“But you and the guys do want sex.” Damn, this was like pulling teeth!
He licked his lips. “I–” he tried again. “We, yes.”
He could barely get the words out, and his cheeks were reddening. It was adorable.
“Okay.” His mouth fell open at my reply. “But before I can agree to any relationship, I need one hundred percent honesty as to exactly what the relationship is between you three and what mine can be with each of you. What you guys all hope for from me.”
He looked absolutely stunned. “Yeah, okay, umm, damn. Ah, we’ve never told anyone else, not fully.”
“If I’m to become your fourth, I need to know how the pairings work,” I said, keeping my tone mild. “No judgment from me.” I reached into my bag and placed the book I’d been reading on the table and slid it across. “I already have my suspicions.”
He glanced at the cover, taking in the tag line before flipping the book over and quickly skimming the blurb. When he finished, he looked up at me, his eyes bright and no longer as wary. “Charles and Brent were together first, then we started fooling around to see if we could mesh our magickal auras, and become a triad. It became more, so they’re mine, and I’m theirs, and they are each other’s.”
My mind went to all kinds of naughty places, imagining them like that. I licked my lips, trying to ignore how aroused I was, thanks to my runaway imagination. “And my role?”
“I hoped you’d be my best friend the way Charles is Brent’s. Not that he loves me any less, but…Gah! It’s hard to explain.”
“I think I understand. So, I was to be your best friend and lover.”
“We hoped that once you got used to us all doing the smaller intimate things to fuel our magick, you might want to be their lover, too. All of us equal in that regard.” He gave a sardonic laugh. “We felt like planets trapped by your gravity, needing the light you shone down on us after the bleakness of what we’d known before. We told you that, remember? It wasn’t a lie.”
My breath caught. “And now?”
“We feel adrift in the Deep Dark. We still want you like that, and not just because of the magick and how we can never bind to another locii. I mean, in the beginning, that made a good reason to be seen with you, but it was never only that. It scared me at first; I’d never been so drawn to a girl before, and certainly never to anyone I’d only just laid eyes on. So I told you that stupid shit about your cat, trying to annoy you while pretending it was trying to be helpful with advice to get people to leave you alone.”
“The truth at last,” I whispered.
“It will only ever be the truth between us from now on, I swear. We made a pact. Even if you don’t love me anymore and hate their guts too, know you’ll only ever have honesty and respect from us.”
“I never stopped, loving you all, I mean. I thought I was breaking some taboo, crushing on Charles and Brent.”
He closed his eyes, his coffee and pastry forgotten as he processed what they’d nearly had. When he opened them and spoke, his voice was thick with the unshed tears I could see once more threatening to make an appearance down his cheeks. “When you disappeared, we feared the worst. That someone had kidnapped you. It had been bad enough to find out you’d returned to the academy early, without us. When you vanished on your way to class–“ He stopped to wipe his eyes, overcome. “Then the secretary admitted that you’d called your aunt and your grandmother was furious. She came to school and asked everyone a bunch of questions, trying to figure out why’d you do such a thing. We didn’t know then that you’d misunderstood the conversation I had with my father or that Lydia had told you a bunch of horse shit.”
He took another breath. “Anyway, your Aunt Lisanne wasn’t being very forthcoming, not even once the Council became involved, and she was brought in for questioning about your disappearance, especially once it was discovered that your aunt and uncle had also vanished.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa! It had become that much of a big deal? Why hadn’t Aunt Tillie and Uncle Joe mentioned anything about all the drama?
“So, we, and by this I mean Charles, Brent, Jacob, Joanna, Felicia, Rina and me, decided that since they were all too busy arguing over whose fault it was and how it was like when your mom and dad left and stuff like that, we would do some investigating ourselves. So, Brent got Olivant to tell him where you’d lived before. He and Joanna went to see if anyone there was still in contact with your aunt and uncle or knew where they’d moved to or anything. Joanna made him stop for ice cream, and she asked the girl at the counter about you guys.”
“And that was how you met Marla.”
“Yep.”
“But how did you guys find me here?”
“Oh, that was George. After you left, George was sad, and Felicia babied her, giving her canned sardines. After George managed to zero in on your,” he glanced around, not wishing for us to be overheard, “you know, she came here to you. But she kept sneaking back, hoping for more sardines, so we got the idea to put a locator spell on George one day.”
“I believe in magick,” I sang softly. I reached across the table. “If you guys still want me, even though I ran without being grown up enough to talk to you guys and try to sort things out first, I’m all yours.”
He placed his other hand on top of mine. “We weren’t exactly mature, either. We should have been honest about being together like that and what we wanted in a relationship with you.”
“A throuple,” I giggled. “That’s what Marla calls it.”
“Then what is it when there’s four?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. A quadple?” We both laughed at that.
“How about we just call it being a family?” he asked.
I liked that.
“Aunt Lisanne was going to find out about tutors to help me catch back up to what I’ve missed now, so I could transfer to a new academy.”
“Hargreaves told your grandmother that you were fine to return. You’ve missed a few weeks, but should be able to catch up with extra lessons.”
“A few weeks? Try months!”
“Um, no…” He looked genuinely puzzled. “Why would you think that?”
“It’s winter there, the Winter Solstice Ball has happened, and when I mentioned tutors and how I knew time went twice as fast there–”
“Hang on, twice as fast? Where’d you get that idea? Yeah, time moves differently, but not that much. And no, the Winter Solstice Ball hasn’t happened yet.”
“But you guys said Lydia was banned from it.”
“Yeah, she is. Not that she was banned and we all went. She’s banned as in not going to be allowed to attend. It's still three weeks away. And you do realize that our seasons are not the same as here, but then neither is Australia’s.”
They’d lied to me again. I’d said that about the time passing twice as fast there and neither Aunt Tillie nor Uncle Joe had corrected me. As for the rest of what he just said, it made sense. They started school in the autumn, the same as we did in the USA, but they were a different world, so, duh, the calendars did not match up. I felt like an idiot. What else were they lying about?
“How long have I been gone?”
“About five and a half weeks,” he replied. “And Hargreaves suspended classes for two until they knew you had left of your own volition, because when word got out that you might have been kidnapped, parents majorly freaked.”
“I can go back,” I whispered.
“Yeah, but if you really want to change schools, we can all talk about it, if you want, that is. We’ll go wherever you want us to.”
I bit my lower lip. This was a bit overwhelming. My aunts and my uncle were being duplicitous, for whatever reason. I had to believe that they had what they genuinely thought was my best interest, but still…And as for going back to dark Light, the idea appealed to me. Our friends were there, and I genuinely liked the teachers and classes, except for our crazy P.E. teacher and the Hellscape he thought of as a gym class.
“I need
to think. See me tomorrow? Around breakfast?”
“Any place special in mind?”
“Here. I work the morning shift, so if you meet me here around eight, we can talk before I go in.”
He stood and came over to me, kissing me on my cheek. I wasn’t having that, so I turned my head, claiming his lips.
“See you in the morning,” he said.
“See you,” I replied. It was only after he left that I realized neither of us had finished our pastries, and our coffees had remained untouched and were now stone cold.
Chapter 33
I spent the rest of the morning at the beach, popping into the cafe just after the lunch rush should have finished. My mind was in enough turmoil that I wasn’t hungry but knew I needed something, the only thing I’d eaten all day being the pastry in the coffee shop that morning. I figured if I got myself a double cone with a scoop each of watermelon and coconut sorbet, I’d manage to both soothe my disquiet and get some calories into myself. I walked into chaos, finding an entire Girl Scout troop lined up for ice creams while Sally tried to deal with a large take out order.
I immediately went into the back and washed my hands. Returning, I took my place behind the ice cream freezer. “I’ve got this,” I told Sally.
“You’re a lifesaver,” she replied, glancing at the clock. “I’ll make sure you get paid for this.”
Once the construction crew foreman left with his order and the last of the Girl Scouts was out the door with her ice cream in hand, we all breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thanks, I certainly had not expected it to get that crazy today. We were absolutely slammed. Now, did you come in for lunch? It’s on the house.”
“No, just ice cream,” I told her.
“You sure?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
“Help yourself,” she replied.
I did and moved to pay, but she waved me off. “Go enjoy the rest of your day off.”
It was now close to the time that I would be getting off work if I had been scheduled to work a morning shift.
“Where’s Susie?” I asked her. She was the other summer hire and worked opposite shifts to me.
“She was rear-ended on her way in.”
“Oh, no! I hope she’s okay.”
“She said she was, but I told her to go get checked out at the hospital. She tried to refuse, but I told her I wasn’t allowing her back here without a note saying she was cleared. Whiplash is no joke.”
My heart sank. If I decided to go back to Dark Light right away, I’d be leaving Sally in a right pickle.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” she hastened to say. “She was still in her condo’s parking lot when it happened. I just wanted her to be a hundred percent sure she was okay and figured after something like that, her nerves would be far too jangled to pay attention here anyway.”
“Okay,” I replied, unconvinced.
“Uh, oh, I know that look. What’s up?”
I debated telling her., but reason won out. It wouldn’t be right not to let her know I was leaving. I decided to give her a version of the truth that wouldn’t make me sound like a loony. If I was going back, I needed to provide her with enough advance warning that she could get cover.
“I have a study abroad opportunity, and I have to decide if I want to take it.”
“Oh, wow! What’s holding you back?”
That was a great question. What was holding me back? Worrying about making my aunts and uncle disappointed and maybe even angry? I couldn’t let whatever their beef was with my grandmother decide the course of my life, especially that of my love life. Dark Light was the most prestigious university-level school of magick for good reason. It’s why they and Aunt Lisanne had chosen it to begin with. I certainly couldn’t allow my love life to be dictated by them, either, even if they lumped the guys’ families in with my grandmother.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Is it work? Do you need more hours to pay for tuition? I can rearrange your schedule so you can get a second job if you need me to.”
“No, it’s not that. The tuition is being paid for.” That much was true. Aunt Lisanne had paid for this term in full before I even started, and Granny Dearest was footing the bill for everything else. “Actually, kind of the exact opposite. Their terms start earlier than ones here and finish sooner.”
Her eyes rounded, dismay showing loud and clear. “Oh! So if you go, you need to quit before the summer is over.”
I nodded, feeling miserable. I hated putting her in this position. Sally had hired me on the spot, giving me a chance in her busy cafe despite my having zero experience.
“Honey, don’t let this job hold you back. You’re going to university, studying whatever it is so you can get some better paying job than this. I know studying abroad is a big deal, not everyone gets that chance. It’ll look great on your resume, help you get a really good job after you graduate.”
“But I’ll be leaving you in the lurch,” I protested. “I’d have to go in just a few days.”
She looked shocked. “How few days?” she asked.
“Like, the day after tomorrow.” While that was not strictly true, it kinda was. Any longer than that and I might lose my nerve. I needed to gather my courage so I could tell my aunt and uncle today and send George with a note to ask the guys to come get me the next.
Sally licked her lips. “I won’t pretend it won’t put us in a small bind, but we can handle it. I’ll put a Help Wanted sign in the window today and probably have someone ready to start in a few days. It’s serving ice cream and bussing tables, not rocket science.” She cocked her head at me. “What are you studying, anyway?”
My mind raced, and a quote from Arthur C. Clarke popped into my head. My biology teacher had had a poster in his classroom with it on. “Science,” I answered her. “Physics.” I figured that was pretty accurate. We did stuff that broke those laws, right? The ones we knew, anyway. And Clarke had said magick was science we didn’t yet understand.
“I never would have pegged you for a science geek,” Alan said. “Sorry, I was coming to let Sally know what to comp for my lunch. I’m okay to take my break now, right?”
“Yeah, you’re fine,” Sally reassured him.
“Why not?” I demanded. “Lots of women work in STEM!”
Sally laughed. “With those shoes and the rest of your sense of style and bubbly personality, you are kind of like that goth chick from NCIS, only not, well, goth.”
Alan gave me a lopsided grin. “Okay, stick a lab coat on over her outfits, and I could see it.”
I inwardly preened as it meant he didn’t think I wasn’t brainy. Which I’m not, at least I don’t think I am. Though I know I am pretty smart. I did catch up on a whole butt load of elementary magick in just a few weeks, after all, and any more gaps in knowledge I came across, I was confident I could overcome. Plus, there was the whole finding Fae easy to learn thing, so it turned out I was really good at foreign languages. If I’d taken French or Spanish in high school, my GPA probably would have been better.
“Okay,” I said, deciding to take the plunge. “If you’re sure you can hire someone…”
“I’ll figure out your wages tonight and send you the money tonight,” she promised. “No need to worry about having to wait. “Now scoot. Only employees can stand behind the counter.”
I threw my arms around her. “Thank you!”
“Yeah, okay, kiddo,” she gave me a hug back.
“What’s going on?” Mindy asked as I came out from behind the counter.
“Tuesday’s leaving us,” Sally said.
“No way! Is it those guys?” she asked me, lowering her voice. “The ones that you went off with?”
I should have known we’d been observed by my nosy co-workers.
“It’s a study abroad program,” Alan told her.
Mindy looked disappointed. “I thought it might be those guys.”
I decided to put her out of her misery. “Well, they are going to the
same place.”
She squealed. “I knew it! Which one is the lucky man?”
I leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “All three of them.” Her thrilled, shocked face kept me on a high all the way home, making me giggle in between licking and nibbling the edges of my cone.
“You’re in a good mood,” Aunt Tillie said as I came in through the front door.
“Yeah, I had some thinking to do, about school and all. “
“You came to a decision? I hope the list we put on your dresser was helpful.”
I hadn’t even known it was there, but telling her that was not going to make this go any better.
“I’m going back to Dark Light tomorrow. I’ve decided to not let Grandmother or anyone else keep me from getting the education I deserve.”
She stared at me. I could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she processed this news. To my surprise, she didn’t blow up. She pursed her lips together. “Well, I’m not sure your uncle can take tomorrow off to take you, and your Aunt Lisanne doesn’t like to portal.”
That explained why she never came to see us in this world. I filed away this piece of information, in case I needed it later. It was another piece of the puzzle of what was going on with our families, no doubt.
“That’s not a problem,” I told her. “I’ve got a ride.”
“Who?” she asked, her voice sharp this time.
“One of my school friends has agreed to come to get me,” I said, deciding to have George ask for Joanna to be the one to pick me up, if possible. If one of the Trio did, she’d blow up if this was any indication.
Sure enough, her eyes narrowed. “Which one?”
“Joanna and Felicia. I’ve told you about them before, right? My best friends there. We had a lot of the same classes, I mean have,” I corrected myself because, duh, I was going back. “We did homework together and hung out a lot.”
“I’m sure that’ll be fine. Your uncle and I just worry about you, you know. You’ve got a rare gift, and there will be people in this world who seek to exploit it. People like your grandmother.”
“I know,” I said softly, not speaking aloud what I was beginning to suspect. Even you, probably.
Discovery of Magick (Dark Light Academy Book 1) Page 21
