㠀㠀㠀㠀㠀ⰠđŻđđđđđ đŸđđđđđđ â°
đ€ đđđŠđŻđŠđ«đ€: OT7 x fem!reader (whoever you fuck in each chapter will be a surprise. Why?Bcs I can and it's more fun that way hehe) đ€ đđąđ«đŻđą: reverse!harem, smut MDNI, fantasy, dark academia, serie đ€ đđ¶đ«đŹđđ°đŠđ°:  Youâre a student like any other, drowning in debt and hounded by loan sharks. You decide to use the last resort: ending your life. But before you have time to pull the trigger, a mysterious young man emerges from a portal and offers you another option: replace a deceased version of yourself in another world and kill the witch who murdered your doppelganger. With nothing left to lose, you accept and now find yourself leading a new life in a magical academy reserved for sinners. Youâll meet seven skilled sinners and become entangled in this intricate story and the mysteries surrounding your doppelgĂ€ngerâs death. đ€ đđđŻđ«đŠđ«đ€đ°: surnatural, unprotected!sex, spooning, oral (both!rec), handjob, swearing, 69, fingering, alcohol, death, suicide, violence đ€ đâ: 20.3k đ€ đđŹđ±đą: It's finally here!!!! I will try to post a chapter every week!!! Taglist is open!!! (look closely you might find something interesting while reading hehe)
㠀㠀㠀㠀㠀㠀⊠đźđđđđđđ 1 âŠ
You are going to die.
This is not a dramatic statement. This is simply the truth, the same way the sky is blue or the rent is due or the loan sharks have been calling your phone every hour for the past three weeks. You are twenty-one years old, you are drowning in debt you will never repay, and you are sitting on the edge of your bathtub with a gun in your lap that cost you the last of your cash and most of your dignity.
The bathroom light flickers. It's been doing that for months. You never fixed it. Why would you? You weren't planning to be here long enough for it to matter.
Your phone buzzes on the sink. Another text from a number you've memorized but never saved.
"We know you're home. Pay what you owe or we take fingers this time."
You turn the phone facedown. Your fingers ache. Two of them healed crooked from the last warning.
You press the barrel to your temple. The metal is cold. You didn't expect it to be cold. You expected it to feel like nothing, the way everything else has felt like nothing for months now.
Your finger finds the trigger. You close your eyes.
You think: I'm sorry.
You think: I don't even know who I'm apologizing to.
You pull the trigger. And everything stops. Not in the way you expected. Not the white light or the rushing tunnel or the life flashing before your eyes. No. The world simply... pauses. The flickering bathroom light freezes mid-flicker, stuck between on and off, casting the room in a strange half-glow. The drip from the leaky faucet hangs suspended. And the gun doesn't fire.
You pull the trigger again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. You pull it three more times in rapid succession, your breath coming faster now, panic replacing resignation, because you can't even do this right, you can't even die properly-
"That's really not going to work."
The voice comes from somewhere to your left. Somewhere that should not contain a voice, because your bathroom is approximately the size of a broom closet and you are very definitely alone in it. Or you were. You should be.
You turn your head slowly, the gun still pressed to your temple, and find yourself staring at a tear in reality. That's the only way to describe it. The air beside your shower has split open, and through the gap spills light that is somehow both gold and pink at the same time, and standing in the middle of this impossibility is a young man who looks approximately your age and approximately like he's never had a bad day in his entire life.
He's wearing what appears to be some kind of uniform, dark fabric, sharp lines, an emblem you don't recognize embroidered on the collar, but he's wearing it wrong, top button undone, sleeves rolled to his elbows and tie hanging loose.
He smiles at you. It's the kind of smile that knows exactly how charming it is. "Hi," he says. "You're not hallucinating."
"I'm definitely hallucinating," you say. Your voice comes out hoarse. When was the last time you spoke to another person? Two days? Three? "This is a hallucination. I'm having a mental break. That's fine. That tracks."
The young man steps out of the tear in reality and into your bathroom. The portal doesn't close behind him. It just hovers there. "You're not hallucinating," he repeats. He reaches out and plucks the gun from your hands. "This is real. I'm real. The portal is real. And you're not dead, which I feel like we should focus on right now."
You stare at him. You stare at the portal. You stare at your empty hands, which are trembling. "I pulled the trigger," you say.
"You did."
"It didn't work."
"I stopped it."
"You stopped it."
"Time, mostly. Just this room. Just for a minute." He says this like it's a minor inconvenience, like he's explaining how he fixed a leaky faucet. "The bullet will resume its trajectory if I let go, so I'd appreciate it if you'd step away from the line of fire before I do."
You look down. There is a bullet hanging in the air six inches from your head. Frozen. Motionless You slide off the bathtub edge and press yourself against the opposite wall. Your legs don't feel like legs. The young man waves his hand. The bullet drops to the floor with a small tink. Time resumes. The light flickers properly. The faucet drips. The tear in reality stays exactly where it is.
"There," he says pleasantly. "Crisis averted. You're welcome, by the way."
"Who," you manage, "the hell are you?"
He places a hand over his heart, mock-offended. "I'm hurt. I go through all this effort to save your life and that's the tone you take?" Then he drops the act and grins. "My name is Sunoo. You're Y/N. Well, you're a Y/N. One of them. There are more than you'd think, actually. Infinite universes, infinite variations. Most of you are very boring, but you-" He points at you. "You're interesting."
You slide down the wall until you're sitting on the bathroom floor. "I don't understand anything you're saying," you tell him.
"That's fair." Sunoo crouches down to your level. He's still smiling, but something in his expression shifts. Softens. It's almost convincing. "Let me start over. You were about to do something permanent. I'm here to offer you an alternative."
"What kind of alternative?"
"The kind where you don't die and instead get a new life, a new identity, and a purpose." He tilts his head. "Also there's magic. And an academy. And you might have to kill someone. But we can get to that part later."
You stare at him. The gun is on the floor between you. Neither of you reaches for it. "Magic," you repeat.
"Magic."
"Academy."
"Academy."
"Killing someone."
"Allegedly. It's more of a long-term goal than an immediate requirement."
You press the heels of your palms against your eyes. When you open them, he's still there. The portal is still there. The bullet is still on the floor. You are still alive, which was not the plan five minutes ago. "Okay," you say, because what else do you say to the impossible when it shows up in your bathroom? "Explain."
Sunoo explains. He explains it slowly, patiently, like he's talking to a child or a particularly skittish animal. There is a world called Emperion. It runs on magic drawn from sin, anger, greed, pride, all the worst parts of human nature, harvested and weaponized. In this world, there was another version of you. A wealthy, powerful, deeply unpleasant version of you who attended an elite magical academy and made a lot of enemies and one very bad decision.
"She made a deal with something she shouldn't have," Sunoo says. "A deity outside the sanctioned seven. Tristitia. The Sorrow. It gave her power, and then it took her life. Or rather, a witch took her life. Working for Tristitia. The details are messy."
"Messy how?"
"Messy in the sense that I don't fully know them." He says this lightly, but his eyes flick away for just a moment. "I was there when she died. It happened fast. One moment she was casting, the next she was-" He makes a vague gesture. "Not casting. Very permanently not casting."
You're still on the floor. Your legs have gone numb. "And you want me to replace her."
"I want you to be her. There's a difference." He stands up and offers you his hand. "She's dead. No one knows except me. If you take her place, you get her life, her room, her status, her spot at the Academy. All you have to do is pretend to be her and help me find the witch who killed her."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why do you care who killed her?"
Something flickers across Sunoo's face. It might be grief. It might be guilt. It might be neither. With him, it's hard to tell.
"She was my best friend," he says. "Is that enough of a reason?"
You don't know if you believe him. But you also don't know if it matters. You're sitting on a bathroom floor with a bullet on the tiles and a portal to another universe hovering beside your shower. Your options are limited. They've been limited for a long time.
"What if I say no?"
Sunoo shrugs. "Then I leave. Time resumes its normal flow. The bullet stays on the floor. You're back exactly where you started, with exactly the same options you had before I arrived." He pauses. "I won't stop you a second time, if that's what you're asking. I'm offering you a choice, not a prison sentence."
You look at the gun. You look at the portal. You think about the loan sharks and the hospital bills and the two crooked fingers that ache every time you try to move them. You think about the silence that has followed you since you were fifteen years old, since your parents died and left you with nothing but a cramped apartment and a stack of unpaid bills and the slow realization that no one was coming to save you.
But someone did come, didn't they? Someone just walked through a hole in reality and offered you an escape. Not a savior. A deal. "Is it dangerous?" you ask.
"Extremely."
"Am I going to die?"
"Possibly. But not tonight. Tonight you'll be safe."
You take his hand. His palm is warm. You didn't expect that. "Okay," you say. "I'm in."
Sunoo's smile returns, brighter this time. "Wonderful. Now for the unpleasant part."
"The unpleasant part?"
"The switch."
He doesn't explain what "the switch" means. He just raises his hand and makes a gesture like he's turning a page in a book, and suddenly there's a body on your bathroom floor.
Not just any body. Your body.
It's you. The other you. The dead one. She's wearing the same uniform as Sunoo, dark fabric and sharp lines and an emblem on the collar. Her hair is the same as yours. Her face is the same as yours. But she's paler, and her lips are slightly blue, and she's very, very dead.
You stumble backward. Your hip bangs against the sink. "What the fuck."
"Language."
"What the actualâŠwhy is there aâŠwhere did you-"
"I retrieved her from where I've been keeping her preserved. Temporal stasis. Very useful." Sunoo says this like he's discussing meal prep. "She needs to be found here. In your world. If she just disappears from Emperion, people will ask questions. So we're leaving her body in your apartment, staged to look like she's you, and then you're coming with me."
"You want me to just-" You gesture wildly at the corpse. "Leave a dead body in my apartment?"
"It's not your apartment anymore. You're not coming back." Sunoo is already crouching beside the body, adjusting her position with unsettling gentleness. "She'll be found. She'll be identified as you. Your debts will die with her. Your loan sharks will move on. You, meanwhile, will be in another world entirely, attending a prestigious academy and sleeping in a much nicer bed."
You want to argue. You want to point out all the ways this is insane. But you find yourself watching his hands as he aRranges the other you's hair, and you can't stop thinking about how strange it is to see yourself from the outside. She looks peaceful. You've never looked peaceful. You've always looked tired.
"Did she suffer?" you ask quietly.
Sunoo's hands pause. "No," he says. "It was very fast."
You don't know if he's lying. You decide it doesn't matter. "Okay," you say. "Let's do this before I change my mind."
Sunoo stands and offers you his hand again. "Hold on tight. First-time travel can be disorienting."
You take his hand. His fingers close around yours. The portal pulses once, twice, and then the world dissolves.
Teleportation, as it turns out, feels like being turned inside out and then right-side in again, but very quickly, and with a lot more colors than you've ever seen before. Your stomach lurches. Your vision whites out. For a single, horrible moment, you feel like you're falling in every direction at once.
Then your feet hit solid ground, and you're somewhere else entirely.
You stumble, and Sunoo catches your elbow. "Easy. It passes."
You want to tell him you're fine, but you're too busy staring at everything. You're standing in what appears to be a dormitory hallway, but it's like no dormitory you've ever seen. And the window at the end of the hallway shows a sky that is definitely, absolutely, not the sky you grew up under. It's purple. Deep purple, scattered with more stars than you've ever seen. And the moon-
"There are two moons," you say. Your voice comes out faint.
"Yes," Sunoo says. "Selene and Noctis. The sisters. They've been chasing each other across the sky for ten thousand years."
"Chasing each other?"
"It's a myth. I'll tell you later." He's already steering you down the hallway. "Keep your voice down. Most students are asleep, but some of them have very good hearing."
"What species has very good hearing?"
"Werewolves, mostly. Vampires. Shapeshifters in bat form. The occasional paranoid elf." He counts them off on his fingers. "Oh, and the Hypogean, but they don't sleep, so they don't count."
You have no idea what a Hypogean is. You're not sure you want to know. You let him guide you down the hallway, past identical doors with nameplates you can't read. "Is the whole world like this?" you ask.
"Nocthaven is special. It's the only territory under perpetual night. The rest of Emperion has a normal day-night cycle." Sunoo pauses in front of a door. "This is mine."
The nameplate reads: Kim Sunoo - Goat Hall. The emblem beside it is a goat with curling horns.
"Goat Hall," you read aloud.
"It's the Lust dormitory."
You stare at him.
"I'm an incubus," he adds, as if this explains everything. Which, given the context, it sort of does.
"Of course you are," you mutter.
Sunoo grins and pushes the door open. "Come in. We have a lot to cover and not much time before morning."
His room is exactly what you would expect from someone who introduced themselves by stopping time and stealing a corpse. It's large, larger than your entire apartment, with silk sheets on the bed, candles that light themselves as you enter, and a balcony that overlooks the Academy grounds. You stand in the center of the room, not sure where to put yourself. Sunoo gestures at a velvet armchair.
"Sit. You look like you're about to collapse."
You sit. The chair is too comfortable. You hate it a little. "The other me," you say. "The dead one. Tell me about her."
Sunoo settles onto the edge of his bed, crossing one leg over the other. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything. If I'm going to pretend to be her, I need to know everything."
"She's human," he begins. "That's important. Most of the elite students at the Academy are something more, vampires, demons, elves. She was fully mortal, which made her talent even more impressive. Or infuriating, depending on who you ask."
"What was she like?"
Sunoo considers this. "Cold. Confident. Kind of a bitch if you ask me. She was the top of our class without seeming to try. People admired her or hated her. There wasn't much middle ground."
"That's not very helpful. What did she like? What did she do? How did she treat people?"
"She treated people like furniture," Sunoo says frankly. "She was not a nice person, Y/N. I know it's weird to speak ill of the dead, but you should know what you're stepping into. She was my best friend, and I loved her, and she was also a nightmare."
This is not comforting. "Great. So I'm replacing a nightmare."
"You're replacing a nightmare and you need to convince everyone you're still her. Which means you need to be cold and confident and kind of mean, at least at first." He tilts his head, studying you. "Can you do that?"
You think about the loan sharks. You think about the way you learned to make yourself small, to avoid eye contact, to apologize for things that weren't your fault. The opposite of cold and confident. The opposite of mean. "I don't know," you admit.
"You'll learn." He says it like it's a guarantee. "Now. Magic."
"Magic."
"The old Y/N had no defined sin affinity."
You frown. "What does that mean?"
"Most sinners have a natural pull toward one of the seven sin categories by the time they reach adolescence. It's like-" He pauses, searching for his words. "It's like a calling. A resonance. You feel drawn to a particular type of magic the way some people feel drawn to music or art. The old Y/N never felt that pull. She was completely neutral. It's rare. It's also why she was so powerful. She could theoretically access any of the seven."
"But she couldn't?"
"She was still waiting for her affinity to manifest. Most students have theirs by sixteen at the latest. She was twenty. It was a point of... frustration for her. One of the reasons she made that deal with Tristitia." Sunoo's expression darkens briefly. "She was tired of waiting."
You digest this. "So I'm supposed to have no magic?"
"For now. But here's the thing." He leans forward. "You're not her. You're from another universe. Your soul is different. Exposure to Emperion might trigger an affinity in you that she never had. Or it might not. We won't know until we know."
"How do we find out?"
"We wait. You should feel it eventually, if it's going to happen. A pull. A resonance. Something that feels like-" He gestures vaguely. "Like coming home."
You sit in the too-comfortable chair and try to feel something. Anything. A pull, a resonance, a sense of coming home. You close your eyes and reach out with whatever internal sense you're supposed to have.
Nothing.
Just the vague nausea of teleportation and the lingering shock of not being dead. "I don't feel anything," you say.
Sunoo's brow furrows. "Nothing at all?"
"Nothing."
"That's..." He trails off. "Weird. Usually Dimensionals start feeling the resonance within hours of arrival. Your soul should be reacting to the ambient sin energy by now."
"Is that bad?"
"I don't know." He doesn't sound happy about this. "It might mean your affinity will take longer to develop. It might mean you don't have one at all. It might mean something else entirely." He waves a hand. "We'll figure it out. For now, the important thing is that no one finds out you're not her."
"How do I explain not knowing things I should know?"
"Head injury." Sunoo says it immediately, like he's already thought this through. "The mission where she diedâŠwhere she was supposed to have died involved a confrontation with a witch. We'll say she took a magical blow to the head. It affected her memory. It's not uncommon. Sloppy spellwork can scramble things. People will believe it because they'll want to believe it. No one likes the alternative explanation."
"The alternative explanation being that I'm an imposter from another dimension?"
"Exactly. Which you can never, ever tell anyone." His voice loses its playful tone. He is suddenly, startlingly serious. "Dimensional travelers are rare, Y/N. They're studied. Dissected. The Academy would love to get their hands on someone from a non-magical universe. You'd spend the rest of your life in a research cell. Do you understand?"
You swallow. "I understand."
"Good." The playfulness returns, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. "I'll tell you everything else you need to know step by step. There's no point overwhelming you tonight. Tomorrow, we'll start with the basics. The Academy layout. The other students. The professors. What classes you're supposed to be taking." He stands up. "For now, you should sleep."
"Here?"
"Where else?"
"In your room?"
"It's fine. The old Y/N stayed over all the time." He says this casually, already moving toward his closet. "We had an arrangement."
You feel your face do something complicated. "An arrangement."
"Mutually beneficial." He pulls out a spare blanket and tosses it to you. "We slept together. It wasn't romantic. Don't look at me like that."
"I'm not looking at you like anything."
"You're looking at me like I just confessed to murder."
"You did confess to stealing a corpse!"
"That was retrieval. Very different." He drapes himself across his bed. "Look, the old Y/N and I were close. We were friends. We were also both attractive and bored and neither of us had any interest in emotional attachment. It worked for us. If people think we're still doing that, it gives you an excuse to spend time with me. And you need to spend time with me, because I'm the only one who knows your secret."
This is, unfortunately, logical. You hate it. "Fine," you say. "But I'm sleeping in the chair."
"Suit yourself. The bed is big enough for two."
"I'm sleeping in the chair."
"Your loss."
You wrap the blanket around yourself and curl up in the velvet armchair. "Weird," you whisper to yourself. "Everything is so weird."
Sunoo has already closed his eyes. His breathing is slow and even. You don't know if he's actually asleep or just pretending. With him, it's impossible to tell.
You don't sleep. You can't. Every time you close your eyes, you see the other you's face, pale and peaceful on your bathroom floor. You see the bullet hanging in the air. You see the portal. You hear Sunoo's voice: She was not a nice person. She was my best friend, and she was also a nightmare.
You think about the fact that you are, technically, dead. Y/N died tonight in a cramped bathroom.
But eventually, despite everything, your body gives up. Your eyes grow heavy. And you dream. You are in a garden.
Not the Academy grounds. Something else. Somewhere else. The garden is vast and formal. Roses climb trellises made of bone-white wood. The flowers are red. So red they're almost black. The sky above you is neither purple nor blue. It's gray. Featureless.
You walk down a path of crushed white stone. The roses watch you. You can't explain how you know they're watching, but they are. Their petals turn to follow your movement. The path ends at a fountain. The water in the fountain is black. Not dirty. Just black, like ink, like oil. It reflects nothing.
"Do you like my garden?"
The voice comes from everywhere and nowhere. It is not a voice so much as the memory of a voice, the impression of sound pressed directly into your mind. It is cold. It is very, very interested in you. You turn. There is nothing behind you. There is nothing anywhere, except the roses and the fountain and the gray sky.
"I asked you a question."
"I-" Your voice echoes strangely. "Who are you?"
A pause. The roses rustle, though there is no wind. "Disappointing," the voice says. "You're not her. You're wearing her shape, but you're not her. The contract was with her. Not you."
"Contract?"
"The Sorrow remembers its own. You are not its own." A sigh, like stone grinding against stone. "I will have to start over. How inconvenient."
The roses burst into flame. Not real flame, black fire that consumes without heat. The petals curl and blacken. The bone-white trellises crack. The crushed stone path turns to ash beneath your feet. The fountain boils, and the black water rises, and the voice speaks one last time:
"Find me anyway. Perhaps you'll be more useful than she was."
You wake up. You're still in the chair. The blanket is tangled around your legs. The candles in Sunoo's room have burned down to stubs. Outside, the purple sky has lightened slightly, taking on a grayish tinge. Dawn, or whatever passes for dawn in a land without sun.
Sunoo is sitting up in bed, watching you. His expression is unreadable. "You were talking in your sleep," he says.
You press a hand to your chest. Your heart is pounding. "I had a dream. There was a garden. Roses. A voice."
"A voice."
"It said I wasn't the real contractor. It said-" You struggle to remember the exact words. "The Sorrow remembers its own. I am not its own."
Sunoo goes very still. "That's Tristitia," he says quietly. "That's the deity she made the deal with. It spoke to you."
"It wasn't happy."
"No. It wouldn't be." He swings his legs over the side of the bed, suddenly all business. "This complicates things."
"What things?"
"Everything." He stands up and crosses to the window, looking out at the impossible sky. "Tristitia doesn't let go of contracts easily. If it knows you're not her, it might come looking for answers. Or payment. Or just to express its displeasure."
"Can it hurt me?"
"I don't know. Probably. Eventually." He turns back to you, and his smile is back. "But that's a problem for later. Right now, we have a more immediate concern."
"What?"
"Breakfast." He tosses you a folded uniform from his closet. It's identical to the one he's wearing. "Put this on. You have a reputation to maintain, and mean girls don't skip meals."
You catch the uniform. It's heavier than it looks. You stare down at the emblem on the collar, the crest you don't recognize, the colors you've never worn.
Somewhere in the back of your mind, you can still smell the burning roses. Find me anyway, the voice said. Perhaps you'll be more useful than she was. You don't know what that means. You don't know what any of this means. But you're here now, in a world with two moons and purple skies and seven kinds of sin magic, wearing a dead girl's clothes and carrying a dead girl's secrets.
And breakfast, apparently, waits for no one. "Alright," you say. "Let's go."
Sunoo grins. "That's the spirit."
You're not sure it is. But it's the only spirit you've got.
The uniform fits perfectly. This is unsettling for several reasons. First, because it means the dead girl really was identical to you in every physical way, down to the exact measurements of your shoulders and the precise length of your legs. Second, because the uniform itself is clearly expensive in a way you've never experienced, the fabric is soft and heavy and probably costs more than your monthly rent. Third, and most disturbing, because when you look at yourself in Sunoo's full-length mirror, you don't see yourself at all.
You see her.
The old Y/N stares back at you with your eyes. She wears the dark uniform with casual elegance, the emblem on her collar catching the candlelight. Her hair falls exactly the way yours does, but somehow it looks intentional on her. Like she woke up this morning and decided to be beautiful, and her body simply obeyed.
You lean closer to the mirror. Your reflection leans closer too. You try to find something in her expression that looks like you, the girl who worked double shifts at a convenience store, the girl who ate instant noodles for dinner six nights a week, the girl who sat on a bathtub with a gun in her lap and didn't die.
She's not there. Or maybe you're not here. Maybe you're both somewhere in between.
"You're making a weird face," Sunoo says from behind you.
"I'm practicing my mean face."
"That's your constipated face. Very different."
You turn away from the mirror. Sunoo is already dressed, which seems unfair given that you didn't see him change. He's leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, watching you with an expression that might be amusement or might be assessment.
"How do I look?" you ask.
"Like her." He says it simply, without flattery or comfort. "Your posture is wrong, though. She stood straight and confident. You stand like you're apologizing for taking up space."
"Sorry."
"Don't apologize. That's exactly what I mean."
You straighten your spine. Pull your shoulders back. Lift your chin. It feels ridiculous. It feels like wearing someone else's bones.
"Better," Sunoo says. "Still not right. But better. We'll work on it."
"Can we just go to breakfast? I'm starving."
"Just remember-" He opens the door and gestures for you to follow. "You're not the new girl. You're the old girl. You've been here for years. You own this place. Everyone else is beneath you."
"I thought you said she was a nightmare."
"She was. But she was their nightmare. They respected her for it." He flashes you a grin over his shoulder. "Fear and respect are the same thing in this academy. Remember that."
You follow him into the hallway. A group of students passes you in the hallway. They're younger than you, first or second years, probably, and the moment they see your face, something changes in their expressions. Eyes widen. Postures straighten. One of them actually stops mid-sentence, her mouth hanging open slightly.
"Morning," you say, because you don't know what else to say.
The students exchange glances. One of them, a girl with pointed ears and silver hair, clearly an elf manages a nervous nod.
"Good morning, Lady Y/N," she says. Her voice is slightly shaky. "We heard you were injured on your last mission. We're glad to see you recovered."
Lady Y/N. You have a title. Of course you have a title.
"It was nothing," you say, channeling every mean girl you've ever seen in a movie. You let your voice go flat. Dismissive. "A scratch."
The students don't question this. They just nod rapidly and hurry past, their whispers trailing behind them like smoke. You keep walking. Your heart is pounding so hard you can feel it in your teeth.
"That was good," Sunoo murmurs. "The it was nothing was a nice touch. Very her."
"Who calls someone 'Lady'?"
"You do. Well, you don't. But people call you that. Your family is nobility. Old blood. Lots of money. I probably should have mentioned that earlier."
"You think?"
"Shh. More students."
Another group rounds the corner. These ones are older, your age, maybe, or close to it. Their reactions are more subtle but no less noticeable. Conversations pause. Eyes track your movement. One boy with dark hair and distinctly wolfish features actually flattens himself against the wall to let you pass.
You don't know whether to be flattered or horrified. "Do they always do this?" you whisper.
"Always. She was the top of the food chain. Everyone else is just trying not to get eaten."
"Great. No pressure."
You reach the end of the hallway and descend a spiral staircase that seems to go on forever.
The dining hall is at the bottom of the stairs. It's massive, far larger than you expected, with vaulted ceilings supported by pillars carved to look like the seven animals of the sins. A peacock pillar. A lion pillar. A pig, a toad, a goat, a snake, and a snail, all rendered in dark wood that gleams in the candlelight.
The tables are arranged by dorm affiliation. You can tell by the banners hanging above each section: the peacock for Pride, the lion for Wrath, the pig for Gluttony. Students cluster together in their respective groups, and the room hums with the low murmur of conversation and the clink of silverware.
Sunoo guides you toward the Goat section with a hand on your lower back. His touch is light, familiar. You realize with a start that he's performing, that this is what the old Y/N and Sunoo looked like together. Intimate. Comfortable. Two people who shared more than friendship.
You try not to stiffen under his hand. "Relax," he breathes. "You're doing fine."
"I haven't done anything yet."
"Exactly. Keep doing nothing. Nothing is very in-character for her."
The Goat table is populated by students who all share Sunoo's particular brand of effortless beauty. Incubi and succubi, mostly, though you spot a few humans and what might be a siren based on the faint iridescence of her skin. They greet Sunoo with casual waves and lazy smiles. They greet you with something closer to wariness.
Sunoo steers you to a seat at the end of the table, slightly apart from the others. A plate of food materializes in front of you the moment you sit down. You stare at it.
The food is... not what you expected.
The main dish appears to be some kind of meat, but it's faintly blue and glistening. The side dishes include something that looks like purple mashed potatoes studded with silver seeds, and a bread roll that appears to be steaming, except the steam is going downward instead of up. The drink in your goblet is clear, but when you tilt it, the liquid moves in slow motion.
"This is breakfast?" you ask.
"Welcome to Emperion cuisine," Sunoo says cheerfully. "The blue thing is moonhare. It's a delicacy. The purple mash is starroot. The bread isâŠwell, it's bread. Mostly. And the drink is crystallized dawn mist. Very refreshing."
"Refreshing."
"Try it."
You pick up your fork. The moonhare quivers slightly. You cut a small piece and lift it to your mouth. It tastes like someone liquefied a dream and then added salt. You swallow convulsively. Your throat tries to reject it. You manage to keep It down through the knowledge that vomiting at breakfast would probably not be in-character for the old Y/N.
"Good?" Sunoo asks innocently.
"Delicious," you manage. Your voice comes out strangled.
"You're a terrible liar."
"I know. I'm working on it."
You push the moonhare around your plate and focus on the bread instead. The bread, at least, tastes like bread. Normal bread. You tear off pieces and chew slowly while Sunoo launches into what you quickly realize is a prepared lecture.
"The Academy operates on a term system," he says, his voice low enough that the other students can't hear. "Eight terms per year. Each term is four weeks. You've already completed six terms of your third year, which means you have two terms left before the final assessments."
"What are the final assessments?"
"Combat trials. Academic examinations. And the Selection." He pauses. "The Selection is the most important part. It's when the Imperial Division chooses the next seven Deadly Sins. Youâre possibly one of the seven."
"One of the seven."
"Obviously. You're one of the strongest sinners in the Academy." He says this matter-of-factly. "Or you were. Before you died. But I donât think the old Y/N would have go for the Imperial Division, thatâs not her style at all."
"Great. No pressure. Again."
"Your schedule is as follows: Sin Theory in the morning, taught by Professor Vex. She's a demon. Don't make eye contact for too long. Then Combat Training with Professor Thornwood, he's a Graveborn, very stern, hates tardiness. Then Basic Hexes and Curses after lunch, which is taught by Professor Willowisp. She's an elf, she's been alive for nine hundred years, and she will know if you haven't done the reading."
"I can't do any of those things."
"You can't do them yet. That's what the extra lessons are for." He spears a piece of moonhare and eats it without flinching. "After classes, I'll teach you the basics. What you should already know. We'll start with magical theory and work our way up to practical application."
"And if I can't learn?"
"Then we're both in trouble." He says it lightly, but his eyes are serious. "This isn't a game, Y/N. If people find out you're not her, it's not just embarrassment. It's dangerous. For both of us."
"I know."
"Do you? Because you keep making jokes."
"I make jokes when I'm terrified. It's a coping mechanism."
Sunoo studies you for a moment. Then his expression softens, just slightly. "Fair enough. Just be careful. Not everyone here is as forgiving as me."
"Are you forgiving?"
"No," he admits. "But I'm on your side. That's almost the same thing."
You're not sure it is. But before you can argue, a voice cuts across the dining hall.
"Y/N!"
The voice is loud and warm. You turn toward it and see a young man weaving through the tables toward you. He's mortal. You can tell immediately, though you're not sure how, something about the way he moves, the way his eyes are just eyes. He has brown hair that flops across his forehead and a smile that takes up his entire face and arms that are already reaching for you before he's even close enough to touch.
"Y/N! You're back! I heard you got hurt and I was so worried and Sunoo wouldn't tell me anything and I thought-" He reaches your table and pulls you into a hug without breaking stride. "I'm so glad you're okay!"
You go rigid. His arms are around you, warm and solid and completely unexpected. He smells like something sweet, honey, maybe, or vanilla. You have no idea who he is. Your arms stay at your sides. Your spine locks up. Your brain, which has been handling the morning's challenges with surprising competence, decides to shut down. You stand there, frozen, while a stranger hugs you like you're his favorite person in the world.
"Um," you say.
The young man pulls back. His smile flickers. "Y/N? Are you okay?"
Say something. Do something. Be mean. Be cold. That's what she would do.
"I'm fine," you manage. "Just tired."
He doesn't look convinced. "Are you sure? You seem..."
"She's recovering," Sunoo cuts in smoothly. He's suddenly at your side, his hand on your elbow. "Magical injury. It's affected her memory a bit. She's still getting her bearings."
"Memory?" The young man's expression shifts to concern. "How bad is it?"
"Nothing permanent. Just some gaps. She'll be fine in a few days." Sunoo's voice is perfectly casual. "Right, Y/N?"
"Right," you echo. "Gaps. Temporary. No big deal."
The young man looks between you and Sunoo. His brow furrows. "You're being weird. Both of you."
"We're always weird," Sunoo says. "Jake, don't you have somewhere to be? Don't you haveâŠwhat is it you doâŠeating? Don't you have eating to do?"
Jake. His name is Jake. You file this away frantically.
"I was eating. Then I saw Y/N and came over to say hi." Jake crosses his arms. "Is that a crime now?"
"Technically, yes. New Academy rule. No saying hi to Y/N without written permission."
"There's no such rule."
"I'm proposing it. I have connections."
While they bicker, you study Jake. He's wearing the emblem of the pig on his collar, Gluttony, the Gula dorm. He's mortal, which is rare among the elite students. And he knows you. He knows you well enough to hug you in public, well enough to notice when you're acting strange, well enough to look at you with those worried eyes and make you feel like the worst person in the world for deceiving him.
"We should get to class," Sunoo says abruptly. "Jake, we'll catch up later. Y/N needs to-"
"Wait." Jake reaches out and touches your arm. His hand is warm. "Y/N. If something's wrong, you can tell me. You know that, right? We've known each other since we were kids. You can always tell me."
Childhood friends. This man was the old Y/N's childhood friend. "I know," you say quietly. "Thank you, Jake."
His smile returns, smaller this time but real. "Okay. Good. Come find me later? I missed you."
"I will."
He squeezes your arm once and then heads back to his table, where a plate piled high with food waits for him. You watch him go and feel like the worst kind of fraud.
"Come on," Sunoo murmurs. "Before anyone else decides to check on you."
He pulls you out of the dining hall and into a side corridor. The moment you're out of sight of the other students, you slump against the wall and press your hands to your face.
"That was awful."
"That was fine."
"He knew something was wrong. He could tell."
"Jake always knows. He's perceptive in ways people don't expect." Sunoo's voice is thoughtful. "But he doesn't know what he's perceiving. He just knows something's different. We can work with that."
"Who is he?"
"Jake. Gluttony. Pig dorm. Your oldest friend." Sunoo leans against the wall beside you. "Your families were neighbors when you were children. He's known you since before you got into the Academy."
"Great. So he knows the real me better than anyone."
"He knew the real her. Not the real you." Sunoo tilts his head. "That's an important distinction. The girl he grew up with was already on her way to becoming the nightmare. You're not her. You're something else entirely."
"A worse liar."
"True. But maybe a better person." He pushes off the wall. "Come on. We have time before your first class. I should show you around."
"Wasn't my first class like twenty minutes ago?"
"I told Professor Vex you were still recovering. She was... understanding."
"Understanding? You said she was a demon."
"She is. Demons understand injury. They also understand the importance of appearing strong. She agreed that you shouldn't return to class until you can make a proper entrance." He grins. "See? I'm good at this."
You're not sure if "good at this" means good at lying or good at manipulating demons, but either way, you're grateful. You push yourself off the wall and follow him back into the main corridor.
The Academy tour takes the better part of an hour.
Sunoo shows you everything. The Verity Palace, where most academic classes are held, The Stellar Chamber, an observatory whose ceiling shows a real-time map of the night sky, The library, a multi-story cathedral of books where the shelves rearrange themselves when you're not looking and certain texts are chained to their pedestals with chains that glow faintly red.
"The restricted section is through there," Sunoo says, pointing to an iron gate at the back of the library. "Don't go in without permission. The books bite."
"The books."
"Some of them. Others just scream. It's very distracting."
You file this under "things I wish I'd known before signing up" and keep walking.
The greenhouse is next. It's a massive glass dome filled with plants that move. Some of them turn toward you as you pass, their leaves rustling like whispers. One vine reaches out and tries to grab Sunoo's ankle; he steps over it without breaking stride.
"The Venomous Kiss," he says, gesturing at a flower with petals the color of dried blood. "Beautiful but fatal. Students use it in potions. Carefully."
"What happens if you're not careful?"
"Then you don't make it to graduation."
The tour continues. The Nocturna Dorms, seven buildings arranged in a semicircle around a central courtyard where a fountain sprays water that glows faintly silver. The medical wing, where a harried-looking healer is treating a student whose arm appears to have been temporarily turned into glass. The administrative offices and then the arena.
It's a massive stone amphitheater, open to the purple sky, with tiered seating that could hold the entire student body. The floor is sand, but it's not normal sand, it's darker than it should be, and it shifts occasionally, as if something beneath it is breathing.
And in the center of the arena, a young man is training.
He's tall. Pale. His hair is black as ink and his face is the kind of beautiful that makes your brain skip a beat. He's wearing training clothes instead of the uniform, simple black fabric that clings to his shoulders and arms in ways that seem specifically designed to make thinking difficult. He's holding a sword that appears to be made of crystallized shadow, and he's moving through forms with a precision that is almost hypnotic.
Around the edges of the arena, students have gathered to watch. They're not subtle about it. They're staring openly, whispering to each other, pointing. A few of them are fanning themselves.
"Who is that?" you ask.
"That," Sunoo says, his voice carrying a note of warning, "is Sunghoon. Avaritia. Greed. Your ex-fiancé."
"My what!?"
"Ex-fiancé. You broke up with him last year. Well, the old you did. She said he was boring." Sunoo's tone is carefully neutral. "He's been trying to win her back ever since."
You stare at the young man in the arena. He finishes a particularly complicated sequence, the shadow-sword cutting through the air and pauses. His chest is rising and falling with exertion. His dark hair is slightly mussed. There's a sheen of sweat on his forehead that catches the light from the purple sky and makes him look like a painting come to life.
"Boring," you repeat.
"Her words, not mine."
"She called that boring?"
"Are you okay? You look a little flushed."
"I'm fine. I'm totally fine. I'm just processing the fact that I apparently broke off an engagement with someone who looks like he was carved out of moonlight by a team of very dedicated artists."
Sunoo makes a face. "Please don't romanticize him. It's bad enough that he's been pining for a year. If you start encouraging him-"
In the arena, Sunghoon looks up. His eyes find you instantly, as if he knew exactly where you were standing. As if he always knows where you are. His expression shifts, and a smirk spreads across his face, slow and confident and deeply irritating.
He raises his hand in a wave. And you, operating on pure instinct, raise your hand back. It's small and shy and accompanied by a smile that you didn't give permission to appear.
Sunghoon's smirk falters. His hand freezes mid-wave. His pale cheeks flush slightly, barely noticeable, but you catch it. His eyes widen just a fraction. He looks, for a single moment, completely thrown off balance. Then he recovers, his smirk returning, but it's different now. Softer. Almost uncertain.
You realize what you've done. "Oh no," you whisper.
"Yeah," Sunoo says. He grabs your arm and starts dragging you away from the arena. "Oh no is right."
He pulls you around a corner and into an empty corridor. The moment you're out of sight, he rounds on you with an expression somewhere between exasperation and horror. "What was that?"
"I waved!"
"You waved. You did not just wave. You did a whole thing. You did a shy little wave with a shy little smile and he blushed, Y/N. I have known Sunghoon for three years and I have never seen him blush. He doesn't have enough blood flow for blushing. He's a Graveborn. He's technically dead."
"It was an accident! I panicked! He waved first!"
"Waved? Waved? He was being arrogant. You were supposed to ignore him. That's what the old you would have done. She would have looked at him like he was a piece of furniture and then walked away."
"I don't know how to do that!"
"Clearly."
You press your back against the corridor wall. "I'm going to mess this up. I'm going to mess everything up. I can't do this."
Sunoo sighs, his expression shifting from exasperation to something closer to sympathy.
 "You can do this," he says. "You just need to be more careful. Sunghoon isâŠhe's intense. He loved her. The old her. He loved her even when she was cruel to him. If he thinks she's suddenly become soft-"
"Maybe that's a good thing? Maybe people will think she changed after the injury?"
"Maybe. Or maybe they'll think something else happened. Something worse." Sunoo's eyes are serious. "There are people at this Academy who would love to find a weakness in you. In her. If they think you're vulnerable, they'll exploit it."
"So what do I do?"
"You learn. You adapt. And you stop waving at your ex-fiancé like you're in a romance novel."
You groan and drop your head into your hands. "Who is he, anyway? You said ex-fiancé. Why were we engaged?"
"Your families arranged it when you were children. Noble politics. Sunghoon's family is old money, older than yours, actually. The engagement was meant to merge your houses. And then you broke it off because you got bored."
"Bored."
"According to her, he was too sincere. Too devoted. She said it was exhausting being loved that much."
You think about the young man in the arena. The way he looked at you like you were the only person in the world. The way your tiny, accidental wave made him blush.
"That's really sad," you say quietly.
"It's also not your problem." Sunoo stands and offers you his hand. "You're not her. You don't have to love him or hate him or anything in between. You just have to avoid making him suspicious."
"What if he already is suspicious?"
"Then we deal with it. But for nowâŠLet's focus on getting through your first day. One disaster at a time."
"I think I've already had three disasters."
"Those were small disasters. Practice disasters. You haven't even met Jay yet."
"Who's Jay?"
Sunoo's smile turns slightly evil. "He hates you. Well, he hated her. He's going to hate you too, but for different reasons."
"What reasons?"
"Because you won't be able to do any of the things she could do. And he's going to notice." Sunoo pats your shoulder. "Good luck."
You stare at him. "I thought you said you were on my side."
"I am. That doesn't mean your life is going to be easy."
You follow him down the corridor, your mind spinning with new information. Jake, the childhood friend who knows you too well. Sunghoon, the ex-fiancé you apparently broke for no reason. And somewhere out there, Jay, the guy who hates you and is about to discover you can't do magic. You've been in this world for less than twelve hours, and you're already exhausted.
"What was the old me even like?" you mutter. "How did she handle all of this?"
Sunoo glances back at you. "She didn't have to handle it. Everyone was either beneath her notice or a tool to be used. She didn't worry about what people thought because she genuinely didn't care."
"That sounds lonely."
"It was. I think that's why she made the deal with Tristitia." His voice goes quiet. "She wanted power because power was the only thing that made her feel safe. And in the end, it killed her."
"I'm not her," you say finally. "I can't be her. I don't know how to be cold and cruel and untouchable."
"No," Sunoo agrees. "You can't. But you can pretend. And maybe-" He pauses, something flickering in his expression. "Maybe pretending will be enough."
You hope he's right. You really, really hope he's right. Because if he's not, you're going to have a lot more problems than expected.Â
The rest of the day is a masterclass in improvisation. Your first class, Sin Theory with Professor Vex. Sunoo guides you to the front row before the other students arrive, his hand on your elbow steady.
"The front row?" you hiss. "Why am I in the front row?"
"Because the old Y/N always sat in the front row. She said it was easier to intimidate the professor that way."
"How does sitting in the front row intimidate anyone?"
"Eye contact. Unbroken eye contact. For the entire lecture." Sunoo pats your shoulder. "Good luck."
He retreats to a seat near the back before you can protest. Other students file in, filling the rings around you. You feel their eyes on the back of your head like tiny lasers. You stare straight ahead. Your spine is rigid. Your face is, you hope, expressionless. The old Y/N wouldn't turn around. The old Y/N wouldn't acknowledge the whispers. The old Y/N would sit here like she owned the room and everyone in it.
Professor Vex enters through a side door.She stops when she sees you. Her black eyes fix on your face. "Lady Y/N," she says. Her voice is like silk. "You've returned."
"Professor Vex." You incline your head slightly. Sunoo told you not to make prolonged eye contact. You make exactly two seconds of eye contact and then look at a point just over her shoulder. "I apologize for my absence."
"No apology necessary. Magical injuries are unpredictable." She moves toward her desk, her robes sweeping the floor. "I trust you've recovered sufficiently?"
"Mostly."
"Good. We were discussing the theoretical foundations of cross-affinity contamination. Perhaps you can enlighten the class on the Terullian Paradox?"
You have no idea what the Terullian Paradox is. You have never heard those words in that order. For all you know, the Terullian Paradox is a type of pastry.
But Sunoo, bless his manipulative heart, prepared for this. "I'm afraid my memory is still... fragmented," you say, exactly as he instructed. "The healer advised against intellectual strain for the first few days of recovery. I'm here to observe and reacquaint myself with the material."
Professor Vex considers this. Her black eyes are unreadable. Then she nods slowly. "Very well. Observation is acceptable. I expect you to catch up on the missed material by next week."
"Of course."
She turns to the rest of the class. "The Terullian Paradox, then. Who can explain it?"
A student in the third row raises her hand. You let out a breath you didn't realize you'd been holding.
The lecture continues. You take notes frantically, scribbling down terms you don't understand. Sin magic, you learn, is not just about drawing power from wrongdoing. It's about resonance, the way a sinner's personal sins align with their deity's domain. A wrathful person draws Ira more easily. An envious person channels Vanagloria. The magic shapes the sinner, and the sinner shapes the magic.
It's fascinating. It's also terrifying, because you have no idea what sins you carry or which deity might claim you. If any deity claims you. You still haven't felt the pull Sunoo described. The resonance. The sense of coming home.
The second class is Combat Training with Professor Thornwood. The training ground is an outdoor space adjacent to the arena, covered in the same dark sand that shifts occasionally. Professor Thornwood is a Graveborn, tall and gaunt with hollow cheeks. He speaks in short, clipped sentences and does not appear to be the warmest person (literally).
"Today," he announces, "We practice defensive warding. Partner up. Y/N, you're with me."
You freeze. "Professor?"
"You've been absent. I need to assess what you've retained."
Sunoo, who was already moving toward you, stops in his tracks. His expression flickers with alarm before smoothing into careful neutrality. He catches your eye and mouths something that might be good luck or might be don't die. It's hard to tell.
You walk toward Professor Thornwood. "Defensive ward," Thornwood says. "Basic barrier. Show me."
You raise your hands. You've seen enough movies to know how this is supposed to look. You spread your fingers. You concentrate. You try to feel something, anything, any spark of magic, any pull of sin, any resonance whatsoever.
Nothing happens.
Thornwood waits. The students watch. The dark sand shifts beneath your feet. "Whenever you're ready," Thornwood says.
"I'm-" You lower your hands. "The injury. It's affected my connection. The healer said it might take time."
Thornwood's hollow eyes study you. For a long moment, he says nothing. Then he nods once. "Magical disruption is common after head trauma. We'll focus on physical conditioning instead. Run the perimeter. Ten laps."
The perimeter of the training ground is approximately half a mile. Ten laps is five miles. You haven't run five miles since high school gym class, and even then you walked most of it.
"Of course," you say, because the old Y/N wouldn't complain. The old Y/N would probably run twenty laps just to show off.
You start running. By lap three, your lungs are burning. By lap five, you've developed a stitch in your side that feels like someone is stabbing you with a very small, very persistent knife. By lap seven, you're fairly certain you're going to die a second time, and this death will be even less dignified than the first.
You keep running. The other students have moved on to practicing wards, their barriers shimmering in the air. Sunoo catches your eye as you pass and gives you a sympathetic grimace.
By lap ten, you're barely upright. You stumble to a halt in front of Thornwood, gasping for breath, sweat soaking through your clothes.
"Acceptable," Thornwood says. "We'll work on your stamina. Dismissed."
You nod, not trusting yourself to speak, and stagger toward the edge of the training ground. Sunoo appears at your side with a flask of water. "That was painful to watch," he says.
"That was painful to do."
"At least he bought the injury excuse."
"Is everyone going to buy the injury excuse?"
"Probably not. But we only need it to work for a few weeks." He hands you the flask. "Drink. You look like you're about to collapse."
You drink. The water tastes faintly of something floral, probably not normal water, probably enchanted or blessed or whatever they do to water in this world but it's cold and wet and you're too exhausted to care.
"Next class is Basic Hexes and Curses," Sunoo says. "Professor Willowisp. She's old, she's observant, and she doesn't like excuses. We need a different strategy."
"What strategy?"
"You're going to have a magical flare-up."
"A what?"
"Magical disruption from head trauma can cause unpredictable bursts of power. It's a documented phenomenon." Sunoo's voice takes on a scholarly tone. "If you accidentally destroy something in class, it'll explain why you can't do anything the rest of the time. Everyone will assume your magic is unstable rather than absent."
"Destroy something."
"Nothing important. A desk. A window. Something dramatic but non-lethal."
"How am I supposed to destroy something if I can't do magic?"
Sunoo reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small, glass sphere. Inside it, something dark swirls like smoke caught in a bottle.
"Throw this at the ground when I give the signal. It'll create a concussive blast. Very showy. Very convincing."
You take the sphere. It's warm in your palm, pulsing faintly like a heartbeat. "Where did you get this?"
"I have a supplier. Don't worry about it." He glances at the sky. "We have ten minutes before class starts. Try not to drop that before then."
Professor Willowisp's classroom is in the Verity Palace, on the third floor. The walls are lined with jars containing things you'd rather not identify. Professor Willowisp herself is ancient. Nine hundred years old, Sunoo said, and she looks every century of it. When she looks at you, you feel like she's reading your thoughts, which is probably not paranoia given that mind-reading magic almost certainly exists in this world.
"Lady Y/N," she says. "You've returned to us."
"I have, Professor."
"How fortunate. We were just beginning our unit on emotional affliction curses. Perhaps you'd care to demonstrate?"
The class goes very quiet. You grip the glass sphere in your pocket. "I'm not sure that's wise, Professor. My magic has been... unstable since the injury."
"Unstable?"
"Fluctuations. The healer warned me." You're getting better at lying. The words come easier now. "I wouldn't want to accidentally harm anyone."
Willowisp's ancient eyes study you. "A considerate concern. However, this classroom is warded against magical accidents. Whatever happens within these walls will be contained."
She's not going to let this go. She wants to see you do magic. She wants to test you. Sunoo catches your eye from across the room. He gives a tiny nod.
Now.
"Very well," you say. "But don't say I didn't warn you." You walk to the front of the classroom. Your heart is hammering. Your palms are sweating. The glass sphere is warm against your fingers. "What curse shall I demonstrate?" you ask, stalling for time.
"The Despondency Hex. A simple emotional affliction. Target the practice dummy." Willowisp gestures to a mannequin in the corner of the room. You position yourself in front of it, your back to the class.
You take a deep breath. You raise your hands dramatically. You make a show of concentrating, your brow furrowing, your fingers trembling with apparent magical effort. Then you "lose control." You throw your hands wide, stumble backward, and hurl the glass sphere at the ground between you and the practice dummy. The sphere shatters. A wave of force erupts from the impact point, sending the practice dummy flying across the room. The windows rattle. The jars on the walls shake. Several students scream. One desk is knocked over.
When the dust settles, you're on the floor, deliberately, because it sells the performance and the practice dummy is in pieces against the far wall. Professor Willowisp is staring at you. Her expression is unreadable.
"I did warn you," you manage.
For a long moment, no one speaks. Then Willowisp's ancient face creases into something that might be a smile. "Fascinating," she says. "A magical flare-up of considerable intensity. You're excused from practical demonstrations until your condition stabilizes. Please observe from the back of the room."
You pick yourself up off the floor. Sunoo helps you to a seat in the back row, his hand steadying your elbow. "Perfect," he whispers. "Absolutely perfect."
"I almost hit the ceiling."
"But you didn't. And now everyone thinks your magic is dangerously unstable. No one will ask you to demonstrate anything for weeks."
"Great." You slump into your seat. "Weeks of pretending to be magically volatile. This is going to be exhausting."
"Welcome to your new life."
After the final class, Sunoo walks you toward the training grounds. "Classes are done for the day, which means we have time for your first real lesson," he says. "Professor Thornwood might have bought your excuse, but you still need to learn basic combat skills. I'll teach you what I can."
"I thought you said we'd start with magical theory."
"We will. But you also need to know how to defend yourself physically. Magic isn't always available. Sometimes you just need to know how to throw a punch."
You've never thrown a punch in your life. You've been punched, the loan sharks' enforcer had a mean left hook but you've never hit anyone back. The idea of learning how feels strange.Â
"Wait here," Sunoo says when you reach the training ground. "I need to grab some equipment from storage. Don't talk to anyone."
"Who would I talk to?"
"Anyone. Everyone. You're a magnet for attention. Just stand here and look unapproachable."
He disappears into a nearby building, leaving you alone on the edge of the training ground. You stand there, trying to look unapproachable. It probably looks more like you're constipated.
A shadow falls over you.
"There you are." You turn. Sunghoon is standing behind you, closer than you expected. He's still wearing his training clothes from earlier, though he's added a jacket that makes him look somehow even more put-together. His eyes are fixed on your face with an intensity that makes your stomach do something complicated.
"Sunghoon," you say. Your voice comes out slightly strangled.
"I've been looking for you." He steps closer. You step back. He steps closer again. "You left so quickly this morning. I didn't get a chance to welcome you back properly."
"I was busy. Classes."
"Classes." He says the word like it personally offends him. "You almost die on a mission and your first priority is classes?"
"The old Y/N would have prioritized classes."
"You're the old Y/N." He tilts his head. "Aren't you?"
Danger. Danger. Abort mission.
"Obviously, itâs just sarcasm," you say. "What do you want?"
"What I've always wanted. You." He says it simply, without embarrassment, like he's stating a fact. The sky is purple. The moons are sisters. He wants you. "I've been thinking about us."
"There is no us."
"There was."
"And now there isn't."
"Because you got bored." He doesn't sound angry. He sounds curious. "I've been trying to understand it. You said I was boring. But I remember the way you looked at me. I remember the way you-"
"Sunghoon."
"-responded to me. We were practically married, Y/N. Everyone assumed we'd formalize it eventually. And the physical aspect of our relationship was-"
"Oh my god."
"-extremely satisfying for both of us. You told me so yourself. Multiple times. You were quite vocal about it, actually."
Your face is on fire. "Please stop talking."
"I'm just trying to understand." He takes another step closer, and this time you're backed against the wall of the equipment building and there's nowhere left to retreat. "You ended things without explanation. You said you were bored, but you weren't bored. I know you weren't bored. So what was it?"
"I don't-" You struggle to remember what Sunoo told you. "I just needed space."
"Space." His eyes search your face. "You've had space. You've had a year of space. And now you're back, and you're different."
"I'm not different."
"You are. You waved at me this morning."
"So? People wave."
"You never wave. You used to walk past me like I didn't exist." His voice softens. "Today you waved. And you smiled. A real smile. Not the cold one you used to give me. A real one."
You have nothing to say to that. You can't explain it without revealing everything. So you just stand there, pressed against the wall, your heart pounding and your face burning, while your dead self's ex-fiancé looks at you like you're a puzzle he's desperate to solve.
"You're blushing," he observes.
"I'm not."
"You are. It's charming." He reaches up and brushes a strand of hair from your face. His fingers are cold against your skin. "I've never seen you blush before."
"I hit my head. It damaged my blood Circulation."
"That's not how blood circulation works."
"It's magical blood circulation."
He laughs. It's a soft sound, barely more than an exhale, but it transforms his face. "I've missed you," he says. "Even when you were cruel to me. Even when you ignored me. I've missed you every day."
"Sunghoon-"
"I know you don't want this. I know you don't want me. But I'm not giving up." He leans in, and before you can react, his lips brush against your cheek. It's barely a kiss, light, fleeting, cold and warm at the same time. "One day, I'll convince you to go on a date with me. A real date. And you'll remember why we worked."
He pulls back. Then he turns and walks away, his jacket billowing slightly in the breeze, leaving you pressed against the wall with your hand over your cheek and your brain completely offline.
Sunoo returns approximately thirty seconds later, carrying a bag of training equipment. "Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" he asks. "You're pale. Paler than usual. What happened?"
"Sunghoon happened."
"What?"
"He came over. He said-" You press your hands to your burning face. "He said they had a very satisfying physical relationship and she was very vocal about it and he kissed my cheek and said he'd convince me to go on a date one day and I just stood there like an idiot because I didn't know what else to do!"
Sunoo drops the training bag. "He kissed you?"
"On the cheek! Just the cheek! But still!"
"Where?"
"My cheek! I just said!"
"No, I mean where were you? Were there witnesses?"
"I don't know! I was too busy having a crisis!"
Sunoo pinches the bridge of his nose. "Okay. Okay. This is fine. Sunghoon has been trying to win her back for a year. It's not suspicious that he's still trying. The cheek kiss is new, but it's not-" He pauses. "Did you respond?"
"I stood there like a statue!"
"Good. That's good. That's in-character. The old Y/N would have been cold about it. Dismissive."
"Sunoo, I think I blushed."
"You what?"
"I blushed. He noticed. He said it was charming."
Sunoo stares at you. Then he closes his eyes and takes a very deep breath. "I'm going to be honest with you," he says. "I don't know how to handle this. Sunghoon is not supposed to be charmed by you. He's supposed to be pining from a distance while you ignore him. That's the dynamic. That's how it's always been."
"Maybe he's just glad I'm not being cold to him anymore?"
"Which is exactly the problem." Sunoo opens his eyes. "The old Y/N was cruel. That's who she was. If you're not cold, people will notice. Sunghoon has already noticed. Jake noticed this morning. How long before everyone notices?"
"What do you want me to do? Start being mean to people?"
"Maybe! I don't know!" He throws his hands up. "I didn't plan for this. I planned for a smooth transition. I planned for you to be cold and distant and slowly warm up over time. I did not plan for you to be accidentally charming your ex-fiancé on day one."
"I wasn't trying to be charming!"
"That's the worst part! You're not even doing it on purpose!"
You both stand there in frustrated silence. "Can we just do the combat training?" you ask finally. "I think I need to hit something."
Sunoo exhales. "Fine. But we're not done talking about this."
The combat training is a disaster.
"Okay," Sunoo says, standing in the center of the training ground with a padded dummy. "The most basic defensive maneuver is the shield ward. It creates a temporary barrier between you and an attack. Even if you don't have an affinity yet, you should be able to produce at least a flicker of one. The theory is simple."
He explains the theory. It involves visualizing your sin energy, whatever that means, and channeling it through your hands into a physical barrier. The barrier doesn't need to be strong. It just needs to exist.
"Go ahead," he says. "Try it."
You raise your hands. You concentrate. You try to visualize your sin energy. Nothing happens.
"Try harder."
You try harder. You scrunch up your face. You push with your mind. You make straining noises that would be embarrassing if you weren't already beyond embarrassment. Nothing happens.
"Maybe try a different approach," Sunoo suggests. "Instead of pushing, try pulling. Imagine drawing energy from the air around you."
You imagine drawing energy from the air. The air does not cooperate. The air, in fact, seems actively uninterested in being drawn from.
"Anything?" Sunoo asks.
"Nope."
"Okay. Let's try a physical approach instead." He gestures to the dummy. "Basic punch. Just hit it."
You punch the dummy. It's not a good punch. Your thumb is inside your fist, which you're fairly certain is wrong. Your wrist bends at an awkward angle. The impact sends a jolt of pain up your arm.
"Ow."
Sunoo stares at you. "Have you ever thrown a punch before?"
"No."
"Ever?"
"I've been punched. Does that count?"
"No. It doesn't." He walks over and adjusts your stance. "Feet shoulder-width apart. Weight on your back foot. Thumb outside your fist, outside, Y/N, not inside. You're going to break your thumb if you punch like that."
"My thumb already hurts."
"Because you punched wrong. Do it again. Properly this time."
You punch again. It's slightly better. Your thumb remains unbroken. The dummy wobbles a little.
"Better," Sunoo says. "Now do it fifty more times."
"Fifty?"
"Muscle memory. Your body needs to learn what your mind already knows. Again."
You punch the dummy fifty times.Â
"Good," Sunoo says. "Now the other hand."
"The other- are you serious?"
"Most people are right-handed, which means they expect attacks from the right. If you can throw a decent left hook, you'll have an advantage. Again. Fifty times."
You punch the dummy fifty more times with your left hand. Your left hand is even less coordinated than your right. Several punches miss entirely. One hits the dummy's stand and sends a fresh jolt of pain through your wrist.
"I hate this," you announce.
"You hate it because you're bad at it. You'll hate it less when you're good at it."
"Will I ever be good at it?"
Sunoo considers this. "Probably not. But you'll be better than you are now."
"That's not comforting."
"It wasn't meant to be. Again. This time, try a kick."
You kick the dummy. You miss and your momentum carries you around in a full circle. You end up facing the wrong direction with your back to the dummy and your arms pinwheeling for balance.
Sunoo covers his mouth with his hand. His shoulders are shaking.
"Are you laughing at me?"
"No," he says, his voice strangled. "Absolutely not."
"You're laughing at me."
"I'm not. I'm-" A snort escapes him. "Okay, I am. I'm sorry. It's justâŠyou spun. You spun like a top. How did you spin like a top?"
"I don't know! Physics happened!"
"Physics doesn't usually make people pirouette!"
"I wasn't pirouetting!"
"You were definitely pirouetting. If we were grading this, you'd get full marks for artistic impression and zero for technique."
You grab a handful of training sand and throw it at him. He dodges, still laughing, and the sand scatters harmlessly across the ground.
"This is serious!" you protest. "I'm trying to learn how to defend myself!"
"You're right, you're right." He composes himself with visible effort. "I'm sorry. Let's try again. This time, don't spin."
"I didn't spin on purpose!"
"Plant your foot. Keep your weight centered. Kick through the target, not at it."
You try again. This time you don't spin, but your kick connects with the dummy's stand instead of the dummy, and the whole thing topples over. The dummy hits the ground with a thud that echoes across the training ground.
"I'm never going to be able to do this," you say quietly.
Sunoo walks over and rights the dummy. "You're not going to be able to do it today. Or tomorrow. Or probably next week. But eventually-"
"Eventually I'll what? Learn to throw a punch? That's not going to help against witches and demons and whatever else is out there."
"No. But it's a start." He turns to face you. His expression has lost its humor. "Y/N, I know this is overwhelming. I know you feel like you're drowning. But you're not alone. I'm going to help you. We're going to figure this out."
"And if we can't?"
"Then we'll figure out something else." He picks up the training bag. "That's enough for today. Let's go back to the dorm. We have plans tonight."
"Plans?"
"We're going to Malachar. There's someone I need you to meet."
The teleportation stone is a small, flat disc that fits in the palm of Sunoo's hand. "Teleportation stones are rare," Sunoo explains as you stand in his dorm room. "Most people use portals, but portals can be tracked. Stones are untraceable. This one is keyed to a specific location in Malachar, an underground bar called the Rusted Nail. Not the kind of place Academy students usually frequent."
"Then why are we going there?"
"Because the person we need to talk to doesn't frequent Academy-approved establishments."
He presses the stone into your palm and closes his fingers around yours. The stone is warm, warmer than it should be, and the silver veins pulse faster.
"Hold on," he says.
The world dissolves. This time, the teleportation is slightly less disorienting than before. Maybe you're getting used to it. Maybe the stone is smoother than whatever portal Sunoo used earlier. Either way, when your feet hit solid ground, you only stumble a little.Â
"Where are we?"
"The Undermarket," Sunoo says. "Goblin territory. It's the black market of Malachar. Anything can be bought here if you know who to ask."
"And we're meeting a witch."
"An old contact of mine." He says it casually, but something in his tone makes you look at him sharply.
"An old contact?"
"We used to have an arrangement." He starts walking toward the end of the alley. "She provided certain services. I provided certain payments. It was mutually beneficial."
"What kind of arrangement?"
"The kind that's none of your business."
"Sunoo."
He sighs. "We slept together. Occasionally. It wasn't romantic. She's a witch, I'm an incubus, we both had needs. Are you happy now?"
You're not sure if "happy" is the right word. You're not sure what you're feeling. Surprise, maybe. Curiosity. A strange, uncomfortable twist in your stomach that you decide to ignore. "Is there anyone in this world you haven't slept with?"
"Plenty of people. I'm selective." He grins over his shoulder. "Don't worry. You're not my type."
"I wasn't worried."
"You looked worried."
"I looked curious. It's different."
He doesn't argue, but his grin widens. The Rusted Nail is tucked between a weapons shop and what appears to be a brothel. Its sign is a literal rusted nail. The door itself is iron, heavy and black, and it groans when Sunoo pushes it open. Inside, the bar is dim and smoky. Sunoo approaches the bar and orders two drinks in a language you don't recognize. The bartender, a goblin with one eye and a scar across his throat, grunts and produces two glasses filled with amber liquid.
"Don't drink too much," Sunoo says, sliding one glass toward you. "This stuff is stronger than anything in your world."
You take a cautious sip. It burns going down, but it's not unpleasant. It tastes like honey and smoke and something else, something that makes your head swim slightly. "The witch?" you ask.
"She'll be here soon. I sent word ahead."
You wait. Then the door opens, and a woman walks in. She's wearing robes that are clearly expensive but deliberately understated, and when she sees Sunoo, her lips curve into a smile that's equal parts warmth and wariness.
"Sunoo," she says. Her voice is low and smooth. "It's been a while."
"Mara." Sunoo rises to greet her. They don't embrace, but there's a familiarity in the way they stand close to each other. "Thank you for coming."
"You said it was urgent." Her golden eyes flick to you. "Who's this?"
"A friend. I need information."
"What kind of information?"
"About Tristitia."
Mara's expression doesn't change, but something in the air shifts. "Sit down," Mara says quietly. "And order me a drink." Sunoo signals the bartender. Another glass of amber liquid appears. Mara takes a long sip before speaking. "Tristitia," she says. "You don't ask easy questions, do you?"
"I wouldn't be here if I did."
Mara's golden eyes study you again, more intently this time. "Why do you want to know about the Sorrow?"
"I'm looking for a witch," you say. "One who serves Tristitia. She killed someone important to me."
"Who?"
"Someone I can't name."
Mara is silent for a moment. Then she shakes her head slowly. "I can't help you."
"Why not?"
"Because the Tristitia coven isn't like other covens. They don't operate in the open. They don't trade with other witches. They don't even acknowledge the rest of us exist." She takes another sip of her drink. "Most covens have structure. Hierarchy. Rules. The Tristitia witches are... something else. They answer only to the Sorrow itself, and the Sorrow doesn't share its secrets."
"So you know nothing?"
"I know they exist. I know they're dangerous. I know that anyone who makes a deal with Tristitia ends up dead or wishing they were." She sets her glass down. "That's all anyone knows. The Tristitia coven is a mystery, and it's a mystery that kills people who try to solve it."
You exchange a glance with Sunoo. His expression is unreadable, but you can see the tension in his jaw. "There has to be something," you press. "Any rumor. Any lead. Anything."
Mara considers you for a long moment. Then she leans forward, her voice dropping to barely above a whisper. "There's a place in the Wraithwood. Deep in the forest, some say the Tristitia witches gather there, but no one who's gone looking has ever come back." She sits back. "That's all I have. And frankly, I'm risking my life just telling you that much."
"Why?"
"Because the Sorrow doesn't like being discussed. And the Sorrow's servants don't like people asking questions." She finishes her drink in one long swallow. "My advice? Let it go. Whatever revenge you're looking for, it's not worth what you'll find."
You want to argue. You want to demand more. But Sunoo puts his hand on your arm, a gentle warning. "Thank you, Mara," he says. "We appreciate the information."
"Don't thank me. I didn't give you anything useful." She stands, pulling her hood up over her dark hair. "Be careful, Sunoo. I'd hate to hear you got yourself killed."
"I'm always careful."
"No, you're not. You're just good at surviving anyway." She smiles, but it doesn't reach her golden eyes. "Take care of yourself. And your friend."
She leaves. The door groans shut behind her. The bar resumes its low murmur, the other patrons returning to their drinks and their card games as if nothing happened.
"Well," Sunoo says, "that was unhelpful."
"She seemed scared."
"She was. Mara doesn't scare easily." He stares at his glass for a moment. "The Tristitia coven is even more secretive than I thought. This is going to be harder than I expected."
You watch him. His usual playful mask has slipped, and underneath it you can see something else. Frustration. Worry. Maybe even fear.
"Why do you care so much?" you ask quietly. "About finding this witch?"
He doesn't answer right away. When he does, his voice is softer than you've ever heard it. "Because she killed my best friend. And I couldn't stop it."
"Is that the only reason?"
He looks at you. "What other reason would there be?"
"I don't know. That's why I'm asking."
A long pause. Then Sunoo's mask slides back into place, and he smiles, bright and charming and completely fake. "We came all the way to Malachar," he says. "We might as well enjoy ourselves while we're here. Drink up. The night is young."
An hour later, you're both slightly tipsy. The amber liquid is stronger than you thought. Your limbs feel loose. Sunoo has abandoned his careful composure and is sprawled in his chair, laughing at something you said that wasn't even that funny.
"You're a terrible liar," he says, pointing at you. "Terrible. The worst. You couldn't lie to a rock."
"Rocks can't hear."
"That's how bad you are. You couldn't even lie to something that can't perceive lies."
"I lied to Professor Vex."
"You lied to Professor Vex with a script I wrote for you. That doesn't count."
You laugh. It feels good to laugh. The past two days have been so strange and terrifying that you'd almost forgotten what it felt like.
"Sometimes I think you're not telling me everything," you say.
"I'm not telling you everything. I've been very upfront about that."
"That's not comforting."
"It wasn't meant to be comforting. It was meant to be honest."
You drain the last of your drink. "I don't understand you," you say. "You found a dead body. You stopped time. You recruited a stranger from another universe. You're risking everything to find a witch who might be impossible to find. And you're doing it all with a smile on your face like none of it bothers you."
"It bothers me."
"It doesn't look like it bothers you."
"That's the point." He takes a sip of his drink. "I'm an incubus. We're not supposed to be bothered by things. We're supposed to be charming and carefree and shallow. That's what people expect. That's what people want."
"But it's not who you are."
He doesn't answer. "We should go back," he says. "It's late."
"Okay," you say. "Let's go back."
He pays the bartender with coins. Then he takes your hand and presses the teleportation stone into your palm, and the world dissolves.
Back in Sunoo's dorm room, he collapses onto his bed with a groan. He looks exhausted, not just physically, but something deeper. His skin is paler than usual. His eyes has dimmed.
"Are you okay?" you ask.
"I'm fine. Just... drained."
"Drained how?"
He hesitates. "Incubi need to feed. Emotional energy, physical intimacy. It's been a few days since I've-" He gestures vaguely. "It catches up with me."
"Is that why you look like death?"
"Thank you for that charming description." He pushes himself up on his elbows. "I'll be fine. I just need to find someone. There are usually willing partners in Goat Hall at this hour."
He starts to get up, but you reach out and catch his arm. "Wait." He looks at you. His expression is wary. "You've been helping me all day," you say. "You've been covering for me and teaching me and dragging me across the city to talk to witches. You're exhausted because of me."
"It's not because of-"
"It is. And I haven't done anything to help you." You take a breath. "So let me help you now."
The words hang in the air. Sunoo's eyes widen slightly. "Y/N..."
"I know what I'm offering. I'm not drunk. Well, I'm a little drunk. But I'm not so drunk I don't know what I'm saying." You meet his eyes. "You need to feed. I'm willing. It's the least I can do after everything."
"You don't have to-"
"I know I don't have to. I'm offering." You're blushing again. Your face is definitely on fire. But you don't look away. "The old Y/N did it, right? You said you had an arrangement. So it's not weird. It's not out of character. And you need it."
Sunoo stares at you. For a long moment, neither of you speaks. Then he laughs, a real laugh, surprised and slightly incredulous. "You're something else," he says. "You know that?"
"I've been told."
He sits up fully. His expression is still tired, but there's warmth in it now. "Are you sure?"
"Do I look unsure?"
He considers this. Then he reaches out and cups your face with his hand. His palm is warm. "Tell me to stop," he says quietly, "and I'll stop. At any point. For any reason. Do you understand?"
"I understand."
"I mean it. I don't care if we're in the middle of-"
"I understand, Sunoo."
He looks at you for another long moment. Then he leans in, and his lips meet yours. The kiss deepens, growing hungrier with each passing second. Sunoo's lips move against yours with practiced expertise, his tongue tracing the seam of your mouth before slipping inside. His hands find your waist, pulling you closer until there's no space between your bodies.
When he finally breaks the kiss, both of you are breathing heavily. His eyes, now glowing with renewed energy, lock with yours. "Last chance to back out," he murmurs, though his hands are already sliding under your shirt.
You shake your head, reaching for the hem of your shirt and pulling it over your head. "I'm not going anywhere."
A genuine smile spreads across Sunoo's face as he watches you undress. His own shirt follows, revealing his torso. As he removes his pants, your eyes catch something unusual, a dark, intricate mark on his lower belly, just above his waistline. It looks like a tattoo of swirling patterns that almost seem to move in the dim light.
"That's..." you start, but words fail you.
"The incubus mark," he finishes, noticing where you're looking. "It glows when I'm... well, you'll see."
Before you can respond, he gently pushes you back onto the bed. The mattress dips under your combined weight as he follows, hovering over you. His fingers deftly unhook your bra, tossing it aside before his mouth finds your breast.
Sunoo's lips close around your nipple, his tongue swirling in patterns that make you arch against him. One hand cups your other breast, thumb rubbing circles around the hardened peak while his free hand slides down your stomach, hooking into the waistband of your panties. He doesn't remove them immediately. Instead, his fingers dip beneath the fabric, tracing patterns on your skin that send shivers through your body. You can feel his smile against your breast as he feels your reaction.
"Sensitive," he murmurs against your skin before shifting his attention to your other breast.
When he finally slides your panties down, you're already wet with anticipation. His fingers part your folds, exploring with a familiarity that surprises you. Sunoo's fingers are skilled, moving with a precision that speaks of centuries of practice. He finds your clit immediately, circling it with just the right pressure to make your hips buck. Then he's sliding lower, collecting your wetness on his fingertips before returning to your sensitive bundle of nerves.
"You're so responsive," he whispers, his voice husky with renewed energy. "I can feel your emotions, your pleasure. It's... intoxicating."
As if to demonstrate, he increases the pressure slightly, and you gasp as a wave of pleasure washes over you. His mark begins to emit a soft purple glow, pulsing in time with his movements. "I want to hear you moan," he says, looking up at you with darkening eyes. "Your sounds... they feed me as much as your touch."
His words send another jolt through you, and you can't help but moan as he slides a finger inside you, then another. His thumb continues to work your clit as his fingers curl inside, finding that spot that makes you roll your eyes.
"That's it," he encourages, his own breathing growing heavier. "Let me hear you."
The magic is unmistakable now, each touch seems amplified, each sensation more intense than you've ever experienced. Sunoo shifts, turning you onto your side. He positions himself behind you, one arm wrapped around your waist to keep you close as he enters you with a smooth, practiced motion. The angle is new to you, hitting spots inside you that you didn't know existed.
"Is this okay?" he asks, his voice strained with restraint.
"More than okay," you manage to gasp out.
He begins to move, his hips rolling in a rhythm that has you moaning continuously now. Each thrust sends waves of pleasure through your body, building steadily toward something you've never experienced before. You can feel his mark growing hotter against your lower back, the purple glow intensifying.
"Sunoo..." you moan, reaching back to tangle your fingers in his hair.
He responds with a particularly deep thrust that makes you cry out. His own sounds join yours now, soft whimpers and moans that vibrate against your back. The closer he gets to his own release, the more his mark glows, bathing the room in an ethereal purple light. You've never enjoyed sex like this before. Every nerve ending is alive, every touch electric. You're so wet you can hear it with each movement, the sounds mixing with your moans and his to create a symphony of pleasure.
"I'm close," Sunoo gasps, his movements becoming more erratic.
His hand slides down to your clit again, rubbing in time with his thrusts. That extra stimulation is all it takes to push you over the edge. Your orgasm crashes over you with the force of a tidal wave, your body convulsing with pleasure as you cry out his name. Sunoo follows almost immediately, pulling out at the last second. You feel his warm release against your pussy and inner thighs as he moans your name, his mark flaring brightly before dimming slightly.
Before you can recover, he's shifting again, turning you onto your back and positioning himself between your legs. His eyes meet yours as he lowers his head.
"Sunoo, what-"
Your question cuts off in a gasp as his tongue laps at the mixture of your release and his on your skin. He's thorough, cleaning every drop with an enthusiasm that sends aftershocks of pleasure through your still-sensitive body. When he finally reaches your center, his tongue delves inside, and you arch off the bed. The pleasure is almost too much, too intense, but you don't want it to stop. You can feel him drawing energy from you, not just physical but emotional, the remnants of your pleasure, your contentment, your satisfaction.
With each pass of his tongue, you can see the color returning to his skin, the glow in his eyes brightening. His mark, once again dark, seems to pulse with renewed energy. Finally, when you're spent and trembling, he lifts his head. His face is flushed, his lips glistening, and he looks... healthy. Vital. The exhaustion that had plagued him earlier is gone, replaced by a vibrant energy that makes him seem almost otherworldly.
"Thank you," he says, his voice soft but strong now. "Are you okay for another round?"
You nod, still catching your breath. "Why am I still feeling hot though?"
"Incubi magic." He says with a small smile.Â
You wake up sore.
Not the pleasant kind of sore that comes from a good workout. Not even the satisfying sore of muscles that have been productively used. This is the kind of sore that makes you question every life choice that led you to this moment. Your thighs ache. Your back protests when you try to move. Sunoo, the absolute menace, is already awake and looking disgustingly fresh. He's perched on the edge of his bed, his bed, which you are still in, because apparently you fell asleep here after last night's... activities, and he's scrolling through something on a thin crystal tablet that seems to function as this world's version of a smartphone.
"Good morning," he says cheerfully. "You look terrible."
"I feel terrible." You attempt to sit up and immediately regret it. "Oh my god. What did you do to me?"
"I did exactly what you asked me to do. Multiple times, if I recall correctly. You were very enthusiastic."
"Was I?"
"Incredibly. It was flattering, honestly. At one point you said-"
"Please don't finish that sentence."
"-something about my eyes being like honeyed starlight. It was very romantic. I didn't know you had it in you."
You grab a pillow and press it over your face. The pillow smells like him, something floral and slightly citrusy. "I was tipsy and under your incubi magic."
"You were two drinks in. That's not tipsy, that's barely buzzed. And my magic doesnât make people poetic, it just makes them extra horny thereâs a difference."
"I wish I was dead."
"That seems extreme." He plucks the pillow off your face. "Come on. We have classes in an hour. You need to shower, eat something, and figure out how to walk without limping."
"I'm not limping."
"You're definitely limping. I saw you try to stand earlier. It was pathetic."
You throw the pillow at him. He catches it without looking, which is infuriating. His reflexes are annoyingly good. Probably an incubus thing. Probably all the feeding he did last night, which, okay, you're not going to think about that. You're not going to think about any of it. You're going to shower and eat breakfast and pretend last night was a normal, reasonable thing that normal, reasonable people do.
Sunoo grins. It's the same grin he wore last night when he first kissed you, equal parts mischief and affection. "You're cute when you're flustered."
"I'm not flustered. I'm sore. There's a difference."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night." He stands and stretches, his shirt riding up to reveal a strip of stomach that you absolutely do not look at. "Bathroom's through there. Use whatever products you want. I recommend the blue bottle for muscle aches. It's enchanted."
"Enchanted how?"
"It makes your muscles stop hating you. Very useful for mornings after."
You stare at him. "Do you have a lot of mornings after?"
"I'm an incubus who lives in the Lust dorm. What do you think?"
"I think I don't want to know."
"Probably wise." He tosses you a towel. "Go shower. I'll get breakfast. You're going to need your strength, we have Potiology today, and Professor Thornwood doubled your conditioning laps."
"He what?"
"I may have mentioned that you were eager to improve your stamina. He was impressed by your dedication."
"Sunoo."
"Yes?"
"I'm going to kill you."
"That's the spirit. Channel that anger. Maybe it'll trigger your Ira affinity."
You throw the pillow at him again. He dodges again. You limp to the bathroom and slam the door.
The shower helps. The enchanted blue bottle helps more. By the time you're dressed and fed and walking (mostly) normally, you've been staring at Sunoo like he murdered your ancestors.Â
"Why do you keep making that face?" Sunoo asks as you walk toward the Verity Palace.
"What face?"
"That scrunched-up thinking face."
"I don't have a scrunched-up thinking face."
"You absolutely do. It's very endearing."
"I'm not-" You take a breath.Â
He pauses. "Are you sure you're fine?"
"I will throw you down these stairs."
"That's a no, then."
The first classes are doing strangely great for you. The break between Combat Training and Basic Hexes is when everything starts to go wrong.
You're sitting in the classroom, waiting for Professor Willowisp to arrive, when the door opens and a young man walks in. He's not the professor. He's a student, an elf, you can tell by the pointed ears and the faint luminescence of his skin. He's also, you notice, wearing the emblem of the snake on his collar. Vanagloria. Envy.
"Good afternoon," he says. His voice is smooth and pleasant and somehow makes you feel like you're being evaluated. "I'm here to collect the mid-term consent forms. Professor Willowisp asked me to handle the paperwork before class begins."
Consent forms. You have no idea what consent forms he's talking about. You have no idea if the old Y/N turned hers in. You have no idea what's happening at all. The other students are pulling papers from their bags. You sit frozen, your hands empty, your expression carefully blank.
The elf makes his way around the room, collecting forms from each student. When he reaches your desk, he pauses. "Y/N," he says. "Your form?"
"Right." You don't move. "The form."
"The mid-term consent form for practical hex application. It was due today."
"Of course. The form." You pat your bag, pretending to search for it. "I must have... forgotten it. In my room. The injury. Memory gaps."
The elf's eyes narrow slightly. "You forgot?"
"Temporarily. It'll come back."
"I see." He doesn't sound like he sees. He sounds like he's cataloging this information for future use. "I'll note the late submission. Professor Willowisp may deduct points."
"That's fine. Points are... fine."
He studies you for a moment longer. Then he smiles, a smile that doesn't reach his eyes, and moves on to the next student. You don't realize you've been holding your breath until he's on the other side of the room.
When the elf finally leaves, papers in hand, Sunoo slides into the seat beside you. His expression is carefully neutral. "That was Jungwon," he says quietly. "Student representative. Head of every committee. Controls the flow of information in the Academy like a spider controls a web." Sunoo's voice is low. "And he's suspicious of you."
"I noticed."
"Jungwon doesn't forget things. If he thinks something's wrong with you, he'll dig until he finds out what it is."
"Great." You press your palms against your eyes. "Another person I have to worry about."
"Jungwon is different from Jake or Sunghoon. They care about you. Jungwon cares about leverage. If he figures out you're not the real Y/N, he won't keep it secret out of loyalty. He'll use it."
"So what do I do?"
"Avoid him. Don't give him anything to work with. And for the love of all seven deities, turn in your paperwork on time."
"I didn't know there was paperwork!"
"Now you do." Sunoo squeezes your shoulder. "It's fine. One late form isn't proof of interdimensional identity fraud. Just be more careful."
Potheology is your first class without Sunoo. It takes place in the greenhouse. Sunoo isn't in this class. He's across campus in Advanced Luxuria Theory, which is apparently restricted to incubi and succubi for reasons you don't want to think about. You're on your own for this one. No safety net. No whispered instructions. No one to cover for you if you mess up.
You take a seat near the back, hoping to blend in.Â
Then Jake walks in. He spots you immediately. His face lights up. "Y/N! You're in this class?"
"Apparently."
"I didn't know you took Potheology. I thought you said potions were beneath you."
The old Y/N said potions were beneath her. Because of course she did. "I changed my mind. The injury. It's given me a new perspective."
Jake's expression softens. "I'm glad. It's nice to have you here." He takes the seat next to you, dropping his bag on the floor. "Fair warning, today's lesson is on aphrodisiacs. Professor Nightshade thinks they're medicinally significant but really she just likes making students uncomfortable."
"Wonderful."
Professor Nightshade enters before Jake can elaborate. She surveys the class with the expression of someone who has seen everything and been disappointed by most of it.
"Aphrodisiacs," she announces without preamble. "Contrary to popular belief, they are not recreational substances. They are medically significant compounds used to treat a variety of conditions, including emotional trauma, sensory deprivation, and certain types of magical damage. Today you will learn to brew a basic desire tincture. The instructions are on your desks. Begin."
You look at the instructions on your desk. Moonbloom petals. Siren's tear essence. Crushed firepearl. Powdered duskwing moth. You have no idea what any of these things are.
"Need help?" Jake asks.
"No," you say automatically. Then, because you're trying to be better at accepting help: "Actually, yes. The injury. I'm having trouble remembering the... ingredient properties."
Jake's face softens even further. "Of course. Here, let me show you."
He walks you through the brewing process step by step. "The key is the proportions," Jake explains, his hands steady as he measures ingredients. "Too much moonbloom and it's basically a love potion. Too much firepearl and it's just... spicy. You want balance."
"Right. Balance."
"You're doing Great."
You're not doing great. Your tincture is a muddy brown color while Jake's is a shimmering rose gold. But you're following instructions and not actively setting anything on fire, which feels like a victory. By the end of class, you've produced something that might technically qualify as an aphrodisiac. It's lumpy and it smells slightly burnt, but Professor Nightshade passes by your station with only a raised eyebrow and a muttered "acceptable."
"See?" Jake says, beaming. "Told you you could do it."
"Thanks to you."
"That's what friends are for." He packs up his supplies while you do the same. "Hey, do you want to study together later? I know you've been spending a lot of time with Sunoo since you got back, but I thought maybe we could-"
"Actually, I'm going to the library after this. Sunoo said I should catch up on magical theory."
"Oh." Jake's face falls slightly. "Okay. Maybe another time?"
"Definitely."
He brightens. "Great! I'll hold you to that."
You feel a twinge of guilt as he leaves.
The Delictum Academy library is, as Sunoo mentioned during your tour, a multi-story cathedral of books with shelves that rearrange themselves when you're not looking. You find a seat in a quiet corner and pull out the list Sunoo gave you. Magical Theory for Beginners. A History of Sin Magic. It's a lot of reading. It's more reading than you've done in your entire college career combined.
But you need to understand this world. You can't keep faking your way through classes forever. Eventually, someone is going to ask you a question you can't deflect, and you need to have an answer ready. You start with A History of Sin Magic, Volume I. By the time you finish the third chapter, your eyes are starting to glaze over. You need a break. You need to stretch your legs. You need to-
You need to find information about Tristitia.
It's been lurking in the back of your mind all day, ever since last night's meeting with Mara. The Tristitia coven is a mystery. No one knows anything about them. But this is a library. Libraries have information. Libraries have records. Maybe there's something here that no one's thought to look for.
You glance around the reading room. The other students are absorbed in their own work. The librarians are busy at the front desk. No one is watching you.
You stand up, leaving your books on the table, and slip between the shelves. Tristitia is something else, a deity outside the sanctioned system, forbidden and dangerous. If there's information about it, it wouldn't be in the main sections. It would be in the restricted area.
You find the iron gate Sunoo pointed out during your tour. It's at the back of the library, tucked behind a row of shelves that seem to have been deliberately arranged to obscure it. You try the gate. It's locked.
Of course it's locked. You didn't expect it to be unlocked. But you also didn't come all the way here just to give up at the first obstacle. There has to be another way in. A side door. A gap in the wards. Something.
You circle the perimeter of the restricted section, looking for weaknesses. And then you see it. A gap in the shelves. Not a door, exactly, but a space where two shelf units don't quite meet. It's narrow, barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through and it's partially hidden by a tapestry. You check your surroundings. Still no one watching. Still no one paying attention.
You slip through the gap.
The restricted section is darker than the main library. You move carefully between the shelves, reading the labels. None of them mention Tristitia by name. None of them even hint at the Sorrow. You spend what feels like an hour searching. But nothing specifically about Tristitia. Nothing about its coven. Mara was right. The Tristitia coven is a mystery, and it's a mystery that doesn't want to be solved.
Frustrated, you slip back through the gap and return to your table. You came to this library hoping for answers, and all you found was more questions.
"Y/N!"
You look up. Jake is hurrying toward your table, something clutched in his hand. "Hey," you say, closing your book. "What are you doing here?"
"You left this in the greenhouse." He holds up the vial of your lumpy aphrodisiac. "I thought you might want it. Professor Nightshade said it was acceptable, which is basically an A in her class."
"Oh. Thanks." You take the vial from him. It's still warm from the greenhouse. "You didn't have to track me down for this."
"I wanted to." He grins. "Also, I was hoping to convince you to take a study break. You've been in here for hours. Your brain needs rest."
"My brain is fine."
"Your brain is going to turn to mush if you keep reading magical theory without breaks. Trust me. I've seen it happen."
"That's not a real thing."
"It's absolutely a real thing. Last year, a fifth-year tried to read the entire Terullian Principles in one sitting and his brain literally liquefied. They had to call a healer."
"You're making that up."
"Maybe. But do you want to risk it?"
You laugh despite yourself. Jake has a way of making everything feel lighter. Less serious. He's the opposite of Sunoo's calculated charm, he's just genuinely, effortlessly warm.
"Fine," you say. "A short break."
"Yes!" He pumps his fist. "Okay, so there's this spot in the greenhouse I want to show you. There's a plant that only blooms during the false dawn, and if you time it right, you can see-"
He's gesturing enthusiastically as he talks, his hands moving in wide arcs. One of those arcs catches the aphrodisiac vial, still balanced precariously on the edge of the table.
Time slows down. You see the vial tip. You see Jake's face shift from excitement to horror. You see his hand reach out, too late, as the vial tumbles off the table and hits the floor.
It shatters. The liquid inside, your lumpy, "acceptable" aphrodisiac spreads across the stone floor in a shimmering puddle. And the smell that rises from it is... intense. Floral and spicy and something else, something that makes your head swim and your skin prickle.
"Oh no," Jake breathes.
"What?"
"That's the aphrodisiac. The concentrated aphrodisiac. And we just-" He gestures at the puddle, then at the two of you, standing directly over it. "-inhaled a lot of it."
"How much is a lot?"
"I don't know. I've never-" He swallows. "Do you feel anything?"
You open your mouth to say no, of course not, you feel fine. But the words don't come out. Because you're suddenly very aware of the fact that you don't feel fine. You feel warm. Too warm. Your skin is tingling, and your heart is beating faster than it should be, and when you look at Jake, really look at him, you notice things you didn't notice before. The way his hair curls slightly at the ends. The way his eyes catch the light. The way his uniform fits across his shoulders.
This is bad.
"I feel something," you admit.
"Me too." Jake's voice is slightly higher than usual. "Okay. Okay, this is fine. Aphrodisiacs are temporary. The effects wear off. We just need to-"
He's interrupted by voices. Loud voices, coming from the direction of the library entrance.
"-absolutely unacceptable. The restricted section has been accessed without authorization."
"I'm aware, Headmaster. We're investigating."
Professors. Multiple professors. And they're heading this way. If they find you here, standing over a shattered aphrodisiac vial, clearly affected, alone together-
"We need to hide," Jake hisses.
"Where?"
"I don't know! Somewhere!"
He grabs your arm and pulls you between the shelves. The voices are getting closer. You can hear footsteps now, heavy and purposeful. The professors are searching the library, and they're going to find you if you don't find cover immediately.
Jake's eyes dart around wildly. Then they land on something, a panel in the wall, barely visible, half-hidden behind a bookshelf. "There!" He pushes against the panel, and it swings open to reveal a small, dark compartment. "In here!"
There's no time to argue. No time to think. You dive into the compartment, and Jake dives in after you, and the panel swings shut behind you just as the professors round the corner. The compartment is tiny. Cramped. It was clearly designed for storage, not for people. There's barely enough room for one person, let alone two people to hide.
You and Jake are pressed together in the darkness, your bodies flush against each other. It takes you a moment to realize what position you've ended up in. Your head is down near his legs. Your rear end is... somewhere near his face.
"Is your-" Jake's voice comes out strangled. "Is your- are you-"
"What?"
"Your... ass. It's on my face."
You close your eyes. You want to die. You want the floor to open up and swallow you. You want to go back in time and never come to this library, never brew this aphrodisiac, never agree to hide in this horrible, tiny compartment.
"I'm aware," you manage.
"Okay. Okay, that's- that's fine. This is fine. Everything is fine."
"Stop saying everything is fine."
"I can't. If I stop saying it, I'll start screaming."
The voices are right outside now. You can hear them clearly through the thin wall of the compartment. "-no sign of the intruder. The restricted section appears undisturbed."
"Keep searching. The wards were triggered. Someone was here."
You hold your breath. Jake holds his breath.The aphrodisiac is definitely still burning. You can feel it. Every point of contact between your body and Jake's is electric, heightened, overwhelming. The warmth of his chest. The press of his hands on your hips, trying to steady you. And from the way his breathing keeps catching, from the way his fingers are gripping your hips a little too tightly, you're pretty sure he's feeling it too.
"This is bad," you whisper.
"Very bad," he agrees.
"The aphrodisiac-"
"I know."
"It's making me-"
"I know. Me too."
You both fall silent. The professors are still outside, their footsteps heavy on the stone floor. The compartment is still dark, still cramped, still unbearably warm. And the aphrodisiac is still working its way through your bloodstream, turning every accidental touch into something more. Jake shifts slightly, trying to find a more comfortable position. You bite your lip to keep from making a sound.
"Sorry," he breathes.
"It's fine."
"It's not fine. Nothing about this is fine." A pause. "Can I just say, for the record, that this is not how I imagined my evening going?"
"You imagined your evening?"
"I imagined a lot of things. None of them involved hiding in a closet with my childhood best friend's ass on my face."
"Can we stop talking about my ass?"
"I would love to stop talking about it. Unfortunately, it's very present."
You would laugh if you weren't so mortified. You would cry if you weren't so pent up. The aphrodisiac is reaching its peak, you can tell, the warmth is spreading through your entire body now, pooling low in your stomach, making your thoughts hazy and your skin hypersensitive. And Jake is right there. His body warm and solid and smelling like honey and vanilla and something else, something that the aphrodisiac is making you notice far too intensely.
"Y/N," Jake says. His voice is strained. "We might have a problem."
"What kind of problem?"
"The kind of problem that is... physically manifesting."
It takes you a moment to understand what he means. When you do, your face burns so hot you're surprised the compartment doesn't catch fire.
"Oh," you say.
"Yeah."
"That's- that's the aphrodisiac."
"I know."
"It's not- you're not-"
"I know. But my body doesn't know. My body thinks-" He cuts himself off with a strangled sound. "Can you please stop shifting?"
"I'm not shifting!"
"You're shifting! Every time you move, your-"
The compartment door rattles. You both freeze.
"Is someone in there?" a voice calls out. One of the professors. Right outside. Right there.
You don't breathe. He doesn't breathe. The compartment is silent, and dark, and so hot that you're both sweating, and the aphrodisiac is still pulsing through your veins, and this is quite possibly the worst moment of your entire life.
The footsteps move away. The voices fade. "Must have been a false alarm. The old wards are too sensitive."
"We'll check again in the morning." The footsteps retreat. The library falls silent.
You don't move. Jake doesn't move. The two of you stay frozen in the darkness, pressed together, hearts racing, the remnants of the aphrodisiac still singing through your blood.
Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Jake speaks. "We should probably-"
"Yeah."
"Wait until we're sure they're gone."
"Yeah."
The silence stretches, thick and heavy in the darkness. You can still hear some faint voices.
"We should..." Jake starts, his voice a strained whisper. "We should try to stay still. Control our breathing. It'll pass faster if we don't... feed it."
You nod. Control. That's a good idea. A rational idea. You try to focus on your breath, pulling in slow, steady inhales and pushing them out. But every time you breathe in, you fill your lungs with Jake's scent, all amplified by the potion into something intoxicating, something that makes your mouth water. The heat inside you isn't fading. It's building. It pools in your stomach, a low, heavy ache that spreads downwards, between your thighs. You can feel a dampness gathering there, a slick warmth that has nothing to do with sweat and everything to do with the man pressed against you.
Jake shifts, a tiny, aborted movement meant to create space, but it only makes things worse. His hips roll forward, just slightly, and the hard line of his erection drags against the right side of your face. A gasp tears from your throat before you can swallow it.
"Sorry," he grits out, his voice tight. "I'm sorry. I'm trying."
"I know," you whisper back, your own voice shaky. "Me too."
His hands are still on your hips, his fingers gripping you through the fabric of your uniform skirt. You can feel the heat of them even through the layers of cloth. You want him to move them. You want him to take them away. You want him to slide them under your skirt and press them directly against your skin. The thought is so shocking, so potent, that it makes you dizzy. You're not supposed to be thinking about his hands on your bare skin.Â
You feel one of his hands move. It slides slowly, tentatively, from your hip to the hem of your skirt. His knuckles brush against the back of your thigh, and you shudder, a full-body tremor that you can't control.
"Y/N," he breathes, his voice right next to your ear, a puff of hot air that makes you clench. "I canât hold back anymore."
You don't say anything. Screw your inhibition. You just press back against him, a silent, involuntary plea. He takes it as permission. His fingers hook under the waistband of your tights. He pauses for a second, giving you one last chance to refuse. You don't. You hold your breath, your entire body tensed in anticipation. Slowly, carefully, he peels the tights down, followed by your underwear. The fabric whispers down your legs, bunching around your knees. The cool air of the compartment hits your heated flesh, and you gasp.
"Jake," you whisper, his name a ragged sound. "What are you-"
And then you feel something else. It's the wet, heat of his tongue, tracing a slow, deliberate line up your inner thigh. You bite down hard on your lip to keep from crying out. The sensation is overwhelming, a jolt of pure pleasure that shoots straight to your core. He does it again, on the other thigh, his movements slow and unhurried, as if he has all the time in the world. His thumbs part your folds, exposing you completely to him. And then his mouth is on you.
Not a tentative lick, but a firm, confident press of his lips against your most sensitive spot. A choked moan escapes your lips.
"Quiet," he whispers against you, the vibration of his voice sending another shockwave through you. "We have to be quiet."
You nod frantically, trying to focus, to muffle the sounds he's pulling from you, but it's impossible. He starts to move his tongue, and all rational thought dissolves. He's not rushing. He's exploring. He licks around your clit, tracing the shape of it. He dips down, gathering your wetness on his tongue before circling your entrance, teasing you with shallow thrusts that make you buck back against him. The aphrodisiac is amplifying everything, turning every flick of his tongue into a bolt of lightning, every slow lap into a wave of fire.
He builds a rhythm, a slow, maddening tempo that has you climbing higher and higher. He alternates between broad, flat strokes that cover your entire core and sharp, precise flicks of his tongue directly on your clit. It's too much and not enough. You can feel the pressure coiling in your stomach.
You're lost in it. Your mind is blank, filled only with the feeling of his mouth on you, his hands on your hips, the scent of his skin. And then, through the haze of pleasure, a new thought surfaces. Your own hands begin to move. You fumble in the darkness, your fingers searching for the button of his trousers. You find it, your knuckles brushing against the hard length straining against the fabric. He groans against you, a low, guttural sound that vibrates through your entire body.
Your fingers are clumsy, shaking with a combination of the aphrodisiac and your own rising desire. You manage to undo the button. His erection springs free, hot and heavy in your hand. You wrap your fingers around him, and he hisses, his hips jerking forward. You stroke him once, twice. A bead of moisture gathers at the tip, and you swipe at it with your thumb. He shudders.
You shift your position slightly, Until you can take him into your mouth. The taste is clean and salty. You hollow your cheeks, sucking gently, and he rewards you with another groan, the sound muffled against your skin. This is it. This is the breaking point. You're pleasuring him while he pleasures you, a tangle of limbs and mouths in the suffocating darkness. Every time he flicks his tongue, you tighten your grip on him. Every time you take him deeper into your mouth, his own movements become more frantic.
You have to swallow your moans, muffle your cries against his skin. He has to muffle his groans against you. The sounds you do make are choked, breathless, desperate. The pressure inside you is almost unbearable now. You're so close. You can feel the orgasm building. Jake seems to sense it too. He focuses his attention, his tongue working faster, harder, with a devastating precision. He slides one hand from your hip, his fingers finding your clit and rubbing in tight, circles as his tongue continues its assault. That's all it takes. The wave breaks and your orgasm crashes over.Â
This is bad. Really really bad.
đ·ïž @graythecoffeebean @voucearse @prettygirlthings-world @human1errorth1ngs @skzenhalove @kristynaaah @enhapagluuuuu











