Page 79 of Fortune Fae Academy
She gave me a sympathetic smile while I struggled with the feverish sensation of my eyes burning. “Are you okay? Do you need some suppression jewelry?” She produced a small bracelet from her pouch.
“Um… no. I’m fine,” I lamely said as I stared at her while I tried to tame the burn in my stomach.
Rowan’s power had leaked into me somehow.
I wasn’t sure what to do with it, so I twined it into a yarn-like ball as I would the strands of the Web and tucked it deep inside.
It protested but smoldered like a burning ember buried in my soul. It would have to do for now.
Giving Mina my attention, I noted that she was still beautiful and confident, completely unfazed by the blood splattered over my face or the dead body now sprawled on the ground. Luckily, she seemed similarly unperturbed by the quiver of arousal that made my legs shake. She simply put the bracelet away as if both of those things were entirely normal.
As Mina was an Omega mated to one of the more violent Alphas, I supposed blood wasn’t an uncommon sight for her—nor was the impact of a mate in one’s head. But I’d heard good things about Oberon, and I knew the pair was crazy about one another.
“What are you doing here?” I blurted, unsure of what else to say. Heat licked off my tongue, suggesting that Rowan’s fiery power was going to be more difficult to contain than I had hoped.
Mina giggled, then tugged on her star earring. I knew it was an Artifact to help her from getting visions, which was probably a good thing because any vision I’d offer would likely overwhelm another fae right now. “I’m on my way to the Collegium, like you, it seems. Although, we probably have very different reasons to be summoned. What’s yours?”
She didn’t even suggest that I was going to the Collegium to be punished for killing the disrespectful Beta. “My Alpha is there,” I said truthfully. She didn’t need to know more than that.
Or which Alpha I was talking about. I wasn’t sure if it was common knowledge yet that I had two.
She hummed knowingly. “Ah, yes. I suppose it would be something to monitor for an Omega having two Alphas. Quite peculiar.” She waved that away as if it was old news. “You make sense. Butme, well, supposedly I’m being given a newassignment.” She leaned in conspiratorially as if it was a secret. She looked around at the fae blatantly trying to ignore us before continuing. “You know what that means, don’t you?”
It amazed me that Mina was completely uninterested in the dead Beta, or the flash of silver coming from the Collegium, suggesting that guards were on the way to deal with the incident.
I suspected it had more to do with my collar no longer working than the dead Beta.
I was heading there anyway, so I didn’t care if I had an escort.
Mina carried on as if I’d answered her question, even though I’d only given her a noncommittal sound as a response.“Of course you don’t know, but I’m the top of the class! I’ve been vying for one of the Collegium’s apprenticeships. Can you believe it? I’m going to be an Elder one day!”
It took some serious willpower not to roll my eyes. The Collegium hosted “apprenticeships,” also known as internships, with the vague hope of chosen fae one day becoming Elders themselves. I had never heard of that happening. From the rumor mill around the Academy and my hometown, I’d only heard of those positions winding up as glorified servant roles working for the Elders, and nothing more than that.
But Elders were supposed to be immortals—or as close to an immortal as a Fortune Fae could get. I used to believe the propaganda that the Web sustained those destined to lead us. Now I knew the truth. The Elders bled our people dry and they weren’t going to stop until I pressed my heel to their throats.
It was asinine. Some fae had been in such apprenticeships for hundreds of years and likely still clung to the hope of being promoted.
The Elders were so ancient that I wasn’t even sure how they’d come into their roles. They’d likely clawed their way to the top and they weren’t going to give up their power, not with their teeth sunk so far into the main artery of the Fortune Fae Realm that they drank right from the Source.
“Mina, I don’t think—” I began, but she looped her arm through mine and tugged me toward the towering shadow that was the Collegium.
“Oh my. You are warm, aren’t you? Anyway, don’t fret. I know it’ll take a long time, but I’m patient. I waited for Oberon to come around, didn’t I? He didn’t even accept Rache, our Beta, until recently. And I’ve been sleeping with Rache for years.”
I wasn’t exactly interested in Mina’s love affairs, but I let her drone on, even when the Collegium’s escorts finally found us and surrounded us on all sides.
It was a good sign that she could touch me without being burned, though. Rowan’s magic hissed inside my soul like a ball of molten iron slowly blazing its way out.
“Collect the goods. Send the body and caravan into the forest,” one of the guards said.
My jaw stiffened as I ground my teeth together. The asshole that the mare had killed deserved his fate, but the Collegium didn’t even care about the people who worked for them.
“We’re watching you,” another declared when I caught his gaze.
Yeah, no shit.
Mina didn’t seem to notice, or care, about our new escorts as she prattled on about the amazing future her mate-circle was going to have. Oberon didn’t have to partake in the nasty business of territory battles if they could all work at the Collegium. “We’ll become a mate-circle addition to the council at first, of course. Everyone knows that’s the best way to carve a path to Eldership.”
Mina ignored the obvious requirement that the Elders not have a lasting mate-circle, meaning that Oberon and Rache would have to be long gone before she ascended to the coveted role of an Elder.
