Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,81
him,” I repeat.
The chaotic whirlwind of emotions inside my head has gone quiet. My fear and panic galvanized into something I don’t quite understand, a singular drive to end the threat around my mate.
Valerian slowly turns to meet my gaze and what I see terrifies me. Both of his eyes are black, his nose broken, lip busted. Bruises swell every inch of his body.
“Summer?” he rasps.
The terror winds around my heart like barbed wire until I’m caught in its thrall.
I’m afraid—not of the Fae who did this.
I’m afraid of what I’m going to do to them.
“Leave me.” The raw misery and hurt in his voice comes out a growl. “Please just . . . go.”
Like hell.
33
Everything happens so fast. The biggest male in the room draws back his leg, his black boot aimed at Valerian’s head. Metal flashes from the toe. Steel tipped? That seems odd considering the male’s designer clothes and jewelry.
His leg snap toward my mate and then—
I move so fast I don’t register the act until the large Summer Fae is flying across the stage. Flying—like he’s not almost three hundred pounds of pure muscle. He hits the wall with a loud thud, crumples to the ground, and goes deathly still.
Did I use magic or am I suddenly inhumanly strong?
Deal with that later. I face the next threat with silent purpose. The male charges. I duck low out of reach, turning as I do. My roundhouse kick catches him in the side. The crack of his ribs reverberates up my foot and into my calf. He clutches his side but doesn’t back down.
Fiery orange flames of magic slam into him. He stumbles back, clawing at his eyes and screaming and—
Huge arms clench my waist. The air flees my lungs as I’m lifted, kicking and clawing, into the air. I ram my elbows back into the wall of muscle vised around me to no avail.
His breath reeks of whiskey and cigar smoke as he growls into my ear, “What the hell are you?”
The smaller male prowls over, his eyes jittery with excitement. A butterfly blade glints in his hand. “Let’s cut her open and find out.”
Valerian’s roar is so loud that I can feel it in my bones. A streak of fangs and claws and cold magic follow.
When it’s over, my captor grunts, “The hell?”
We both stare at the unmoving body bleeding on the stage, trying to reconcile him with the Fae from a moment before.
I can feel the moment the brute holding me realizes how screwed he is. Fear ripples from him, as real as magic, my Fae senses picking up the cloying scent.
“No,” he whispers, gripping me as if that will protect him. “Please—”
He squeals in terror.
The arms around me disappear.
Blinding snow comes from everywhere, driven sideways by a blistering, rage-filled winter wind. My captor is gone—just gone.
The last male standing must realize who their victim was because he suddenly falls to his knees, head bowed, and begins to beg. “I’m sorry, we didn’t know who you were, Winter Prince. Please, let us go. It was a mistake.”
The blizzard stops as quickly as it started, but the howling wind remains, its frigid bite reaching marrow-deep.
My mate strolls to take his place beside me. Snow dusts his dark blue hair and gathers in his high collar. His eyes are the color of a winter storm, dark, violent magic swirling in their icy depths.
He’s still in agonizing physical pain—I can feel the full extent of his injuries through the bond, and they’re bad—but he hides his wounds behind a wolfish grin. “Apologizing to me will get you nowhere. Apologize to her.”
The male doesn’t bother hiding his contempt as he meets my gaze.
“Look at her like that one more time,” Valerian drawls, masking his pain behind a disdainful tone, “and I will rip out your eyes and feed them to my familiar.”
Phalanx must have a reputation because the blood drains from the male’s face, and his expression goes from smug to contrite. “I’m sorry.” He bows low to me, his black leather boot heels touching together. Like the others, his boots are tipped in sharp-edged silver. “I’m sorry,” he repeats as he backs away.
“None of you will remember what happened tonight,” Valerian adds. A soft whoosh follows as his compulsion ripples over the room. “Now get out of my sight.”
His buddies groan as they struggle to their feet. A few are injured badly enough that they’ll need a Fae hospital.