Page 18 of Bonds of Magic (Vesperwood Academy: Incubus #3)

NOAH

C ory and Sean stared at me from the shower stall. Fear filled Cory’s eyes, but Sean looked more calculating. He took a step back—but not far enough in my book.

“No means no , you little shit.” I crossed the room and threw him against the wall of the stall.

“Relax, we were just messing around.” Sean pushed away from the wall and rolled his left shoulder experimentally. I might have thrown him a little too hard, but I didn’t give a shit.

“Didn’t sound like it,” I growled. “Didn’t look like it either.”

“That’s what he’s like.” Sean rolled his eyes. “Cory and I have a dynamic that you can’t understand from the outside.”

My blood was already boiling at Sean’s behavior, but the idea that this had happened before, that Cory was sleeping with this asshole and wanted to be treated like this, made me see red.

It’s not so different from how you treat Lew, is it ? whispered a traitorous little voice in the back of my mind, but I crushed it. It was different. I knew what Lew wanted. And I would never push him if he said no.

I swung my head to look at Cory. “Is that true? Did I interrupt something I shouldn’t have?”

Cory was frozen. He hadn’t moved since I’d walked into the room. For the first time, I registered that he was naked. Shivering. Wet.

I wanted to wrap my arms around him. To rush him away from here. To beat Sean to a pulp and make sure he never bothered Cory again.

Please tell me you’re not sleeping with this piece of shit, I begged silently.

Finally, Cory shook his head.

“No.” His voice was hoarse. “No, you didn’t.” He hugged his arms around his chest and continued, his voice barely above a whisper. “I meant it when I said ‘ stop .’”

“Oh, come on,” Sean said. “You know you always change your mind when—”

“He said stop .” I pushed him back against the wall and leaned my arm on his throat. His eyes went wide, and his face blanched. His lips moved frantically, but no sound came out.

“When someone says stop, you stop,” I ground out. “You don’t push them further, you don’t try to wear them down. And you don’t assume they’ll change their minds. Fuck, a first grader knows that. Did your parents never teach you, or are they as despicable as you are?”

Sean was still working on getting words out. He struggled against my weight, but I had pounds of muscle on him, and years of practice. Keeping him pinned barely took effort.

“I don’t know why I’m surprised,” I went on. “After seeing how you act in class, I should have realized arrogance and stupidity were key pillars of your personality.”

Sean’s fingernails dug into my arms, but I had no intention of letting him go.

“You’re done at this school,” I told him. “You hear me? Finished. Gone. And not one of us is going to miss you. Hell, I could take you out right now and I’d be doing everyone a—”

“Um, Noah?”

The words were so tentative, they barely made it through the red mist of rage that filled my brain. But the fact that it was Cory’s voice, sweet and vulnerable, pulled me back from the brink.

I glanced over my shoulder. “What.”

It came out angrier than I intended, but I couldn’t help that. Not while Sean was still in front of me.

“I, uh, think maybe you should let him go.”

“Don’t tell me you care about this asshole.”

Cory’s cheeks flushed. “No. But I also don’t think you should kill him. And he needs some air.”

I turned back to Sean. His eyes had gone glassy, his face purple. With a disgusted sigh, I removed my arm. Sean slumped to the floor, his head hanging between his knees. I had to resist the urge to kick him.

I’d never liked the kid, but his treatment of Cory went beyond the pale. Cory was right. I shouldn’t take justice into my own hands. Not at Vesperwood, anyway. But at least I finally had an excuse to get rid of Sean, as soon as I reported what I’d seen to Isaac.

I looked back at Cory, my lip curling. “Happy?”

He nodded. Then he shook his head. “I mean, no. But yeah. Kind of.” His brow furrowed. “Not that I don’t appreciate it, but what are you doing here?”

“We have a lesson tonight,” I said, careful not to mention what it was for.

Sean was still gasping in huge gulps of air, and I doubted he was coherent enough to pay attention to what we were saying, but still.

“When I couldn’t find you in your room, I thought, with everything going on at the school… ”

I trailed off. I didn’t want to say I was worried, but that was exactly what I’d been. Scared, even.

I’d only had two lessons with Cory, but they’d already become a part of my routine.

And considering what had happened the last time he’d missed a lesson, I’d been more than a little concerned when I couldn’t find him.

I’d checked with his friends after seeing Cory’s room was empty, and Felix had mentioned something about Cory planning on taking a shower.

I’d felt ridiculous, barging into the showers like Cory might be in mortal danger, but it had turned out to be a good thing, hadn’t it?

“Oh,” Cory said softly. “Right. That makes sense.”

The adrenaline was beginning to ebb from my system, and I realized he was still shivering and probably didn’t want to continue this conversation naked. Besides, if I was going to get him back before curfew, we needed to get started on the lesson.

I nudged Sean with the tip of my shoe. “You. Get out of my sight.” He looked up, confused, and a new surge of anger coursed through me. “You need me to say it again? Get out. And don’t bother coming to class tomorrow. I don’t want to see you.”

Fear painted his features. It was the first time I’d seen him drop the confident asshole facade. I liked the change.

He pushed to his feet and attempted to straighten his shirt, but another glare from me sent him running for the door. He stumbled halfway there, and I grunted in satisfaction.

I waited until he was gone before telling Cory, “Get changed and meet me out in the hall when you’re ready.”

I didn’t look at him as I said it. The least I could do was give him some privacy now.

I was relieved that Sean was gone when I got out into the hall. I didn’t trust myself around that kid right now. Much as I wanted to beat him to a pulp, I knew Isaac would have some questions if I did it without telling him why. Isaac would undoubtedly want me not to beat Sean to a pulp at all.

Sometimes his principles made me want to scream.

Cory and I didn’t talk until we’d made it outside and were walking down the path to the woods. Cory’s raven, Cat, flapped in out of nowhere and he let out a contented little sigh as the bird settled on his shoulder. I knew he must still be shaken up, though.

“You don’t have to worry about ever seeing him again,” I told Cory as we walked. “As soon as our lesson’s over, I’m going to talk to Isaac. Sean will be out on his ass by noon tomorrow.”

“What?” Cory looked at me, wide-eyed. “No, you can’t do that.”

“I can and I will. I promise, you don’t have to worry about him trying to get revenge or punishing you for speaking out. Isaac has as little tolerance for that type of behavior as I do. He won’t even make you tell him what happened face to face. I can keep you out of it.”

“No. Please, don’t.”

“He won’t hurt you again.”

“Please just leave it.”

“Why?” I stopped, staring at Cory in the moonlight as a new suspicion rose within me. “If this really is some kind of fucked up game between you two, if you really are together and you dragged me into—”

“No, no.” Cory held up his hands in protest, and Cat flapped their wings like they were ready to take off. “That’s not what’s happening, I swear. I’m not with him at all. But he—” He broke off and looked at his feet.

It was cold out. My breath was misting in the air. I wanted to get inside and get this lesson over with so I could find Isaac. What the hell could Cory’s objection be?

“But he what ?” I asked sharply.

“We’re not hooking up,” Cory said firmly. “But we—we did. Once.”

He darted a glance at my face, then looked back at the ground. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. Cory had slept with that shithead? He’d let Sean touch him? Hold him? All the things I’d been aching to do, but denying myself—Cory had done them with Sean, of all people?

It felt like a betrayal. I knew that wasn’t fair. But it felt like one anyway.

I said nothing, and eventually Cory spoke.

“It was only one time,” he said, talking directly to his shoes. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t even like him. But he might have…kind of gotten the idea that I, um…like being pushed around?”

“Why.” It was an effort to keep the rage out of my voice.

“Because I—God, do I really have to talk about this?”

Maybe it wasn’t fair to make Cory explain any further. But if he and Sean had some sick game going on that they’d pulled me into, I needed to know.

“You do if it has any connection to what happened back there.” I nodded towards the manor. “If you’re lying to me—”

“I’m not lying.” Cory’s head swung up, his eyes meeting mine.

“But I was—God, do you have any idea what this has been like for me? I’ve been having weird sex dreams for months.

I’m attracted to people—to men—who I’ve never wanted to want.

Then I discover magic is real, and that I’m an incubus, and that my future is going to be nothing but sex dreams with men, unless I’d prefer to die? ”

His eyes begged for a sign of approval. Of forgiveness. I couldn’t bring myself to give him one.

“I’d been having all these feelings,” he continued. “I didn’t know what they meant, or what to do with them. I kept trying to shove stuff down, but it kept coming back, like my body was acting on its own, and I needed—I just wanted a release, you know?”

Cat started pecking at Cory’s hair, and he reached up to brush the bird’s beak away.

“I can’t justify it. I know Sean is awful. I’m not proud of what I did. But the one time, when it happened, I wasn’t sure, at first, if I wanted to go through with it.”

“Did he force you?” My voice was cold.