Page 72 of House of Mages and Raven

“Oh, Princess Fuckface, you lost your cool,” I yelped, dropping my feet from the table lightning fast.

I heard roars of laughter from the heirs. Those assholes thought this was funny, but who didn’t like a catfight?

I sidestepped, barely missing being hit as the table flew backward. If I’d been a heartbeat slower, the dishes would’ve landed on my face.

Grace was damn fast.

The table smashed into a cook just as the unlucky shifter came through the back door. He cried out as he scrambled to his feet.

Plates and glasses shattered, and my cakes scattered on the ground between Grace and me.

Fortunately, I’d been quick enough to grab a bowl of egg noodles that I hadn’t gotten a chance to eat. It was the only dish I’d saved, but it was better than nothing.

“Fuck, this cunt is so aggressive,” I murmured.

Cunt is aggressive!Sy pouted.

A moment of quietness prevailed, as everyone had heard me, then Louis and Silas’s laughter pierced the shocked silence. Silas’s roar was like a lion’s instead of a wolf’s, and Louis was pounding the table in glee. He loved it when I was vulgar and obnoxious. But I wasn’t slightly amused or pleased when anyone interrupted my meal.

Grace’s face turned beet red.

“For that disrespect toward Princess Grace alone, you’ll be hanged!” Bellona bellowed.

I gingerly put the pink diamond back into my pocket to secure it while balancing the bowl of noodles in my hand.

“I said cunt,” I smirked, “but I didn’t say which cunt.”

“You called Princess Grace a c-cunt!” Fake Blonde yelled, her small mouth trembling in anger. “We all heard you.”

I cupped my ear for show. “Say it again? I called who a cunt?”

“You called Princess—” Fake Blonde started.

“Stop!” Grace cut in, giving Fake Blonde a cutting look that sent her minion flinching, and FB clamped her hole shut. The princess turned her nose up toward me, fury darkening her eyes. “You’re a crass and despicable creature.”

“Yet you copied me.” I tugged a corner of my lips up in a mocking smirk. “You even got the nickname of Barbie 2.0.”

“Aren’t you full of yourself?” Grace retorted. “I’ve been the Princess of the Underworld longer than anyone knew, even though I wasn’t raised in the Underworld.” I tried not to blink at the information. Grace had been kept a mystery until she showed up at Shades Academy. “You’re but an inferior copy of me. How a street urchin like you wormed your way into the most elite academy in the realm is beyond me. Is your name even Barbie?”

I grinned. “You don’t need to go far to search for the truth. I didn’t worm my way into Shades Academy. I was dragged into the program by the Prince Heir of the House of Chaos.” I nodded toward the heirs’ table, challenging Killian.

I already knew this duel wouldn’t end well for me. I felt it in my bones and saw how my foes had set me up to fail. But I had nothing more to lose. It wouldn’t hurt me more than it already had to drag Killian through the mud as well. The truth was, I couldn’t exactly do that, since His royal-ass Highness was too high up there for a lowlife like me to dent him. However, I wanted him to know that I’d still be brazen enough to sting him publicly.

“If you have an issue with that, take it up with your new beau there.” I chuckled, and everyone gasped at my suicidal boldness. From the heirs’ table, Silas’s delighted chortle rippled across the hall. I was dying to check out Killian’s reaction, but I refrained from looking at him. My battle was here. It’d be unwise to let his anger—or worse, his coldness—get my emotions all twisted up before the duel. “I was happy being Prince Heir Louis’s squire before I was forced into the Brides Selection. He’s a fair vampire prince, and he was pleased with my excellent performance as his top squire.”

A peal of laughter rolled out of Louis. Well, I’d openly told a white lie about being a good squire, but I was gambling on his not correcting me. Didn’t he beg me never to change?

More than a handful of vamps hated me, especially Gunnar, the captain. He’d labeled me as lazy and insufferable, with bad manners and a foul mouth. He’d also bitched about my being the worst squire in all the realm. I didn’t even know what he meant by that. No way could I be the worst. In this life, there was always someone better than you, and on the other end of the scale, there was always someone doing worse than you.

“I had a good life in the amazing House of Vampires,” I continued. “And then I thrived in the respected House of Shifters, again, as an exceptional squire who understood her duty and served the largest wolf prince in the realm well.” Now I was gambling that Silas wouldn’t contradict me, even though I heard snickers somewhere. “But a lot happened after that.” I nodded at the mob meaningfully, but no one nodded back, all glaring at me despite their confusion.

Mobs were mostly driven by blind emotion. When anger and fear were doing the thinking for their brain, they were incredibly easy to manipulate.

I waved a hand, still holding the bowl of noodles, in a dramatic gesture. “Before I could forge my own path, I was bullied, exposed, and humiliated in front of thousands of my fellow students on the ice rink. Going through a gender change isn’t for the faint-hearted, and a dark, chaotic force came after me, hauling me into the House of Chaos.” I pressed my free hand against my heart and put on a look of sorrow. “Before I could even wrap my mind around the gritty reality and blink twice, there I was in the Brides Selection. Sometimes, I think it is a bad dream. But when I wake up every morning, there I am, still in the Selection.”

I looked at the angry and stunned faces all around, knowing that no one else had tried to discredit the Brides Selection. I’d openly mocked its foundation and their system.

“Don’t get me wrong,” I offered meekly. “I’m not saying that the BS, short for Brides Selection, is bad or anything, but I recognize that I’m not mate material. I know my limitations, and I ain’t afraid of admitting them. You all should try to shift your mindset from time to time. I promise that it’s quite liberating. Stay open and positive. Anyway, I have to say something about my former membership in the House of Chaos. There are a lot of good people there, and I’m sorry to have to leave them behind, but I’m glad that I ended up in the House of Mages.” I raised the bowl of noodles. “Cheers for me!”

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