Page 25 of Fortune Academy: Year Three
I glanced at her as she sipped a glass of champagne and crossed her legs, sending her dress to run up her thigh and reveal much more skin than was appropriate.
“And what do you think about?” I asked.
She smiled as all of her mates surrounded her. “These days? I think about how lucky I am.” She ran her fingers over them, one by one, running her touch up their arms as they crouched and gave her small kisses of adoration.
They looked like dark-haired pieces of temptation that contrasted against the blonde-haired queen. She smiled with a wicked gleam in her eyes that betrayed she lived up to her namesake. Even if these men looked like temptation, she was sin incarnate.
“Let me introduce you to my resolved sins,” she said, tugging one over her shoulder. “This is Xavier, the sin of gluttony.” She pinched his cheek just below one of his glimmering red eyes. “Appropriate, no?” He returned her smile with one of his own, showing off his fangs. A vampire, yes, but I sensed this one was old and powerful, not like the ones I’d seen in the Monster Arena.
When Sonya tugged his collar to pull him in for a kiss, he indulged her, then glanced at my mates with a wary eye. He’d been keeping tabs on Hendrik, almost as if he knew the Dark Mage had a penchant for using vampire teeth in his potions.
“Luke,” she said, indicating another male on her left. He ran his fingers over her shoulder and gave me a polite nod.
My gaze had trouble meeting his, especially as he moved and every muscle in his massive chest flexed. He had muscles over his muscles like a knitted tightrope made of sex.
Logan growled in my head.Keep your eyes up, Princess.
I flinched and bit my lip. It wasn’t my fault all of my mother’s mates walked around shirtless and looking like… well, sin.
“My royal dragon shifter, Jet,” Sonya said, indicating a muscular Asian whose tattoos lived and breathed. To add to the mystifying effect, his eyes periodically flashed to a reptilian slit. I should have been creeped out by it. Instead, I found him fascinating.
The final male clapped his hands. “Of course, she saves the best for last. I’m Nate, the Incubus King’s son.”
“Otherwise known asa human,” Xavier corrected him.
“Don’t you two start bickering,” Sonya chided. She adjusted a golden crown on her head that sparkled with her movements as she sank back into her seat.
I introduced my mates in return and Sonya politely nodded to each one.
“So tell me, daughter, why have you come to Hell?” she asked as she swirled her champagne. “It seems like a lot of trouble, so there must be something important that you need.”
I straightened. “You don’t already know?”
Dante rested a hand on my arm in warning.Don’t be rude,he said in my head.
She played her fingers over the edge of her champagne glass. “I suspect that you lost your memories, just like many of the supernaturals who have been hit by the latest wave of Calamity. Which means someone told you about me, despite my efforts to stay out of worldly matters.” She tilted her head. “No offense, but the other realms have gone to shit. And being Queen of Hell, that’s saying something. Now, the person who told you about me, who was it?”
I chewed on my lip before deciding to go with the truth. “Silvia.”
She flinched before schooling her expression. Luke massaged her shoulders and she leaned into the touch. “I see. You must have quite the story to tell if you’ve met with Silvia.” Her red gaze flickered with curiosity. “How is she?”
I shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I met her in Heaven and she has her wings back. Did you know her? When she was on Earth, I mean.”
Sonya nodded. “Yes.” She smirked, startling me as I spotted fang. I almost forgot that the Queen of Hell was not only a succubus, but had been turned into a vampire before her ascension to the demonic throne… or her descent, as it were.
When she didn’t reply, I spread out my palms. “And? What was she like? How did you meet? She said you helped my father, the Incubus King, get her pregnant. What did she mean by that?”
“Lily,” Kaito warned.
I ignored him. Sure, maybe my first questions should be about something more pressing, like,Hey, can we use your fiery pit to trap the Dean of Fortune Academy and stop the end of the world?But give a girl a break. I had two freaking mothers for crying out loud…two!And I wanted to know how that was even possible.
Nate coughed into his fist. Xavier had introduced him as a human, but the sensual gleam in Nate’s eyes and his rock-hard abs said otherwise. Perhaps being the Incubus King’s son meant he got a little extraoomphwhen it came to being a human male.
Wait.
Wasn’t the Incubus King also… my father?
Nate cleared his throat. “Shit, Sonya. This is awkward. I just realized she and I… we’re…”
