Chapter 257. The Competition V

Chapter 257: 257. The Competition V

Maisie

I crawled out from under the desk on my hands and knees, cheeks burning under Headmistress Atlas’s razor-sharp stare. Her nose wrinkled with disapproval the second she got a full look at me.

My shirt was twisted halfway up my stomach. One side of my bra was still unhooked. And I could feel the sting of what had to be a constellation of fresh hickeys blooming along my neck.

I forced a bright, nervous laughter as I stood, straightening my clothes.

"Headmistress! Hi. Didn’t see you there." My voice came out an octave too high. "Jer--Professor Ivanov and I were just discussing my... academic performance. Very impressive. And then my pen fell, so I was just... looking--retrieving it-- " I gestured vaguely under the desk and my hand bumped into Jericho’s boat of marking pens.

The entire thing tipped and crashed into the ground in different colours, and one bright pen rolled in Atlas’s direction and tapped gently against Atlas’s foot.

The silence that followed was so loud it echoed in the office.

Jericho rubbed a hand down his face. His shoulders were shaking. I thought he was laughing.

"This is unacceptable behaviour," she said, voice clipped. "Both of you. I will not have faculty and students turning my academy into a brothel. Keep your... activities off these grounds. I’ll give you a minute to...". Her eyes flicked over both our disheveled states.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "One. Minute."

The door had barely shut behind her when Jericho moved, his mouth crashing into mine, one hand already fisting in my hair while the other gripped my hip and hauled me flush against him.

I made a startled sound that turned into a moan when his tongue slid against mine.

My back hit the shelf so hard, it rattled the spines, toppling a few books, and a sigh of long suffering came from the hallway outside.

"Goddess save us all," Atlas muttered, though it barely registered.

The hard line of Jericho’s body pinned me in place and my heat pooled between my thighs as the thick ridge of his cock pushed against my stomach.

My hands moved down the front of his shirt, over the delicious muscles of his biceps and his torso.

Goddess, I needed help. I couldn’t stop touching him. I loved touching him. "God, I missed you," I whispered between kisses.

He grunted, and when my hands found his pants again, Jericho growled into my mouth. He caught both my wrists in one hand before I could stick my hands into his briefs and slammed them above my head against the shelf.

The position stretched me out beneath him, completely at his mercy, and he used it ruthlessly, kissing me deeper, slower, like he had all the time in the world to ruin me.

When he finally dragged his mouth away, we were both breathing hard.

"We’ll finish this later," he said against my lips, voice hoarse.

My head was filled with air. "T-the mansion?" I managed.

He shook his head once, still so close, it felt like torture when he stopped me from kissing him again. "School’s safer for now. I’m on babysitting duty tonight anyway."

"Babysitting duty?"

"Soren mentioned one of us has to be in a building with you at all times," he said. "It was Quinlan’s night the day before yesterday, and Soren’s yesterday."

Oh. Oh. That explained a lot. Which meant Mercer’s was tomorrow? Yikes. I really wasn’t looking forward to that.

I tipped my face up, chasing his mouth. "I’ll leave my door unlocked."

I felt Jericho grin against my lips. "Don’t. I’ll use the window."

A surprised laugh escaped me. "It’s several stories high."

His smile widened. "I know."

He stole another kiss from me. Softer this time, sweeter, and my head went up into the clouds. When he stepped away, I swayed from the loss of his heat.

Then he reached for my shoulder, adjusting the strap of my bra, before tugging my shirt back into place. He fixed my hair next, tucking a few wild strands behind my ear.

"Perfect," he said, and I blushed, hard.

He fixed his own clothes next and pulled on his coat, looking all professional again.

Well. Almost.

He had scratches from my nails on his neck. And a bright hickey just above his collar where everyone could see.

I didn’t tell him. I was feeling extra territorial this morning. I wanted everyone to know he was mine.

He started towards the door. I didn’t move. I just stood there, back still against the shelf, lips swollen, heart slamming, staring at him like an idiot who had been struck with Cupid’s bow.

Jericho looked back. His eyes crinkled as he nodded curtly. "Adams."

"I’ll be right behind you," I said in a soft, sing-song voice.

I was pretty sure if I tried to walk, I was going to fall. Not only was I uncomfortably wet, my legs had turned to pudding.

Minutes after he was gone, I finally pulled myself toward the door on shaky legs. My fingers had just closed around the cold metal of the knob when every hair on my body rose.

The temperature in the office dropped so fast my breath fogged in front of my face.

Something was standing behind me.

Not a presence exactly, more like a weight, heavy and ancient, perched just over my left shoulder. I spun around, heart slamming, but the room was empty.

Still the feeling intensified, pressing harder, slipping past skin and bone until it was inside my skull, cold fingers dragging slowly through my thoughts.

A voice drifted through the silence. Thin, like it was speaking from very far away.

"Found you," it said.

My Lycan began thrashing in my chest and I threw the door open, gasping and wheezing at the freezing cold in my chest.

What the hell?

I half stumbled into Head Mistress Atlas, who peered into the office behind me when she saw my terrified expression.

But I knew she wouldn’t find anything.

My skin crawled as the rest of that horrible feeling disappeared, and I couldn’t shake the awful feeling that felt strongly like a freaking tag.

"Come with me, Adams," Atlas said after a moment.

"W-why?" I asked, still shaken. I glanced back at the office’s door, half expecting a grotesque creature to come for my head, but nothing happened.

I stared at Atlas’s back as she led us down the stairs, toward the din of the noisy hallways. "Am I in some kind of trouble?"

"Not quite," she said, her hands folded behind her back. There was a rolled up stack of papers in her grasp. "The Queen wants you far from the competition today."

I stopped walking. "The Queen... She will be here today?"

My fists curled at my sides as Atlas turned to study me. "Of course. She’s hosting." She noted the quickening of my heartbeat and I wondered if she could see past my skin and feel the sudden blood thirst choking me.

My ears began ringing. Why? Was she scared of me? Scared that if I came close enough, I could get my hands around her neck and snap it in half?

My Lycan thrilled at the thought of it. Yes, yes, yes, she thought.

"Her exact instructions were to have you in detention the entire day," she said. "But His Highness pays me handsomely for your comfort. So, I have assigned you an important task instead."

I stared at the stack of papers she was handing to me. "His Highness," I repeated. "I thought you worked for the Queen."

"I work for whoever lines my pockets, girl," she said. "But money isn’t often everything. Sometimes, ethics are important, and I do care for my students like they are my children."

Ethics? She was talking about ethics when she slept with Bastian?

I had no idea I had said that out loud until she blinked. Nothing seemed to faze the woman. "You have a problem with my personal life?"

"No, of course not," I said.

"Good," she said, nodding towards the papers. "These are the list of students we’ll be taking from Hellsgrave. Classes today are shortened for the purpose of the competition, after which you will show the students from Hellsgrave around Greymoor."

"Like a tour guide?" I muttered.

"Like a tour guide," she answered. "And once you are through with that, you are to join the other staff at the Lodgings to help sort out their accomodation."

She took a step forward. "You are not allowed around the stadium. If I find that you have somehow snuck in, I will have you detained, and you will discover where unruly, uncontrollable students are kept. And disciplined. The guards will be on the look out. Do not take my leniency for granted."

My lips tightened. But I nodded anyway. "I won’t."

She smiled, bright as the sun. "Good. You have a good day, Adams."

I was definitely going there.