Page 56 of Fortune Fae Academy
“I’ll return to the Academy,” I said. Strands in the Web instantly solidified into place at my declaration.
Amell didn’t outwardly react, but his eyes spoke volumes. I spotted a wave of relief. Dust flared as he read the future, seemingly pleased with what he found when his lips tilted upward.
He wasn’t the only one who could play games. The difference between Amell and me was that I had abominations in my mate-circle.
Iwasan abomination.
The timelines didn’t apply to me. It wasn’t just the flux that Zeke had created. My mate-circle could change everything on a dime. That was a lesson Amell was going to learn the hard way.
“Very good,” he murmured. “Very good indeed.” He waved away the hologram. “Rest assured, when you have settled back into your classes, your parents will be returned to the House of Silver, but monitored.”
“I get to see them, first,” I said without missing a beat. A hologram could be fabricated. I needed to make sure my mother was alive.
My father, I wasn’t so sure I cared if he lived or not after the way he’d treated us, but I had questions for him regardless. Especially since Amell had said he’d return them both to the House of Silver. Did that mean my mother had taken my father back?
He had more to gain from that than she did.
But it mattered more that she kept her head, so I didn’t think about it too hard.
Amell seemed to consider my question, as if he hadn’t already seen it, then nodded. “I will reward your obedience by granting your request. Return to the Academy, settle in, and then you may accompany Axel when he comes to the Collegium to supply Roderik with his weekly dose.”
Right. I’d nearly forgotten about Axel’sarrangement.
I hadn’t known the details, but I’d known Roderik had been in the middle of claiming a second Omega when I’d read his future.
When I’d found Etu hiding in the gaps of the Web, in the shadows where Fortune Fae didn’t think to look.
And he was playing Roderik and the rest of us like a well-tuned instrument.
This was no different. Axel had made an agreement with Roderik to save all of our lives and buy us the time we needed. Now I knew what that deal entailed. He traded his ability to manipulate Fortune Fae biological hierarchy in exchange for leverage.
Leverage that was quickly being used against us.
But at least in this case, it meant I wouldn’t be alone in the Collegium when I paid my parents a visit.
“But you will resume classes,” Amell added. “You have much to learn, if you’re to be the Omega you’re destined to be.”
Amell wouldn’t know what was destined if it whacked him in his face.
It didn’t even matter, because fuck destiny.
I make my own fate.
As entertaining as it might have been to share my thoughts with Amell, I kept my musing to myself. Instead, I nodded. “Very well,” I responded, for both myself and Axel. He would be there to deliver the agreed-upon commodity. I would resume classes, which was Amell’s nice way of saying I’d be preparing myself as Etu’s bride.
As for Axel’s task, I knew what that meant unless I somehow intervened. My stomach churned at the thought of Roderik claiming more innocent Omegas—something I couldn’t allow to happen.
He could gain the ability, but he wasn’t going to touch another Omega as far as I was concerned.
Amell grinned, revealing lengthy fangs as the Web trembled and fluctuated. New pathways sprang to life as I made my decisions. “Truly fascinating,” Amell said, no doubt reading the timelines and possibilities I had just created. “I’ll enjoy seeing you try to stop Roderik. It’ll keep things lively.”
I didn’t care that he could read the future and know what I was planning. That was the point. It would keep him occupied and distract him from my long-term goal.
To kill him.
The murder no doubt raging in my eyes was no secret. But the methods to take him down were still not yet known to me, which was just as well.
I’d find a way.
