Page 45 of Baneful Magick

“Just be careful when you’re walking around. There are a lot of poisonous plants here, and even brushing up against some of them can cause pain. It won’t kill you, but it’s not pleasant,” she warned.

Her hazel eyes were sparkling with contentment as she deeply inhaled. I understood exactly how she felt. It was the same feeling that filled me whenever I had sex… or, since I’d arrived at Greywood, whenever I watched her.

Today, she had on a pair of waist-high black trousers, black boots, and a black and white striped sleeveless blouse. Her black hair was curled, the strands slightly framing her pale face, and her lips were accentuated with her signature black lipstick. She was gorgeous.

Black was a thing with her, and I was a huge fan. It looked amazing on her.

That familiar hunger rumbled through me again, but it had nothing to do with needing dinner. No, I needed sex. Lust. Desire. It had been too long since I’d fed, but in my gut, I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy anymore. The only thing this incubus wanted was Isla, and she wasn’t giving me a second look.

I’d have to find someone to fuck, and soon. Getting hungrier could be dangerous for everyone around me. The last time a rut had taken over me, I had awoken to find myself surrounded by the bodies of people I had fucked to death. My brain stalled with quick flashbacks of the aftermath. Aizel had found me and helped clean up the evidence, not before our mother found out though.

Physically shuddering at the ghost of her reaction, I forcibly pushed away those memories.

I’d need to go hunting Friday after classes were over. Greywood had made it clear that we had to take care ofourselves. Food sources for incubi, succubi, and vampires were not kept on hand, so we had to figure it out ourselves.

I couldn’t go into a rut. Not here. Not with Isla. There were a lot of things I could handle, but her death wasn’t one of them. The incubus inside of me didn’t care about that though.

Nothing could stop it, and it wanted her.

Chapter 17

Isla

TUESDAY

The suite reeked of sex.

Zhara and Aizel were freshly showered, but other than that, neither of them were being subtle since we were all well aware of what they had been doing. As long as they kept it out of my bedroom, I didn’t really care where they ended up fucking. We were all adults, after all.

Echo stiffened the moment he entered the suite, but his expression smoothed out before he went to his room. Concerned, Aizel immediately followed after his twin, excusing himself with a quiet word. Zhara watched him leave before she turned to the rest of us.

“I have no idea what that was about,” Wells commented, rocking back on his feet as he shook his head. “We didn’t have as eventful a time as you did in here.”

I snorted when our friend blushed and played with the hem of her dress. I’d happily take Wells’ lead and not bring up what happened at the greenhouse.

“Shut up. It was just sex,” she mumbled.

“Multiple times,” I replied, arching an eyebrow.

“We aren’t together,” Zhara insisted firmly, narrowing her eyes at me.

“Fine. As long as your situationship doesn’t hurt either of you or this living arrangement, I don’t care.” I shrugged. “I need to pee, then I’ll come out and try to work on my paper.”

“I thought you didn’t want to work on it?” Zhara burst out laughing when I flipped her off for the “innocent” question.

“I swear the academy had less busy work than this place,” I complained before hurrying to my room to use the bathroom.

‘Beastie, we need to talk.’Cassius appeared in the mirror without his usual smoky fanfare.

Jolting on the toilet, I cursed and glared at him.‘A bit of warning next time? Some privacy would be nice.’

‘I lived through you going through puberty,’he deadpanned, amber eyes glowing with amusement.

‘To be fair, I would have liked to go without an audience for that as well.’

‘What happened at the greenhouse…’he started as I flushed and started to wash my hands.

‘The plants or the?—’

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