Cruel Magic (Royals of Villain Academy #1)(70)

Victory and her two most devoted friends were sitting on one of the loveseats facing me, the lackeys on the seat cushions and Victory perched on the arm with her shapely legs crossed and her mouth already curved into an amused smile.

Declan and Connar had propped themselves at opposite ends of the sofa kitty-corner to the girls. Declan’s posture was stiff, and his gaze didn’t quite meet mine. Connar looked tensed to spring, his jaw tight.

Malcolm stood behind the sofa, leaning his arms casually against its back. A spark of triumph lit in his eyes at the sight of me, and his grin stretched wider. He nodded to Jude, who’d been lounging against the wall next to the TV with his hands slung in his pockets.

As the Killbrook scion pushed himself upright, my attention snagged on the one other person in the room—the last person I’d have expected to see in this company. Imogen shifted on her feet where she stood near the bar cabinet, her lips slanted at a pained angle. Understanding clicked in my head.

“You told them,” I said with a flare of anger and betrayal.

“Rory,” Imogen started, her voice wavering.

Victory sliced her hand through the air. “Shut it.”

I couldn’t tell whether she’d cast a spell or whether Imogen was just scared that she would, but my supposed friend’s mouth snapped shut.

“Told us about what?” Jude said languidly. “Oh, you mean this little treasure?” He drew his hand out of his pocket with his fingers curled around a trembling white mouse, his little finger resting against the black splotch on her left flank.

My heart just about leapt up my throat. “Give her back to me,” I said, marching over.

“Stop,” Malcolm said in his casting voice, straightening up behind the sofa. My feet halted. The same fucking trick his dad had used on me. I turned toward him as well as I could, seething and trying not to shake, and he just grinned back at me. “Hid a whole familiar from us. Very sneaky. Well, maybe not so very sneaky when it is so very small.”

My gaze jerked back to Jude. “If you hurt her—”

“Then what?” he asked, cocking his head. “What do you think you can do to any of us, Snowflake? You don’t really deserve a familiar when you haven’t even got the power to take care of it. Better to put the poor thing out of its misery in a constructive way.”

He clucked his tongue, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. His ferret familiar wriggled out from under the sofa and bounded across the thick rug to Jude’s feet. It peered up at the mouse with an eager guttural sound.

“You’d like this tasty treat, wouldn’t you, Mischief?” Jude crooned. As he adjusted his grip to dangle Deborah by her tail, the ferret’s head bobbed.

“Leave her alone!” I said, the words catching in my throat before I could force them out. “You don’t know—” I couldn’t tell them how much more she was than just a mouse. They’d definitely kill her then. I turned to Declan frantically. “Isn’t this against the rules you like to uphold so much? You can’t let them do this.”

I was sure when Professor Banefield had gone over the school policies with me, he’d mentioned that students were forbidden from purposefully harming another student’s familiar. Officially, at least. Apparently that didn’t mean much. Declan looked down at his hands, saying nothing.

Malcolm chuckled. “He’s just as sick of you thumbing your nose at us as the rest of us are. The only real rule at Blood U is not to get caught if you break the other ones. No one here is going to go running to the administration on your behalf. You can’t even prove you had a familiar, can you?”

I couldn’t. A shiver ran through me. Jude swung Deborah gently through the air, and the ferret stood up on its hind legs, its upper body swaying to follow the movement.

“You’d better listen to him,” Connar said, his voice low and rough.

The question dropped ragged from my mouth. “What do you want?” Because there had to be something. This wasn’t purely torture. This was a negotiation—one where they held all the cards.

“That’s more like it.” Malcolm crossed his arms over his chest. “If you want your squeak toy back, first you’re going to grovel on your knees right here, telling us all about how you now recognize that we’re the real powers in the school and begging us to help you find your way. Then we’ll take it out to the green, and you can do another demonstration while everyone’s on their way to class. And then we’ll head over to your assessment, and you can prostrate yourself while the professors and the headmistress watch. Do that, and we’ll make sure you pass too. We’re generous when people deserve it.”

I hugged myself to hold in a shudder. Throw myself at their feet not just in private but in front of the entire campus… I’d never recover the higher ground after that. I’d have proven to students and teachers alike that Malcolm and the other scions owned me.

“What’s more important to you?” Jude said, waggling his eyebrows. “Your pride or your familiar’s life?”

“Just—just give me a second,” I said, as if I was going to see some way out of this if I just stood here a little longer.

“Nah, I think you’ve had long enough. You obviously need a bit more motivation.”

He flicked his wrist, and the mouse sailed through the air to land at the edge of the rug. I cried out, lunging after it, but Malcolm’s magic held me firm. The ferret pounced. “Slowly, Mischief,” Jude said softly. “Take your time.”