Cruel Magic (Royals of Villain Academy #1)(32)

I returned my attention to Malcolm. “You’re not melting,” I pointed out.

He laughed and sauntered up to me. “If you expect me to deny that I’m wicked, I’ll have to disappoint you.” His smile sharpened as I stood my ground, my heart thumping. “It’s good to see you without the feeb in tow. Now if only you’d left behind everything you should have.” His hand leapt too fast for me to react, tugging at my charm bracelet.

I jerked my arm away and took a step back. “Thankfully I don’t dress to earn your approval.”

The girls started twittering. “Easy to make excuses for not going after what you’re never going to get anyway,” Victory remarked to the others with a sneer.

“You still haven’t figured out where your allegiances ought to be,” Malcolm said. “I guess we’ll just have to keep working on you.”

I’d actually be totally okay with you giving up, I wanted to say, but I could picture how much they’d laugh at that idea.

Malcolm turned on his heel and ambled back to his friends without waiting for my response. Imogen sipped nervously from her beer. I was searching for the right words to toss out before I found some other, very distant area of the party to visit, when a couple of guys having a tussle careened between me and the scions.

The one guy let out a drunkenly triumphant holler and pushed the other, but his sparring partner caught hold of his wrist at the last second. They spun around, and the first guy tripped on a beer bottle. Malcolm and Jude sprang to opposite sides, only just barely avoiding getting slammed into the bonfire.

“What the fuck are you doing?” a voice bellowed. I’d barely noticed Connar hanging back alongside the other scions, but all at once the guy was right there at the forefront, knocking the two interlopers back with a heave of his brawny arms. The line of his square jaw flexed as he clenched it. “Do you have eyes, or do you need me to remind you where they are?”

The guys cowered, backing away from the scions as quickly as their feet would take them. “Sorry. Really sorry. Total accident.”

“Go have your fucking accidents somewhere else.” Connar glowered at them like he was imagining exactly what shape he’d crush them into if they so much as brushed against his friends again. A shiver ran down my back. I hadn’t had any direct run-ins with him, and I was abruptly very glad for that.

“You see,” Malcolm’s smooth voice said, so close behind me that I flinched. He’d circled around while I was staring at Connar. He set his hand on my waist, a spot of warmth my skin cringed away from. “We know how to look out for each other.”

I whipped around, out of his hold, and crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t think it’d be wise to broadcast what I was about to say to the entire student body, so I pitched my voice low enough that only he would hear. “I’d take the joymancers over all of you any day.”

Fury flashed across Malcolm’s face. I dashed away to where Imogen had started backing toward the refreshment table, and to my relief, the divine devil didn’t follow me.

“All in a night’s fun?” Imogen said with a weak smile when I reached her.

“It’s fine,” I said. “They got to say their piece. Let’s see the rest of this party.”

We grabbed some food, and I drank a little of my beer as we wandered along the shore. I was starting to see what Imogen had meant about cutting loose without the Naries. Along with the college party antics I’d experienced back home, like that drunken playfight and the girls who were now egging a few of the guys into jumping off the dock into the lake, fearmancers found plenty of ways to up the ante.

Over here, a small crowd was whooping in encouragement while a guy gulped wine from a bottle that was floating magically several feet above his open mouth. Over there, someone had conjured a glowing illusion of a dragon that was doing battle with a lion made out of flames. Every time the creatures swerved to snap at some student’s face, the casters would be drinking in jolts of fear along with their beverages of choice.

I realized after we’d made a rambling circuit of the party that everyone was giving the two of us a wide berth. The clusters of students shifted a little farther away from us as we passed by, though lots of them were happy to stare at me.

I raised my beer to my lips, and a taste so gaggingly bitter hit my tongue that I almost choked. I managed to spit it back into the bottle discretely. Someone had worked a malicious little transformation on my drink.

What was I even doing here? I hadn’t decided to stay at Bloodstone University to party with the villains. I was screwing up any real fun Imogen might have been having while she stuck loyally by my side and accomplishing zip for myself and my plans.

“Hey,” I said, touching Imogen’s arm before we came back around to the bonfire. “I think I’m going to take a step back, maybe go for a little walk by the lake to clear my head.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” she asked.

“No, I’ll be fine. You enjoy yourself. And thanks for making me get out of the dorm.”

She smiled with a hint of relief I had the feeling she was trying to conceal. “Text me if you need me.”

Forestland stretched out along the edge of the lake on either side of the open area that held the fire pit, the dock, and the boathouse. A narrow dirt path led off through the trees on the east side. I set off along it, my shoulders coming down as soon as the sounds of the party faded behind me. The fresh night air washed my lungs clean. I felt safer here, alone in the dark, than I had in the middle of all those students back there in the firelight. Especially because with each muted thump of my feet, those tiny flickers of animal fear found their way to me.