Page 16 of House of Ruin
But then Alecto snapped out of it, rising to her feet. She straightened her skirt, then brushed a hand through her hair to make sure her long locks were in place.
When she made her way to the door, something pinched at Alecto’s chest, an emotion so potent and intense, it was hard to read it.
It’ll all be worth it.When Blaze is on his knees, bleeding and begging for me to stop, it’ll be worth everything.
7
Asplitting headache was making its home in the right side of Blaze’s skull.
An unfortunate side effect of sobering up.
Usually, Blaze would shake off the headaches and nausea that came with hangovers during practice, especially when it was this cold outside.
But today, even five laps around the rockey field and a weight lifting session with Andro didn’t help.
In fact, Blaze’s body was completely wrecked.
Slowly, he rubbed his right temple, trying very hard to filter out Professor Namiad’s voice.
Unfortunately, his efforts were unsuccessful.
“I’m going to completely ignore the fact that the majority of you haven’t done the required reading.” Her intent eyes glided through the auditorium, stopping briefly on Andro, then Blaze, before moving on. The professor walked to the very edge of the platform. “If you have done your reading, though, you’d know that Aether magic wasn’t always forbidden. In fact, if we were to believe the ancient texts, it was previously used specifically to fuel important rituals around Inathis.”
One hand rose in the crowd.
Right next to Blaze.
Andro.
Blaze didn’t bother holding back a snort, which Andro pointedly ignored.
“But just last semester you told us that Aether magic cannot be practiced without causing massive tragic consequences to the realms.” Andro’s voice carried through the auditorium, bouncing off the old wood-paneled walls.
Professor Namiad’s voice was as flat as her expression when she spoke. “As I said, if you’d have bothered to do your reading,” she emphasized, and a few chuckles came from behind Blaze, where Alecto and Jolene sat, “you’d know why that used to be allowed. Aether magic used to be ritual magic. A sacred thing that everyone respected instead of treating like a plaything.”
The professor walked over to her desk, fumbling with something for a moment.
Something hit the back of Blaze’s chair, barely making a sound. Slowly, Blaze twisted his head to glance behind his shoulder, where Alecto was leaning over, picking something from the floor.
She was so close, Blaze could smell her, could feel the brush of her long silky hair over his skin, even if she wasn’t really touching him. When she lifted her head, her face was mere inches away from Blaze, her warm breath brushing his cheek.
Alecto met Blaze’s gaze, her rosy lips parted as she tried to pull a few strings of hair out of her mouth. “The professor is that way, Leveau,” she whispered, jerking her chin. But she didn’t move away.
Blaze smirked, dropping his eyes to her legs, to the white over-the-knee socks she wore with her skirt. He loved the cold season.
Those short skirts looked damned good paired with thick socks that stopped midway on her thigh, digging into her skin just enough to let the silky flesh spill over the top.
Slowly, Blaze licked his lips and lifted his eyes again. Ah, the things he wanted to do to her… “The view is better back here.”
With a smirk so small, Blaze almost missed it, Alecto leaned back in her chair. She lifted one leg to throw it over the other, but not before she secretly flashed Blaze, letting him steal a peak at her daring deep-purple underwear.
The only thing Blaze could do was grip the arms of his chair as he forced his gaze back to the front of the classroom.
He should have gotten an award for the sheer will he had to muster to keep his cock still, to calm his racing heart enough so he could hear what the professor was saying again.
That girl was going to be the death of him.
“Here you can see the copy of one an old text that explains the use of Aether magic for a winter solstice ritual,” Professor Namiad said, lifting a large piece of rust-colored paper in front of her. It was burned around the edges, ink smeared at the top-left corner.
