Wintertide Read online

  It looked like Una was right, they really didn’t give a shit.

  We skirted around the edge of the growing crowd and she led me to a long line of people picking up trays. One by one we moved forward in line and finally got to the narrow window where the food was being served.

  “Number?” the man behind the window barked.

  “One, two, nine, eight,” Una replied automatically.

  “Move on,” he ordered. “Next,” he called as I stepped forward. “Number?” he snapped out.

  I stared at him blankly, I had no clue what number he was talking about. I looked over at Una as I began to panic but she had already started to move down the line. The steel tray in my hand began to grow cold and I glanced down, horrified to see the ice crystals that had begun to form beneath my fingertips.

  “Number?” he demanded again as my fear increased. The symmetrical lines began to branch out further across the tray, forming its crystals on the surface before covering my fingers and trailing up my arms.

  My breath heaved out as I glanced around, hoping that no one noticed what was happening as the man stood behind the window.

  “Prisoner, what’s your number?” he snapped. Everyone around us fell quiet as they watched to see what was happening.

  “I- uh-” I stammered as a warm arm came around my shoulder making me stop.

  “Henry, now this isn’t how we treat our new guests, now is it?” the guy asked cheerfully, his deep voice vibrating against my shoulder. I tried to look around to see who it was that had jumped to my aide, but I was only able to make out the dark wings that brushed silkily against my skin.

  My heart began to pound, there was no way this was the same guy that had winked at me from the opposite balcony.

  “Rules is rules,” the guard said gruffly.

  The guy held onto me firmly, his heat pressed against my back as his free hand reached down and gripped my elbow. The heat spread through my arm, and I glanced down, shocked to see the ice receding along with my panic.

  “Henry, rules are rules, but how can you ask the girl something that she doesn’t even know?” his voice lowered almost seductively so as he spoke to the man. “There’s only one new guest here at our fine establishment, I think it’s safe to assume this is she, and you can mark her as accounted for this evening.”

  For a moment the room was silent, no one even moving to take their seats. At last he spoke up, “She has this one pass Calex, after this she will be punished for her defiant behavior,” he warned.

  “You got it, Henry,” he stated before moving me down the line. He took the tray from me and laid it on the bar, calling out choices for me before picking it up and moving through the crowd, still guiding me with his arm around my shoulder.

  We reached a far table where Una had already taken her seat and he put my tray down, finally releasing me so I could turn to see him.

  The guy with the ice blue eyes greeted me, his stare just as intense as it had been across the span of the common area, though up close like this, I found myself attracted, rather than unnerved by him.

  His hair was as dark as his silky wings, and framed his face, making his chiseled features all the more attractive. His scent was one I couldn’t place, like smoke and the night, something dark and dangerous. “Thank you,” I croaked out.

  “Think nothing of it, that douche bag couldn’t get out of his own way if he was told the how,” he smirked. “Don’t let them get to you.”

  “How?” I started, but stopped short. I wanted to know how the hell he had gotten the ice to recede so easily even in the middle of me panicking. I wanted to know how he controlled what I had been unable to do my whole life. Instead, I fell quiet, not wanting to ask on the off chance he hadn’t really done anything at all.

  “How what?” he asked with a grin.

  “How do I know what number to give him?” I blurted out, hoping to cover my fumble.

  “Your student number,” he informed me. “I’ll find out for you and let you know before breakfast,” he said with a grin showing a small dimple at the corner of his lips.

  “You don’t have to do that,” I protested. I didn’t know who to trust in here, and didn’t want to start off owing favors to the wrong people. Sure, he looked sexy as sin, but that didn’t mean I had to trust him.

  “Think nothing of it. See you in the morning, Ice,” he winked and walked away without another word. I gaped after him, unsure what to make of my encounter with him. His comment as he parted confirmed that he did know what he had done. Instead of following him, I turned and sat next to Una as she stared at me in shock.

  “Really?” her eyes shot into her hairline.

  “What?” I asked, unsure what she was talking about.

  “Calex? How the hell did you get him to even talk to you?”

  “He just did. I don’t see what the big deal is. I think he was just trying to be nice,” I insisted, not wanting to make a big deal over it. Especially when he knew the truth about my power.

  “Calex isn’t nice, Evangeline. He doesn’t have it in him to be nice.”

  “That’s kind of rude, considering you don’t even know him. And he was definitely helpful just now.” More than anyone realized, I thought to myself as I pushed food around my tray with my fork.

  “Evangeline, he is the son of Lucifer. The Devil’s son. He doesn’t do nice,” she emphasized.

  “Oh shit,” I muttered out loud. What the hell had I just done? Had I gone and made a deal with the devil’s son himself? And what the fuck did I do about it now?

  Chapter Seven

  I sat on top of the table and watched the girl as she moved through the cafeteria, following that Una girl. She held her head high, yet her demeanor was tense and unsure. At first, I watched out of curiosity as I couldn’t place what kind of creature she was, or figure out a reason why she might be here. Her looks sure didn’t give anything away.

  She had no pointed ears like the fae, hell, I would have noticed that right away as I had those very ears she lacked. She didn’t seem to have any claws, scales, horns, or any other telltale sign that would tell me what she was.

  What I could see was that she was gorgeous, and as I took in her curves, my dick stirred, twitching in excitement beneath my pants. I couldn’t make out the exact shade of her light eyes from where I sat, but I found myself actually wanting to as I imagined what it would feel like to grip those hips as she rode me, her long blonde hair flowing down her back.

  It made me wonder if she would be secretly wild in bed, or if she would be calm and timid as she appeared to be right now.

  “Jaxon, are you listening to me?” Carmen asked harshly, snapping me from my train of thought making me cringe. Her voice was grating when she got irritated, as she clearly was at the moment. I didn’t even know why I hung around her, other than for a good fuck now and then.

  I tore my eyes away from the new girl to look at her. “Yeah. I’m just curious about the newbie. Go ahead, I’m listening,” I motioned for her to continue as I turned back to watch the girl as she reached the line. Carmen huffed, but continued with her incessant chatter anyway. I shouldn’t have expected any less from her.

  “Just look at her. Like a scared deer. She’s going to get eaten alive in here,” she scoffed, her cackle getting on my nerves for some reason “I look forward to watching her fall,” she sneered.

  “Really, Carmen?” I muttered without taking my eyes off the new girl. “Is every beautiful woman such a threat to you?” Carmen was part harpy, it was in her nature to be filled with jealousy and the need to cause chaos. And it was something she was very good at, but sometimes it was exhausting to deal with.

  I couldn’t count how many times I had to stop her from bullying the newbies, and that didn’t even include the times that I hadn’t been around to stop it. Ever since she caused irreparable damage to another student that dared to ask me for a pencil, I felt the need to protect them from her viciousness. My guilt was another reason I stayed with
her, despite how tired I was of her bullshit.

  “You think she’s beautiful?” her voice rose to almost a shriek, and everyone around us looked away from the new girl to stare at us. They knew just as much as I did how dramatic Carmen could be, and were all waiting for our fight.

  I looked over at her and studied her for a moment. Her brown hair was lush and shiny but filled with so much hair shit that it didn’t feel soft, instead it was a sticky styled mess that made me cringe. She had a beautiful face that hid her true ugliness behind dark eyes that were full of mischievousness on a good day, and on a bad day, well I would rather not think about what lurked behind her facade.

  She had been lucky enough to have a filled out frame instead of the bird body that most harpies had. Even though she lucked out on the body, she still had wings that she kept tucked behind her body, unless she was up to no good.

  As I studied her. I readily admitted that Carmen was a gorgeous woman on the outside, but I knew better than most that was not the woman on the inside.

  “I didn’t say that,” I replied cautiously, hoping to avoid a scene. “Though some might think she’s beautiful,” I shrugged carelessly and it seemed to satisfy her enough for the moment as she continued to rip apart the newbie.

  I ignored Carmen’s words, I knew her well enough that I could just nod and agree at the right times based on the inflections in her voice. Shit, I could even picture her facial expressions half the time.

  I turned back to watch the new girl as she stood in front of the window, holding her tray, Henry being his usual charming self. By charming, I meant he was being an asshole. Curiously, I waited to see how she would handle herself, though so far it wasn’t looking good.

  Things went from not good to worse as I spotted the ice that had begun to flow from her hands to cover the tray in crystal patterns. Fuck, she was a sorceress. One that couldn’t control her powers at that.

  Anger rose in my throat. It was people like her that got guys like me stuck in this hellhole in the first place. I didn’t want to keep watching, but I couldn’t look away as my irritation grew at her screwing up right in front of everyone.

  “Why the fuck isn’t she in lockdown?” I muttered out loud angrily.

  I had been so entranced in watching this woman that I’d momentarily forgotten that the harpy was sitting next to me and no matter how pissed she made me at her blatant show of her uncontrolled powers, I still didn’t want to sic Carmen on her.

  “I’m sure I can get her put in there pretty damn quick,” Carmen replied, trailing her finger over my shoulder, her voice so threatening that a shiver went down my spine and I knew she would make it her mission to do exactly that.

  I shook her off my shoulder as I watched to see exactly how this would play out, narrowing my eyes as Calex sauntered over to the sorceress. Cockily he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and her ice melted immediately.

  That bastard fixed the situation and guided her down the food line as he filled her plate, arm still wrapped around her. Inexplicably, jealousy stabbed me in the gut and I tried to brush it off. I had no business feeling that way about a sorceress that couldn’t control her damn self.

  He walked by her side as he guided her to her table. The expression on her face told me everything I needed to know, she was absolutely taken with him. Glee filled me as Calex gave her a wink before he walked away. Was this sorceress that stupid? Everyone knew that when Calex winked, it meant he’d just struck a deal, and a deal with Lucifer’s son; that wouldn’t bode well for her at all.

  “What a stupid girl,” Carmen laughed as she shook her head, her stiff hair remaining perfectly in place. “It’s too bad Calex will get to have all the fun,” she pouted as I laughed with her, thrilled I wouldn’t have to deal with a train wreck like that, or my unwanted feelings for her.

  “Jaxon,” Darian, one of the burly guards barked as he stopped next to my table, stopping my laughter. “I’m to escort you to the headmaster’s office.” I rolled my eyes at him. I really didn’t feel like being summoned at the moment. “Now,” he insisted, seeing my reluctance to follow.

  “What does the warden want this time?” I sighed as I pushed my tray to the side and stood.

  “You know you aren’t supposed to call him that,” he tried to sound harsh, but we all knew the nickname was fitting for the person that ran this prison that posed as a school. “No clue, I just follow his orders.”

  I smirked and decided to let my asshole show, even if it was pushing my luck. I knew they wouldn’t really do anything to me anyway. “Ah, still his lapdog, then Darian.”

  His face turned red with anger and he scowled at me as he reached out to grab my arm, “Move it, Jaxon.”

  I leaned over and kissed Carmen, more out of habit than desire before I smirked at Darian and sauntered past him toward the headmaster’s office.

  At the door I didn’t hesitate as I pushed it open, strolling in before I flopped down on a chair across from his desk. He looked up at me pointedly as I sprawled across the seat meeting his gaze with a bored look as I waited to hear whatever dirty deed it was he wanted from me this time.

  I rolled my eyes as he continued to silently stare at me. I knew he wanted me to sit up straight, before he spoke, but I wasn’t going to give him that. Instead of doing what he wanted, I looked around his office, ignoring his insistent look.

  His plush office was a far cry from the bare rooms the prisoners were provided. The walls were a bold red and surrounded with rich mahogany trim. Bookcases of the same wood and color lined three sides of the room, filled with ancient texts on every subject that one could imagine.

  His choice in artwork revealed his fascination with power, and not the good kind, I thought, as I studied the faces of the magical community’s most notorious evil men and women looking down on us.

  Hung directly behind his head, prominent in his collection of art, was a painting of Hades. Everyone knew Hades wasn’t the real Prince of Darkness, but the headmaster loved the depiction of the suffering souls, their faces pained and arms flung upwards as if reaching for Hades. The sadistic God looked down upon them with disdain, much like how the warden was looking at me now.

  I leaned forward and picked up a heavy gold nameplate, the surface emblazoned with “Headmaster Frost,” and twirled it around in my hands.

  “Jaxon!” he growled, his voice raised in warning.

  I looked at him innocently and asked casually, “What’s up Jack?”

  “You are to address me as Father or Headmaster,” he bit out, as he met me with his icy glare. It didn’t phase me one bit, in fact I took pleasure in irritating him.

  I set the nameplate down and leaned back in my chair, holding my arms out to the sides, “Well? What was so urgent that you needed to pull me from a very entertaining dinner? If you could get on with it, I’d like to enjoy free time with a little harpy before I have to be stuck in my cell all night. I’m sure my roomie wouldn’t appreciate my raging boner.”

  For once he ignored my backtalk, folding his hands in front of his chin. Whatever was about to come out of his mouth had to be good as he never ignored what he considered my insubordination. “As you probably know by now, we have a new student,” he started.

  “Prisoner,” I interrupted which earned me another sharp look.

  “Call it what you will, Jaxon,” he seethed. “There is a new person attending our school. Her name is Evangeline Bylar. You will befriend her. Make her trust you, lean on you. Become the only person she goes to.”

  In all my years stuck in this place, my father has never once asked me to do something nice and I highly doubted it was going to start now. “What’s the catch?” I asked.

  “There is none. You will follow my orders and report back to me with every detail about this girl.”

  “So, you want me to be your spy,” I stated dryly. “Why can’t you just get the information from one of your lackeys? The professors and guards are capable of giving you everything you need,” I asked,
irritated that he was asking me to get closer to the girl that pissed me off and attracted me at the same time. Not to mention, what he asked seemed too simple and I wracked my brain trying to find out what his angle was. What he could possibly need from this girl.

  “You and I both know that there are usurpers in this institution. I can’t trust any of them with something this sensitive.” His brow furrowed as he continued to stare me down as if that would unsettle me enough to agree. He sighed heavily, knowing that I was not going to give in that easily. “You do as I ask and your time in this institution may be reduced.”

  I leaned forward, shocked by the offer. I had been stuck in this hellhole for no reason. I had no clue what I had done, let alone what I could do to get out. I could return to the frozen world that I missed so much.

  I spotted the glint of humor in his eyes, as if he knew he had me right where he wanted me. “There’s a little problem with that. A certain harpy will not go easy on this Evangeline if I show her any attention. You do remember what happened the last time.”

  “I’ll take care of Carmen. I have a feeling she will be finding another being to attach herself to shortly,” he stated cryptically. “You will do as I ask, or you will not be getting out of here anytime soon.”

  “Thanks, Dad, for being so generous with your offer, but I’m going to pass.” Just as the sorceress should have known not to make a deal with the Son of Lucifer, I knew not to make a deal with Jack Frost.

  I got up to stand, but icy tendrils wrapped around my throat, stopping me in my tracks. “It wasn’t a question,” he seethed. “I am your Father and the Headmaster of Shadow Isle Reformatory. You will do as I tell you or face the consequences.” The threat seemed mild, yet I knew exactly what my father was capable of when he didn’t get his way. My lax attitude toward him was tolerated only as long as I did what he asked of me.

  The ice tightened around my throat, the cold and pressure becoming painful, a testament to the strength of his power. As part elemental fae and part ice sorcerer, I was immune to most cold magic. My father had been the only one thus far that had been able to hurt me with it.