Ignorance

I can’t decide if I’m surprised or impressed when Kit strolls into our Dark Magic class. He’s clearly been to a physician, but he doesn’t smell like the pit that is the general infirmary. Someone must have blabbed about the good doc, which will infuriate Jasper. His extreme ire towards the poor guy is troubling and I’m trying to get him to relax, but it’s slow going.

It would be easier if Kit would stop antagonizing him purposefully, but that will never happen.

The guy is tough, I’ll give him that. He’s taking everything thrown at him and lobbing it right back to anyone who fucks with him. Amazingly, he’s not even concerned with how much bigger or more powerful they are than him—he just stands up for himself. I’m a little jealous, actually, because that’s something I’ve never been able to do. Having the caliphate kept me from getting trampled most of my life—not giving everyone who messes with me the finger.

“Do I have something on my face? Are you deciding what to report to your master?” Kit hisses out of the corner of his mouth as Salazar passes out the syllabi.

I blink, ducking my head as he hits me where it hurts. “You don’t pull any punches, huh?”

Rolling his eyes, Kit bends to grab his tablet out of his bag, wincing briefly. Once he straightens, he rolls his sleeve up, revealing a bandage that he looks at carefully. “I hardly think stating facts is akin to punching you unless you have something to feel guilty about. Do you?”

Again, with the rough treatment. Jasper truly fucked up this morning.

“How could I have stopped Roquefort from being a cheating fuckwit?” I ask with a sigh. “The answer is that I couldn’t, so I don’t feel guilty. I felt bad that you got injured, though, because I’m not a sociopath.”

His head turns slowly, and the weight of Kit’s glare is palpable. “You stood there and said nothing while Jasper let him act like a goddamn psycho. At least Anton and Xerxes spoke up, but you? You cowered behind your lover like a simpering belle. That you should feel very guilty about.”

Salem’s eyebrows pop up as he strolls in late—as usual—and overhears our conversation. Once he plops down in the seat on the other side of Kit, he leans forward to give me a shocked look. “Zav, you let him encourage a bully in public? What the fuck, man?”

Until one of the others arrived, I could pretend I didn’t know why Kit was being so pissy. Now I have to see it through the lens of someone who was around when Jasper and the guys saved me from the bullies as kids. “He was teaching, Salem. Questioning him in public is bad enough, but while he’s doing professor shit is worse.”

“Coward,” Kit mutters.

My old friend continues looking at me, his gaze burning into the flush on my skin. “Kit Kat isn’t wrong, buddy. You’re afraid if you stand up to Prince Asshat when he’s being a dick that he’ll drop you. I get why, but I also think you’re underestimating what you mean to him. Because of that, you’re letting him get away with being an abusive prick.”

“I’m not…” I protest, but Salem shakes his head.

“No way, man. You know he’s punishing Kit because he doesn’t trust him. Jasper thinks he’s a spy for old Lucian, or maybe even his dad, and he’s taking out his rage at both of them on someone who didn’t do shit.” Salem leans in again, brushing the injured arm, and Kit makes a strangled sound.

I didn’t realize it was that bad.

“Fuck, sorry,” the panda demon says with a doleful expression. “Gimme your tablet and I’ll take the notes. It looks like it hurts.”

Kit gives him a grateful smile, only hesitating for a moment before giving my brother the device. “Stay awake, though. I’m so far behind and I can’t afford to miss anything.”

“ Gentlemen ,” the loud voice comes from the front of the classroom and we all turn to look. Professor Salazar is standing with his arms crossed as he leans against his desk, his expression thunderous. “Since you’ve seen fit to force me to pause my lecture, would one of you like to recite the ten basic tenets of dark magic and what they do?”

Kit winces because he doesn’t have a clue, and Salem gives me a sheepish look. Unfortunately for them, this is not my forte and I don’t have the answer we need. But I was an asshole earlier, so I gather myself and respond.

“Sorry, sir. We don’t know.”

“Then I suggest you shut your yaps and listen, because that is exactly what we are discussing,” the chaos demon says wryly. He turns to the class and gives everyone a creepy smile. “You’ll find that I do not give detentions or send people to the Headmaster in this class. I find it much more effective to let you know I will use my powers to punish you as I see fit for the timeframe I deem fair.”

Son of a bitch. Having a chaos demon mark you is worse than being stabbed.

“Understood, Professor Salazar,” I reply. Once he finally looks away from our corner, I lean in to whisper to the others. “I get why you’re mad, but… I’m…”

Kit rolls his eyes, flipping me off before he speaks. “Zavida, if you want to be someone’s lackey for the rest of your life because they have a fine ass dick, that’s your problem. Stop making excuses and don’t act like you have no control over your bullshit, though. At least then I might respect you.”

I wince, and Salem has to cover his mouth as he snorts. “That’s not fa?—”

“Life’s not fair, dude. If it was, I’d be at an Ivy League college in my world, living my life without a bunch of bullying demons trying to stab me, but here we are. You pampered dicks just don’t get that sometimes… we don’t get what we want, and we have to play the hand we’re dealt.” Kit shakes his head in frustration and turns his shoulders so he’s leaning closer to Salem.

That’s a cue for me to leave him alone if I’ve ever seen one.

At the end of class, Kit lets Salem lead him off and neither of them say a word. Running my hand through my hair, I curse under my breath. My anxiety is spiking; I hate conflict and the Kitsuné in me wants to burn it off with mischief. That will only cause more problems, so I fight my natural urge to be self-destructive by heading for Intro to Fae a few steps behind them. Everyone but Jasper and X are in this section, so it’s going to be a pain in the ass.

Slash will be on my side, though. He never questions the Prince.

The hall for Professor Cedar’s lecture is enormous—one of the biggest on campus. Rumor has it the administration created the damn thing for him years ago because he refuses to teach over two Intro classes a semester, so they have to get the freshman into four sections split over two semesters. He’s a hybrid like my caliphate—part Reaping Fae and part incubus—and uses magic to shout his lessons over the giant crowds.

I wasn’t looking forward to this large a crowd anyway, but with Salem and Kit snubbing me, I’m worried I’ll end up getting pushed to the end of the row. Much like the new kid, I have my own quirks and issues, but he doesn’t know it. Crowds are one of them, and if the guys force me to be on my own, I’m going to lose my shit halfway through.

The trail of people headed into the enormous room is long, but I see Oriel standing in a perfect position to let us know where he is. He’s not the one I would have expected to be a beacon since he prefers the shadows, but the inconsistency gets explained when my sharp, fox ears hear Kit tell the panda they should head for Oriel. Slinking along behind them, I see Slash has taken the end seat—which I’m grateful for—and Oriel has the other end of the row. There should be plenty of room for all of us to sit together, so I wait for Kit and Salem to settle in. Once Anton drops in place next to Salem, I hop over the row and take my place between him and Slash.

Thank fuck. This will help a lot, actually.

Slash frowns, leaning forward to look down the row. “Doctor?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Kit grumbles as everyone shifts back so he can lean forward, too. He holds up the bandaged arm with a huff. “Yes. See? You don’t have to lurk like you did with the food.”

My eyes widen as I take in the exchange. What the hell is Slash doing bringing him food and getting him to our doctor? Jasper is going to freak the fuck out when he finds out. I turn to look at the shark shifter with an arched brow and he just glares before settling back into his seat silently.

There’s quiet in the group for a moment before O braves the question. “What the hell are you talking about… when did he lurk?”

Kit sighs, and I swear, you’d think he’s about to poke his own eyes out in frustration. “The night I missed dinner. This asshole stomped up to my room, brought a bunch of food packed up from the kitchen, and demanded I eat because the royal fuckwad made me run a bunch earlier. As much as your leader hates me, most of you guys act like you’re my freaking keepers.”

You know what? They really—oh, shit.

Putting my hands on my face, I make a soft sound of pain as I realize what’s going on—they’re all into this kid. Even straight-as-an-arrow Slash has fallen victim to the new guy’s vulnerable yet feisty schtick and honestly? It’s a goddamn feat. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen over two of us agree on a person in decades, but Kit Camponella has united almost the entire caliphate in their desire to protect him.

I’m not sure if they all get that they want to fuck him, but that’s a later issue.

Professor Cedar’s voice echoes through the room like a damn loudspeaker, and I cringe as we all stop to get our notes ready. I’m pretty fucking familiar with their kind since there are a decent amount of their hybrids within our family group. Fae usually gravitate to the demons in me, Anton, and X’s lines when they’re looking to have fun. It makes sense, given their natures, but it also means I can focus on something else besides this lecture.

Scratching my chin, I type information into my laptop furiously as if I’m taking notes, but really, I’m working on the code for the background information. Figuring out five of the seven demons in our caliphate have a crush on this guy means I need to resolve this shit now . Jasper won’t stop torturing him until I do, and the protectiveness will only escalate if Kit reciprocates with any or all of them. I don’t think he’s ready for five lovers, but he’s definitely soft with Oriel and Salem. They seem to have the most imminent chance of getting him to date them.

My resolve deepens as I run into more and more wormholes, and I frown. I swear, I’ve never in my life seen information so thoroughly locked down in the human world as Kit’s. I have to code magic into my hack and I was hoping to avoid it. It will leave a trace and whoever did this will probably know the intruder came from Discordia’s servers. They won’t be able to trace me, but it will give them the location where the breach originated.

Is this important enough to raise flags outside Hell?

It doesn’t take me long to decide that it absolutely is. The infatuation with Kit will only drive a wedge deeper into my group of brothers, and we have to be united. We can’t go up against the current king, and our parents, if we’re split over a random kid who might not even be here by then.

Taking a deep breath, I start coding spells and hexes into my code as I attack the server denying me.

Here’s hoping this doesn’t lead to some bigwig crashing into Discordia this weekend or Jasper will have my ass—and not in a good way.