Page 32

How did I get it so wrong?

The kiss with Bailey was everything I’d imagined it would be. Everything and more. Her lips were soft and supple, and she tasted exactly how she smelled.

Like the finest raspberry fae wine.

My favorite.

It’s something I’ve learned to ignore the past few months since she joined Stonewell. But ever since I sent that bitch, Veronica, packing back to Faerie, it’s gotten harder to keep the feelings I’ve buried to stay just that.

Buried.

But every time Bailey smiles, it’s like a shot of pure liquid sunshine straight to my icy heart.

No matter if I’m having a bad day or not, Bailey always seems to know how to make it better. Icicles, she doesn’t even have to do anything. Just shoot me a look, and boom. Everything is right in the world once more.

Somehow, though, I’ve completely misjudged things between us.

It was like the demons’ hell hounds were on heels; she couldn’t get away fast enough.

“Fuck!” I scream, releasing my ice magic in a torrent of frozen fury.

Icicle projectiles shoot from my very pores, slamming into the walls of the containment room with a deafening crash. But it doesn’t stop there. From beneath my feet, ice spreads across the floor, slowly climbing up the walls and onto the ceiling, leaving me standing in the middle of my own icy prison.

When the last icicle escapes, I collapse back onto the floor, breathing heavily.

“Not cool, Fae.” I jolt at the incubus’ voice, not realizing he was still here. I could have sworn he left with Bailey.

Picking up my head, I see him brush the remnants of my ice shards off his shoulders with his tail while fixing me with a glare.

“You know damn well what people are saying about her. Because of you. So keep your shit in check. If we were in your regular classroom, someone could have walked in, and it would have blown the fuck up in her face.”

He leaves without waiting for me to reply, each step he makes melting the ice beneath his feet.

Fae-dammit, I hate to agree with the demon, but he’s right. It doesn’t change how I feel, though. Nothing can. Not unless she rejects me.

But isn’t that what she just did?

Not that she would let me explain, tell her how I feel. That I’ve been feeling like this for a while, even when Veronica was still around. And to most, that would make me a horrible Fae, but Ronnie and I’s relationship has been rocky from the start.

I tried. Faerie, I really did try to make it work for my mother’s sake. But her and I were never compatible. I even tried ending our relationship when I took my job here, but her title as the girlfriend of a winter fae prince was too important for her to give up, so she followed, fighting me all the way.

It was always how much she hated it here. How no one knew who she was. She detested everything I tried to do with her, bitching and complaining that it wasn’t up to Fae standards.

And don’t get me started on the fit she threw when she took an open teaching job and I wouldn’t open my apartment to her. To her, we were dating, and we should be living together. But that went against my own beliefs. It was a constant revolving door of women for my brothers, moving in and out of the palace, and I vowed that would never be me. I wouldn’t live with someone unless they were my mate.

That may make me old fashioned, but I don’t give a fae fuck.

But it was the bullshit with Bailey that really solidified how wrong she was for me. Mother’s sake be damned. Even if it wasn’t Bailey, but another student and she did that? I would have sent her back to Faerie then too.

I’m not a violent Fae by nature, never have been. But watching Veronica join in on the lynch mob truly showed me just what kind of person she’s always been and I’ve always overlooked it.

But sitting here and dwelling on all of this isn’t going to get me any closer to an answer of what I should do now.

The vampire she’s mated to and I have never been close, not like him and the demi-god, but I would think he’s classified as a friend. Yeah, he’s more than likely to punch me in the face when I tell him I kissed his mate, but he knows her the best, and that’s what I need.

My phone is in my hand the next moment, the line ringing in my ear.

“Axel Pennington.”

“Axel, it’s Thaddeus Winterton the third.”

His chuckle echoes through the receiver. “I know who you are, Thaddeus. You don’t need to give me your full name.”

“Right.” I clear my throat. “Listen, I need to talk to you.”

“Is Bailey okay?”

No, she’s not, not when she left anyway, but I don’t tell him that. “She’s fine, so please don’t worry, but something happened and well, I feel we should talk about it.”

“Okay, I’m intrigued. Can it wait until I get back from my business trip in a week, or do we need to talk about it now?”

Yeah, a week isn’t going to work for me.

“Now is probably the best.” Or there’s a chance I’ll lose my shit again and freeze the entire academy.

“Alright. Portal straight into my residence.”

“Done. Thank you. I’ll see you shortly.”

My portal is up and I’m walking through before I even end the call.

“That was quick,” Axel says, exiting the hallway across the room with an amber-filled crystal tumbler in his grip. “Drink?”

“No. I’ll pass. Technically, I’m still on the clock.”

The gold Rolex on his wrist as he checks the time is one I recognize. An antique piece made by the humans back in 1956 and worth a damn fortune now. One of my brothers helped make that very piece, unbeknownst to the original creator. If he had any clue his partner was a Fae and told the world, he would have ended up in an asylum and deemed crazy.

“That’s true. So why are you here and not there?” He takes a seat on the black leather couch, crossing his ankle on his knee.

“I won’t beat around the bush with you. I kissed your mate, and she kissed me back.”

My body tenses, ready for the blow I know I deserve for kissing another man’s mate. It’s an unspoken rule that you don’t go around kissing mated individuals, and I did it anyway. But I’m being a man about it, even if she did reject me after.

“Interesting.” The ice in the crystal clinks together as he swirls the glass before lifting it to his lips. A long, slow sip later, he drains the rest of the amber liquid, discarding the empty cup on the table next to him. “And you say my mate kissed you back?”

“She did.” I nod, resolute.

“Then what happened?” For Faerie’s sake. Is the vampire fucking with me before he tears my throat my out? Who the hell can be so damn calm when they claim to have kissed their mate?

“She ran out of the room before I could stop her and explain.”

“Do you love her?”

“No.” My hands frost over, immediately giving away my lie, not that he knows that.

“Do you care about her?” Now that’s a question I can answer truthfully.

“Very much so.”

“Okay,” he says, like that fixes everything.

“Okay? That’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s it, Thaddeus.” He gets to his feet and pats me on the back. “I like you. You’ve been one of Bailey’s biggest supporters from the very beginning, so I don’t have any worries that you’ll hurt her. But I’m guessing that’s not the only reason you’re here to talk to me, is it?”

“I wish it was as easy as that.”

“Alright. Follow me.” He takes off for the hall he originally came from, and I follow a short distance behind, but my focus is immediately drawn to the paintings on the wall.

Turn of the century pieces hang every few apart with a small lamp shining from above each one, highlighting the different works of art. Each one is so vastly different from the other, it makes me wonder why he chose these specific ones when I know there’s better out in the world.

He’s a vampire, though, and I won’t even pretend to think I have him figured out.

When I enter the room he disappeared into, my steps falter when the first thing I see is a black lacquer coffin shining in the candlelight set upon a pedestal. The lid is closed and there’s a pile of clothes folded on the top, possibly the things he’s taking with him on his business trip.

Axel chuckles from somewhere off to my left. “Thought that was a myth, huh?”

“I mean, yeah.” I turn away and toward his voice to find him standing in the doorway of a massive walk-in closet. “The few vampires I’ve acquainted myself with in the past told me as much. But I know you’re pressed with time, so I’ll keep those stories for a later date.”

“Of course.” He disappears back inside, but I can hear him clearly. “So lay it on me.”

“I had mentioned that she ran out of the room. That’s true. But not before she looked at me with regret, guilt, and,” I swallow hard, “fear.”

“She was scared?”

“Yeah. And I don’t know why.”

“Have a seat, Thaddeus. I have a few theories.”

A seat? Where? There’s not a single chair in this room, and the only piece of furniture is the coffin, and it would be disrespectful to sit on the closed lid.

“In here.”

Faerie hell. I want to facepalm myself for not realizing that sooner.

Inside the closet is like its own mini shopping mall. Almost larger than the main bedroom itself, there’s a set of stairs to a second level, and a large mirror covering the back wall. There are sections for shoes, belts, shirts, pants, suits, and that’s only on the bottom floor.

I take the chaise lounge positioned in front of the mirror as Axel thumbs through his racks of clothing.

“Okay, so, the regret and the guilt are two-fold,” Axel jumps right in. “As her mates, Luka and I, she’s never mentioned feeling something for you. It can be new, or something she buried long ago. After all, you were dating someone.” He pins me with a look like that should explain it all. “Also, you guys kissed, which is further than she got with the demons.”

“Wait!” I explode out of the chair. “What do you mean the demons? They’re her bodyguards.”

“Ahh.” He wags his finger. “Not exactly. She feels something for them, and she told us that she and Zane almost kissed. Almost. But she backed away. So that’s the other part. But the fear? Have you ever considered that she might think she’s a rebound? I mean, you were with your girlfriend for how long? And it was the entire time Bailey’s been at Stonewell. So all she’s seen is the two of you. Now, the girlfriend is gone, and you’re kissing her. Why wouldn’t she think she’s a rebound in the grand scheme of it all.”

Pixie shit. I never even considered that.

“She’s not,” I mutter, tugging at the ends of my hair. “You have to believe me.”

Axel leans against the shelf containing an impressive shoe collection, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re not very confident for a Fae prince, are you?” He laughs. “I’m not the one you need to be convincing. It’s her. At the end of the day, it’s her choice who she takes as mates.”

“But how do I do that if she ran away from me?”

He shakes his head with a chuckle.

“I’ll help you this once, prince boy.” He holds up a single finger. “After that, you’re on your own. Deal?”

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to make a deal with a Fae?”

“Fae. Crossroad demon.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Same difference.”

“Alright. Deal. What do you have in mind?”

Axel proceeds to explain the idea he has, and though a little deceiving, it may just work.

Let’s just hope she gives me enough time to explain it all instead of rejecting me before I can even begin.