by Elena Lawson
Granger assured me he couldn’t do that, not without council approval since she was the only one able to make decisions about who was and wasn’t allowed on the grounds.
But the whispers that followed me back to my room had me thinking that maybe Cal and Adrian should be removed from the premises. Since not all the students had returned in time for the mid-morning assembly announcement, the ones who came later were subjected to the broken telephone version from the other students.
Maybe I should send them back to the Abbey. It would be better than them being taken in by the Arcane Authorities, and certainly better than to trial like all the whispers suggested. But before I could even fully form the thought, I shut down the idea. They would never leave. Not after another student died.
“They should be put down,” the same asshole who’d fist-bumped his buddy after the first death said, and it was clear he was trying to project his voice enough so I could hear it clearly as I passed. I clenched my fists and my jaw, resisting the urge to set my magic loose on him. On anyone who thought they had a say in what happened to my familiars.
I didn’t like that they were out in the toolshed without me. I tried to send them a message down through the bond, to leave, go for a long long run, but I couldn’t concentrate hard enough to do it.
“We should all go home,” another girl said as she spoke to her friend in the stairwell leading up to the female dorms. “It isn’t safe here with them—” Their conversation came to a grating halt the moment they saw me.
I rushed past, shaking from the effort of containing my rage. A problem I hadn’t even thought of seemed to be Granger’s, and my, biggest hurdle now.
The parents.
It didn’t matter what the authorities discovered, or that they had no proof. If the parents of the students at the academy believed my familiars were a danger to their children, they’d pull them from the school.
And that was just one thing. If Granger didn’t agree to do as they demanded, they could start a petition to have her removed from her position. And if she was removed, who knew what vile person the council would instill in her place?
Someone who would act first and ask questions later. The parents were out for blood—the blood of my familiars, and I was terrified that it was only a matter of time before they laid this beasthunt to rest at the expense of Cal and Adrian. All it would take is one angry parent too blinded by grief or rage to see reason. They’d know the spell to do it. Everyone knew that one. It was illegal. Lethal. But would the parent of a dead child care about the consequences? I wasn’t a mother, but I knew that if someone took away someone I cared that much about, I’d cast first and think about the repercussions later.
I wanted to think I was smarter than that—but I didn’t think that was true. In that one terrifying second when I thought Cal and Adrian were dead, one of my first thoughts was that I could crush the person responsible.
Right now, for those parents, the people responsible were Cal and Adrian, with or without proof. I’d known it would be bad the moment I realized how it would look to find her there, but I never dreamed it would be this bad. If I had, I’d… well, I wasn’t sure what I would’ve done. Hide the body, maybe? Move it? Something. I would have done something.
I ripped the door to my room open, ready to have a good scream into my pillow, but Bianca was standing there when the door opened instead.
“Are you okay?” she asked, and all the frustration mounted, coming to a head. Was I okay? No. No, I wasn’t okay. Sensing as much, Bianca wrapped her arms around me, brushing her hand over my hair, trying to soothe the ache.
“They didn’t do it,” she said over the sounds of my sobs. “I know it and the authorities know it. This will all blow over, you’ll see.”
I wished I believed her. The alternative was too grim to bear. There was only one thing now that could lay this whole thing to rest. And that was finding the beast who was responsible for these grisly deaths and bringing them to justice.
It was the only way to save them.
And I would find a way to do just that… after I had a good ugly cry.
I didn’t leave my room again that day. Bianca spent half the day with me, studying quietly on her bed, before Marcus came to the door to ask her if she wanted to study in the library with him. She’d blushed when he’d asked, and tried to say no, glancing back at me as though to say, she needs me right now. But I urged her to go. She deserved a break from the shitstorm that was Harper Hawkins.
That and I felt horrible that I’d forgotten all about Marcus and how they’d been spending some time together. She never mentioned it and I—terrible friend that I am—never asked.
The sweet guy even brought me a dinner plate, figuring Bianca’s roommate who hadn’t come down for dinner must be hungry.
So now, here I was, with a plate of food I wanted to eat but couldn’t. In a room I didn’t want to be in but couldn’t bring myself to leave. Thinking about all the horrid things that’d happened in the last few weeks.
It was the start of a pretty badass pity party if you asked me.
“Harper,” his voice called through the wood of my door in a loud whisper. “Open the door.”
The urge to cry some more vanished all at once, and I hopped from my blanket cocoon of sadness to open the door. What was he doing here?
Was he insane?
I wrenched open the door, ready to shout at him, but there wasn’t anyone there. A brush of his magic launched past me and I stepped back, slamming the door. I spun to find him, his ward of invisibility dropped, standing at the center of the room.
His dark brown hair was disheveled, but in a way that it still managed to look incredible on him. The man could wear a mop on his head and pull it off. And his dress shirt was rumpled, the top two buttons undone to reveal the smooth skin of his tan chest below. He had the sleeves rolled up in that way that made me ravenous to touch them. I balled my hands to keep them in check.
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t come sooner. I wanted to, but I just got back to the academy an hour ago and the Arcane Authorities wanted to ask—”
“Elias,” I breathed. “What are you doing in here?”
It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy to see him—or I didn’t think it was. It was his willingness to constantly put himself and his career at risk to do shit like this. To see me.
He cocked his head, obviously confused at my reaction. “I thought you’d want—” he started, looking hurt.
“Want you to lose your job?” I pressed, feeling awful the moment the words left my mouth. “Were you not there in your classroom the other day? Donovan saw us. He could’ve told Granger, or—”
“But he didn’t,” Elias said, his gaze hardening and adams apple bobbing.
The truth was, even with all the crazy, I’d been thinking about Elias a lot. I missed him, so, it was hard not to. But I’d come to the painful realization that if I let myself, I would fall in love with him. And I didn’t think I wanted that.
No, that wasn’t right—I definitely wanted that. The problem was that I couldn’t have it, no matter how much I wanted it.
It was only a matter of time before someone discovered us, and then what? I’d have ruined his life, too. I’d already taken Bianca’s uncle away. Got Cal and Adrian thrown out of their pack and brought them to a place where they could be pinned for two murders. What was next?
I didn’t want to let it be him.
I couldn’t let it be him.
My voice wobbled when I tried to speak. “But he could’ve, Elias. And you’re an idiot for coming here. This place is crawling with authorities right now.”
“I had to see you.”
My heart ached at the look in his stormy blue eyes. The accusation there. The pain.
I didn’t realize I was shaking my head over and over until I made it stop and drew in a breath. “I think we need to cool it,” I said, having to forcibly evict the words from my mouth.
Elias didn’t look all that surp
rised as he ran a restless hand over his jaw. After a minute, I gathered he wasn’t going to respond. He was waiting for me to elaborate before he came up with his unavoidable rebuttal.
I moved in closer to him, realizing anyone who got close enough to my door would be able to hear us if we kept talking so loudly. There would be absolutely no excuse for a professor to be in a female student’s dorm room. We wouldn’t be able to weasel out of that one.
I bit the inside of my cheek, afraid to look up at him and lose my nerve. I think he could sense it, too, that I was on the verge of cracking. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides, just inches away from me, eagerly wanting to reach out to console me. But that wasn’t his job. It couldn’t be for as long as I was a student here.
Or could it? My mind whispered back. When I became an adult in the eyes of the council—when I turned eighteen, would it be so frowned upon? Would he still be reprimanded if it came out then? With a heavy sigh, I realized that though it wouldn’t be illegal, it would likely still be frowned upon, so even if it didn’t ruin his career, it would ruin his reputation.
I chanced a glance up, meeting his sad eyes. My heart rebelled against the words I was about to say, but I couldn’t wait until something happened and then live regretting not saying them. “I think we should—”
He didn’t let me finish. Elias’ mouth fell on mine swiftly, and I gasped as his hands came around my face, holding me to him with a deep and unsated hunger tinged with something like desperation. Into the kiss, he poured his need for me. All the reasons not to cool it down or stop doing anything. All the reasons it was so, so worth it. And damn if it wasn’t the best fucking rebuttal I’d ever not heard.
It took exactly two and a half seconds for me to cave. And another one second for me to wrap my hands around his neck and knead my fingers into his hair. He had his fingers in my hair, too, and with a gentle tug, he pulled my face back from his, holding it with a fist full of my messy red locks. I panted, glaring at him. Hating him for what being around him did to my body. How it affected my heart. But mostly angry at him because I knew I could never truly give him up—not really.
I couldn’t. More than that though… I wouldn’t.
There was nothing quite like the feeling I had with him. The complete connection. Of body, mind, spirit, and magic.
Like calls to like.
Where Cal and Adrian were my bonded familiars, and Draven was… well, whatever the hell Draven was… Elias was my counterpart in another witch. And that couldn’t be denied.
“Tell me you want me to go,” he challenged me, his voice coming out rugged and raspy, which only made me want him even more. “Tell me you don’t want this.”
I couldn’t. It would be a lie to say it. And I had to be one of the shittiest liars. Why even try?
Our breaths mingled between us, and our chests heaved against one another. His cold pine and bergamot scent wrapped around me like a ward of protection—made me feel safe. Warm.
So, selfishly, foolishly, I kissed him back.
He moaned into my mouth and his heart pounded hard against my breasts. I pulled back. “But we have to be more careful,” I said, and he tugged me back to kiss him again.
“Ok.”
“You can’t come to my room ever—”
He silenced me with another kiss—this one making my belly flutter.
“Done.”
“And Elias?”
“Yeah.”
“There’s one more thing.” I did my best to disentangle myself from him, but he wouldn’t fully let me go.
He waited for my final condition, and this one was a doozy. I felt strange even asking for it. But it had to be done because I wouldn’t be forced to choose, not between them.
I saw something click into place behind his eyes, and his narrowed gaze relaxed. “It’s them, isn’t it. Your familiars. You…” he seemed like he was having trouble saying it.
Please say it.
Please say it so I don’t have to.
“You want them, too, don’t you?”
I shrank away, afraid that he may not understand. That’d he’d reject it. Reject me. I mean, how many girls out there had three of four boyfriends and all of them were okay with it? I’d wager not all that many.
“Is that,” I said, shrinking even further into myself. “I mean, would you—”
He pulled me back from the shell I was trying to retreat into. Drawing me back up to him. Elias caressed my face as he considered me—as though he was looking at a piece of fine art, or some mysterious, ancient artifact. As though I were something uniquely precious, and when I was with him, sometimes it felt like I was just that.
“I would be lying if I said I didn’t want you all to myself.”
My heart fell.
“But,” he added, sensing the change. “I would never seek to own you. Or to control you. I’ve known for a while now that there was something more between you and them than what would be normal for a witch-familiar bond, and I’m still here, aren’t I?”
It wasn’t an explicit yes, but it wasn’t a no, either. It was an acceptance of what was. And for now, it was enough. Looking into the eyes of one of the men I now knew I loved, I saw all the possibilities of a future I only thought I could have in dreams.
We just had to make it through this nightmare first.
“There’s something else isn’t there?” he asked after a minute, and I blew out a breath, dragging the backs of my hands over my tired eyes.
“Harper?”
I pulled the journal out from between the bed and mattress and held it out to him. “Don’t be mad,” I said as a preface, and he took the leather-bound journal from my hands. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I guess it’s about time I caught you up to speed… and then you really need to get out of my room.”
17
After Elias left, I felt energized and exhausted all at once. I’d been planning to stay up into the night to keep watch out my window. Maybe if I was lucky, I’d see something. A mountain lion or a bear or anything that could’ve done this. But my eyelids were drooping, and my bones felt heavy.
Bianca still wasn’t back from her study session with Marcus, and I wondered how it was going, but not enough to go and see for myself. Leaving my room to do anything but go to the lavatory was completely out of the question.
“Can I come in?”
I dropped my midnight oil, the cup shattering against the floor. Damnit. Really? I must’ve forgotten to latch the window. “Draven, you have to stop doing that, you’re going to give me a heart attack.”
He didn’t respond, letting himself in and latching the window behind himself. There were no authorities patrolling the grounds tonight, and I thought it odd since a girl had been found dead only this morning. “Did the authorities leave already?”
Draven nodded, sitting on my bed. “About an hour ago.”
I stiffened. “You’ve been here an hour?”
He waggled his brows at me and patted the spot on the bed beside him, his long fingers drumming the thin blanket. “I’d have come in earlier, but you seemed to be in the middle of something.”
My pulse sped.
“Lover’s quarrel?”
I didn’t respond. It was like someone had replaced my tongue with a gigantic wad of cotton and I couldn’t form words around it.
He clucked his tongue and shook his head. “And with a teacher… I didn’t think you had it in you, Sparks.”
Sparks?
“I’m impressed.”
“You can’t tell anyone,” I blurted.
Draven mimed zipping up his lips and throwing away the key, breaking into a smile when he was finished. “Don’t look so morose. Your secret is safe with me. Vampires are wholly unconcerned with trivial things like age.”
Oh, really? Good to know…
“Have you found anything else?”
I assumed when I found the journal back where I normally kept it, that he’d come over the weekend to d
rop it off for one of two reasons—because he found something and wanted to tell me about it, or he’d given up.
I hoped it was the former. Elias had flipped through the journal, and I’d given it to him to take back to his cabin, but he didn’t seem at all confident in his ability to decipher much of it. Together, I hoped we could at least start to uncover its contents.
Draven bowed his head, and his longish shining black hair fell to cover his eyes. “Not really, no. I’ve got some notes on that one entry I’m still working through, and I’ve committed several others to memory so I can leave the journal here with you—but…”
But?
“But what?”
When he looked up, his jaw was tight and his gaze dangerous. “That’s not why I came tonight, Harper.”
Oh?
“I was here last night.”
What did he mean? That must’ve been when he dropped off the book.
He watched me expectantly, and it took me a minute to put two and two together, and then I was stepping back from him, tripping in my haste. I forgot about the broken glass and…
Shit.
A jagged chunk of the teacup bit into my heel and I winced, going down in a heap.
Crap, crap, crap.
Was this him admitting it? He was here. Had he killed both of them? Why dump their bodies by Cal and Adrian’s cabin? To make sure his kind wouldn’t be implicated?
Blood welled from the deep gash in my foot, and I snapped my head up, finding Draven mere inches from my face, his fangs glinting in the light. His pupils fully dilated.
“No!” I shouted, and his hand came to cover my mouth.
He forced me to look into his eyes as he said, “Calm. I need you to stay calm,” with so much restraint, a muscle in his temple twitched and his voice came out rasping.
The force of his compulsion soothed me, and I felt my muscles relaxing. My racing heart quieted in my chest—stopped pounding in my ears.
“Heal yourself,” he ordered, and I did as I was told. My magic coming easily to my fingertips, drawing the glowing yellowish sigil that would heal me. I pressed it into the wound, and the skin knit itself back together, but there was still blood all over my hand from when I’d tried to staunch the flow.
