Page 35 of Cruel Destinies

Hadrian whipped his hand up and pointed his index finger in the air. “If you fail me, it’ll be back to the Madness Chamber for you.”

A memory surfaced briefly in my mind—one not from my distant past. I’d been forced into a tank of water in the dungeons of Heritage Prep recently. For twenty-four hours, I’d drowned over and over in that water, but that hadn’t even been the worst of the experience.

The Madness Chamber’s waters had been mixed with hallucinogens that threw me into memories from long ago. But the memories were muddled by my own mind, confusing my beloved Alice with Shea. It had taken three days for the drugs to wear off, and even then, the effect still remained. I blamed that disorientation for my loss of control with the beautiful witch.

“Last time, you drowned for a whole day, right?”

I nodded slowly as I tried to force the memory from my mind.

“That was punishment for abandoning me fifteen years ago,” Hadrian reminded. “Failure in this mission is not acceptable. If you fail to bring me Arya, I will see that you stay in the Madness Chamber for three whole years.”

Setting my jaw, I looked back up at Hadrian and said, “Understood.”

Hadrian hunched over his desk and put his face right in front of me, slowly looking back and forth between my eyes. “Bring me my daughter, Julian. Bring me Arya.”

Chapter 13

Ashlyn

“You went too far this time, Ashlyn,” Igneous chided me across the desk in his office.

All I could do was roll my eyes over my frown and stiffly folded arms. “He’s a phoenix, for fuck sake. I’m sure he’ll be just fine.”

“Language,” he barked in warning, and I hid the way it made me shrink inwardly. “Regardless of his species, you cannot just go about hurling phoenix fire at other students. If he’d been any other type of shifter, he’d be—”

“Healed by the harpies in minutes?” I interrupted.

Rage began to etch the wrinkles of his brow, and steam literally huffed out of his flared nostrils. “That is not the point, Ashlyn. Inflicting pain frivolously is simply unacceptable.”

I sighed, loosening my arms around my chest. “I didn’t hurt him on purpose. I was throwing fireballs at the wall, and he just got in the way.”

It was the truth. I had been imagining Niko standing against the spot on the wall I was assaulting in Fire Mastery, venting my jilted heart with the idea of incinerating his stupid, handsome face.

Okay, so maybe I had gotten carried away andaccidentallythrown a fireball at Henry when he’d called my name. But seriously, you don’t interrupt someone when they’re in the zone. Honestly, it was totally his fault and totally preventable.

Igneous put his hand to his forehead, rubbing his thumb and index finger across it before dragging his palm down his face. “Look, I know you’re going through something right now. Why don’t you take the week off from Fire Mastery? Maybe take up some yoga.”

“Yoga?” I balked with a snort.

“Anything to help you vent your anger issues in a healthy way. One that doesn’t involve physical violence.”

I chewed on the inside of my cheeks, brewing on his statement. “I do not have anger issues,” I muttered.

When I glanced up at him, he was arching an eyebrow at me, which both humbled and infuriated me.

“Okay, fine. You’re right,” I conceded reluctantly. “But I’m not doingyoga.Maybe I’ll take to drinking to get over my breakup like normal people.”

“Ashlyn,” he warned, making me snicker. I didn’t know why it was so entertaining to ruffle his fiery feathers.

“Message received, sir.” I gave him my customary two-fingered salute. “Can I go now?”

He let out a heavy, rumbling sigh that sounded more dragon than phoenix. “Very well. But if you act out again, I’ll have no choice but to give you detention.”

“Got it,” I said, getting up and exiting his office.

I knew I was being a little dramatic about this whole Niko thing. We had only been officially dating for about a week. But he’d been my first real boyfriend, and he dumped me. He dumpedme. What the hell? I was hot and smart and funny.Sure, I’d been the flaming jinx at this school for the last few months, but that was a minor issue. And now that I was the badass phoenix that had saved the day during the vampire attack, maybe my ego had inflated a little.

Ugh. I just wanted to go to my room and disappear into a mountain of junk food. That was a perfectly acceptable coping mechanism, and it met my dad’s requirements of not involving physical violence. Win-win for everyone.

---