Page 110 of Cursed Heirs

And I wasn’t allowed to be a part of it.

Orpheus had told me that Constantine was gunning for a phoenix to complete his plans with that stupid fucking Orb I was so sick of hearing about. It was what all of this shitstorm was about, why Alena had been taken, why I’d lost my parents, why Orpheus was about to lose his father, why Xavier had tried to take his own life, why Elliot had been injured so severely, and why Ore kept pushing himself too hard.

Just like he was now.

Only this time, he wasn’t just pushing himself.

He was pushing a whole army of a couple of hundred students.

He had two good things going for him when it came to readying his army.

One was that they all had great command of their abilities thanks to his efforts over the last few years.

Two was that they respected his authority and his natural ability to lead was coming through really well, giving them confidence and faith in him.

But there was also a big issue right about now.

There was a lot of in-fighting and ego trips getting in the way of them working as a cohesive unit. Quite honestly, it was a shit-show.

Orpheus was bringing the very best of his patience to the table and combating it as he went. ButIwas so fucking done with it.

And I wasn’t even down there with them in the woods.

I was up in one of the trees that was still inside the massive illusion that he’d cast to be able to do this without faculty interference or disapproval.

Professor Marlowe was also helping out by keeping them busy and all that.

Every now and then he came by to check on their progress.

I could tell him one thing just from watching what was happening and that was that the army wouldn’t be ready for weeks.

Not if they wanted to survive what was coming.

Ore thinking he could pull it off indayswasn’t like him. It was way too rash for how he usually was. He was usually calculative and highly strategic about every little thing.

Things were clearly weighing on him.

Alena being held captive by that fucker and now his father sick too.

It was a lot to bear, especially given the fact that he’d told me and X that he was expected to take the throne as well, a lot sooner than was ever planned.

Truth be told, I’d never wanted him to take it. I’d always thought he’d find a way out of it. I knew we’d all be graduating and not living on top of each other at the Academy then, but I’d figured we’d get a place together or something, that we’d still stay as one.

But if he became King, he’d be in the DFR pretty much all the time. We’d barely ever see him. Our connection would just fade away.

I couldn’t stand it. I really fucking couldn’t stand the thought of it.

And it wasn’t helping my rage issues one bit.

It was always right at the surface lately wanting to break free. No, worse. Screaming to break free. I wanted to burn the whole world down and raze every fucking thing to safeguard the four of us and what we had, to prevent losing them.

I couldn’t take another loss. I just fucking couldn’t.

Feeling my anger getting the best of me, I failed to pull it back, and the next thing I knew, I was leaping from the tree branch and sweeping down right between Ore and his army below.

“Shut the fuck up!” I roared. “Just shut it! Get over yourselves and get a fucking grip! Don’t you see? If you can’t get over your pathetic issues and all this in-fighting and actually work together, we’re fucked! We’re all done for! We’re fuckingdone!”

An eerie, charged silence fell over them all.

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