Page 27 of Validus Vale Academy 1
My heart is beating so fast, I think maybe I’m having a heart attack. Perhaps that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, because if I drop dead, I won’t have to face them—Wes, Donovan, and Cosmo—in T-minus five minutes.
I stop and force every piece of my willpower into my leg muscles, trying to turn around and escape. Nope, I can’t break Cosmo’s command. My feet carry me onwards until I arrive at the end of the stairs, where there is an oak door.
“Eight o’clock. Don’t be late.”
Pushing it open, I come to a nervous halt because there are several Elites milling in the hallway, a heavy fug of cannabis in the air. “What are you doing here, dud?” one says, shooting a wave of control that stops my limbs from moving.
“L-l-looking for Cosmo. I have an appointment with h-h-him.”
The Elite snorts. “Oh dear, he doesn’t like people to keep him waiting.”
My internal clock says I have less than two minutes before I’m late, and I’m panicking now. “Can you let me go? Please?”
Oh, Gods, I can’t be late.
Luckily, or unluckily, I’m not sure which, he waves his hand to release me, and my feet set off at a jog towards a man who hates me, utterly and intensely.
Why does Cosmo hate me? Because I took his twins away from him. For a brief moment, Wes and Donovan chosemeoverhim, and for that, I’ll never be forgiven.
I come to the penthouse suite door. Tee-minus, five seconds, four seconds, three, two, one. Suddenly, the door is flung open. I freeze, a deer in headlights.
“Well, look what we have here.”
Lifting my eyes, I meet the gaze of a stranger in the doorway. He returns my look with a hunger that makes his pupils flare. He’s a predator; everything about him shrieks out ‘danger’. When I take a step backward, he reaches out a meaty fist and grabs hold of my neck.
“You almost made him wait.” Holding me by the scruff, the creep leads me into the apartment. Inside, a fire is blazing in the grate, and Cosmo is standing by the floor-length windows. My eyes dart around looking for Wes and Donovan, but they are nowhere to be seen.
The douche holding me rubs a thumb down my cheek, making my skin crawl at his touch.
“Put her down, Manu, and then get out of here,” Cosmo says, without turning around.
The man called Manu releases the hand from my neck, slowly drifting his knuckles down over my collarbone, pausing for a beat, then continuing downward, slipping over the fabric of mysweatshirt. I shudder and let out a whimper. “Can I have her after you’re done?” he asks Cosmo.
Cosmo swivels in our direction, a cold, icy anger almost visibly sparking off him. He makes a flicking motion with his fingers, and Manu’s hand instantly flies off my body. “I said, put her down.”
Beside me, Manu flexes his muscles. “Fuck off, Drakeward,” he growls. “Don’t use your little tricks on me.”
“Watch yourself,” Cosmo growls.
I wrap my arms around my body. I don’t want to be grateful to Cosmo Drakeward, but at this moment I am.
Manu huffs. “Whatever.” Turning his back on Cosmo, he ominously mouths ‘later’ to me, then strides away into Donovan’s room.
At least it’s the room that used to be Donovan’s. Are the twins no longer roommates with Cosmo? What does that mean? Shit. Are they not at the academy at all?
I break into a cold sweat. What if something happened to them? Fuck. Have I been wrong all this time?
Suddenly, nothing else matters than me knowing where the twins are. I take several steps towards Cosmo. “Where…” I start to say, but Cosmo’s voice layers on top of mine.
“Silence.” His eyes fix on me with an intensity that promises destruction if I even try to disobey. I freeze as every function in my body comes under Cosmo’s command. He looks at me with pure hatred. “I’m asking the questionsand you’ll answer them all—truthfully.”
12
My magic pulses around the room; every single breath Theodora Wilson takes is mine to grant or deny.
Her entire damn existence hangs on my whim, and Gods, it’s an exquisite feeling.
Wrapping tendrils of pure Cosmo Drakeward power around her throat, I slowly draw them tighter and tighter, watching her big silver eyes grow wide with panic. She can’t move a muscle. Her arms are pinned, useless, against her too-small frame, and I’ve cemented her feet to the floor. After everything that has happened, she’s completely at my mercy.
