Page 96 of Academy of the Wicked, Year One

His hand shifts, moving to my face with surprising gentleness. His long fingers rest against my skin, careful not to obscure my vision. Despite the protective warmth spreading through me, I can’t look away from the boy. His eyes blaze with rage, and the hissing snake behind him thrashes violently, its body coiling and uncoiling in agitation.

“She’smyclaim!” the boy snarls, his voice breaking into a higher pitch as the snake lunges forward.

But Grim’s shadows react instantly.

Mist swirls and glows faintly with hues of green and purple, wrapping around the serpent in a coordinated attack. The snake’s massive body strikes the barrier, shattering it with a deafening crack.

Yet, just as it seems the creature will reach us, a wall of gold erupts from the ground, shooting upward with blinding brilliance. The snake screeches in agony as the golden light engulfs it, its form writhing and contorting before it begins to dissolve into ash.

The boy steps back, his hollow eyes wide with shock.

“Fae craft?” he hisses, his voice dripping with venom. His gaze snaps to me, narrowing sharply. “You dare mate with a Fae?”

Confusion clouds my mind, and I’m too disoriented to respond.

What does he mean by that?

The words make no sense, but before I can dwell on them, my head is forced upward, as if guided by an unseen hand. My breath catches as my eyes widen, taking in the figure looming above me.

The golden being towers over everything, its light so radiant that it seems otherworldly. It gleams with an intensity that borders on the divine, its form almost too perfect to be real.

For a fleeting moment, I wonder if it’s a god come to deliver me to paradise.

“Guess we can’t get rid of you,my little Solstice,” the being says, its voice thick with power yet laced with a hint of humor.

The nickname sends a ripple of warmth through me, though I don’t understand its meaning.

My lips part, the name tumbling out in a faint whisper.

“Niko?”

The golden light flickers faintly, and I catch a glimpse of what I hope is a smile. It’s brief, barely there, but it’s enough to ease some of the tension coiling in my chest.

“Come back to us, Gwenivere,”he says softly, his voice washing over me like a balm.

He leans closer, the warmth of his presence enveloping me until his lips brush against mine, tender and fleeting.

And then, the world tilts.

16

NEWFOUND MERCY IN TRIUMPH

~GWENIVERE~

“You guys don’t fucking listen to me,” Damien’s voice cuts through the haze, sharp and irritable. “If she fucking tries to kill us, I’m going to be so damn pis?—”

My eyes snap open.

The warmth against my lips vanishes in an instant, leaving a strange emptiness that twists in my chest. Panic seizes me, constricting and all-consuming, my vision swimming in a sea of red.

It’s not supposed to be normal red — the hue like blood pooling in my gaze.

Cassius’s voice reaches me first, calm but tinged with urgency.

“She’s awake. But something’s off with her aura.”

Damien’s face appears in my blurred line of sight, his brows furrowed with a mixture of concern and annoyance.

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