The Curse (H. Academy Series #1)

“I thought-” I continued as Thar looked over me. “I thought I had it under control, but I didn’t. I thought it wouldn’t mean anything.”

A million thoughts crossed through my mind as Thar stared at me. Goddess, he thought I was an idiot. He thought I was a stupid, naive girl. Why was I even here? What did I expect to get from this encounter? He told me I should stay away from Leon. Everyone told me I should stay away, but I thought I could handle it.

“I’m sorry.” I tucked my fists under my armpits. “I- I don’t know what I’m-”

“I called you.” Thar cut in, making me look into his eyes. “You didn’t answer.”

Under the dim hallway lighting, I could barely see the dark brown of his irises. It was just black.

“I left my phone in my room.” I said. “I’m sorry, I-”

“Come in.” Thar opened the door fully and stepped aside.

The dark room looked back at me, causing a flutter in my stomach and a thud in my chest. I’ve never been in his room. Thar held the door open, and when I looked at him, I couldn’t help but glance at his muscled arms. The fact remained – if he was by my side, I did not fear demons.

“What-” I glanced back into the dark room. “Are you done with your meetings?”

“Yes.” Thar left the door open, walked to the bed lamp in the room, and switched the light on. “I came here a minute ago and called you immediately. We have to talk.”

With some reluctance, I peered into the room. There wasn’t much furniture; a table covered in books, a simple wardrobe, and a made table with a boring brown carpet underneath. The curtains were drawn over the windows. The room smelled like his aftershave. I walked in, arms still folded over my chest.

“Close the door.” Thar pulled the chair and sat down.

I glanced behind, “Are- are you sure?”

“Yes.” His gaze followed me as I reached for the door.

The moment I closed it, the room turned too small for the both of us.

“Do you want a drink?” He reached into the table drawer and pulled out a bottle.

What the fuck did he find out? Has my father told him something so terrible I needed a drink to handle it?

I glanced at the ornate clock hanging on the wall. 9PM.

Well, I’d rather be here than alone in my room while all my friends left the school.

“Okay.” Arms folding again, I looked around.

I had nowhere to sit.

“You can sit on the bed.” He said while pouring us a drink.

What?

What?

“What’s going on?” I let out a nervous chuckle, “Are we all going to die? Is this our last day on planet Earth?”

“No.” Thar stood up and handed the glass of brown liquor to me. “Your father said nothing of substance. Nothing real. Just... bureaucracy.”

His fingers brushed mine slightly when I took the glass.

“Okay...”

“That’s exactly what worries me.” Thar returned to his seat. “We’ve been in his chambers for hours. Hours. Why didn’t he tell us anything important?”

Relief flooded me. Alright, he’s started acting like himself again.

“His behaviour has been strange.” I walked to the bed and sat down, feeling again somewhat normal in my own skin. “It just doesn’t add up. Him evacuating us now, even after there hasn’t been an attack in... weeks...”

My voice trailed off. Thar held the glass tightly, lips pursed, eyes glued to me. Dark, so dark. His throat bobbed and his knuckles were white. My chest turned too small for my heartbeat. I was suddenly painfully aware of the school uniform I had on. I pulled the hem down to my knees on impulse, which made him blink a few times, and meet my gaze.

“Are you okay?” I whispered.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, “Yes, just tired. And my head is killing me.”

I trusted Thar implicitly. He’s proven time and time again that he was on my side, that he cared about my wellbeing, and that he’d do anything to protect me. Still, his presence made me nervous now.

“I can go to my room.” I almost spilled the untouched drink as I stood up.

“No, don’t.” Thar stood up too. “I’d prefer it if you stayed close.”

He was killing me.

“Thar-”

“Tell me what happened.” He put his drink on the table. “Talk to me.”

“I-” I had no idea what to do with my hands, my body. “Everyone left. Amma, Morta. Everyone thought it was best to leave, and I’m not so sure that I made the right call-”

He was only half-listening to me. His gaze trailed up and down my body, stumbling over my eyes every now and then, making my breath hitch. His eyes looked lost, hazy. Actually-

“Thar, are you drunk?” I asked, my heartbeat quickening for different reasons.

He met my gaze, “What? No. I had- I only had a glass of wine.”

I put the glass on the table, then stepped away, “Look, I think I should go.”

He grabbed my arm. Then immediately let it go when our eyes locked. Electricity coursed through me at the slight touch, at the slight thought. The clock ticked 9:15PM. Forty-five minutes to go.

“Tell me what happened.” Thar’s lips parted, and he sighed the rest. “With... him.”

Nervousness flooded me completely. He was lying to me. He did not only have a glass of wine. No way.

I wanted to leave. I wanted to stay.

“We broke up.” I said, then corrected myself. “Or we’ve never been together. Either way, you were right. I- it was stupid. It was a stupid thing to do-”

“He’s just a boy, Jade.”

I looked up at him, my heart beating in my mouth.

I’m keeping my options open, he had said.

A trembling sigh left my lips, “I’m an idiot.”

“No, you’re not.” He put my hands on my shoulders and pulled me in for a hug. “You’re not.”

My eyes widened as he wrapped his hands around me. I gaped, all thoughts leaving my head.

No way.

No way.

My mind scrambled completely as my head fell on his chest. He smelled clean. He felt warm. His arms were strong and firm and tight around me, and I felt his palms flatten on my back. Adrenaline hit me, bursting through my veins to the point of nausea.

“You’re passionate.” Thar whispered in my hair, and I felt the warmth of his breath on my neck. “You’re strong.”

I heard his heartbeat through his shirt and wondered what would happen if I looked up. If I met his gaze. If we weren’t facing the other way.

“Thar-”

“And you’re beautiful.” He said, one hand remaining on my shoulder-blade, the other sliding to the small of my back.

My breathing turned short and shallow. There was no space in my lungs for air. No space in my head for thoughts. Every inch of my body burning, I unglued my head from his chest and dared to look up at him. The five o’clock shade covered his jaw, ending just above his neck. His black hair tickled the nape.

The hand on my shoulder-blade moved on up, his fingers tangling in my hair.

“Thar-” I tried to put some force into my voice, but it was still a whisper.

“It’s fine.” He whispered into my neck, lips grazing the skin.

My arms were still stuck under his, and I didn’t dare to put them around his neck. I didn’t dare to move. But I dared to press my lips into his neck, because it was just an inch away. Everything scrambled. Nothing existed in my head anymore. Just...

His lips moved up from my neck to my jaw and tension pulled at my skin.

“It’s fine.” He whispered again, lips reaching my cheek. “You’re with me. You’re safe.”

I leaned my head back and looked at him. The shadow fell over his face, but the desire sparked through it. I was in his arms. In his room. With his lips an inch from mine.

“Thar-”

He kissed me.

He grabbed my hair and tilted my head back, his mouth opening against mine, giving me just enough time to gasp before the kiss deepened, leaving me completely without air.

I pulled my arms from under his and put them around his neck.

He tasted like liquor. He smelled like aftershave. And he felt strong and firm standing next to me, his hand supporting me as my knees almost gave out.

There was something ravenous in the way he devoured my lips, tasting every inch of them, in the way his hand gripped my waist, fingers digging into me, wrinkling my shirt. I was lost. Gone.

His lips left mine and slid to my neck while his hands slid beneath my waist and grabbed my butt. I gasped, desire flowing through me with unbelievable ferocity, as if someone opened up a dam, unleashing impossible energy.

“It’s alright.” He grunted against my neck. “It’s alright as long as you’re with me.”

His words rendered me useless, and my hands just rested around his neck as he pulled my head up, his teeth scraping against the skin of my neck, raising my heartrate and sending my brain spiralling.

He took control over me. There was nothing I could do against the touch on my skin. Thar found my lips against and his fingers undid the buttons on my shirt clumsily. He would see my heartbeat through my skin. He would know I was nervous, and scared, and vulnerable.

This was happening.

I was about to sleep with a teacher.

I was about to sleep with another man in- in less than forty-eight hours.

How could I ever live up to Thar Adara?

Why the fuck would I think of that now? I owed Leon nothing. Nothing.

“Fuck.” Thar tore his lips off me, gaze falling to my unbuttoned shirt and his trembling fingers. “I want you so much-”

I cupped his face and kissed him again, ignoring the rampant thoughts invading my head, flickering like dying lights in the dark sky. Thar’s hands reached under my thighs and he lifted me off the floor, then carried me to the bed. I fell on my back, my entire body shaking. Thar kneeled beneath me, leaned over me and brushed my hair off my face.

“Hey.” He kissed me and opened up my shirt, revealing my black bra. “It’s alright.”

I nodded and he cupped my boob, his lips sliding to my neck, then to my cleavage. He leaned into me, his erection pressing against me.

And for some fucked up reason, I remembered Leon again.

It’s been less than forty-eight hours. And I dared to be hurt by him flirting with other girls.

Fuck. My thoughts became louder, pulling some of the blood back into my brain.

No. I couldn’t do this. I-

“Thar.” I said, voice stronger this time.

He kept kissing me, his hands roaming all over my body.

“Thar.” I put my hands on his shoulders and pushed him up. “Wait a second.”

Thoughts flooded my head; loud and obnoxious. Why now? Why-

Cum laude graduates didn’t sleep with students.

“Thar!” I put my elbows on the bed and pushed myself up, trying to wiggle out of his reach.

When he looked up at me, still kneeling on the bed, he looked like a beast unleashed. The ravenous, raw glint in his dark black eyes made my heart stop for a second. He was about to reach for me, when the dim lighting from the bed lamp finally shone into his eyes.

His eyes weren’t just dark. They were completely black. As in, his pupils were dilated.

I pulled away from him, “Stop! Stop now!”

For a second, clarity made his face pale, and his hands dropped by his sides.

“Jade?”

“It’s a lust charm!” I shouted and got off the bed, my back hitting the wall. “You’re drugged!”

Thar was still kneeling on the bed, his erection throbbing in his sweatpants. He looked like a fallen angel, dark and strong and beautiful, but also sinful.

“Jade.” His voice turned into a grunt when he faced me, and for a second, I truly thought he’d reach for me again, but he just looked at his own hands. “You have to help me-”

My glance flew to the clock, the realisation of what was going on hitting me stronger than a goddess-damned tsunami. Half past nine.

“You drank wine.” I realised. “My father- he knew- he tricked you. He did it-”

“Jade!” Thar shouted, and the veins in his arms strained. “The table. First drawer. Antidote. Purple.”

I pushed myself off the wall and rushed to the table.

“And button your fucking shirt!”

This wasn’t like the lust charm my friends used. The one we used you just had to smell. This was consumed through the stomach. His blood was full of it.

Using one hand to go through the drawer and the other to clumsily button my shirt, I managed both and threw one purple vial his way. A general antidote. Not the best, but still.

He unscrewed the lid and poured all of it into his mouth.

“I have to go.” I said, my limbs beginning to hurt from standing. “He’s- he’s planning something. I have to find my friends. Now.”

“Wait.” Thar got off the bed, and I took a step back.

“I have to.”

“Jade!” He shouted, voice stronger than I’ve ever heard, and it made me stop right in my tracks. “We didn’t remove the curse.”

My heart sank to the bottom of my gut.

“Because you spent the entire day in the meetings with my father.” I realised. “Talking about... nothing. You didn’t have enough time.”

Every muscle in Thar’s face strained, “He knows.”

“He knows.” I nodded, suddenly feeling lightheaded.

It felt almost like an epiphany. Like figuring out the answer to the last question on the test three minutes before the end of class. Then, figuring out five minutes later you were still going to fail.

“He didn’t want to evacuate the students.” I breathed. “He wanted to get them all in the same place. And he made sure the strongest black magic user in the school was otherwise occupied by casting a lust charm on you.”

Thar’s expression fell, shadows entering each crevice on his face.

“It’s a trap.” My hands shook. “He’s going to sacrifice them.”