Page 36 of Fortune Academy: Year One
For now, I’d play along until I found a way to get Hendrik off my ass.
Olivia went back to sorting out the course cards, aligning them based on the professors she knew about and those she didn’t. “I heard this one hates mages,” she grumbled, tossing it to the floor. “Oh and this one hates women.” By the end of her sorting, she’d eliminated almost half her pile.
I didn’t have the luxury of picking out new classes. Other than fighting at the Awakening Arena and taking on a couple of basic classes like supernatural history and parallel world realm studies, I knew what I had to do.
It was time for me to plot out my first payment to Hendrik’s Blood Stone.
Orion.
I’d been racking my brain on how to get Orion to do what I needed. He might be a demigod, but surely he had a weakness. Three weeks of stalking him still didn’t give me much to go on. All the Demis seemed to do was host orgies. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about peeking into the Demi Dormitories only to find Orion in the middle of a pile of bodies, his elegant form trapped in the middle of a tangle of arms and legs. The succubus in me always reacted and made me feel a bit ashamed, but I needed to understand how his powers worked.
The Demis fed on the other students, but not in a way that qualified them for Monster Academy. They didn’t take magic that fueled lifeforce, but rather the demigods were like mages on steroids. They converted pleasure into power. If anything, the students who came out of the Demi Dorms seemed rejuvenated and had a glow bubbling up just underneath their skin that seemed to last for days. If fucking a demigod really did give a power boost, it was easier to understand why so many were willing to partake in the orgies.
Building up my courage to venture out again, I got up from my chair and stretched. “I think I’ll go for a walk,” I told Olivia. The Demis were due for another orgy right about now. If anything, they were like clockwork and predictable when it came to their feeds.
Olivia, still glued to her remaining class cards, waved absently at me. “Don’t get into any trouble,” she called out.
Me, get into trouble? Can’t imagine what would give her that idea.
With duskfast approaching the campus, only the shifters and a few dark mages were out tonight. The Mindfreaks liked to hole up early.
I still wasn’t used to the alternate world I was starting to call home—a temporary home where everyone hated me. The black and blue sky seemed bruised, as if it had been the one trapped in the Awakening Arena instead of me. There was no sun or moon to speak of, just an endless sea of murky color that had me feeling claustrophobic. I craved some celestial object to ground me, give me direction and focus on an otherwise endless night.
Ironic that I would be seeking out a demigod named Orion.
I came upon the Demi Dorms and stopped short of crossing the sidewalk where the ground took on a golden hue. It was as if the entire building was made of gold and brass and the metallic beauty bled into the streets. If the orgies really contributed to the demigods’ power, then it made more sense why the building had such a celestial glow to it.
Curling my fingers around my necklace, I crossed the boundary and went straight for the front door.
I rapped my knuckles on the sturdy frame and waited. There was no touchpad for entry to the Demi Dorms. The building itself seemed to have a sentience of its own and I felt like it always knew I was watching when I came around to spy on Orion and his friends.
The door flung open and Ally, Daughter of Athena, gave me a low whistle. “Well look who it is. Hendrik’s little pet.” She beamed. “Well come on in. We’ve been waiting for you.” She turned on her heel, sending her braids flinging over her shoulder, as she marched inside and left the door open for me.
I’d only gotten to see some of the massive rooms on the ground floor where most of the orgies were hosted, but the entranceway was even more impressive. I stepped into a brilliance of golden light that fluttered at my steps, sending a cascade of light reeling along the walls as if I’d disturbed a quiet paradise. I followed Ally down the halls with a sense of growing wonder.
Any sense of peace the beauty of the Demi Dorms might have given me was banished when I heard the sensual moans. The magical essence of sexual desire hit me in the chest and I gripped my invisible rune that burned and suppressed my instinct to feed on the lifeforce it was linked to.
As if Ally sensed a disturbance, she paused and quirked an eyebrow at me. “You did come here for the orgy, right?”
I felt like I should have been insulted by the casual way she asked me that, but it was the truth. I hadcome here for the orgy.
Not that I was going to participate.
Maybe.
I gave Ally a shaky nod. “Yeah, uh, just nervous. You know, first time.”
She glanced down at the Blood Stone I was still touching and I let go of it. She frowned. “You better not be up to something for Hendrik. That won’t end well for you.”
With that simple threat, she opened the doors to the orgy room and my knees buckled with the wave of sensual and divine power. Low-hanging drapes framed the ceiling and seemed to keep in a cloud of the fog of energy exuded by the students who were in various stages of peeling off their uniforms. I swallowed hard when I spotted Orion in the center, his lips on a woman’s neck and his hand running up her thigh. Golden light flickered from every spot he touched her and when he pulled away, he drew in the power in one long breath, his eyes flashing was satisfaction.
Ally took my hand and smiled. “He won’t be too busy for you. Come on.” She guided me through the tangle of bodies, deftly stepping over limbs and couples interlocked with one another.
Orion eased the half-naked girl onto his lap when he spotted our approach. The grin on his face made me want to punch something. He looked like the cat who’d eaten the canary. “Well, if it isn’t Hendrik’s little dud. Did you finally figure out what you were good for? Just a good fuck, right?” He wore a simple groin cloth that did little to hide his erection and he patted his well-muscled thigh. “Why don’t you join this little gem? I could use something new to add to my power.” The girl on his other leg shifted closer to him and ran a hand down his chest. She didn’t seem insulted as she nibbled on his ear, licking away golden droplets and shivering as the substance grazed her tongue.
“What is that?” I asked, unable to hide my fascination. I was part succubus, after all, so it could come in handy to understand this twist on my own power that made Orion so powerful.
I’d made the mistake of venturing close enough to be within Orion’s reach and he grabbed my fingers, running them over his lips. I flinched away, but then looked down to see the golden powder glimmering on my skin.
