Page 34 of Bound to Three Fae Beasts

“I’d castrate you before I let you touch me,” I spat back.

My skin crawled at the thought. Or rather … the hairs on my body stood on end. It reminded me of that strange spark that had happened the first time Seb’s bare skin had touched mine. I quickly pushed that memory away. The last thing I wanted was any sort of feeling like that to come back.

I jabbed a first toward his stomach, only for him to catch my wrist and pin it. “You know what your weakness is? You think too much. Your thoughts are clear behind your eyes, and you get so distracted that you forget what you’re doing. You need to learn how to turn off your thoughts.”

“What can you expect from someone who’s half-fae?” Savannah taunted.

My head whipped toward her. How did she—? Flora elbowed Savannah in the side, looking put out. So she was the one that had found out.

“Half-fae? And at the Academy?” one of the older students said. “So she’s fodder, is she? Half-fae is never going to survive the binding trials. It’ll be fun to watch her get torn apart.”

They all started to laugh. I closed my eyes, fighting the urge to lash out. Stay calm. Seb was still pinning me, but he apparently had decided not to start the beating yet. I relaxed my body, knowing that in this state there was no way I could force him off me. To my surprise, he stood and yanked me to my feet, then had me enter my stance again.

This time, when some of the crowd mimicked us, he corrected them. Flora looked especially pleased with herself as Seb attacked me.

He didn’t hold back this time. And I was too shaken by the reveal of my heritage to protect myself properly. Sweat trickled down my back and pooled in my hairline as bruises bloomed beneath Seb’s fists. If they were this cruel about half-fae, what would they do if they found out—

I shoved the thought aside as I tried to focus. Seb quickly overpowered me again, knocking my feet out from beneath me. I scrambled back to my feet, and he smiled as he pulled a knife from his belt. My hands tightened.

“I thought you said no weapons,” I snarled.

Seb shrugged. “You should learn to have more than one weapon on you at a time.”

Flora giggled. “That’s a good one.”

I steeled myself for the attack. Seb attacked me. I avoided the first few slashes, but I couldn’t keep it up. The knife slashed across my chest, tearing open my tunic. As he adjusted his hold on the knife, I knocked into his wrist and kneed upward. He twisted, meaning my knee connected with his hip instead of his groin, but I managed to knock the knife out of his hand.

His response was swift. He grabbed me around the throat, then twisted me around. One hand grabbed at my tunic and I screamed, struggling. Fabric tore as his hand jerked away from me. Humiliation flushed my face. I tried to stomp his feet, but I couldn’t reach them. Hot blood soaked through my undershirt as he thew me to the floor again.

I spun around, reaching for the knife, but his foot came down on my hand, pinning it in place.

“What is this?” he asked.

Dreading what I was going to find, I looked up. My heart stuttered. He had my amber brooch. He turned it over in his hand, a scrap of my undershirt caught in the pin. With my free hand, I groped for where I’d pinned it. There was a tear in the fabric there, through which my fingers met cut flesh.

No. No! I held my breath, knowing that if I said anything, it would just give him more ammo.

My face said it all. His eyes brightened as he looked down at me. He stepped back, releasing my hand, and dropped the brooch. I lunged for it, but before I could reach it, his boot came down hard. He ground his heel, crushing it into the training floor. All around me, the laughter grew louder.

“We’re done here,” Seb said lazily. “It’s no fun fighting someone so weak.”

He stepped back, kicked me in the ribs, and walked through the barrier. There, he picked up my knife and stuck it into his belt. I collected my brooch with trembling hands. The filigree around the amber gem was bent, the pin at the back snapped in half. The gem itself was scuffed, but not broken. Small mercies.

“It’s always so much fun to watch you fight, even if you can’t show off your full prowess with someone like that,” Flora said. She slid her arm through Seb’s. He started to pull free, but stopped himself.

“Yes, so impressive,” Jasper murmured.

I concentrated on myself, pulling myself to my feet. I had to get out of here before they decided to have more fun with me. In my state, I wouldn’t be able to hold them off. Blood soaked through my undershirt, making it cling to my breasts. The injury wasn’t deep. It could have been a lot worse. My breathing came rapidly as I pulled my tunic back into place and clutched at it with one hand. The brooch felt fragile in my palm, like it could crumble away to nothing.

I was not going to let them see me cry. I’d taken worse than this, right? I concentrated on my anger instead, on how much I hated them. As I limped to the exit, Flora, Savannah and Red all fawned over Seb. When I glanced back, Jasper and Gareth were both near him, laughing.

I didn’t care how I did it. I was going to get revenge on these bastards. Even if it killed me.

Chapter 16 - Seb

If my performance in this Academy had to be tied to another student, I could do better than Azriel Jones. I could also do worse. She had some talent and she was stubborn about getting back up after she was knocked down. I still didn’t enjoy being paired with her as a peer-mentor, but there was nothing I could do about it. Even Headmaster Quincy had stood behind Lotmas’s decision when I appealed to him.

Then there was that spark I’d felt when we’d had the practice duel. Just thinking about it made my skin tingle. I shoved it aside. Such things were nothing but a distraction, and the girl didn’t even have a beast form. The chances of her surviving long enough to get one grew smaller by the day.