Damelza’s eyes glittered pink. "Since you contacted me, no one. I cast a Repellent Hex and—"
"You're wrong." The Duchess' voice was calm but so dangerous that my balls shrank in fright. She crooked her finger at me, and I edged closer. Magenta's icy lips latched onto my ear, sucking. I struggled to keep my expression blank. Even my ears were suckable. It was a gift. One that meant, while I slunk closer to the Duchess, supposedly pure, Magenta was touching me in the wickedest ways. When I stopped in front of the Duchess, I tried to avoid her gaze, but she tipped up my chin with her tail. It was hot and so unlike Magenta's cool skin. In the palace, the Duchess had almost never touched my slinky self, no matter how much the others helped me to primp or dress me up, which meant that she was making a point. She could do what she liked to me. My heart beat faster. "I sent you here to learn your lesson. But instead, I hear that you're rebellious."
The disappointment in her tone was almost enough to send me to my knees. I swayed but managed to stay standing. "Away with you," I gritted out, "I thought that you chose me because you wanted a challenge. Aren't I meant to be the freak of an incubus?"
The Duchess drew back like I'd burned her. "The Principal told me that she's already punished you for your infractions. I’d planned to forgive you or are you acting up because you need me to punish you again and reinforce those lessons?"
My breath came in harsh pants, and I shook my head.
Not here...not in front of Magenta...please...
I shook at the memory of the Duchess' last punishment. She didn't need to inflict simple pain. To be untouched was the ultimate penalty for an incubus. She'd turned me into a Not There, which meant that everyone in the palace had been ordered to ignore me like I'd become a ghost. I'd started to wonder if I'd become one for a real.
For the first time, I’d ignored the rule about not crying, weeping and dragging on the other incubi's arms, desperate to get them to at least look at me, but they wouldn't. Instead, they’d continued to eat, exercise, or sleep in their casual group like I hadn’t been there. If they’d broken the Duchess’ rule, even to press their gloved hand to my cheek or brush their arm reassuringly against mine in passing, then they’d also have been condemned to become a Not There.
I hadn't simply been unloved: I'd been erased from existence.
It hadn't mattered how pettable, slinky, or how much I'd hurt myself for the Duchess.
In despair, I'd knelt in front of her and burned myself. But she'd simply continued to turn the pages of her book like even my agony hadn’t been delicious to her anymore.
That had been when our bond had broken.
It was a serious thing to break a bond.
I've always been greedy for love, however, and if neither my pleasure nor my pain could gain it, then this sweet arse no longer wished to serve. It wasn't that much of a surprise when the Duchess sent me to Rebel Academy, but the shame of never being allowed to see my family again nearly broke me for a second time.
Ma wanted to hide me from women like the Duchess, but you can’t hide. You have to face life.
The Duchess tapped the top of the book thoughtfully. "Then what do you say to my mercy?"
Stick it up that place beneath your fluffy tail? "Thank you." You psycho bond breaker...
The Duchess must've read something in my maybe not quite so innocent expression because she twisted to Damelza. "I'm telling you that the incubus has been altered. He'll take much re-education."
Re-education. Fun.
I grimaced.
Damelza's lips pinched. "You know how it is between students at this age, especially under the pressure and adrenaline of trials and near death. It makes them fancy themselves in love." I bit my tongue hard to keep still at the way the two women shot each other patronizing looks. What did either of them know about love? "Crave has a crush on our new Prefect."
The Duchess shrugged. "My bonded incubi are often fiercely protective of each other."
Damelza shuffled the files on her desk. "She's not quite the same as the other bad boys here."
The Duchess stiffened. "She...?"
"Crow is an unwelcome and unexpected student." When Damelza's voice hardened, the temperature in the room fell even further. I longed for Magenta to kick my tormentors’ arses, as much as I needed her to stay invisible. "She's a witch from this coven, but I assure you, I have the situation under control. The witch is as weak as Crave. Her own first crush on a mage led to her magic corrupting to Wickedly Charmed and cursing this entire academy."
My eyes widened, and I glanced around like I’d actually be able to see Magenta. Is that what’d happened? She’d loved a mage like Fox, and it’d turned her wicked?
An icy wind blew down the back of my neck as if steadying me or promising to tell me the secret. I’d go with the secret because I was optimistic like that.
The Duchess slid off the table, circling me. I fought not to recoil; I’d forgotten how much taller than me she was. I loved that Magenta was my height.
It made kissing sinfully delicious.
"That's not a crush. It's forbidden and reckless love. A crush is much more painful." The Duchess’ eyes danced with glee like she was feeding even from the thought of it. "It bubbles beneath the skin. It burns, unrequited. Bask loved me like that once. I delighted in it. It fed me most mouth-watering flavors of pleasure." She tilted her head. "Does he love the witch in the same way?"
"Not a chance," I snapped, before I could stop myself, "because Magenta loves me back."
Crack — the Duchess' tail whipped me across the arse.
I gasped. My arse was made for spanking, stroking, petting...a whole platter of fun things. But whipping rights were denied to succubi who weren't even bonded to me any longer.
"It would please me for you to lie on your back on the desk," the Duchess said.
She glowed with power. She'd already fed on her commands, and my pain. I fought to resist her, but we'd once been bonded, and she was one of the most powerful succubi at Court. There was a reason that she was feared.
When I sprawled on the desk, knocking books and files flying, Damelza squawked in protest. The files that I'd flattened dug painfully into my shoulder blades. I was too aware of the pulse pounding in my ears and fluttering in my throat.
When the Duchess leaned over me, trapping me beneath the red bars of her hair, everything became blurry.
"Thank Hecate, my study hasn't been turned into a pleasure harem for at least a month," Damelza drawled, shoving back her chair. Then she stalked to the door. "How about I allow you some — brief — privacy to inspect that he's reforming as promised? When I come back, it'd be ever so kind of you to allow me my own desk back."
I winced, as Damelza slammed the door.
My hands clawed around the crows’ skulls on top of the desk. My breathing was too rapid. My mind was hazy insisting that I please, please, please...
Alone. Trapped. Compelled.
It didn't matter whether my hair was lank or at perfect shininess levels: The Duchess would make me hurt.
She always had.
"Undo your shirt." Ruby sparkles glittered from the Duchess' mouth, amplifying each command.
I reached up, pushing aside my blazer and tie. I had no modesty (startling discovery), because false modesty was banned in my code. I was certain that I'd read it in the small print. But the Duchess stripped away clothes like stripping away part of my Soul.