision. “Always a second thought. Always later.”

I take hold of the sides of his face, force him to hold eye contact with me. “I promise you, Zephyr. But they’re going to discover Davina is dead soon. And all it takes is one of those kids to open their mouths…”

Farrell turns, upending the entire table. “They’re not dead?” he roars. “You said you’d deal with them, Lorelei.”

From the corner, Reye speaks. “Knew I liked you, Aether Lorelei.” She offers me a grin and I can’t help but return it, despite Farrell’s anger.

Farrell bangs his fist on the wall, smoke puffing from his nostrils. Quietly, calmly, Chano moves between him and me. I peek around his broad shoulders. “I just couldn’t, Farrell. They were made to do things because of the bond. They deserve a chance.”

Zephyr twirls a lock of his beautiful hair around a finger, staring at Farrell with a strange kind of disconnect. “This is why Lorelei is better than you.” He throws one last glance around the room as he walks away. “Than all of you.”

The door shuts at his back and we sit in silence.

Farrell slowly rights the table and pulls a chair toward me. I sink into it, resting my head in my hands. What now? We still have all the decisions to make. And it feels like a part of my soul just walked out the door.

I really don’t know if he’ll make his way back to us.

“They’ll follow me,” Reye says. She smooths her hands across the front of her robe and sits, legs crossed at the ankles. Ever the lady. “The Gifted students are my friends—they might follow me. They knew I didn’t want to be the king’s bride. I just had no choice. Like them.”

Kai ruffles her hair as if she’s still his kid sister.

She catches his hand, giving it a squeeze. “I’ll speak to them. Don’t misunderstand, Farrell Cuelebre, I won’t force them. But I’ll try to persuade them to stay hidden, at least a bit longer.”

I nod. “That sounds like our best hope. Farrell can take you to them.”

Farrell swings his head toward me, in the moment his movements are so like the giant dragon that I smile. “They’re on your estate, Farrell. Hidden in the ley lines.”

“And I didn’t get a say in that?”

I stare him down. “Those soldiers answer to me too, remember.”

Lottie sits on the edge of the cot, in the makeshift bunkhouse housing the Gifted students. She rolls a strip of torn bandage between her fingers. She isn’t crying. I don’t think Lottie knows how to cry anymore.

Chano kneels in front of her, voice low. “Tell me why. Why did you run?”

She doesn’t look at him. “The Angel King promised us aether,” she says. “And ascension. No waiting. No college. Just power. ”

I fold my arms. “And you believed him?”

A ghost of a smile tugs at her lips, bitter and tired. “What part of this looks like it went the way I wanted?” She exhales through her nose. “But that part, the ascension part, I believe. And the Mavericks need a solution for the very real possibility—”

Chano stiffens.

“Lottie,” he says, warning laced in his voice.

She ignores him. “You’re getting stronger, Chano.” A pause. “Maybe they’ll decide you don’t belong.”

A cold shiver trickles down my spine. Chano’s expression doesn’t change, but I feel the weight of something unspoken settle between them.

I frown. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Lottie doesn’t answer me. Instead, she reaches for Chano’s hand, squeezing it briefly. “ Someone has to lead the Maveriks, Chano.”

His jaw clenches, his fingers twitching around hers. A shadow passes over his face, gone too fast for me to pin down.

I don’t like it.

Lottie lets go, leaning back against the cot. “Just think about it,” she murmurs. “Maybe there’s something we can use against him here.”

My arms tighten over my chest. They’re talking in circles, and I am not in the mood for riddles.

I turn to Chano. “What’s the runaway talking about?”

His gaze flicks to me, something guarded in his eyes. “Nothing.”

Liar.

The air in the room feels too thick, pressing against my skin like a warning I don’t understand yet. But I will.

One way or another, I will.

It’s two whole days later that the news breaks. Chano’s sure it’s a good thing. They were waiting for us to get scared, to run. But I’ve spent the past few days terrified someone would work it out, scared I’d turn around and the boys would have been arrested. Worried I was going to have to go back to the Gifted Academy, pretending I didn’t know I’d find a massacre the moment I walked through the portal.

The news blares from the screen hastily erected on the stage in the Great Hall, the dean having called the entire school to watch the bulletin. Kai stands stiffly beside me, wearing a black armband—for all the world, the grieving son. The dean broke the news to him in the early hours; called him from his bed.

The newsreel rolls.

In his bleakest hour, the son of Davina, the murdered Princess Royal, can be comforted in finding his allegiance. An allegiance of five.

The entire student body seems to inhale. My allegiance huddles closer. Raff did good. We decided the more eyes on Kai, the more he was seen and seen to be grieving, the less suspicious. And this? This is media gold. From the screen Kai’s red-rimmed eyes stare back, his hand clasped in mine, the pentagram clearly visible on his wrist. All five points filled. A comfort in his moment of grief.

Chano leans forward, his breath hot on my neck. “The dean is watching the pair of you closely.”

A ghost walks over my grave. Do not look. Do not look. I chew my lip, staring straight forward, not even seeing the screen anymore.

“You told him you two were an item?” Chano asks.

I nod.

“Except since then, you’ve not been acting coupley.”

Kai links an arm through mine. Shit. He’s right. “He probably just assumed you weren’t cool with it? I mean, you are my Aeternum, Chano. ”

I lean back, resting my weight against Chano’s chest. He huffs into my hair. “I’m cool with it. Farrell? What about you?”

Farrell stiffens, raising his eyebrow. “I don’t think I’m in a position to complain.”

Kai shoots me a shit-eating grin. “That’s settled then.”

He leans over, caging me against Chano’s chest. One hand possessively cups the back of my neck, and he brushes his lips against mine. My breathing hitches, my lips tingling. My mouth opens and our tongues collide. I can’t breathe, can’t think. Kai pulls away and I know. I just know everyone is watching.

Chano takes my hand, leading me out of the Great Hall, past rows and rows of students. The rest of the allegiance follows close on my heels. Except Zephyr. Because who the fuck knows where he is.

We escape to Farrell and Kai’s rooms, and the moment the doors shut the boys burst into peals of laughter.

“Oh, Lorelei, you should see your face,” Chano gasps between very un-manly giggles. “You’re bouncing between shocked, lovestruck, worried, and back to shocked.”

I smack him on the arm, flouncing into the living room, feeling suddenly lighter than I’ve felt in weeks.

Zephyr looks up from the table, his beautiful hair a rat’s nest, maps and blueprints spread out in front of him. By the time we explain what happened it doesn’t seem so funny.

“He’s meant to be grieving, not fucking pawing at you,” Zephyr snaps, his fist bunching up one of the maps. “Well, if he can do that, he can help plan.”

He smooths the paper out again with frenetic little movements. His gaze jumps from one document to another, his tongue poking out the corner of his mouth in concentration. I pull a chair out next to him, squinting at his scribbles .

“We can all plan,” Zephyr says, flinging a notepad at Farrell, who catches it a hairsbreadth from his face. Scowling, Farrell opens it, flicking through the pages.

“No,” he says. “We barely got away with that massacre, and we still might be caught!”

Beside me Zephyr goes rigid.

Fingering the parchment, it hits me. These are blueprints of a prison. Maps of old tunnels. Details of guard changes, mealtimes, laundry days.

I place a hand on Zephyr’s tense back. “Breaking into the Angel King’s prison and killing a high-profile politician is too risky, Z. We need to table this for now.”

He stares into my eyes. “You too, Lorelei? I’m just to stay the rebellion punch bag for every time the Virrey is tortured, forever?”

I flinch at the reproach. I didn’t even realize Zephyr was still suffering . “Sorry, Zephyr. I know you’ve waited all this time. Just a little longer? Please?”

Zephyr’s face is so terrifyingly blank that when he finally nods, I don’t believe him. I snake my arm around his waist, resting my head on his chest. He tenses, then his lips brush the top of my head, so briefly I could have imagined it.

The next few days and weeks are a blur. Slowly, I stop expecting to be hauled off at any moment. Gradually, I learn not to panic every time the boys aren’t exactly where they say they’ll be at the exact agreed time. We fall into an easy pattern. Days studying, evenings training, and nights mostly goofing around in Farrell and Kai’s rooms. Keeping out of the public eye. There are no professors left at Gifted to teach me, so the dean agreed I could come back to Fates full-time. We spend weekends at Farrell’s estate, focusing on the Maverik kids, helping them rehabilitate, making sure the aether students don’t wreak too much havoc. So far, they seem content to stay hidden away, but we all know that won’t last forever. And when they step back out into the world, the shit will truly hit the fan.

We have to be ready.

Can Lorelei and her men win out against the Angel King? Can they even stick together? Order the final book in Fates Academy today – Aether Unbound.

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