by Eva Chase
“If you think of any possibilities along that line, let me know,” I added, and Jude’s grin turned into a full-out smirk.
“Oh, I’m sure I can come up with something without any trouble at all.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rory
The central air in Ashgrave Hall was having some kind of technical difficulties. Even tucked away in a dim corner of the library, I couldn’t escape the summer heat. Sweat trickled down my back as I flipped through one of the books I’d gathered. I swiped at my forehead.
The hardest part about researching anything to do with fearmancers was they didn’t exactly broadcast their activities to the wider world. I’d tried digging around online for news articles or other records that might help me figure out the connections between the names on Professor Banefield’s list and the Nary activities they’d apparently interfered with, but there hadn’t been anything beyond the clippings he’d already collected, none of which mentioned the fearmancers themselves anyway.
I had determined that the Crowford on the list was my Persuasion professor, and the Darksend was the Physicality professor I’d only seen in passing. The fact that not just one but two teachers on campus were part of this group—the group that presumably had been responsible for Banefield’s death—was far from comforting.
In my earlier searches of the university library, I’d discovered a small section that held volumes of fearmancer records: the lines of inheritance within the ruling families, significant events at the university, and other write-ups someone or other had decided were worth committing to paper. Sorting through those, I’d made a few more discoveries.
Lillian Ravenguard was married to Julian Nightwood’s second cousin. Ilene Burnbuck was my professor Burnbuck’s aunt and had come by the school for occasional special tutorials. Three of the other names on the list, people I hadn’t recognized at all, had contributed funds to the restoration of the Killbrook Hall after a bad storm had caused a bunch of damage, which suggested they were fairly prominent and involved in fearmancer society.
So, basically, my enemies were a whole bunch of people with tons of power. Wonderful. I still didn’t have any clue what they were after that had made it worth trying to crush me into submission. Or why they appeared to have eased back in their efforts after my mentor’s death.
Maybe they were unsure of what Banefield might have managed to tell me, and they wanted to watch what I did next before deciding their next moves. Maybe they were worried that launching another assault so soon after his death would be too risky. There had to be people who wouldn’t agree with what they were doing—enough people that they felt they needed to go about their attempts as surreptitiously as possible.
Knowing that wasn’t much of a comfort either, though. It didn’t mean they were done. It only meant I was getting a reprieve before another attack that might come at any time in any way. How could I prepare when I had no idea what was going to come at me or how soon?
I set down my current book with a sigh and picked up another. This one talked about various international tournaments and the winners who’d come from Blood U. I wasn’t sure there’d be anything useful in there, but I skimmed the pages just in case.
I’d only made it a little way through when the floor at the end of my aisle of shelves creaked.
“Here she is,” Jude said, with a fond shake of his head. “Hiding away in a pile of books. Typical.”
Connar had come over with him. “Project research?” he asked me, looking at the stack.
“Something like that,” I said. “Not that I’m getting very far.” I paused. I didn’t know how to broach the subject of the barons’ hostility with either of them. Not that Jude or Connar seemed to really like the people who’d raised them, but I’d seen how difficult a fearmancer’s sense of loyalty could be to shake. Look at how long Connar had ignored his conscience to support Malcolm’s plans. And the barons weren’t just family to them—they were the leaders of their entire society.
I’d have to talk to them about it at some point… but maybe not quite yet. Not until I was sure it’d help me and not backfire in my face.
I tucked a damp strand of hair behind my ear, wondering what to make of the fact that they’d come looking for me together. Jude waved for me to get up.
“Come on,” he said. “We’re getting you out of this oven. I’m sure you need a break by now anyway. Go get your swimsuit, and we’ll cool off in the lake.”
The thought of the lake made my chest clench up. I hadn’t gone in the water since things had gotten hot—and then chilling—with Malcolm. “I—”
“You’ll be able to focus better if you give yourself a breather,” Connar said, clearly anticipating my protest even if he didn’t know exactly why. “Summer’s almost over. You’ve got to enjoy it while you can.”
He looked at me so hopefully that my resistance wavered. It would be nice to get out of the heat. And there was something incredibly sweet about the way the two of them had joined forces to rescue me from my study habits, even though they didn’t always get along. Even though they had every reason to feel at odds while they were both vying for my affection. I didn’t want to discourage that peacemaking.
I’d decided I wasn’t going to let Malcolm ruin any part of my life. Why should I let one bad memory stop me from enjoying one of the few things I did actually like at this school?
“Okay, okay,” I said, getting up. “I’m sold. I’ll meet you down at the dock?”
Jude winked at me. “You’d better be fast about it, or I’ll come and carry you over.”
I made a face at him, and he laughed. But I did pull on my bikini as quickly as I could once I reached my dorm room, grabbing a tee for more modesty on the walk down.
When I reached the shore, Jude and Connar were already standing on the dock, Connar in swim trunks and Jude in a fitted Speedo that left very little to the imagination. Between that and the amount of toned musculature on display, a different sort of heat fluttered under my skin.
“Why are you two just standing around?” I teased as I dropped my shirt and towel on the warm boards of the dock. “Last one in’s a rotten egg!”
I leapt off the end with that last declaration. The splash and surge of the cool water washed away all the lingering sweat on my skin. There was a shout as the two guys joined me, the water rocking me with the waves from them hitting the water.
“I think we can declare that a tie,” Jude said, flicking his hair back from his eyes. Wet, it turned so dark it was almost black.
“If you insist,” Connar said, smiling.
“The important part is that I beat both of you,” I declared, and started swimming deeper into the lake with casual strokes. The vibe of the moment was already totally different from the previous afternoon. The memory faded more with each push through the water.
Jude dove down. A few seconds later, a tug on my ankle nearly pulled my head underwater. I kicked out instinctively to free my leg, and the Killbrook scion emerged with a sputter.
“You almost broke my nose there, Ice Queen.”
“A girl’s got to defend herself.” I arched my eyebrows at him. “You should be careful. I’m told I’m a very powerful mage.”
He just laughed.
Connar swam past us, moving east. “Apparently we gave other people the same idea,” the bigger guy said with a quick nod to the shore. A few Naries, none of them students I knew well, were heading down to the water in their swimsuits.
“There’s a little bay over here that’s nice,” the Stormhurst scion added.
And a little more private, I guessed. I followed him, watching the rise of the shore from low rocky ground to nearly sheer gray cliff. Giggles and splashes carried from behind us, but the hiss of the waves against the uneven wall of stone gradually overwhelmed them.
Somewhere up there lay the little clearing where I’d first spoken to Connar, where we’d first kissed… Where we’d done a lot of first things.
Jude crui
sed after us, switching between a lazy front crawl and gliding along on his back, his pale skin stark against the dark water. For a second, with the sun shining off his boyish face, his lips curled into a smile of contentment so pure it made my heart ache.
Maybe he’d needed a break from reality too.
The shoreline curved, the forest peering over the edge of the cliff high above, and the voices of the other students vanished completely. Nothing stirred in this alcove at the edge of the lake other than the leaves overhead and us swimming into the still water. I shifted onto my back like Jude had, staring up at the broad expanse of the blue sky. The same sky that had spilled out over me back in California. So much had changed, but some things I could count on.
Connar swam closer to the cliffside where he could stand on the bottom, the water rippling around his shoulders. “You like it?” he asked with a pleased gleam in his eyes as I joined him. The lake bottom was rocky too, but the stones pressed smoothly against my feet when I set them down to give my muscles a break.
“You know all the best spots, huh?” I said.
He gave me that glorious grin that had made me want him from the first time I’d seen it, and I had to bob up for a kiss. Connar steadied me in the water with an arm around my waist, his lips slick but still warm against mine. We’d only pressed together with this much bare skin once before. Desire shot through my body, sharp and heady.
Jude cleared his throat with a disgruntled sound where he’d come up behind me. I turned, and Connar’s arm loosened around me without letting go completely. Before I could rethink the urge, I grasped Jude’s hand and pulled him to me.
His mouth collided with mine, and oh Lord, I hadn’t known it was possible to feel this much all at once. Jude kissing me, his hand cupping my face. Connar tracing his thumb over my stomach where he held me beneath the water. Both their bodies connected with mine with such delicious friction, turned slick by the lake.
There had better not be anything wrong with wanting two guys at once, because now that I was experiencing it, I couldn’t imagine giving it up.
Connar ducked his head to press his lips to my neck. Jude claimed my mouth even more completely, his tongue tangling with mine. His fingers stroked down my side—and back up to the curve of my breast, shifting the current with the motion.
My breath hitched with a jolt of anticipation, but a thread of anxiety wriggled through the haze of pleasure. I drew back just far enough to speak. “What if someone else comes around this way?”
Jude met Connar’s eyes over my shoulder. A sly smile curved his lips. “I think we can make sure there’s no need to worry about that. A physical barrier to block off other swimmers and stop sound from traveling, and an illusion to prevent any glimpses from a distance?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Connar said in a voice low enough to send an eager shiver through me.
Both of them spoke under their breaths as they cast. Their magic flitted through the air with a faint vibration I only picked up for an instant.
Jude turned back to me looking very satisfied with himself. “Now, where were we?”
“In the middle of making sure this is the best swim our Princess Bloodstone has ever had, I think,” Connar said, and lowered his mouth to nibble my earlobe.
Jude kissed me again, teasing his fingertips along my collarbone and then the edge of my bikini top. I gave an impatient hum that Connar responded to first. He slid his hands around me to caress both my breasts at the same time.
My body arched with the rush of pleasure, and Jude gripped my hip, aligning our bodies. If I’d had any doubts about how much he wanted me, the bulge that brushed against my core would have dispelled them. A hungry ache formed between my legs.
He didn’t rush, though. He just held me against him and kissed me with so much passion my head spun, already giddy with the bliss Connar was working through my chest and with his lips along my neck and shoulder.
Connar released me for just a second to undo the clasp at the back of my top. The water glided up over my bare skin even more intimately as the fabric drifted free. Jude tugged it right off and, with a cheeky grin, hung it from a notch in the cliffside.
Connar palmed my breasts again, carefully and then with more assurance. He swiveled his thumbs over my nipples until they stood at throbbing attention and then rolled them between his fingers so firmly I gasped against Jude’s mouth. The ache between my legs expanded.
With a rough breath, Connar shifted me higher against his frame, setting me in the perfect position for him to lavish even more attention with his mouth on the sensitive spot where my neck met my shoulder. My breasts broke from the water’s surface with a fresh lick of pleasure. He tweaked the nipples again. Then, as Jude left my mouth to nip along my jaw, Connar slid his hand underneath one breast as if to offer it up to the other scion.
Jude let out a breathless chuckle. “Now there’s a delicacy I can’t resist.”
He sucked the tip of my breast into his mouth, Connar worked over the other side even more enthusiastically, and all I could do was moan and be thankful their spells had covered any noises we made.
Pleasure rushed through me in waves of sparks. I tipped my head back, and Connar managed to capture my lips from behind, tucking his head over my shoulder. He teased my breast more tenderly and then pinched the nipple so I whimpered. My hips canted toward Jude.
Even as Jude swiped his tongue over the peak of my breast, he tugged me tighter against him. But that friction wasn’t enough to satisfy me anymore. I gave Connar one more desperate kiss and then yanked Jude up so our mouths could crash together. At the same time, I ground against him. He groaned, his teeth nicking my lip.
“Are you sure?” he murmured in a strained voice. His hand came to rest on the waist of my bikini bottoms, his fingers hooking around them meaningfully.
I nodded. “God, yes.”
He peeled the bottoms off me and tossed them over my top where it was hanging. With another tug beneath the water, the head of his cock traced over my clit. Connar had resumed his attentions to both my breasts and my neck, and for a few seconds that swell of sensation was enough. Then I growled impatiently.
“Jude…”
“Right here.” He curled his fingers into my opening first with a quick murmur to make sure this encounter didn’t end up with consequences more serious than any of us were prepared for, and then he was sliding inside me, one hot solid inch at a time. He clutched my thigh with a ragged exhalation as our bodies joined. The ecstatic burn of him filling me in combination with Connar’s touch and the fact that this was happening at all nearly sent me over the edge right there.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “You feel even better than I imagined.”
Somehow the thought of him imagining this moment, of him dwelling in his desire for me, made me even giddier. I bucked my hips to encourage him, and with a shaky laugh he plunged even deeper. My head lolled back, which Connar took full advantage of. The other scion scraped the tips of his teeth over the skin along my throat to blissful effect.
I wanted to give him more too. If I could make him feel anywhere close to as good as I did right now…
Jude thrust into me again, and my ass brushed Connar’s groin. I gasped as much from the thick erection that nudged my cheek as from the pleasure of Jude’s cock lancing through me. It didn’t seem Connar minded being a witness to his friend fucking me. He was nothing if not turned on.
I snaked my hand behind me and gripped his cock through his swim trunks. Connar’s breath stuttered against my shoulder. He squeezed my breasts as I slid my fingers over him. After a few tentative strokes, partly rocked by the perfect rhythm Jude was setting, I slipped my hand right beneath the fabric to caress him skin to skin.
Connar pumped into my grasp with a groan. He trailed his fingers down my body and pressed them to my clit just as Jude drove into me.
I cried out, pleasure bursting through me, and Jude claimed the sound with a fierce kiss. He thrust faster, my hand tighten
ed around Connar, and Connar kept working over my clit. The wave of bliss surged even higher and crashed over me all over again, in time with a choked breath from Connar.
Heat rushed past my palm as the Stormhurst scion reached his release too. Then it flooded me from the inside, Jude bowing over me with a shudder. He hugged me to him, tucking his head next to mine, and Connar held me too, nuzzling my hair on the other side.
I floated between them, adrift on ecstasy, too blissed out to even speak for the first few minutes. Then I managed to say, “Definitely the best swim ever. It’d be hard to top this.”
Connar chuckled, and Jude pecked my cheek playfully. “That sounds like a dare, Ice Queen,” he said.
I was a fearmancer, and I wasn’t equipped to absorb any emotion other than fear. I’d have sworn in that moment, though, I could feel the joy radiating through all three of us.
Just this once, just for now, everything was right. Even if I knew it couldn’t be more than the eye of a storm I hadn’t seen the end of.
Chapter Thirty
Rory
About a dozen of the Nary students were working together to lay the final coat of paint on the outside of their clubhouse. Watching them laugh and chatter with each other as they swiped their paint brushes over the wall, a sense of joy came over me for the second time in as many days. I smiled as I leaned against Ashgrave Hall in my usual vantage point.
The clubhouse was essentially done. The door was in place, glass in the windows, and the first batch of furniture had arrived this morning. Whatever my fellow fearmancers’ projects had been, they hadn’t managed to prevent mine from coming to fruition. And every word and gesture the Naries made showed how pleased they were with what they’d accomplished too.
