I flexed my fingers and took a deep breath. I would not explode today.
Would. Not. Explode.
“How’re things with Churchill? Huh? You two seem more like friends than lovers.” He circled me. His breath stirred my hair. I clenched my jaw. I had to keep it together. “There’s no passion between you … no sparks.” He held out his hand and vibrant orange and red sparks jumped up and around his hand for emphasis. “Are you okay with that? It seems to me like you’re the type to want more than easy or normal.”
I swallowed. I could feel the power surging from my middle. In a matter of seconds, it would burst through.
“Answer me.”
I exploded.
The surge of power coursed from my body and knocked down Owen, Kasey, and a guy named Peter who stood around us, blew out the lights, and toppled Beauregard out of his chair.
“Ah, doll face, we can’t have that.” Theo smirked but there was something else in his eyes—approval or appreciation, I couldn’t tell.
But anger eclipsed my common sense and I held my hands out. A large gust of air filled the room before heading straight toward Theo. It hit him right in the chest. He went flying across the room, hit the back wall, and fell to the floor.
He looked up at me, a stunned expression on his face. He reached around to feel the back of his head. His fingers came away bright red.
“Oh, no you don’t,” he growled angrily and jumped up in a lithe movement.
Before I had time to react, he was running full force at me. He crashed into me. I fell down on the mat with the air knocked out of my lungs. I tried to fight back but Theo was too strong, too heavy. He straddled me and held my hands above my head.
“You’re a cheater. This is hand-to-hand combat, not magical. Therefore, I win.” He tilted his head, appraising me with a challenging smile.
“The lesson isn’t over yet.” I lifted my head and spat on his shirt.
He looked down at the wet spot, his jaw clenching. “Oh, you really want to pick a fight today, don’t you?”
“You started it.” I glared at him, bucking against his hold on me.
He licked his lips and leaned closer to me. My breath quickened. I hated what he did to me. I hated how he made my pulse quicken. I hated how I wanted it. I hated him.
“You’re supposed to fight back, Mara, but for some reason, you must like the feel of me on top,” he whispered seductively in my ear.
That was it.
I twisted in his grasp, startling him, and kicked his chest. He grunted and let go enough for me to get away.
I was pissed the only time he touched me and talked to me was in this class. It wasn’t fair. I used my anger to my advantage and swung around, kicking his feet out from under him just when he stood. He fell onto his bottom.
“Mara,” he hissed. His nostrils flared and his gray eyes darkened to black.
I raised a brow. “Is that all you got, Theo? Bested by a girl? Huh, you must be losing your touch,” I taunted him.
He narrowed his eyes, my words having their intended mark. “Or I just don’t want to injure my psychotic charge.”
I laughed under my breath. “I don’t know how I ended up with you as my protector. It seems like they could’ve assigned me someone a lot better than you.”
His face emptied of expression.
Oh, shit. I’d hit a nerve and that was never good where Theo was concerned.
Before I could see what was happening he stood in front of me, shoving me into the wall with controlled grace. He was so close to me that you couldn’t have slid a piece of paper between us.
His eyes flickered back and forth between colors. They finally settled on black and I knew that wasn’t good.
“I think the better question is, how did I get stuck protecting you?”
That hurt. I think I would’ve rather had him hit me. I swallowed and fought back the tears his words had produced.
“Let go of me,” I warned, the words biting out between my teeth. I shook my arms against his hold, but he didn’t let go.
“Or what?”
I zapped him. It was a useful tool I had learned on my own. I didn’t know if it was something all enchanters could do, just Chosen Ones, or only me.
Theo fell to his back. He was stunned for three seconds before he slowly stood in obvious pain. He grabbed his back and hunched over. “What the hell was that?” he snapped, anger contorting his face.
“I told you to let go and you didn’t.”
He smiled which surprised me. “Looks like you’re starting to get some special powers. I don’t know whether to congratulate or kick you.”
“Stick with the congratulations,” I deadpanned. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with his moods.
We sparred some more and finally were dismissed. I changed quickly and followed Adelaide to her room. Theo sulked outside the door.
“Ugh,” Adelaide groaned and tossed her backpack on her desk. “You and Mr. Donnie Downer are driving me nuts.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m here to work on botany. Not listen to you complain about me and your brother.”
“Fine.” She forcefully opened her bag and yanked out her sketchbook. “Help me then.”
I sat down on Adelaide’s hot pink bedspread. Her walls were painted a bright cobalt blue that made my eyes hurt.
I spread my sketchbook out on the bed so we could both use my illustrations instead of Adelaide’s stick-figure-looking ones.
Adelaide grabbed her laptop and turned it on.
I pulled some notebook paper out and began to write my papers. We were quiet, and I enjoyed the easy silence. The silence I endured with Theo was anything but enjoyable. I finished my papers before Adelaide who kept groaning under her breath.
“Done.” She finally shoved the computer away.
“About time,” I joked.
She stuck her tongue out. “What is up with you and my brother?” she asked softly.
I peeled the mask off my face, having forgotten it was even there, and toyed with it. “I don’t know,” I hedged.
It wasn’t the first time she asked this, and I usually changed the subject or avoided it all together, but I didn’t feel like brushing her off anymore. I could tell I was pushing her away, and she was one of the few people I trusted. I couldn’t lose her and Theo.
“Really? You’ve both been really weird for months but I can still sense the sexual chemistry so I’m assuming you didn’t sleep together and that’s the issue. Or maybe it’s the lack of sex that’s the issue.”
I laughed under my breath. “You’re so weird, Adelaide. Do you really want to know if your best friend slept with your brother? I mean, he’s your brother.”
“What?” she shrugged. “I’m not stupid. I know Theodore’s far from innocent.”
I clenched my teeth in anger. It shouldn’t matter to me how many girls Theo had been with and yet it did. I was messed up.
“We didn’t sleep together,” I finally supplied.
“Something happened,” she stated. When I didn’t say anything, she sighed. “Theodore’s my brother and you’re my best friend. I hate seeing you both miserable like this when there’s an easy solution to the problem.”
“Adelaide—” I warned.
She held up a hand. “I want to see you both happy and I think that’s with you both together.”
“We hate each other.”
Adelaide laughed and asked again, “Who are you trying to convince? Me or you?” She bit her lip, obviously toying with something. “Do you know why Theodore’s your protector?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Is it some sort of punishment?”
“Shut up,” Adelaide snapped and pulled the mask out of my hands so I would stop playing with it. She tossed it over her shoulder and it landed with a soft thud on her pillow. “Listen to me very carefully, Mara. I mean it.”
I sat up straight. “I’m listening.”
“Protectors are rarer than the Chosen. Protectors can’t b
e assigned. They’re born. Theodore is your protector because his soul is tied to yours. Some divine being out there—” she waved her hands about “—chose him to protect you because he’s your perfect half. You’re connected.”
I swallowed. “It sounds like you’re talking about soul mates.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Maybe … I don’t know. I think it’s more than that. What I do know is Theodore isn’t your protector by chance. It’s fate.”
“You said we’re connected. What does that mean?”
“I don’t know the specifics, you’d have to ask him. But there is one thing I do know,” she said softly, her eyes growing sad.
“What?” I asked, dreading her answer.
“His life is tied to yours.” She swallowed thickly and hesitated before adding, “If you die, so does he.”
Chapter 18
STUNNED, I GRABBED MY STUFF and left Adelaide’s room without a word. I was shocked, to say the least. I opened her door and walked past Theo into my room.
Dinner was soon but I wasn’t hungry, and I certainly didn’t want to take part in the Halloween celebration.
Theo caught the door before it closed and came inside. Even if it had closed it wouldn’t matter. He could pull out his handy dandy key. He’d better hope I never found it because if I did I would flush that sucker down the toilet. After our kiss and the subsequent silent treatment he bestowed upon me, it would’ve been nice to have my room all to myself.
Nigel jumped up on the bed and rubbed against me. I scratched his chin as he purred. “Hey, boy,” I murmured.
At least someone likes me.
“Mara?” Theo asked softly, hesitantly, neither of which was very Theo-like. “What’s wrong?”
I paused, gathering my thoughts. “Adelaide said we’re connected. That if I die, you die. What else does it mean?” I looked up to meet his eyes. He didn’t say anything. “What does it mean?” I screamed at him, desperation leeching into my words. I wanted answers not these vague half-truths I kept being fed.
He flinched.
“You told me when you were little you used to dream about me. Do you still do that?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Are they dreams or visions?”
“I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his black hair. “Both, maybe.”
“What other freaky protector powers do you have that you haven’t told me about yet?” I lashed out at him.
“I can sense you,” he answered softly.
“You’ve already told me that,” I snapped, my fists clenched at my sides. Power barely radiated through me, but it was growing stronger, I could feel it pulsing and if it burst forth from the dam neither one of us would be safe.
“I wasn’t completely honest then,” he admitted sheepishly. “Yes, I can sense your whereabouts, almost exactly, but I can also sense your emotions and even your thoughts.”
“You can read my mind?” I shrieked and threw my mask at his head. He caught it before it made contact with his skull. Damn him.
“No. I can only pick up bits and pieces here and there. I can usually only do it when you’re very emotional about something. Usually I only hear your thoughts when you’re angry with me.” His lips quirked in a smile like this fact pleased him.
“Oh, great.” I threw my hands in the air. “That’s just fantastic.” I put my face in my hands, imagining all the things he’d heard and felt. “I hate this,” I whispered under my breath.
Theo leaned against the wall and toyed his lip ring with his teeth. “What else did Ade tell you?”
I sighed. “She said protectors are even rarer than Chosen ones. That you’re born to protect a particular person, not assigned.” I had pretty much figured out that information on my own when Theo had been telling me about his past but it was different having it confirmed.
“That’s true,” he said softly.
“Why us?”
He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’ve asked myself that question many times over the years. I’ve never found an answer. If you think of one, let me know.” He chuckled humorlessly under his breath. He sat down beside me on the bed. His arm brushed mine and energy vibrated between us. This was the closest we’d been since the kiss, except for class.
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I don’t really know what to say, except I’m sorry you’ve been dealt this card in life.”
“I think you’ve been through a lot more than I have.” My anger melted out of my body.
“Life sucks.” He shook his head. “But I know now to protect those I love.” He turned to me and those silvery gray eyes rooted me to the spot. “You can hate me all you want, Mara, but I’ll never let anything happen to you.” He sighed and continued. “I know I haven’t treated you very well these past few months and I apologize. It’s easier that way.”
“It’s easier if I hate you?” I asked, incredulous.
He rubbed his face, his hands rasping against dark stubble. “Yeah.”
“How is that easier?”
“Feelings are a complicated thing, doll face.”
I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “Theo … I, unfortunately, could never hate you.”
His lips quirked in a small grin. “That’s nice to hear.”
“Why?”
“I could never hate you, either.” His voice was suddenly husky. He leaned toward me. His breath stirred my hair and my eyes fluttered closed. I thought my heart skipped a beat.
His lips brushed lightly against mine, barely touching, but it was enough. A sudden fire burned in my veins. I reached over and wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my fingers in his silky black hair. His fingers splayed across my back and he pulled me to him. His body was hard against my soft curves. Electricity rolled off of us in waves. We were combustible.
He grabbed me and slid me onto his lap. I rolled my hips against him and he groaned low in his throat. The sound spurned me on and I grabbed his cheeks, angling my mouth over his. He moaned the moment our lips touched and my whole body responded to the sound, melting in his arms. His hands glided up my thighs to my hips, and finally slid under my shirt to touch my bare skin.
I jerked away, his touch against my skin like a bucket of ice water being dumped on my head.
This was wrong. I was with Winston.
I pulled away, breathing heavily. I leaned my forehead against his arm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. It was wrong.”
“How can something that’s wrong feel so right?” he asked so softly that I wasn’t sure I had heard him clearly.
“I don’t know.”
“I really fucked things up with you.” He laughed humorlessly, shaking his head. “I can be a real dick sometimes.”
“Sometimes?” I pulled away and raised a brow. “Try all the time.”
“I need to work on that,” he murmured. He looked over at me and met my gaze. “I’m really sorry for the way I’ve treated you. I’ve been a lousy protector.”
“Why did you kiss me that night?” The words slipped out before I could stop them.
Theo rubbed his face. “Do you want the honest answer or the dickhead one?”
“The honest answer,” I said, even though I was afraid that it might backfire in my face.
“I didn’t lie to you that night when I said I loved you. I do, Mara. Against all logic, I love you. As your protector, I’m not allowed to have those feelings. I kissed you because I hoped …” He swallowed. “I hoped if I kissed you I could get it out of my system. That obviously didn’t work so I …”
“So you pushed me away instead.”
“Exactly.”
“Where does this leave us?”
He closed his eyes and grimaced as if in pain. “We can’t be together, Mara. We can’t.”
“I don’t want to be enemies anymore.”
He turned to me. “Then I guess we better be friends. Even though I think that will be impossible. At least on my end.”
> “We’ll try.”
He took a few deep breaths. “Now that we’re back on speaking terms there are some things I need to teach you.”
“Teach me?” My brow furrowed.
“You need to know how to fight and use your magic against The Iniquitous.”
“Isn’t that what I’m learning here?”
He shook his head. “What they call defensive magic is anything but. Many of the teachers wouldn’t last ten seconds against an Iniquitous.”
My palms became clammy. “That sounds … promising.”
“You need to learn real magic.”
“And how would you know real magic if you never left here?”
He grinned. “I have my ways.”
Chapter 19
I SAT AT ONE OF the library tables while Theo paced the length of the room. Finally, he stopped in front of me.
“There’s a lot I need to teach you.”
“I figured that,” I said sarcastically.
“I need to teach you not only how to use defensive and offensive magic but how to fight in a battle.”
I kept quiet while he mused to himself.
He grabbed a chair and flipped it backward before settling into it. He crossed his arms and said, “I think it would be best to teach you hand-to-hand combat before the magic. You’re still not entirely in control of your magic yet and, frankly, I don’t want you to mess up my pretty face.” He rubbed his jaw. I narrowed my eyes and he raised his hands in defense. “Hey, it’s the truth. You’re new to all of this.”
I shook my head. “But haven’t I already been learning how to fight?”
Theo rolled his eyes. “Beauregard doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
“And you do? You’ve already confessed that the only time you’ve left the manor was to get me; I don’t see how you can know more than he does.”
“Don’t push my buttons, doll face.” His eyes narrowed, promising pain in my future if I didn’t shut up.
I laughed. “Let’s not talk about buttons anymore. Show me how to fight.”
Enchant (The Enchanted Book 1) Page 18
