Page 81 of Shattered & Returned

“Either punish the girl properly,” Kingsley bit out, “or face the consequences. We both know you’ve exhausted your exceptions.”

Sebastian dragged a thumb along his jawline, a sour expression marring his perfect features.

A weary sigh sliced through the standoff. Headmistress Stardust appeared in the doorway, her coiled golden hair crowned with flickering starlight.

“Must we repeat this tiresome dance, Nero?” Her voice carried the weight of centuries. “Give Carl his petty victory so I may return to my observatory. This feud exhausts even the stars.”

The air grew suffocating with four immortals in a room. Their energy saturated the space, shadow and sunlight, water and starlight shoving against each other like a dam threatening to rupture.

I was the only mortal here, a frail one. Yet even amid the clash of their powers, I hadn’t reached for my inhaler. Instead of being crushed by the weight of the immortal powers, my Weaver magic drank in the torrent of their formidable energy.

Ravencrux’s gaze locked onto mine. I lifted my chin, defiance warring with the alcohol still humming in my veins, as I waited for the inevitable retribution.

Let him play his cruel games.

I’d master their rules the way one navigates a battlefield sown with invisible mines by studying every explosion.

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

Bloom

Three Spanks

Nero Ravencrux’s eyes glinted with savage amusement at my defiance. His gaze dipped to my chest, and I suddenly realized my dress clung to every curve of my body, courtesy of Kingsley’s water attack. My nipples hardened under Ravencrux’s attention, pressing against the wet fabric as if remembering the sensation of his mouth on them.

Stop it,I ordered myself, immediately folding my arms over my chest. The other immortals also stared at my dripping form, their expressions unreadable.

“You understand I must punish you for tonight’s transgressions,” Ravencrux purred, stepping closer. “Don’t you, Bloom?”

I lifted my chin, pulse hammering in the back of my parched throat. “Do your worst,Professor.”

What more could he take from me? I steeled my spine and stood straighter against the wall. The worst had already happened—I’d seen him with Morrigan, showing me exactly how little I meant to him.

“Oh, I intend to.” His smirk was sadistic. “Sincethat fuckerinsists.”

Kingsley growled, the air vibrating with his menace.

“Enough theatrics, Nero.” Headmistress Stardust pinched the bridge of her nose. “Just get it over with.”

Ravencrux closed the distance between us in half a second. No one had the right to move that fast. Before I could react, his scent blanketed me: scorching sandalwood and raw male power, cutting through the club’s smoky atmosphere and the stench of alcohol. I couldn’t help but lean in to inhale deeply while bracing for what came next. Would it be a punch? Like how men with little worth beat women?

The punch never landed.

My breath hitched as his knuckles grazed my throat. Would he choke me again, like in the forest? Would he show his brutality until I crumpled to the ground?

His fingers didn’t circle my neck. Instead, they gripped my waist and lifted me off the ground with disturbing ease.

He propped his boot up on a chair, and suddenly I was on his lap—more precisely, my belly landed on his knee as he bent me over.

“What are you doing?” I yelped in alarm, blood rushing to my head.

“Setting an example, of course,” he said. “Punishing you properly in front of everyone. And what else did you expect, little rulebreaker? If you didn’t want this, you shouldn’t have left thetower during curfew, gone off with a rat, and lured a water viper here.”

Both Sebastian and Kingsley snarled, but whatever insults they hurled at Ravencrux faded into background noise, as all I could focus on was the impending humiliation.

His large hand slapped across my bottom, and a hot flash of pain bloomed across my backside, radiating up my spine to my breasts. Worse—farworse—was the answering throb between my thighs.

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