Page 25 of Magical Academy for Delinquents
Movement jerked my eyes to the corner. The girl opened my closet door, making a shadow crawl across my wall. Based on the curly haired silhouette, I assumed the girl was Laura, though I couldn’t see her face. I hadn’t given anyone else reason to hate me this afternoon.
The girl bent down and rustled through my freshly unpacked things. I relaxed a bit more in Grayson’s hold. They wanted to screw with my stuff?Real fucking original.
Grayson leaned down toward me and his breath was hot against my ear as he whispered, “Heard you think you’re hot shit.”
His voice sent a shiver down my spine. But not the scared kind. I stared up at him. I tried to force a couple tears into my eyes, let him think he was getting to me.
Laura giggled as she started pulling my shoes out of the closet. She lined them up on the far wall of my room, where I could see each and every pair. My Louboutins and Saint Laurents were placed in the center of my boots and other shoes.
Grayson yanked the back of my hair roughly and pulled my head up just a fraction, so it was resting against his hard, hickory-scented chest. Damn—the guy had good cologne.
He made sure I had the perfect view of the far wall and his companions. He kept the tight grip on my hair and an unimportant question flickered through my head.I wonder if he likes it rough?I shoved that idiotic thought aside and Grayson jerked my head forward to make sure I was focused on the wall.
After all my shoes had been laid out, like firing squad victims, Laura skipped forward and pulled the lid off the pot.
Rank steam filled my room.
I had to tamp down on my gag reflex. Laura covered her nose and giggled as the two guys walked toward the wall and slowly poured steaming hot noodle soup over my shoes. I was pretty certain they’d added some kind of rotten meat to it, because the smell coming from it was horrifying. The soup splattered against my walls and sank into the cheap utilitarian carpet. The carpet was actually the worst of my worries. Even a spell to remove it wouldn’t be fast enough. That nasty smell would linger. I’d have to pay to get that shit replaced ASAP.
I took deep breaths through my mouth, as deep as I was able with one of Grayson’s hands still on my throat.
Laura turned to watch me, obviously expecting some kind of reaction. So, I let out a moan. “Oh!” I felt like saying, “Oh, my poor fucking shoes, how will I ever live without you? Tragedy, agony! And thus, with a heel, I die!” Did they think I was that fucking shallow? Or that fucking stupid? Apparently.
Laura’s eyes flared with anger at my reaction. I guess it hadn’t been big enough for her. Dammit. Maybe I should have gone with the Shakespearean death scene shit. Fuck me.
Her eyes glanced around the room and I knew she wasn’t satisfied. I tensed in Grayson’s arms and he chuckled.
His chuckle was a low, smoky sound, like some jazz singer had turned laughter into music. I worried my lip with my teeth as I watched Laura head over to my dresser.
When all of my shoes had been ruined, the guys set the pot in the middle of the room.
Laura opened the top drawer and dumped out my socks, so that they rolled across the floor.
My heart crashed into my ribs like giant ocean waves smacking against the rocks. Fear foamed inside my chest. For the first time since these fuckers had come into my room, I felt scared. Sweat beaded on my brow. My flash drive was hidden in the middle of one of my sock rolls. I’d taken the necklace off and stuffed it in there to hide it. That flash drive held all the fucking Pinnacle floor plans and student profiles and every damn thing I needed for this heist.
My fingers clenched and I tried not to physically give myself away. But I felt like puking. I felt like blinding then burning the fuck out of all of them.Shit.
I forced myself to stare back at the dresser and not at the socks that littered the floor.
It felt like minutes passed, though it was probably only seconds, before Laura opened a second drawer and found my underwear.
Yes, bitch, yes!I screamed inside. Outside, I writhed and moaned, like I was humiliated.
Laura smiled, feeling triumphant. She pulled the drawer out and walked with it over to the still-steaming vat of sludge. She dumped it over, sending the entire drawer of lacy thongs and bikini briefs to their permanent end. Even if I could write a spell to get rid of all this soup shit—and I would—the smell would have soaked in and ruined everything. I didn’t have a hard on for car upholstery or crime scene clean up magic. I didn’t have spells laying around for how to get shit stains out.
Behind me, Grayson’s laugh rumbled through his chest and vibrated against my back. I focused on that sound. Then I made my muscles go limp. I tried to curl myself into a ball, like I’d been defeated.
“Little girl, don’t mess with the big dogs,” Grayson’s voice wrapped seductively around me before he shoved me roughly forward onto the bed. My face hit my comforter and I turned sideways, watching as he stood. He zipped his coat and nodded at his lackeys as they climbed out my window. Grayson turned before he climbed out himself. “This is your only warning.”
“Understood,” I rasped, my throat still sore from where he’d grabbed me.
Grayson tossed a leg up onto my ledge and then gave me a wicked grin before he hopped out my window. My third-floor window.
I pulled myself up on the bed and hurried to the window nearby. The others were climbing carefully down the walls, using what appeared to be niches carved into the stone. Good to know those were there. I assumed so enterprising students had added them to the architecture for nighttime visits like this.
But Grayson didn’t use the niches. His Force power let him levitate through the air. His hands were pointed at the grass like Iron Man’s rocket-blasting mechanical gloves. I could see the wind whipping the dead winter grass below and flattening it like some balding man’s crap comb over. Grayson slowly lowered the amount of Force he used so that he sank little by little until he stepped easily onto the grass.
Holy shit! I was right! He can lift people!I licked my lips. That level of control was rare. Most people with Force power could send a blast of wind, but couldn’t funnel it, direct it, turn up or down the volume like a song. Grayson’s power sang.
