I blinked. "What am I promising?"
"You're not a ghost anymore." Flair assessed me, shrewdly. "But we are. Do you want to go back to being trapped in Hecate’s Tree?"
I bristled. "What a ludicrous question."
"Bollocks to that, wrapped in a shiny Torment Thursday sized extra dose of bollocks. The werewolf says that today can be deadly, but the mission tomorrow is worse. You may not even come back, boss."
My guts churned, and my pulse raced. I cuddled Echo like he was Nile, and rather wished that I hadn't already guessed that Flair was right.
"What werewolf?" I asked.
It seemed like the safest question.
That was, until Echo bumped his head against my bosom reprovingly. "The beautiful Omega who lives here. On my fangs, don’t tell me that you missed the cages?"
I gasped, remembering the cage in the corner of Juni's classroom. During Divination Class, however, I'd been rather taken up with Sleipnir's lips kissing up my neck, until my toes had curled. Of course, also Fox swinging upside down next to a naked vampire.
The cage had been for a werewolf...? Wait, wasn’t there also one by Hecate’s shrine in the castle courtyard? That was certainly a new addition, which hadn’t been there, during the time that I’d been growing up in the academy.
"I rather hoped that it was for when the Princes handed in their homework late." I shrugged.
Flair shook his head. "The Omega's collared, caged, and without the kinky fun. He's only allowed to transform on the full moon and at that bitch's command."
“But wolves are shifters. They should be able to transform at will. How do you know that he’s being controlled like the dragons?”
Echo cocked his head. "Flair's stalking, stalking, stalking him."
"Following him," Flair corrected.
"Just sleeping on—"
"Next to—"
"Him at night."
I glanced between them, narrowing my eyes. "Uh-huh. Entirely normal crow behavior. But why's he even in the academy? He's not on the Membership list."
"Juni owns him like you own us," Echo replied.
I winced. I opened my mouth to deny it, but Flair shot me a warning look. Last time that I'd tried to assure them of their freedom, Echo had freaked out, until I'd claimed him again. I couldn't tell if it was a vampire thing or a uniquely Echo thing. But since we'd spent over a century as ghosts alone together in Hecate's Tree, we belonged together.
Plus, Echo was technically right. His twin and him had been given to me on my twenty-first birthday, just as the cat familiar, Pocus, must've been given to Professor Bacchus.
They'd all been made property against their will.
Yet the wolves were wild and free. Their civilization was fascinating. Most of it was peaceful or not more war-like than any other paranormal.
How had Juni collared an Omega?
"It turns out that there was a Wolf War," Flair's voice was more anguished than I'd expected. What terrible things had Echo and he learned on their missions around the academy? "The bastard witches won and enslaved the wolves. From what I can tell, most of the werewolves were freed by some glittery god, a Wolf Charmer and her wolves, and our mage's cousin." I straightened, staring at him in shock. Fox's cousin had saved an entire race? He'd been brave enough to battle against witches? Wait, that explained the courage of my mage and why the magic inside him was so powerful. "But the witches here in the academy don't give a flying monkeys' fuck about witch law or tradition. They're outside all that shit. The academy’s Omega is still a slave."
"Not if I can help it," I muttered.
When Flair hopped forward, patting his wing on my knee in gratitude, I smiled. Flair must have a crush on this Omega. Now I was truly desperate to see him.
I glanced up at Sleipnir and Bask and I realized that they'd stopped kissing, although they were still wound around each other. They both stared at me with impatiently raised eyebrows.
Ah yes, I should've been watching their sexy show. Instead, I'd been...talking to myself.
Sometimes, I forgot that my familiars were invisible to others.
I grinned sheepishly, gesturing go on.
Bask shrugged, before clasping his hand around Sleipnir's neck and rubbing his knee across his prick. Sleipnir arched into him.
I wished that I could get back to enjoying the delightful sight. Instead...
"Why are you telling me about your wolfie crush?" I demanded.
Flair thwapped my knee with his wing. "That wolfie crush has something to do with Torment Thursday. I was sleeping...okay, rolling around sniffing his bed...and I heard him talking to the witch. He fears this day."
The hairs on my nape rose, and I pressed my nails into my palms. As long as we won to save Fox, I could endure anything.
"Forgive, forgive, forgive," Echo's gentle voice wove up to me like a prayer.
"I'd forgive you anything." Then I bit my lip. When would I learn the danger of such sweeping promises? Yet I’d never take it back because Echo's eyes gleamed with joy like I'd sworn him my eternal love.
Although, I supposed that was true as well.
"You warm my very heart of pain," Echo murmured. "But I meant please forgive the elf. I'm certain that he's sorry, if he's been bad. The song that he sang in the shower this morning was like a stream weeping down the melting snows of a mountain. I barely remembered to glance at his beautiful prick. Why don't you spank me in his place?"
When Echo threw himself dramatically across my lap, as if his behind was a sacrifice to save Willoughby’s (although I still didn't understand why he believed the elf at risk of my fury more than the fae because my hand truly did itch to give him a witch smacking), I startled. When I merely stroked over Echo’s feathery behind, he rumbled low in his throat.
"I'm not punishing the Prince," I promised.
Flair cocked his head. "So, the blue-haired bastard just put himself in the corner then?"
When I twisted around, my eyes widened.
While I'd been distracted both by my familiars and the delicious pleasure winding to my magenta magic from Sleipnir and Bask putting on a hot show for me, I hadn't seen Willoughby enter the Conqueror Gym.
He never went anywhere without Lysander, as if the other Prince was his guard.
Where was Lysander?
Now, Willoughby stood in the corner with his palms pressed hard against the wall. His back was stiff with tension.
My brow furrowed. What was wrong with him?
"I assure you, I'll look after the elf, until he no longer hides himself or sings anything but the merriest songs in the shower." I shooed Echo, and he hopped off my lap. "I hope that you'll then remember to take a thorough look at his beautiful prick."
Echo flapped his wings, as he murmured, “Beautiful prick."
Flair and Echo took off, circling above my head.
"What you need to do," Flair called down, "is to fuck him hard and dirty, until he's seeing icicle shaped stars. That'll do it."
The crow twins flew out of the window.
"Thanks for the advice," I called after them, "most helpful."
I almost meant it.
I took a final glance at my Immortals (I'd have to remember to ask Sleipnir to repeat the trick of trailing kisses and marking bruises up and down Bask's neck on mine later), before strolling behind Willoughby's tense back.