I took a step back when his eyes glowed redder, and he laughed before flicking his wrist, and a portal opened up beside him.
“Get to class,” he said, shoving me through it.
I gasped, feeling his magic swallow me along with the portal before I found myself spat outside on the fields. I landed on my hands and knees. I looked around the vast area to get to my feet and saw all the men and Darius walking in my direction. He stopped, cocking his head to the side.
“You decided to show up on time. Thought you would have run when you found out your next class was with me.” He laughed as he stopped in front of me. The men moved out onto the field, and I was thankful it was all grass. However, that was short-lived when I realized they were using their elements, and this was a magic class.
Fuck!I cursed, knowing I had no magic. All fae had an element, and I knew I was about to come out of here battered because I wasn’t dealing with fae but demons, who only had one and the most lethal element—fucking fire. Whereas I was an elemental harmony fae, which was not only rare but extinct, holding not only one but all elements, plus some other odd gifts I couldn’t explain or have dabbled much in. Still, being an elemental harmony fae was no good to me now with no magic.
“Partner up!” Darius called out. I looked around at all the men, and one smiled at me. The man was a giant, tall with dreadlocks to his waist and mocha-colored skin. His demonic eyes ran the length of me, and I took a step back as he stalked toward me.
“I will take the traitor,” the man said.Traitor…why does everyone keep calling me that? Darius nodded to him, and I looked at Darius. Surely, he didn’t expect me to fight without magic? I would get destroyed in seconds.
“Let’s see how pretty you are without your hair,” the man sneered. What was it with everyone trying to ruin my hair?
“Her hair is off-limits. Burn her hair off, and I will take fucking your head,” Darius told him, which shocked me.
“But she is a traitor…”
“I don’t care; her hair is off-limits,” Darius said. Maybe he liked long hair because I knew he didn’t like me.Well, he will be in for a rude shock when I cut it off later tonight with the scissors I stole.
I spent most of the class dodging his fireballs, which I was glad was all he used. He could have turned me into a raging inferno but seemed more amused with just tossing them at me. Yet, I noticed Darius stayed close for some reason.
My clothes were singed, my arm was burned, and one hand took a nasty blow. I was exhausted, having spent all my time dodging while the men laughed and watched. Some even sat on the grass, watching my torment as I tried to avoid the flames. Dodging another, my lungs were burning as I ducked, falling to my knees when suddenly flames erupted around me, boxing me in with fiery walls. I jumped to my feet, looking for an escape, panic gnawing at me as they drew nearer. I hated fire, hated it, and nothing scared me more.
“That’s enough!” Darius growled.
“Don’t worry, I will only burn her a little,” the man taunted as the flames grew closer. My heart rate skyrocketed as the flames grew closer and closer. I coughed on the smoke and could feel the heat blistering my skin.
“I said, enough!” Darius growled before the flames were blasted with water. I looked through the smoke to see Darius turn and attack the man I was partnered with, drenching him, too. Wait, how could he use a water element? I saw him use fire last night?
“My word is law. Defy me again, and you will find yourself in the dungeons,” he snarled as I choked on the smoke from the extinguished flames.
Images flickered in my vision, the smoke ridiculously thick, and my eyes burned from the smoke. I remembered this feeling, the choking, as each breath burned my lungs. I tried to suck in a breath, my vision tunneling as I was brought back to the night my parents were killed. I stumbled, cursing under my breath, realizing I was having a panic attack.
Gusts of air suddenly blasted me as I became dizzy. The smoke was pushed away, and I blinked, my brain trying to register where the air magic had come from. Then all I saw was black, and I heard the snickering laughter of the men surrounding me as I fainted and collapsed to the ground.
Chapter 21
Darius
Aleera was lite onher feet; I’d give her that. She could move when needed, making me wonder how much time she’d actually spent running. She moved quicker without magic than some of my men here who had been in training for years. It was like she anticipated where the next attack would come from, like she could sense it. I found myself absorbed as I watched her.
Even some of the men had stopped to watch. Most laughed, but most of them were floored with how she moved, and she remained almost in the same spot, never stepping out of the barrier. This class was a defense class. You had to block your opponent; yet she had no magic to block with, but she watched. I figured out pretty quickly she was studying the flick of his fingers, the way he stood. It was almost as if she knew what he would do before he did it just by examining his stance.
Mikhail was one of our best; he never missed a target, and at first, I thought he was holding back, but the longer it went on, I could see his frustration. He really was trying to hurt her; he just couldn’t touch her.
I knew I should have stepped in. A pit formed in my stomach when he decided to partner up with her. I was initially going to be partnered with her, but he stepped forward, eyes locked on his target. Still, I was ready to step in if needed.
I wouldn’t have hurt her, knowing it would upset Kalen and Lycus. Scared her, yes, but hurt her probably not with how this stupid bond grew stronger each day. Ignoring the pull was becoming harder until I remembered what she had inflicted. Which infuriated me even more, feeling the pull to her, feeling my mates’ pull to her. But she deserved it. God, did she deserve pain for what she had caused us, but when I noticed her getting tired, I knew I needed to stop it.
The bond called me to protect her, going absolutely haywire when I saw her get boxed in. Just like the night we’d found her in her burning room. The entire place was a raging inferno; she had tried to escape but was passed out on the bedroom floor. The moment we stepped into her room, we knew something was amiss. We tried to get back out, but a barrier had been placed on her door and window. Tobias and I barely got her out in time before the roof caved in. Tobias had used his body to shield her and sustained severe burns while I broke the damn barrier spell placed on it.
It took nearly all our power that night to heal her and put the cloaking spell on her and her grandmother so she would be protected. Little did we know it also cloaked us from her once she came of age.
I always felt bad that I couldn’t heal Tobias. His back was destroyed, and he refused to let Lycus and Kalen heal him, knowing our reserves were almost completely depleted. We were literally running off borrowed time.
Two and a half years, Tobias and I went without power before we figured out another way to power-share. All of us agreed that Aleera was not an option. She was too young, and her powers hadn’t manifested. Besides, none of us were comfortable knowing what that meant for her—to power-share and transfer our power among all of us. It would have been plain disgusting. We were monsters but not that sort of monsters.