Page 21

~Vorzyr~

I glanced down at my phone, looking over the text message exchange in the Group Chat the four of us had set up when we’d come back to Maven Academy yesterday afternoon.

We’d only started sending texts in it this morning, though, when Ariana had taken her family up on an invitation to meet and talk out their issues regarding the massive secret they’d kept from her, wanting to make peace, to be with her.

She’d missed two classes because of it, but she’d be back for the afternoon ones, fortunately. And Kai was being his usual diligent self and taking notes for her.

One missed class was War Strategy and Supernatural Diplomacy with the Dark Fae, Professor Thalric Voss.

I’d been in that class as well and, honestly, she hadn’t missed a lot.

For her. I’d learned quite a bit even with that one class, because the Dracoryn Realm was very dragon-centric, so those sorts of things when it came to the wider supernatural world weren’t actually taught.

A subject like that was just geared to the politics surrounding the different Houses in the Realm.

But here in this class at Maven Academy, it encompassed everything.

But for Ariana, it was kind of moot. She already understood so much where that was concerned.

Hell, she’d grown up around that sort of thing.

The other class she’d missed had been Combat and Power Suppression with Professor Veyna Morrigan. Her missing that was probably for the best with everything else going on.

I hadn’t been in that class. I had another course I had to complete for a semester before I was permitted to because of the control issues I’d been sent here for by my parents.

So, instead, I’d had to endure a nightmare and an insult of a class in Controlled Transformation and Shifter Regulation.

It was taught by Professor Magnus Holloway, a werewolf.

He was a judgmental shit and it really seemed like he hated his wolf nature and everything about the animal side of himself with the way he’d carried on in class.

He hadn’t said one positive thing about animal nature during the entire class.

It had all been geared toward harsh warnings of the downsides of it, the lack of control.

To say I hadn’t cared for it didn’t even begin to cover it.

It had gotten under my skin something fierce.

And that was why I was finding myself looking over our texts now. It was helping to calm me down.

Somewhat, because after I’d gotten out of class, I’d been looking forward to training with Kai on my Primal Celestial Resonance at his lab, but he’d been a no-show.

Kai Hunter had stood me up.

The day was not turning out well, to say the least.

Focus on the texts. Breathe.

A smile formed on my face when I looked at my nickname for Nyx when we were texting, something I’d thought of only recently, and just started to employ.

Luscious: Enjoy the time with your family this morning, Halo. Despite current issues, it’s a very valuable thing when you’re as close as your family is.

Goddess: We’ll sort things out. I hear you, cutie pie.

Luscious: You’re handling this really well.

Hell Lord: Understatement there.

Vorzyr: That’s our goddess in action.

Goddess: You’re going to make me blush and I’m approaching my family home.

Hell Lord: Going to. That sounds like a challenge.

Vorzyr: You just woke the beast. And sadly, I don’t mean me.

Luscious: Oh, damn.

Hell Lord: Can’t wait until you’re back here later. Gonna throw you down on your bed, spread you wide and feast on your sweet cunt until you drench my face. And then V and Nyx are gonna dive in right after… a cunt-eating train, if you will.

Goddess: Kai, stop!

Hell Lord: More than blushing happening now? You’re picturing it all too vividly, aren’t you?

Vorzyr: You do realize she’s meeting with her entire family, which consists of two with wolf senses, and an Ancient vampire with heightened intuition?

Luscious: Give her a chance to calm down before she walks in there.

Hell Lord: Fine. If you insist.

Luscious: Well, that was easier than I’d thought it would be.

Goddess: Almost too easy.

Vorzyr: Wait for it. There’s no way he’s done.

Hell Lord: You’re right, I’m not. So, as I was saying, we’ll save the down and dirty for when you get back, our beautiful little slut.

Goddess: Kai!

Hell Lord: That’s right. Welcome to the Cock Fest, sweetheart.

Goddess: OMG.

Luscious: Bahahaha.

Vorzyr: *face palm GIF*

Hell Lord: Blushing now, sweet Ari?

Goddess: You’ll pay for this.

Hell Lord: Mmm, I can’t wait.

Vorzyr: Down for witnessing that. ??

Luscious: Throwing down the gauntlet with Kai… Boss move, Halo. I love it.

Goddess: TTYL. See you soon, my boys. ??

I smiled to myself as I turned off the screen, then pocketed my phone in my pants.

It was good timing, as I’d reached Kai and Nyx’s dorm room in the time it had taken me to read over our message exchange again.

Even though reviewing those texts had served to calm me down a little, it hadn’t succeeded all the way, and it still had me slamming my hand into their dorm room door, the thing flying open easily and smacking against the wall.

The fact that I’d calmed down somewhat was the reason it didn’t rip off its hinges and fly across the entire length of the room and shatter against the wall, doing significant structural damage to said wall as well.

“I didn’t add special passage for you through my ward so you could burst on in whenever you saw fit. I was expecting advanced notice, or a knock at the very least,” Kai’s voice came. “Now who’s lacking manners, hmm?”

I searched him out with my senses because he wasn’t immediately visible.

I strode further into the room, and there he was on the floor near his bed, tons of papers, books, and drawings gathered all around him, as he filtered through them, moving back and forth, snatching up one thing, then putting it down only to snatch up another.

He wasn’t even dressed, just wearing a pair of black lounge pants, his chiseled chest bare, as well as his feet. Even his usually perfectly styled hair was in disarray, like he’d been shoving his hand through it repeatedly.

He looked utterly immersed.

Worse… Nyx had told me about these episodes of his.

He was in obsessive mode.

The papers and books and what-not were even spread over Nyx’s desk and his bed.

“I’m guessing Nyx had to vacate while you’re engrossed in all of this, because you needed so much space?” I asked, drawing closer.

He didn’t look up as he answered, clearly hyper-focused.

“No. He booked time in a Ruminat hut so he wouldn’t be interrupted as he met with one of his Crossborn colleagues via dreamwalking.

They’re each partnering up to put forth proposals that will be reviewed and discussed, possibly ratified, during their next in-person meeting at the Guardian Compound.

He’s working with Velra Nox. Seems like they’re developing a friendship. It’s all very good for him.”

I tensed at that last part. “Who is this person he’s getting so close to?”

“I wouldn’t say so close. He’s referred to her as little sis a couple of times, so you can calm the territorial animal in you.”

“What about the dreamwalking? He can’t always control his allure when he’s submerged in that.”

“She’s part wraith. He can’t affect her like that.”

“Huh. A wraith. Well, that’s… rare.”

“Something the two of them obviously have in common with their makeup, Nyx’s Incubus side being rare as well.

” He grunted with irritation and actually finally graced me with his eye contact, looking up at me from the floor.

“So, like I said, it’s good for him. Are we done now?

I need to return my full and absolute focus to this. ”

What the hell?

“Kai, you stood me up.”

He started. “What?”

“We were meant to meet at your lab after my last class, which was twenty minutes ago.”

His brow furrowed. “What are you—no. I don’t miss appointments. I don’t arrive late. That’s… you’re sure?”

“I’m sure. You didn’t show, Kai. Hence me barging in here.”

“I thought the barging in was down to you having Halloway’s class today. That fucking fool.”

“It didn’t help. But my current and rapidly building frustration is rooted in you.

” I gestured at the mess all over the place.

“I get that you’re excited about Gabriel Morgan’s course of Apex Magic starting up, but don’t you think this is a little overkill?

And, from what I gather, you don’t study last-minute, you’re prepared weeks in advance. ”

“This isn’t about the course.” He let out a disgruntled sigh and rose to his feet, facing me and explaining, “It’s concerning our upcoming meeting with Cornelius Martel that Mia was able to wrangle us.”

“What about it? He agreed to give me information about Malrik as a show of trust, so that we can then work together to create a failsafe against Cassius. It was to ensure we can trust them with what we’ll need to reveal about my Primal Celestial Resonance ability being the thing that acted as a stabilizing agent with the Aetherbound Scepter. ”

“Even as you speak the words, you can hear the risk involved in doing this, yes?”

“It’s only a risk if Ariana’s family can’t be trusted with this.”

“No. It’s also a risk with the more people we bring on board.”

“And that’s the reason we’re keeping the circle so small. It will just be Cornelius who comes to know of this.”

“Even adding one additional person, somebody outside the four of us, still invites risk. Cornelius is more closely tied to the Cassius of it all being both a Fallen and Ariana’s grandfather, not to mention the guy, along with Jaxon, who was pissing them off so much lately by trying to break the bargain struck that binds Ariana to this fucked-up duty. ”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take. Not just to know about Malrik, which will help me to figure out much more about where my powers come from, and possibly even understand how to work with them better, but also to help Ariana and give her a way out of this nightmare—being forced into service as the Celestial Plane’s Champion, a pawn in a war she didn’t choose. ”

“I know you’re willing to take the risk.

” He gestured at the mess all over the dorm room.

“And this is me trying to mitigate that, to hold as much knowledge as I can when it comes to Cornelius and that vault of his. Cornelius’ personal vault isn’t just storage.

It’s where he keeps magical artifacts too volatile for Guardian regulation.

Half the Movement doesn’t even know it exists.

A lot of these books and papers that you see here talk about what may or may not be held within that vault.

They mention the Wrath of Hades and the fact that it was never actually destroyed.

They even talk about how the fuck Cornelius was able to conceive a child when he was True Celestial with a mere sorceress.

It could be the key to a lot. All of that pertains to our goals—and our concerns. ”

He shoved a hand through his already wild hair. “And while I’ve been doing that, I’ve also been continuing to research a way to break the deal that’s been struck without Celestial Plane permission.”

As if all the rest he’d put out there hadn’t been enough to absorb, that was something else altogether. “You’re talking about overriding them? Their will and their command?”

“Yes,” he admitted, eyes burning into mine with fiery force that certainly melded well with the dangerous subject matter.

“Kai, that’s—”

“Extreme? I should hope so, because the situation we find ourselves in most definitely is also.”

“Fuck,” I breathed. “Yeah, it is a lot.” I stepped up to him and laid my hand on his bare shoulder.

“Look, I’m sorry I came down so hard on you, while you’re doing all of this, fighting to protect us all, and do what’s best for the situation.

I was agitated by that asshole, Halloway, but I’m also worked up about learning my special abilities. ”

“I understand. It feels like a war is coming and as dragon, your response is might. But with it being the Celestial Plane involved and all these mammoth power players, you feel like you can’t measure up or even be in a position to face them in battle, and your special abilities are key to altering that. ”

I stared at him in awe. “That’s… yes… exactly that.”

The corner of his mouth turned up. “I’m trying to be more consistently emotionally available.

You’re all very good with that and me lacking in that area…

I don’t want it to negatively impact what the four of us are building.

It hit me really hard when Ari was in that state after she was taken.

When we were on those porch steps before you and Nyx came out, she needed comfort badly.

And I wasn’t sure how to give it to her.

I didn’t relish that feeling in the least… being deficient for her in any way.”

Wow. “Kai, you’re doing impressively well. We’ve all noticed it. Ariana definitely has, I can guarantee you that.”

“Perhaps,” he murmured. “It’s obviously a work in progress. But there you have it.”

He went to pull from my shoulder hold, but I latched onto him with my other arm and pulled him against me.

He tensed from the unexpected embrace at first, because we were dealing with intimacy here and not something sexual in nature. It was affection rooted in vulnerability, which we all knew was difficult and uncomfortable ground for him.

But then he sank into it and I heard him breathe me in, his pulse calming.

“Share the load where this is concerned. I’m pretty good with the researching as well, believe it or not. This part of things isn’t all on you.” I lifted a hand and stroked his hair. “Not anymore, Kai.”

“All right,” he agreed, much more easily than I’d expected.

The burden of it was clearly getting to him. More than any of us had realized.

No more.

We stood as one now.

With what had come our way in the form of Cassius and what was likely also still to come given the weight of the Celestial bargain Ariana had been shouldered with, we had to ensure we all found a healthy way to endure through it.

Because there was no fucking way I’d allow it to break us.

Now that I’d found this home in them, I was never letting go.