Page 39 of Wicked Heirs

Isabella hissed, then turned on Alena, “I’m done being your Guide. Good luck with this psycho and his fire starter fuck buddy.” She looked her up and down with disdain. “I thought you were different being a Nephilim, but it turns out you’re nothing but a cheap—”

I burst in front of her, making her words catch in her throat. “Slut shaming is beneath you.Especiallygiven your history. Leave.Now.Not another word.”

She looked between us.

Talon was laughing like the complete nightmare he was when it came to Alena. It really brought out his nasty and vindictive side. Orpheus was glaring at Isabella fiercely like I was. And Alena was shaking her head in dismay at the entire thing.

Isabella failed to make a dignified exit, flipping off Orpheus, then storming away to her group of girlfriends that I could hear just outside.

Actually, I could hear a whole lot of students crowded around because of the video Talon had so recklessly and foolishly released.

“Stay here. I’ll deal with you,” Orpheus told him dangerously.

He went to address Alena, but I held up my hand.

“There’s a massive crowd of nosy shits outside. I’ll teleport you back to your chambers,” I told her softly. “Would that be to your liking, beautiful?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Thank you.”

Talon started up again, “X, are you seriously going to—”

I called my magic, cutting him off, a moment before Alena and I were swept up in my vibrant-blue smoke.

8

~Alena~

My first week of classes was going well.

I’d already hadFactions and Coexistencewith Professor Luna Esmira who was a werewolf, Professor Dante Wilhelm who was a Vampire Elder withHistory and Politics: Rise of Exemplar,wherein I’d actually started to learn a lot about my mom’s organization, things she hadn’t told me and had kept from me. It had made me realize just how much I hadn’t been aware of. I’d begunMatter Manipulationwith sorcerer Professor Callum Cornwell, as well asHerbs, Healing, and Chlorokinesiswith Professor Dominique Targus, which I liked with it all about nature and the very light side of magic, something I was much more comfortable with.

There had been a mass amount of readings I’d been assigned. As a new student and being so far behind others my age, I had a lot more to get through than everyone else, so I’d basically been holed up in my room whenever I wasn’t in class, reading and starting myNatural Healingproject that involved finding the right plants in the expansive gardens surrounding the campus and using just a very small amount of magic to create an elixir toheal third degree burns. That was my task. Each student in my class had been assigned a different ailment to alleviate.

I’d thought an aloe plant and a bit of magic would have done the trick, but it had turned out to be more complicated than that, so I’d taken to doing all the readings first for that class before trying—and failing—again.

Fortunately, I’d had a lot of quiet to work through it all.

Things had been uneventful on theObsidianfront.

None of them had bothered me.

None of the students had even reacted to me either, no sign of any fallout from that video that the asshole, Talon Creed, had released to the whole student body.

It was definitely strange, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. The peace was welcome.

The only thing I’d noticed at all was Xavier Sabre glancing over at me during our sharedMatter Manipulationclass. Then whenever I’d been lost in the halls because Isabella had resigned as my Guide, a blue magical trail had materialized showing me the way, magic that I’d recognized as his from when he’d teleported me to my room the night of theKick Off.

When he’d dropped me off that night, he hadn’t said a word. He’d just smiled and waited until I’d gone inside my suite, getting somehow that I’d needed space and alone time.

And I really had.

What had happened between me and Orpheus had made me sick to my stomach.

Not the sexuality of it, because I’d never been shy about expressing that, or doing what I wanted and following my desires.

But because it had been with him, a fucking nightmare of a being. One who hated me and who I’d come to hate from his behavior toward me.

“What are you doing to me, little angel?”