“Kinky,” I mumbled under my breath.
A tongue licked across my face. “Don’t tempt me.”
I blinked at the sudden bright light of the hall as we left the party and rubbed moisture off the side of my cheek.
Scorpius threw me to the ground.
I didn’t save myself.
In a clatter of limbs I flopped backward. The marble was icy beneath my sweat-slicked skin. I closed my eyes and breathed roughly.
Another person was dead.
Because of me.
I sucked on both pipes desperately and shivered because death followed me. Everywhere I went. He wouldn’t leave me alone.
Stupid stalker, he was such a pervert.
Most men were.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Malum snarled. He stood beside his mates, and all three of them loomed above me. “Are you fucking crazy?”
Shocker, they were violently angry.
Men had no emotional range.
“Yes, sir!” I raised my middle finger to my forehead and saluted them sarcastically. Closed my eyes. Fantasized about death and a week-long shopping trip.
Chapter 4
Corvus Malum
PREY
The beginning: Shackles—Day 4, hour 4
I was going to kill her.
My Revered trembled beside me, his body vibrating from the force of his anger.
Scorpius and I stepped closer to comfort him.
Lightning flashed, and it highlighted the gold network of veins that crawled through the cracks of the black marble. The crystal chandeliers tinkled on the ceiling as they rocked back and forth.
The hall was quiet as everyone in the academy was lost in their multiday bender.
Electricity crackled in the air, and it tasted like violence.
Flames leaped higher off my skin.
I crackled with danger.
The eerie silence wrapped around us like a tangible force.
I rubbed at the growing ache in my chest and breathed slowly, forced the tender irrational feelings from the slave tattoo to dissipate as I concentrated on how I really felt about Arabella.
Hatred. Disgust. Revulsion.
She’d run from the room like a coward, and we’d stalked her to the party. Arabella was so dumb that she hadn’t even seen us following her, and we weren’t trying to make it discreet.
For a time, we’d lost her in the crush of bodies.
Hundreds of students and guests had been packed like sardines in the great hall, dancing, and it was almost impossible to move because people had swarmed us. They’d thrown themselves at us with fewer inhibitions than usual.
Everyone wanted the chance to fuck a devil king. They wanted a taste of our wealth, power, and prestige.
It had been infuriating.
After hours of combing through the crowd, searching for the girl with blue hair, we’d almost given up.
Then we’d seen her.
We hadn’t looked closely at the couples fucking on the dance floor because we hadn’t thought we were searching for a whore.
But alas.
A horned nymph from the Olympus realm had been groping Arabella’s tits roughly. Crotch pressed against her like he had a right to touch her.
Arabella’s eyes had been closed as she smoked and let him touch her like she didn’t care.
She was now associated with the House of Malum.
She was our slave.
Until we figured everything out, only we got to touch her. No one else.
When I’d described to Scorpius what we were seeing, the eye tattoo on his neck had opened wide, and his white eyes had begun to glow.
Cherry-blossom petals had floated across Orion’s neck.
The dagger across my neck had become uncomfortably heavy against my flesh.
Flames had danced higher across my arms, and for a long second, we’d all contemplated the same thing.
For a second, every person at the party had been in danger.
Then the nymph had grabbed her ass and buried his face against her neck. He’d decided for us.
We hadn’t had time for theatrics.
He’d needed to die quickly.
Scorpius had whispered in Arabella’s ear. Orion had snapped the man’s neck.
I’d burned the body to ash as we’d walked away.
Now Scorpius smiled at where our slave was sprawled across the floor.
His voice dripped with malice. “You don’t get to touch other men while you’re our slave. We don’t like our possessions to be dirty.” A muscle in his jaw ticked as he licked his lips. “Let another man touch you like that and we’ll leash you.”
I nodded in agreement.
Orion cracked his knuckles as he stared down at her.
She looked bored by Scorpius’s harsh words.
“You’re just an object,” I echoed more forcefully to get a reaction out of her.
She laughed like I’d made a joke.
Anger shot through me as she lazily lay back on the marble and stared at her pipe like it held the secrets to the universe.
The bruises under her eyes were so dark they seemed to glow against her pale flesh. On the wall above her, the stained-glass window depicted a crying woman on her knees. Her position was subservient. Broken.
Arabella held her fingers up to the chandelier light and made a shadow puppet on the wall.
Her attitude was a harsh contrast to the woman in the window.
It rubbed me raw.
Scorpius laughed louder like he was also trying to get her attention, and the sound was gritty and harsh in the quiet hall. He walked in a circle around her like a predator circling its prey.
“You know,” Scorpius drawled. “I’ve always thought of you as an object, but this just makes it so much sweeter. A little deceitful, slutty fae. Ours to hurt. Punish.”
Scorpius cocked his head and listened for her reaction.
She silently mocked him, then rolled her eyes.
Pointed her pipe at him like it was a gun and pretended to shoot him in the face.
Scorpius scowled.
Arabella stuck her tongue out between her teeth like she was concentrating and pretended to shoot him again.
My Protector cracked his knuckles. Loudly.
The feeling of wrongness, the quiet, and the ache in my chest intensified the longer we stood leering over her pathetic, prone form.
I wanted her on her knees but not like this.
This wasn’t obedience.
She’d basically fucked that pathetic nymph on the dance floor, but she wouldn’t even look at us. We had over a foot and a hundred pounds of muscles on the man, yet she’d give him her full attention and ignored us.
I wanted to kill the nymph again.
Everything was spiraling out of control.
Arabella made a pouting face at Scorpius and rubbed at imaginary tears. “Just want to let you know.” She smacked her lips and said in an exaggerated girly voice, “I’m sobbing. I’m super sad.” She popped the P and drawled, “Like, I’m completely devastated.”
She made a dramatic wailing noise, then burst into laughter.
Scorpius lunged for her.
Orion was quicker. He muscled himself in front of Scorpius and stood protectively over the girl.
None of us breathed.
My Revered was chest to chest with my Protector.
Violence swirled.
“Calm down,” Orion whispered to Scorpius and gently pushed him backward. My blind mate nodded and took a step away.
Orion slowly turned, and his expression softened. “Sweetheart, are you okay?” he whispered breathily to Arabella.
Scorpius and I scoffed.
He was such a manipulative bastard.