Chapter Twenty-Four

I hit the ground anything but weightlessly on the far side, slamming my shoulder into the hard earth and tumbling until I crashed into a tree. Aching and disorientated, I sat up slowly, shaking my head. I was right back where I'd stepped through the first portal. Maybe Aodh wasn't such an asshole after all.

No, wait, scratch that. Aodh was definitely an asshole, and— Wait, shit. I looked around. I was right back where I'd gone through the portal, which meant I was outside of the academy's wards. Which meant father of the year could follow me.

I scrambled to my feet. There'd be time to worry about what Aodh was playing at later. Right now I needed to get back over the wall, because unless he'd somehow managed to enroll—and at several centuries old, that seemed unlikely—then he couldn't follow me there.

It wasn't until I'd made it back over the wall—and into the relative safety of the academy's grounds, that it occurred to me that Aodh never wasted magic without a cause, and my life had never held much value in his eyes.

Whatever. I wasn't about to look a gift horse—or gift portal—in the mouth. I scanned the shadows carefully, making sure there was no-one else lurking and waiting to give me a hard time, because frankly today had sucked enough already. The last thing I needed was another run-in with Thaden, or Mr. I-Could-Make-You-Kiss-Me. As luck would have it, I was apparently completely alone out here, and made it back to the academy itself safely. I rushed across the threshold…and smashed into something—someone—on the far side. Oh no, not this shit again.

I lifted my head and found myself staring at Cole, his strong arms steadying me as he searched my face in concern.

"Cali? Are you okay?"

I nodded and drew in a breath that only shook slightly.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I—" I broke off and shook my head. Fine? That was about the furthest thing from what I was right now.

"Come on," he said, wrapping his arm around me. "Let's get you back to our dorm."

I let him steer me back through the academy's winding hallways, held safe against his side in his protective embrace, where I could almost believe nothing could hurt me.

"Sit down," he said gently, guiding me to the bed and then doubling back to close the dorm room door behind us.

"You left the academy, didn't you?" he asked. "And it has something to do with that Cailleach stone."

I nodded. There wasn't a lot of point in denying it. I felt as much as heard his heavy sigh. The bed dipped slightly as he sat beside me, and I risked a glance at him through my lashes.

"How much trouble am I in?" I asked, and he just shook his head.

"With me? None. I wished you'd told me you were leaving, though, princess, so I could have protected you."

"That wasn't the deal," I muttered.

"Deal?" Tension flickered across his jaw. "With Aodh, I take it?"

I nodded, and a shadow fell over his face.

"And what, exactly, were the terms of this deal?"

"It was last year," I said quietly. "I needed a portal to your pack, and you were locked up. He traded me the portal for a favor."

"Cali…"

"I know! But I set limitations. I tried to make sure he couldn't take advantage. I, uh, didn't do as good a job as I thought."

"And he called in this favor?"

I nodded again. "Last time we saw him. He grabbed me after you went through the portal, and gave me the Cailleach. He said I had a month to meet someone."

I looked down, picking at a loose thread on the bedspread.

Cole uttered just one word, his voice icy and rippling with tension. "Who?"

"My father."

"Your— He sent you to meet your father, the man who illegally created you and terrorized your mom?"

I pressed my lips together and nodded.

"I'm going to fucking kill him." He lurched from the bed and I grabbed his arm, tugging gently. Murder still lurking in his eyes, he sank back onto the bed beside me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, holding me close.

"I'll kill him later," he amended. "Tell me what happened when you met your father."

"Oh, you know, he was absolutely insane." I shrugged and tried to keep the note of hysteria from my voice, and, from the look on Cole's face, failed miserably at the latter.

He traced his hand gently across the bruise forming on my cheek. "He did this?"

I nodded, and felt Cole stiffen beside me.

"Say the word, princess," he growled.

I blew out a breath and melted against him. "He wanted me to go with him."

"Where?"

"I don't know. He had some weird ring that opened a portal, though. He was going to force me to go with him."

"Not that I'm not glad, but how did you get away from him?"

"Pure luck? Or Aodh, maybe. Another portal appeared."

"And you just leapt through it?"

"Well, I figured it had to be better than the alternative, right?"

He sighed. "One of these days, princess, we're going to have a serious talk about your safety."

"Okay, but can we make it another day?" I asked around a badly suppressed yawn. "Because right now I'd like to sleep. And hopefully not have nightmares about," I put on a poor impression, "Ezekiel of the Daemonoctis Clan."

Cole was silent for a second, and his voice was very careful when he spoke again. "What did you just say?"

I frowned, wondering if my exhaustion was short circuiting my brain, because I had no clue why he was opposed to me getting some shut eye. "I'm tired. What's wrong with that?"

He shook his head impatiently. "Not that. You said ‘Daemonoctis clan'."

"Yeah, so?" I canted my head and examined his face, which meant I didn't miss the look of exasperation that passed over it.

"I know for fact that you go to cultural studies because I'm sitting right next to you when you do. So I'm not sure how you manage to take nothing in."

"Hey!" I objected, slapping his shoulder lightly. He caught my hand with a smile, lifting my palm to his cheek and planting a gentle kiss on it. Then he got serious again.

"The Daemonoctis clan were wiped out decades ago. First banished, and then executed for crimes against the council."

"I guess they missed one."

"I'm more than happy to correct their mistake," he rumbled, and I shivered, picturing my wonderful, perfect mate going up against the powerful old vampire who had such little respect for life. Bad enough that he was going to fight his own father; he didn't need to be fighting mine, too.

"Don't," I murmured.

"You…want to make peace with him?" Cole asked carefully, eyeing me like I'd lost it. I snorted.

"Hardly. But that doesn't mean I want to go to war with him, either. He can't reach me inside the academy's boundaries."

"I don't like it."

"Me, either. But we've got bigger problems right now."

"Bigger problems than the man who tried to kidnap my mate?"

"Yeah."

He tucked a finger under my chin and tilted it up so that I met his eye. "Name them."

"What, you want a list?"

"Yes."

I blinked in surprise. "Oh. Okay. Um… Less than a month until final assessments and I can't shift on command yet."

"A month is a long time. You'll get it."

"Debatable," I grumbled. "But fine. We're supposed to run on the moon hunt in two weeks, and I'm going to look like an idiot when I can't shift."

"You could never look anything other than perfect," he murmured. "And I'll gladly kill anyone who makes the mistake of thinking otherwise."

Heat pooled between my legs and he chuckled darkly. I coughed and squirmed.

"Fine. Your pack."

"The pack will follow the alpha."

"Right. And you can't be alpha and be fighting my father at the same time."

"Says who?" he demanded.

"Your attention needs to be on bringing peace between the packs. And if it's too late for that, then you need to focus on winning the war." I ducked his eye as I made my confession. "I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you."

"Hey," he said, wrapping his arm back around me. "It won't. I promise."

I melted into him, and he pressed a kiss to my forehead, murmuring softly into my hair.

"I will never let anything keep me from you, princess."