Page 138 of Cursed Heirs

I’d tried to return to normalcy—we all had.

But it hadn’t been that easy.

Not after everything that had gone down.

For my part, I’d been getting a shitload of looks my way and a whole lot more whispers, a mixture of wariness and disbelief at what I’d done.

It was like they thought I was a fucking ticking timebomb, something so volatile that could go off at any moment and obliterate them all, and Electi Academy along with them.

That had been an extreme circumstance, though.

And it had all been perfectly played by Constantine and that sick bastard, Callum Cornwell. A combination of Orpheus sending out feelers and reaching out to his contacts and his father’s, along withExemplartracking, had determined that he was on a covert mission for Constantine. So covert that the fucker was cloaked, meaning we couldn’t track him.

At least not yet.

It took a shitload of power for a magic-wielder to cloak themselves for a long period of time, especially to the level that would be needed to withstand tracking spells from the most powerful beings in the supernatural world. It wouldn’t be long before he ran out of juice and he’d have to return to Constantine’s new home base to recuperate and whatever the fuck. And at that point, with a team ofExemplarmembers watching the place and doing careful recon, they could nab him before he made it inside.

As that had been going on, Xavier had been seeing his therapist and taking two calls from his dad every day, as well as going to classes. He’d been getting back into his writing too.

Ore had been run off his feet.

Thank fuck he was still walking the halls of Electi Academy, even after Dean Bronson had witnessed him drop his illusion that had been hiding most of the student body behind it. He’d managed to convince her and the rest of the faculty that he’d been organizing a blowout party to help with morale, bringing everyone in to help organize it and make it a night to remember. Taking on the acolytes, he’d put down to their training under Marlowe over the years and their determination to defend the Academy, the place that they called home. Fortunately, the dean had lot of other things to worry about,andshe’d interviewed—or interrogated—a bunch of students, all of which had supported Ore’s story. So nothing had come of it.

But it did mean that suspicion had been lit, meaning the security measures Ore now had to take in order to bring the army together and continue drills, training, and all that, were so fucking extreme, it was crazy.

As if he didn’t already have enough to worry about with monitoring the situation in the DFR with the new rule underway and Ore coordinating with Marlowe and Cassius. Although itwas only temporary, it was still a big change and some major upheaval for the Kingdom. Especially after they’d recently been invaded and lost a huge chunk of their army too. They were basically reeling right now and I knew it was hard for Ore to not be able to be there in person.

He had to be with Alena, helping her to handle her black magic sickness and all the darkness it was bringing forth in her. The other day the four of us had been eating together in the cafeteria and someone had accidentally brushed against her. It had set her off, triggering her issues with any touching right now, and the black magic had led the way and had her setting half the cafeteria on fire. Fortunately, Ore had been right there and he’d put it out in mere seconds and got her clear too.

Bronson had let the incident go with a warning because of who Alena was and with what she’d been through. But she wouldn’t stand for much more of it, because she’d consider it a safety issue for the students and faculty as a whole.

It was a good thing that the other two incidents that had occurred hadn’t been public like the cafeteria one. I hadn’t even seen them, only Ore had.

One had involved her smashing every mirror and reflective surface in her chambers with a sudden, enraged burst of magic. Ore had been there again to limit the damage to just those and calm her before it had escalated any further.

The second had occurred when Ore had taken her flying. She’d suffered a flashback to her time with Constantine and she’d lost control, crashing into several trees and downing them. It had enraged her and she’d caused a storm to descend, along with flash lightning. Fortunately, Ore had been able to pull back the storm and then he’d had three of the best Light Fae students here restore the trees to their former glory covertly while he’d held up an illusion. At least the storm aspect could just about be passed off as a freak weather phenomenon.

She was bottling a lot of shit up, not processing what had happened to her, but trying to force it down instead and it kept coming out in these blow ups that were then fueled by the black magic running through her veins.

The three of us were hoping to start remedying that tonight.

We’d noticed that she got worse when she was cooped up inside for too long. We’d figured she was maybe seeing it as a cage remnant of her time in captivity.

Lockdown protocol was still in effect, which not only meant no coming and going through the ward, but also a curfew to stay inside the Academy buildings, namely our chambers, after a certain hour—usually sunset.

But tonight we were breaking that curfew and trying something for Alena.

Ore was gonna put up an illusion as usual and also cloak all four of us.

I couldn’t wait.

I hated things the way they were.

I hated that she was in so much pain and definitely not herself.

We’d been reunited, yeah, but it just didn’t feel like it.

My phone buzzed in the back pocket of my pants. I swiped it open and read the message that had come in.

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