There was a struggling noise as Arabella tried to crawl out of bed but Corvus pinned her to the mattress.
A strange tightness burned my chest, and I stepped closer to my Ignis. Grabbing his shoulder, I tried to pull him back from her.
Arabella might be the most infuriating person ever to walk the realms, but she was still injured, and Malum was being rough with her.
For sun god’s sake, she had a slur carved into her back, and apparently, she’d sprouted angel wings.
Even I could see that she needed space.
Her voice might drip with aggression, but her breath was choppy like it hurt her to inhale. She was suffering, and Corvus was hurting her.
My Ignis was acting deranged around her lately.
It was like he lost all his common sense in her presence.
“Let her go,” I snarled at my Ignis as I grabbed onto his shoulder and pulled him back.
Corvus ripped himself away from my grasp, and Arabella swore. Bedding rustled, and skin smacked skin as he grabbed at her.
What was wrong with him?
“Stop it, Malum, fucking stop it!” I shouted as I once again grabbed him and tried to wrestle him away from her. “What are you doing?” I put him in a headlock. “She needs to heal. Leave her alone.”
“What’s going on?” Orion mumbled sleepily as he finally woke up.
I was too stressed to be relieved.
“You’re mated to an idiot,” Arabella said dryly.
Corvus lunged forward in my arms, and it took every ounce of strength I possessed to stop him from getting to her.
He snarled like a rabid animal.
“Sun god, calm the fuck down. Now,” I ordered him.
Corvus stopped struggling. “She’s lying. She hurt us, and now the disguised fae queen just happens to be an angel. Please. Wake up, Scorpius. How many more secrets can a person have?” His voice deepened. “She’s been playing with us, and it ends today. I want the truth!”
Orion made a noise in the back of his throat, and he padded toward us. “Angel, sweetheart, are you okay?” he whispered breathlessly.
Arabella ignored him and scoffed at Corvus. “What are you going to do? Kill me?” She chuckled like the idea was absurd. “Since I just stopped your flames while you were a killing machine, good luck with that.”
Corvus’s muscles tensed as he said, “No one said anything about killing you. But there are other ways.”
The strange pressure in my chest became worse.
I bristled.
Arabella laughed cruelly. “Oh, what, are you going to stick me on a pike in front of your little hut?”
“It’s not a hut, it’s a manor, and maybe you’ll finally get to see it from the stake!” Corvus screamed back at her.
Every instinct in my body lit up.
“Fine,” Arabella said dryly. “It’s not a hut, it’s a shack. Feel better?”
My Ignis growled like a beast.
If he was fire, then she was kerosene.
I didn’t like how unstable he acted around her. Just three days ago, he’d whispered to me at night a plan to kill every person in the fae palace who’d allowed her mother to hurt her. He’d told me he was starting to care for her. Now we were talking about staking her?
He’d lost his mind.
Something about her made my Ignis crazy, and he needed to figure his shit out.
“We will not be hurting her,” I growled and shoved Corvus roughly across the room, away from Arabella.
Orion whispered loudly, “No. We will not.” His lyrical voice rang around the room like a threat.
Corvus made a choking noise. There was an explosion as it sounded like he chucked the remains of the wingback chair into the wall.
He shouted, “See what she’s done? She’s tearing us apart!”
Arabella let out a dry, humorless laugh. “This is why I’m going to exterminate all men.”
Orion chuckled, and I arched my brow in the direction of my Revered.
“She’s not funny!” Corvus screamed.
She smacked her lips around her pipe. “Orion laughed.”
Silence.
The wall cracked as Corvus punched it rapidly.
“What’s going on here?” John’s voice sounded from the door, and the demons made noises of disbelief behind him.
“Malum’s having a mental breakdown.” Arabella whistled softly as she blew out smoke. “What Dr. Palmer likes to call an episode.”
She rolled her eyes and mumbled, “My gut is telling me that giving him a journal is not going to resolve the problem.”
I barely stopped Corvus as he lunged at her. I put him in another headlock while Orion held his arms behind his back. He bucked against our hold.
She murmured, “Told ya.”
“Why is he acting like that?” Vegar asked cautiously.
“Because she’s lying.” Corvus gnashed his teeth aggressively. “She won’t tell us what actually happened in the showcase.”
“I told him, he just won’t believe me,” Arabella grumbled.
There was an awkward pause.
“Uh, we actually were just watching it,” John said. “Lothaire recorded it with the same enchantment he uses for all his battles. Apparently, the gods wanted us to—”
“I want to see it now,” Corvus cut him off and stopped struggling against us.
Goose bumps of premonition prickled my arms.
Orion and I released our hold on our mate, and he demanded, “Show me.”
John made a noise of agreement. “Lothaire was still in the classroom when we left. I’m sure he’ll show us if we—”
“Let’s go,” Corvus cut him off again as he stalked out the door.
I followed behind him but paused in the doorway. The pressure in my chest became a terrible ache like my soul was being ripped to pieces. My Revered made a choking noise beside me, like he also felt it.
“Arabella.” I turned. “Aren’t you coming?”
She grumbled and huffed as she got out of bed. There was a loud clattering noise, the same one the angels made when they moved.
My mind blanked.
She really is an angel.
The sound disappeared, and I realized she must have retracted her wings.
Panic was quickly replaced with pain. Agony throbbed across my back, and weird pinpricks of discomfort streaked down my limbs. My face ached, and the skin beneath my eyes ached.
What had happened during the showcase?
I hadn’t felt this much physical pain since childhood.
“Here, let us help you, bestie,” John said to Arabella, and she grunted a thanks as clothing rustled like she’d leaned against the twins.
My knuckles cracked as I fisted my hands.
“Move,” John said when they got to the doorway.
Orion made an aggressive noise in the back of his throat.
“Let’s go,” Corvus shouted from down the hall, and I reluctantly moved out of the way.
As we walked down the hall, Orion whispered in my ear, “Luka and John are supporting her. She’s covered in bruises and cuts and looks like shit. She had huge blue angel wings, but she retracted them.”
“I know,” I snapped at him. “I can hear.”
Orion scoffed at my attitude, and regret filled me. A Protector didn’t treat his Revered poorly. Ever.
Lately I’d been testy with him all the time. It was unacceptable.