“Sleep, love,” he murmured against my hair. “I’ll watch over you.”
He remembered that sometimes I loved to sleep in the tub.
“I don’t want to sleep,” I said. “I want you to fuck me again.”
“And I thought you’d never ask, little pale flower.”
He thrust into me from behind, and he fucked me like I was his most treasured possession. His greatest prize.
Pleasure misted my eyes.
Oh, yes.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Bloom
Whispers and Wolves
I’d returned to classes. Surprisingly, no one gave me trouble.
Headmistress Stardust never summoned me to explain my disappearance. Kingsley hadn’t launched another attack, though I felt his gaze constantly—a vulture circling something not quite dead.
And I hadn’t seen Sebastian since my return. I didn’t seek him out. I’d called this a temporary truce with Apollo’s alter ego.
No students came after me, either, not after witnessing Nero’s flogging. But everyone stared when I appeared. Whispers trailed me down every hallway, through every classroom.
As Bloom, that attention would have choked me. As Persephone, I brushed it off like a stray spiderweb—irritating, then forgotten.
I took lunch with Sindy in the Midnight Banquet Hall.
The cathedral grandeur—vaulted ceilings, stone walls, enchanted chandeliers—no longer impressed me.
The hierarchy here hadn’t changed: elite from Kingsley Tower commandeered the prime positions near the massive hearths.
Sindy and I claimed a corner table far from everyone, but our attempt at privacy soon failed. Students from all three Houses gravitated toward me as if I were a lodestone, soon filling every table near ours.
I tried to ignore it.
Sindy sat across from me, giving them the evil eye. She’d ordered roasted pheasant with herb stuffing; I had the venison stew, crusty bread, and greens drizzled in honey vinegar.
The food was, as always, excellent. The academy was a death trap, but it fed us like royalty.
“I’ve missed you,” Sindy said, spearing a piece of pheasant. “You’re in Nero’s penthouse every night now. I only see you in class.” She tried to sound light, but I heard the loneliness beneath. “At least I still have the hellhound for company. He’s grown on me.”
I smiled at her. She didn’t know I’d ordered Cerberus to guard her at night. I wouldn’t risk my best friend. Our enemies might try to hurt her to get to me.
“He’s the sweetest thing, and he’ll keep you safe,” I said, breaking off a piece of bread and dipping it in the soup.
My thought drifted back to Nero, who would be waiting for me in Obsidian Wilds. He and Dante had been training me in every spare moment.
The training was brutal.
They’d cleared an arena deep in the forest, far from any path.
Nero always attacked first, sword in hand. He never used his full strength—that would kill me instantly—but held nothing elseback. His blade moved faster than mortal eyes could follow. I had to rely on instinct, on muscle memory from lifetimes.
