Page 58 of Fortune Fae Academy
Seifiek was an easy target. We were an afterthought to him, a problem for Axel to handle. What mercy he’d ever shown had been for Gina’s favor. He didn’t deserve her.
But as furious as I was at Seif, I didn’t blame him for this. I didn’t even blame Axel, because Axel had made the right choice to put Gina first. It was what we would have demanded of him regardless.
No, I blamed myself. Perhaps if I had been more dedicated to my studies or taken an interest in the Web, I could have seen this coming.
Now, time sped along a track I had not chosen, but it was a ride I couldn’t disembark from. Nothing I could say or do would change that future from coming to pass. It was the only common denominator in my timelines. Even if I had been there, he would have left.
The fight would have been ugly. I would have said things I couldn’t take back.
So I’d opted to remove myself—to do something productive. But it still meant that Zeke wouldn’t be here when I returned.
And my heart couldn’t handle it.
“I’m not going to let it end this way,” I growled under my breath as I prowled the Academy’s halls. Most of the Academy’s students slept in their dorm rooms.
But not everyone was asleep.
Noise came from the other side of the corridor, one I wasn’t supposed to enter.
Rules had never worked very well for me.
A glimmer of silver warned me that I was approaching the Alphas’ Ward. The Academy put security measures in place to keep Omegas and Betas outside of the designated space.
Alphas were dangerous, especially when unmated. They were all recently converted Midnight Fae, kept alive only by knotting an Omega for their Dust. They didn’t have to claim an Omega tosurvive, but they did require one to help stabilize their presence in the Web.
The Academy had rules in place for that, too. The Omegas who worked at Unbitten often served as tributes, but on occasion, I knew it was used as a form of punishment, too.
We’re going to take this whole corrupt fucking system down,I vowed.
If Gina could hear me, she didn’t reply. Which, admittedly, stung a little bit.
I did not like being left alone with my anger and my disappointment. Both in Zeke and with the fucked-up system that managed our kind.
The Elders could be blamed, but if I’d learned anything from my hunts with Zeke, it was that the hunger for Dust controlled the system.
Zeke thought he could run back to his old life, one of priests and piety.
Our kind would only be as pious as those in charge.
Let’s take this damn system down, Gina.
Starting by putting you back together… piece by piece.
A blue flame ignited in my palm and I reached out, setting the strands blocking me off from the Alphas’ Ward on fire.
The Academy’s alarm blared, but I ignored it as I ventured inside.
And followed the tug of Gina’s heart.
A few moments earlier…
It didn’t takeus long to prepare for our return. After dressing in traditional Academy wear, including a dagger tucked away in my boot, it was time to go. While our stomachs were empty, there would be food waiting for us in the cafeteria. Not that I knew where our tickets were, but that was a minor problem in the grand scheme of things.
And I wasn’t hungry anyway. Not when I had mixed feelings about seeing my father again, as well as the worry twisting me up about my mother.
She was strong; she could take care of herself.
But even a fae like my mother would have some difficulty against Amell.
