Page 33 of House of Vampires and Flame

The tension broke when Louis was suddenly on the move. He cleared his throat, letting his power ripple off him, and marched toward the gathering.

I didn’t want any of the princes paying attention to me again, so I looked away and scanned my surroundings until I spotted a long table at the edge of the grass field between a column of purple trees. On the table were several steel vats of gelato. Two servers stood behind the table, spooning ice cream into paper cups.

I let out a gleeful squeal and sprang in that direction but made it only two steps before I got yanked back by Gunnar.

“You won’t be allowed out of my sight for one second, and you won’t be excused, not even for a real bathroom break,” he vowed. “I’ll make a proper squire out of you!”

“You don’t need to do this, man,” I said in dismay. “You don’t need to be such a tight butt. There’s ice cream there. I’ll go fetch you a cup as well, I promise.”

“The ice cream and refreshments are for the princes only,” he hissed.

“You can’t know that,” I protested. “I don’t see any sign that says it. And there is enough for everyone.”

“There are certain etiquettes and unspoken rules,” he lectured. “You’re not the privileged class. You’re at the bottom of the food chain. Blame it on your birth father, chihuahua.”

Oh, I could blame my father for every fucking thing, on and on and on.

“Stay right here and look ahead,” he instructed. “But don’t stare at the princes. Every now and then, look in the direction of His Highness and see to his needs.”

“He won’t need us,” I said. “He has his pals over there, and they’ll get into a contest of showing whose dick is bigger.”

He smacked his large hand against the side of my head. “Shut up and start learning! Be useful for once!”

“What’s there to learn?” I murmured to myself.

Maybe I should hope for Prince Louis to be killed, so I could get out of the contract after I did my one last deed of making sure he got an honorable burial.

We can kill him, and then I’ll eat him, Sy offered. It’ll be a shame though to waste him like that.

The prince was sexy as hell. Sy lusted after him as well. She didn’t go after him only because he was too close to home. For her, there were two categories—fuck them or kill them.

Occasionally, she did both.

I wasn’t going to be a total hypocrite. Sy fucked to feed, and I benefited from the energy she harvested as well. Sy was a predator, through and through, but she wasn’t a sexual predator. Our body needed to feed that way, but she never forced anyone. It was more like luring her targets—or victims, in some cases—but no one could really resist her seduction.

We’re not that desperate yet, I told her. But maybe we should kill Gunnar. He has a nasty personality, so I don’t think he’ll be missed.

Should we fuck him first then? Sy consulted.

Ew! I scolded her.

I don’t like wasting resources, she laughed.

The students spread over the practice field and split off into twos or threes. It seemed there were five or six of them from each house, based on the crests on their uniforms. They were doing mostly elemental magic, like conjuring fireballs, wind, or water, and tossing it at their opponents.

After a while, a patch of grass was seared by fire. Lots of spots were soaked with pools of water. My favorite was their earth magic. I liked to watch vines shoot out of the ground and grab their opponents in an iron grip.

Within minutes, I’d figured out each house’s magical brand.

Vampires owned air magic. Shifters were affiliated with water. Two elemental magics graced the fae house, so fae either possessed fire or earth. Mages, however, had better luck in diversity. Some mages could wield fire, some were proficient at conjuring ice or wind. However, they had to use spells to make their elemental magic work.

That was why the spellcasters and potions masters mostly came from the mages’ house. Fae were good at potions too, but they couldn’t compete against the mages in spells. Ancient fae could store spells and magic in artifacts, but the art had been lost a millennium ago.

My dormant magic was more powerful than any supernatural’s, except for Killian, probably, since I couldn’t exactly make out his power, which was a first, and a challenge.

Watching the students practice magic from the sideline, I was both thrilled and anxious.

I needed to figure out how to get hold of my core power if I wanted to last in this realm and face my father in the end. I couldn’t hide or run forever. He’d find me eventually.

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