Rosemary Johns - Rebel Academy - Curse

Hartley snorted and then hurriedly covered her mouth.

“Was he like this as a child?” Juni asked.

Hartley blinked, and her shoulders stiffened. “ That isn’t my brother. That’s the thing who stole my brother from me. That’s a monster.”

I jerked away from Hartley, scrabbling towards the seats. My back hit the seats with a sickening crunch , but I didn’t feel it. I only felt the stab of her words.

Take it back…

My eyelashes were wet with tears, but I didn’t let them fall. If she didn’t accept me as brother, then she wasn’t my sister.

She wasn’t…wasn’t… Pan’s cock, she was .

I turned away my head, unable to keep looking at her. I needed Bask’s pillows right now to hug…or Bask.

Magenta’s frosty cold wrapped around me, and I dragged in desperate gulps of air. Magenta was with me, in me, beside me. It didn’t matter if Hartley didn’t see me because Magenta did.

Juni tilted her head, assessing me, as her fingers carded through Snow’s hair. “If you want to stay, Confess, sit in the seat quietly. Be as invisible as a ghost .”

When she raised her eyebrow, I blanched.

Was Juni helping me? Did she know that Magenta was here?

I struggled onto the seat, ducking my head.

Right now, I’d take any dubious allies that I could, even the Princes’ Tutor who’d threaten to cage Snow.

Was this academy education everything that mum had hoped?

I definitely wasn't the son that either Hartley or she had hoped for...and I didn't care...okay, I cared just a cat's whisker...okay, more like a crooked tail...okay I cared all the way down to my caterwauling breaking heart.

I'd never let Hartley know.

I clawed my fingers into the armrests, composing my expression to the same polite mask that I'd been taught as a kid. In the House of Jewels, I'd spent hours standing in front of relatives, who’d discussed my faults at the same time as praising my beauty or kneeling facing corners in punishment and no matter what, this was the face that I'd been taught to wear.

Hartley swept an assessing glance over me, before her attention was caught by movement at the door.

Emerick stalked into the Memory Theater with his chin tilted up defiantly. He'd changed into fancy clothes for the matching: dark chocolate chiffon pants and top that were almost transparent. His top hung open over his muscled chest, which had been oiled.

He'd have looked like sex on a stick, if he didn't appear as uncomfortable as a gardener, who'd suddenly been dressed up for a sultan's harem. To be fair, that was pretty accurate.

Emerick refused to look at Hartley, even though he stopped in front of her like a tin soldier.

Damelza took a sip of tea. "Now here's how a man should behave. Doesn't he look pretty?" Wow, that was fishing. She needed this match. Was she trying to gain the House of Jewel's money for the academy? Was that the only reason that she'd adopted Emerick? She tapped Emerick's ankle with the toe of her boot. "Hands on your head."

Emerick flushed but raised his hands onto his head, which pulled his top further apart, revealing his entire chest.

Damelza used everyone in this academy like pawns. She was just like mum, who’d also wanted to trade me for my beauty. Damelza would use her students as assassins or marry off her own son.

It was all about the survival of the House of Crows.

Hartley's pupils dilated, and her cheeks flushed, as she looked Emerick up and down.

She was crushing on him.

She didn't love me, and I shook with fear, that she couldn't love Emerick.

Magenta wouldn't allow the marriage, but I had to know that my childhood hadn't been a lie. Because if it had been, could I believe anything was real again?

"Go on then," Juni grinned at Hartley encouragingly like she was at a strip club, rather than urging her mate towards her own brother, "take a closer look. He's a good boy."

Hartley gave a tight smile, before rising from her throne like a shimmering princess. For a moment, the diamonds woven into her dress and hair blinded me. Then she circled Emerick. Her expression gentled, and she smiled at him. When she touched his chin to turn his head one way and then the other, Emerick's eyes darkened with defiance.

If I hadn't become a mage, would my official matching when I'd turned twenty-one with Mesilande have been like this? Would she've inspected me in the center of my grand lounge under the sparkling light of the chandelier, as my family sat watching and drinking tea, like I was no more than property? Would I’ve been sold to Mesilande in the same room that I'd played toy horses with Hartley?

As a kid, Mesilande had sat me on her knee and kindly called me her petit knight . I'd giggled and felt important.

Lies, lies, lies...

When I hissed, unable to restrain my feline rage, Damelza raised her eyebrow at me.

Just wait, cats catch crows, and I'm imagining a feathery massacre...

As if in revenge for my outburst, the back wall was suddenly lit with a kaleidoscope of projected images. They were the memories of every student who'd been punished in the Memory Theater, including me.

Merlin's prick, please don't show it...

Then there it was: my teenage self, kneeling on the mattress in the attic and peering out of the window at Hartley's birthday party below.

It was the day that Hartley and Mesilande had crushed me. I'd learned that everybody knew I was being held captive, and nobody would save me.

Nobody had.

I keened, before slamming my hand over my mouth.

Unexpectedly, Louis Armstrong's gravelly voice boomed out, backed by the joyful flute and trumpet of "It's a Wonderful World."

Hartley appeared as shaken as me. Ghost-white, she tangled her hands in her hair, as if tearing out the jewels would tear away the memory.

Why was her witchy behind distressed? She'd been the one to arrange her garden party, where "It's a Wonderful World" had played, so that I'd be able to watch and hope...for the only time in a decade... that I was still remembered and loved . She'd let me join in her tiny slice of happiness.

Then she'd been the one to take that away from me, right?

Juni dived out of her chair to Hartley's side, wrapping her arm around her. "Mother, shut it off."

Damelza's smile was sly. "What's the problem? Aren't you a jazz fan?"

"Mum admires your clever cruelty." Hartley's gaze was frosty. "I simply admire cleverness, and it's rather dumb to upset your future daughter-in-law or don't you care about the safety of your son...or what I tell mum about your hospitality?"

It looked like Hartley was a rebel too.

Damelza's smile faltered, and then she sniffed. "I prefer music with a darker edge, anyway. I have an excellent playlist entitled Songs to Curse or Fuck To."

It was always the quiet ones. Plus, where was the Fuck You Not Hex when you needed it?

When Damelza waved her hand, the music shut off but not the memories, which replayed on the back wall.

Hartley shrugged away from Juni, before prowling around Emerick. This time, there was a predatory glint in her eye that made my throat tighten. No gentleness remained. Instead, she ran her hand down the center of Emerick’s glistening chest, tested the firmness of his bicep, and ran her hand across his ass like checking over a breeding stallion.

"Your sister tells me that you're good. Are you?" Hartley asked with an icy indifference.

"I've been trained to be neither seen nor heard," Emerick replied.

"It'd be a shame for you not to seen." Hartley cast an assessing eye down him. "In the House of Jewels, we like pretty things, as long as they're quiet and act with decorum. You'll be on display. What are your skills?"