Page 14 of House of Pain
Alecto didn’t care. Why should she?
Val could have Blaze and then some. They were very fitting for each other—both soulless and mean, a match made in Hel.
There wasn’t much Alecto wouldn’t have done to be one of them.
“Dad.” Andro’s whine brought Alecto back from her thoughts. “Stop it.”
“What, child?” Rufus huffed a laugh. “I’m telling Alatar the truth. Your rockey game has gotten weak since you started the piano class again.”
Andro’s brown face was flushed as he glowered at his father.
“Well, honey, it’s normal,” Octavia said, smoothing the wrinkle of Rufus’s white shirt with her small hand. “It’ll take some time to adjust to the new routine. But you know damn well our boy is capable of keeping his grades high while still being the star player.”
“Yes, that’s probably true. Blaze, are you ready for another season? Being the captain for the second year in a row is an honor. You’re following in your old man’s steps well.”
Blaze met Rufus’s gaze, briefly nodding as he dragged a hand over his dark hair, long tips of it falling right back on his forehead and temples.
“If he manages to pull away for long enough from drinking and women, then he should be able to lead the team into another winning season,” Galliermo answered for Blaze, throwing a quick glance at Alecto before turning back to his son. “Will you, Blaze?”
“Yes, Father,” Blaze replied gravely. “Of course.”
Everything was handed to him on a silver platter, and yet, he failed to notice how lucky he was tobelong. Blaze belonged in a way that Alecto never could, and for that alone, she hated him more every day he spent wasting.
6
History of the Sexuality of Witches was Alecto’s favorite class at Venefica.
Not only because it tackled the issues of femininity and sexuality amongst the witches, but also because Professor Fallo was the only professor who didn’t seem to get off humiliating and degrading her students.
It was a safe space.
The room where their lectures took place was bright and welcoming, the walls draped in creamy silk curtains, covering the old wooden panels that covered the majority of the academy’s interior, still there from when all the buildings were built back in the eighteenth century.
There were pine shelves with dozens of books, green plants scattered between them, and everywhere else you could find a space—on the windowsills, on the professor’s desk, and even on the polished hardwood floor.
Professor Fallo herself was damn eye candy, with her wide hips and plump thighs always covered with silk skirts reaching her elegant calves, her round breasts hidden behind delicate matching shirts.
The woman looked maybe in her mid-thirties, with barely any signs of aging on her deep brown skin, except for a few light lines along her lips and in the creases of her eyes. But Alecto was sure that she was way older than that—Professor Fallo’s signature was on the Venefica founders’ agreement.
“Let’s start by going over your thoughts from last week’s reading,” the professor announced, leaning her hip against her desk, careful to not disturb the plants.
Her gaze traveled around the class, no hands rising to volunteer.
Alecto could have been the one to answer. She did the reading and even wrote down ten thoughts that the text had prompted before the party last Friday, but Alecto wasn’t a teacher’s pet.
She was not going to speak unless asked.
“I see,” Professor Fallo said with a sigh. “I know it’s terrible and unfair to have a class on Monday mornings when all the good parties take place over the weekend. I get it. But I thought that reading some good erotica would put you in a mood for a good week ahead, don’t you think?”
A bad thing about Professor Fallo treating them as equals was that most students took advantage of it.Yet, at her words, a few heads around the class that were just lowered snapped up, eyes wide.
“Erotica?” Garcia asked, blinking.
“Yes, Miss Torth. If you had read what I gave you, then you would know that we’re reading theDiaries of Hell Galliano, the infamous courtesan who was responsible for starting the war between humans known as World War I.”
Now Professor Fallo had the attention of the whole class.
Alecto lowered her head, opened her notebook with her notes and plenty of tiny illustrations everywhere around the text, and prepared to take notes.But Professor Fallo didn’t get to explain too much about their reading before there was a knock on the door.
