“I’m this close to taking your head in a single swipe.” I laughed at him and then grunted when someone chucked a stack of clothes and boots at me. One of the thick soles hit me right in the chin.
“You’re a ghost, remember? And who knows where Masayoshi really is. The queen probably confiscated it.” I rubbed at my chin and glanced over at Brynn of Haversey, her ebony wings tucked tight against her back, her arms crossed over her chest. As soon as I saw her, I felt my cock stir to life and she groaned, covering her eyes with one bronze hand.
“Please put some damn pants on,” she said, waiting an appropriate amount of time before dropping her hand and realizing I hadn’t bothered to do anything of the sort. “Your dick is staring at me! Flubbing figs, cover that ship up.”
I cupped my junk in my hands—my hands!—and canted my head to the side, smiling at her. As soon as I’d seen Brynn of Haversey, I’d known my brother was into her. And quite frankly, since we were bound, whoever he married, I’d also be pretty much married to.
I wanted to marry this girl.
She was small but curvy and plump and luscious.
Of course, I was no longer bound to Dyre, but if anyone was going to be resurrected with that spell, I was going to ensure that it was my brother. I couldn’t live without him, not for an extended period of time anyway. So why not bind myself to the girl that could make that happen, that I liked, that the virgin wanted to lose it to? It was a win-win-win situation.
“We’re taking Vexer off campus while we have the chance,” she continued, the towering bulk of that griffin dude coming down the stairs to stand beside her. I should’ve bitten him more, just for good measure. Oh well, maybe later. I made a note to try for his balls … Maybe then he couldn’t keep Brynn entertained for an entire morning. “Now that you’ve bound yourself to me—against my will, mind you—you have to come, too. Put clothes on.”
“You’ve got a tremendous well of power inside of you,” I said, emphasizing the word inside and grinning when Vexer shifted his wings and growled at me. “It wouldn’t be so easy to bind to someone else. And besides, my big brother was worried about me. Did you want to add another powerful rogue shadow to that horde that killed your boyfriend?”
“Put. The. Pants. On,” she snarled at me. “And yeah, you’re right. Binding you to me was a good idea—had you asked. But you and you,” she continued, pointing over at the professor, “did not ask. I don’t like to be bullied or used. I’m not some walking, talking column of power for you to use as you see fit; I’m a person.”
“My sincerest apologies, Brynn,” Spicer Cross said, rising from his seat and crossing his arms over his chest. “My desperate need to escape that building overwhelmed my sensibilities. If you wish to re-bind me somewhere else, I completely understand.”
“And waste the silver dust?” she said with a sigh, shaking her head and reaching up to cup both necklaces. “I don’t think so.” She played with them for a moment and then flicked her gaze over to me. “What’s done is done, but don’t think either of you are in my good graces.”
I yanked the leather breeches on, but didn’t bother to tie them up, stuffing my feet into the boots and then stealing a gold fifth-year jacket—I think it belonged to that scribe kid, Matz—from a hook and tossing it over my shoulders. I didn’t bother with a shirt.
“Oh for Hellim’s sake,” Brynn cursed as she gave Dyre a look. “How long is he going to be in this form?”
“Once a year, on our birthday, is all I’ve ever seen. This is … I don’t know what to make of this,” he said, glaring at me like this was all my fault. Yeah, well, I had manipulated that spell, but I hadn’t expected anything more than to be bound to Brynn. This was just a bonus.
“Maybe it’s permanent,” I teased with a flirtatious little shoulder raise and a wink. Brynn clearly wasn’t buying what I was selling. Unfortunate, that. With a sigh, I raked my fingers through my hair. Being bound to her was going to make it impossible to pick up women, wasn’t it? And anyway, if I wanted her to marry Dyre—or me—then I’d have to abstain.
But the thought of turning back into my other form without having sex? Talk about a travesty. I might have to stick to masturbation and hope this really was permanent, or at least a more regular occurrence than the last few decades had shown me.
“Let’s go,” Brynn said, nodding her head toward the door. “It’s the weekend; it’s late; it’s dusky and drizzling outside. I don’t imagine we’ll get a better to chance to get you out of here.”
“Maybe I don’t want to go?” Vexer said, stepping toward her and putting his big hands on either side of Brynn’s face. I rolled my eyes and kicked open the door to reveal that blonde half-angel bitch. What was her name again? Ah, Felixa. What a pretentious name.
“Well, hello there,” I purred, putting my forearm up in the doorjamb to block her view of my brother’s ghost. Nobody needed to know that the crown prince of Vaenn was dead, especially not with the state of our country in so much turmoil. “Can I help you?”
“Who are you?” the girl demanded, lifting her chin in that haughty, annoying way that only nobility seemed to know how to pull off. Little did she know, I was royalty. Shadow, I might be, but I was still of the queen’s womb, born from between her thighs like anybody else.
The one thing I did notice however was that the girl’s cheeks turned pink, and her handler stiffened up with jealousy behind her. Poor guy. He was about as plain as Amerin humans came. Dull brown hair, watery blue eyes, skin that was neither pale nor sun-kissed but some pink-tinged in-between. Meh. Looking at him, I had to wonder how he’d even become her handler in the first place.
“Name’s Trubble,” I said with a sharp grin, flashing two pointed canines as my nine tails swished behind me. Poor Dyre only had one. What sort of kitsune prince only has one tail in his twenties? My guess was that the virgin thing was something affecting his magic. Or else I just enjoyed making fun of him for being so celibate and serious all the time. “Trubble of … Hellim,” I added, just for fun. I was a shadow, after all, a being with a soul made up of shadow magic. So although I didn’t have the god’s blessing per se, I had power.
Lots of it.
“I don’t see your symbol,” Felixa said, pointing at my bare chest and ‘accidentally’ running her finger up it.
“Yeah, well, it’s faerie glamour,” I said, giving an exaggerated wink. “I’m sort of … part of this exchange program.” I stepped forward and closed the door behind me. No way was I letting this insufferable little nitwit catch sight of something she shouldn’t. If anyone—anyone—threatened my virgin brother, I would kill them. No hesitation.
“Exchange program?” Felixa asked, her sapphire eyes sparkling as she took me in. She was pretty, no doubt about that. I liked the butter-yellow color of her wings and hair, the shape of her face and her pointed chin. But her attitude and her general air of superiority made my skin crawl. “And how on earth would you get hold of a faerie glamour?”
“They live in Rúnda, you know,” I said and the girl rolled her eyes, planting her hands on her hips and looking disgusted like any proper Amerin noble should.
“I don’t exactly take my holidays in Rúnda. Who would? Amerin is large and vast, and there’s no culture shock.”
“You’re not really living until you’ve had a nice little bite in the ass from a different culture.” I stepped forward again and she stepped back. “Strange food, new language, different shaped faces, and beautiful sunsets.” I grinned as the door opened and Brynn stepped out, squeezing past me to stand on my right side.