Page 54 of Fortune Academy: Year Three
“That’s why I wiped out my memories,” I said, mesmerized and horrified at the same time. “I didn’t want to remember doing that to you.” Not when my soul recognized him as my Virtue.
“I almost died,” he growled, his rage still palpable, but seeing the realization and pain in my eyes seemed to satiate his violent need to hurt me. “You didn’t have any knowledge of what you were, or how to control your powers. You managed to wipe out your memory, but in doing so, you sent out a shockwave that hit every supernatural in range.” He frowned. “Luckily, I was in transit between Earth and the Academy when that hit and exempt for the worst of it.”
All the fight left me at once and I slumped against the ground as the dark mist lingered over my lips. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
My Hunter seemed to relax, just as I did, as if us sharing this deep, dark memory and bringing it out into the open banished its control over us.
I realized that if this was Cole’s influence, he might need a trigger to hold onto to push rage. He couldn’t create it, I realized. He needed a source to fester.
And I’d just found Dante’s.
The Hunter’s eyes returned to their radiant orange glow as he got off of me and offered his hand. “I didn’t tell you because I don’t want to hurt you, Lily.” He frowned when I stared at him. My heart still twisted from the revelation, as well as the hurt that he’d kept something like that from me all this time. “It’s this damn fog, Lils. I’m sorry. I never should have forced you to remember.”
“So why do you care now?” I asked as the tears finally came, stinging their way through my eyes to hiss across my heated skin. “It took Cole’s influence to finally get you to face what I did to you? After everything we’ve been through together, you held onto it.”
He knelt and turned my face. “I’m sorry that I kept it from you. I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn’t know that a rage demon would use it against me.”
I managed a chuckle. “He’s proving to be a handful, isn’t he?”
“Do you intend to go after him?” he asked as he kissed the damp line on my cheek where my tears had fallen. “Tell me the truth, babe. You’re not just going for Kaito, are you?”
“You don’t feel what I feel,” I insisted. “Cole is hurting and lashing out. He doesn’t know what’s going on. All he knows is that he’s been imprisoned and he’s pissed and he’s using every advantage that he can get.”
“And you intend to win him over by freeing him?” he asked with a heavy dose of skepticism.
“Well, yes,” I admitted. “He’s one of us, Dante. He’ll come around.”
My Hunter sighed and rested his elbow on his knee as he gazed over the fog that had overtaken Fortune Academy’s streets. “Look, I’m not dumb enough to think I can stop you. But you have to be smart about this. The guy is a powerful demon and he’s not going to be open to ‘coming around.’ He’s going to want to hurt someone, and I don’t want that someone to be you.”
“It won’t,” I promised. “And plus, what choice do we have? We need him. You saw what happened the last time I tried to face the Dean without him.” All of my Virtues had been there, but it still hadn’t been enough. That resulted in a one-way trip to Hell and we’d barely survived.
Dante smirked. “Yeah. Well, I’m not saying you shouldn’t meet up with him, but you need to be careful.” He shifted away from me. “You don’t know him like I do.”
That earned him a raised brow. “Oh?”
His orange eyes glittered with faint anger that threatened to return. “Let’s just say he’s intruded on a few of my dreams and the guy can be a real asshole.”
I smirked as I got to my feet and brushed away dirt from my hopelessly ruined uniform. “If there’s one thing this Academy has taught me, it’s how to speak ‘asshole’ around here.”
He smiled, this time his dimples making an appearance. “Touché.”
This felt like my Dante, the witty Hunter who took his life in stride, no matter how rough it got. “So, does that mean you’re going to let me go without tackling me again?”
“Perhaps,” he said with a shrug as he stood, “but I don’t think you should go in there without a plan, or without your Virtues.”
“Not an option,” I countered. As much as I wanted to bring all of my guys, that would put a target on their backs, especially in the very likely scenario that Cole didn’t work with me as planned.
“Well, bring at least two of us,” he suggested. “I’m obviously coming. And Orion would be the strongest second, since he’s been the most… connected with you lately.”
I smirked. “You mean he’s been the only Virtue brave enough to sneak past the Dean’s spies to get into my bedroom at night.”
“Dumb enough,” Dante corrected as he grabbed my wrist and dragged me back the way we’d come. “Now it’s time for him to repay that indulgence.”
Chapter 20
Dante and I found the door to the Demi-dorms open, so we let ourselves in. It wasn’t unusual, given the incredible heights of arrogance the demigods had about themselves. They liked to show off, especially lately, after learning how to access their powers without Orion’s orgy parties.
I figured it out before Dante did. The Demis were getting their power from Cole’s rage fog. They worked off of emotions and passion and there was a fine line between love-sex and hate-sex. There was plenty of the latter going on around campus.
