“No one could help it,” she said. “No one could resist Professor Nero Ravencrux. If he came to me? Hell yeah, I’d jump on him. Any time. Anywhere.”
A weak laugh escaped from my throat.
“And he choseyou,” she added. “I thought his gorgeous assistant was his lover, but I was wrong.”
Sindy’s casual comment implying a link between Nero and Morrigan sent a fresh wave of corrosive jealousy through me. A low growl vibrated in my throat before I could stop it. I blinked at my fierce possessiveness. This wasn’t the meek, accommodating girl I’d been. What had hedoneto me? What had I become? It wasn’t just the mind-blowing sex that transformed me. It was a claim, woven into my very bones.
But Morrigan was stunning, capable, and at his side constantly. She had access to him at any hour. Had I imagined the heat in her gaze when she looked at Nero when she thought I was unconscious?
I forced myself to stop. This jealousy was a poison in my gut. This obsession with Nero wasn’t good for either of us, yet I couldn’t stop.
“Professor Ravencrux never taught a single class before you arrived,” Sindy went on. “Then Sebastian and the powerful players all zeroed in on you. It’s like you’re the pivot point, the center of something. I haven’t figured out what itis yet. But I will.”
“I’m not a puzzle for you to solve,” I said, sharper than I intended. “I’m your friend.”
“Of course, Bloom,” she said unwaveringly. “That’s why I need to figure it out, so I can help you. You warned me about the redhead murders, and I think they’re connected to you. Angelina wasn’t the target.Youare. They used her as a message. I think the whole festival was designed to draw you outside the academy’s wards. In here, you have a hellhound guarding your door every night. One side wants to protect you; the other wants you destroyed. It’s a game, and you’re the centerpiece.”
I swallowed hard. In this viper’s nest of a school, the people I trusted could be counted on one hand. Sindy was among them.
“Kingsley and his small army came for us,” I confessed. “They breached Nero’s ward while we were in bed.” I left out the golden net—some details were too raw, too strange to voice.
A strange, longing light flickered in her eyes, as if she was momentarily picturing the scene of Nero and me entangled between the sheets, before she refocused. “Describe them, please.”
I told her about the beings who had stood with Kingsley, some in humanoid forms, others half-beastly.
“I could sense their powers,” I said. “They’re more than immortals.”
Sindy’s eyes widened. “I think they might be minor gods. I can’t believe they all came here. Remember when I said you were special? Things were set into motion, like a wheel starting to turn, the moment you arrived. Just think about it—you were homeschooled in a small French town in the middle of nowhere. And yetthey found you.” She leaned closer, her voice lowering. “Bloom, are you sure your mother was your real mom?”
A sharp, cold doubt lanced through me before I hardened against it. “I’m sure,” I said, my voice taut. “Mom loved me. She sacrificed everything for me.”
But she’d locked me away, isolated at the edge of the forest. Then she left me completely alone. Whatever her reasons, no matter what she’d done, I loved her. The grief of losing my mother was a permanent hollow in my chest.
Sindy threw her hands up in a gesture of surrender. “All right. Touchy subject. I’m sorry for your loss.”
I drew a sharp breath and realized, with a start, that I hadn’t reached for my inhaler, not even once. Not when fear had clawed at my throat. It was lost, anyway, left behind in that well or taken during the torture.
“You and all your conspiracy theories,” I said, a weak attempt at deflection. My friend lived for untangling secrets.
“Here’s another one,” she said. “It would take their combined power to break Professor Ravencrux’s ward, or else they had help from the inside.”
Insider help?
But Dante, Orren, and Morrigan were loyal to a fault. They had nothing to gain from betraying Nero—unless one of them wanted me gone. Morrigan? Yet she had always been decent to me. Nero swore there was nothing between them. Still, the memory of her sensual laughter in his study haunted me. I bit my lip to expel that image.
I chose to trust Nero. They’d had years, probably a decade, together, yet he choseme. He was even taking my severe punishment. The way he looked at me, touched me, as if I were his entire world. No one could fake that. And the connection I felt with him was undeniable.
“By the way, Sindy,” I started, shifting the subject, “do you know?—”
The door flew open, even though Sindy had locked it. Cerberus padded in, and the heavy oak swung shut of its own accord behind him. It seemed no barrier could ever hope to contain a hellhound.
I opened my arms, and he launched onto the bed, the frame groaning under his weight. All three sets of eyes fixed on me, blazing with adoration and protection. A long, rough tongue swiped over my chin. He smelled of hellfire and warm ash.
“You smell like Orren,” I murmured, fingers digging into the dense fur of his neck.
Cerberus made a huffing sound through all three noses, a definite, gravelly chuckle.
Sindy watched us, her earlier fear of him having softened into wary acceptance. He still wouldn’t let her pat him, his demeanor making it clear:I am not a pet.
