Chapter 4 - Luna
CHAPTER 4 - LUNA
“ O h, God, these are good,” I moaned.
“That’s my job.” Cole dipped a churro in butterscotch sauce and lifted it to my lips. Syrup dripped on my chin as I took a bite, and he leaned over the table, licking it off me. “You taste so sweet.”
I laughed at him and fed him back with churro covered in hazelnut sauce instead. I purposefully dabbed it on his nose, grinning as I reached over to clean him up.
He swapped seats, coming to rest beside me, and leaned in close, growling at me, “We’re taking some of these to go, and I’m going to lick the sauce off your body.”
Yes, please!
My ovaries produced another hundred eggs for the occasion.
An elderly customer in Coffee Country gave us the evil eye, and we laughed and did it again, making a show of it. She huffed and turned away.
I didn’t care about the public displays of affection and I sure as hell didn’t care what people thought when I was having fun. We were going to damn well enjoy each other’s company on the last day before semester two started tomorrow.
“That belongs to me.” I wrapped my hand behind his neck and brought him down for a kiss to taste him. “Mmmm. I’m going to do the same to you.” I ran my palm down his chest in anticipation of getting back to our room.
Our sex life over the last two weeks consisted of quickies in the shower before we collapsed in bed only to get up and go back out the next day to restore the Veil. Any free time we had off at night, we spent with Blaze as a group, keeping him company while he healed from his ordeal. The bar excursion was our first outing in forever.
I wasn’t complaining. I’d do it again in a heartbeat if it saved Blaze.
“Not yet, Wildfire.” Cole’s rough voice made my nipples harden. “Eat your fill of dessert first, and then we’ll leave.”
Fine by me. I was done with magick, tools, and protective barriers. I wanted to spend as much time away from the Academy as possible and feel like I had a bit of a break.
During the first semester, we tried to come here once a week for an afternoon date with churros, dipping sauce, and hot chocolates. Our little ritual to relax after a long day of classes or work. We certainly made the most of the Academy dropping its curfew and leave restrictions. It was nice to get away from the students for a moment and just be myself.
The icy wind outside hadn’t been kind, driving more customers than usual inside, and the cafe was packed. We missed out on our usual seat in the back on the booth-style seats and took the only one left by the window.
I hated the window seats. Cars backed up at the roundabout outside, waiting for a pedestrian to cross, and it distracted me. The same was true if we went to a pub for dinner and the TVs blared sports, and I couldn’t stop looking at it, rather than enjoy my date. I had to twist my chair to focus on my boyfriend.
The cold tinted mine and Cole’s cheeks and noses pink. Heaters inside the café pumped the space with warm air, and it infused my body, making me sweat from all my layers.
“It’s hot.” I peeled off my scarf and coat and rested them on the back of my chair, using my new purse to fan my face.
Cole did the same, removing a layer, and I admired the flex of muscle beneath the hoodie hugging his defined arms. “You excited for your first day back tomorrow?”
“Yes and no.” I dipped a churro in the hazelnut sauce and took a bite. “Yes, because I’m excited to learn more, graduate and be free of the rules.” Not that I obeyed the whole teacher-student fraternizing policy anymore. “No, because Blaze isn’t teaching, and I need another holiday.” I said that part joking and part serious.
“I know what you mean.” Cole sipped at his coffee. “Minus the Blaze part.”
I scraped the excess sauce off my dessert. “How was he this morning?”
“Agitated and anxious.” Cole’s coffee cup clinked on the saucer.
Damn. He seemed upbeat at the Winter Ball. Or did he put on a brave act? He surprised everyone and drank at the event, and now that I thought about it, he probably masked his nerves.
My hunger disintegrated, and I lowered my churro to the plate. “I’ll visit him tonight.”
“It’ll be good for him.” Cole swirled a churro as if he lost his hunger too. “He’s not opening up, and I hate to see him bottle it up.”
I picked at the fringe wool of my scarf. “I’ll petition Venellan again this afternoon to get Blaze’s teaching position back.”
Cole stretched his arm forward to catch my hand. “This is up to Blaze to fix, not you.”
I scratched my head, torn on what to do, because he needed to know we were there for him, even if he didn’t want to talk. “My grandfather is the problem.”
Cole stroked my hand with his thumb. “And we’ll get him once we’ve cleaned out the Academy.”
Everything moved too slow for my liking, and my impatience swelled. The ghul curse was meant to kill my grandfather, and now he absorbed Blaze’s magick, potentially saving his life. I rubbed my forehead, wishing for this nightmare to end.
“Focus on what we can control.” Cole lifted his spare hand and flicked up a finger for everything he reeled off. “Blitzing your studies, strengthening your magick, your mental health, and hypnotizing and handling snakes.”
I loved how much he supported me.
He lifted another churro to my mouth. “Let Talon, Blaze, and me worry about catching the infiltrator and your grandfather.”
When I freed my mouth to speak, I said, “Good idea. Your mom is visiting this week. Are you excited?”
His mom received word that he searched for her and contacted him a fortnight ago, arranging a meeting.
The seriousness on his face evaporated into childlike enthusiasm that melted me. “Yeah. You’re coming, right?”
“Of course.” I made time in my schedule this weekend for when she arrived. This was important to my man, and I wouldn’t miss it, even if the world went to hell.
Knowing his mother was alive and didn’t intentionally abandon him lifted a burden from his heart, and the change was evident. He didn’t seem choked up about his past, carrying resentment at his treatment at the hands of the foster system that should have cared for him. He stuck to his promise to forgive Blaze and dropped his grudge, cracking jokes with him at the Winter Ball, sliding back into his old friendship. I didn’t detect a prickle of jealousy or insecurity when I spent time with my other men, Cole’s confidence and security in our relationship elevating to a level where it wasn’t a problem for him. In a way, he was a new man, freed of some of his emotional baggage.
Cole lifted one of my legs over his to massage. “I’m intrigued by what she’ll say that she couldn’t say over the phone.”
“That makes two of us.” She was very vague during their conversation. “Do you have a list of questions you want to ask?”
“Hundreds.” His grip on me hardened a little. “I’ll take it as it comes.”
“That will sound more natural, and more questions would fall from her answers.”
He nodded, ending that topic and starting a new one. “What classes are you taking this semester?”
I tapped my lip, recalling my schedule. “Defensive Spells, Level Two. Introduction to Potion Making and Offensive Spells, Level One.”
Cole chuckled and patted the side of my thigh. “You’ll love Potion Making.”
“Really? I was looking forward to Offensive Spells.” I needed to practice those for the showdown with my grandfather that tempered like forged steel in my blood, a weapon shaped to perfection.
My man continued his massage, getting a knot in the center from all the standing and walking we did this past week to repair the Veil. “It’s a good insight into what the Hadrians do.”
We all needed to know the roles of every Guild member as part of our studies to familiarize ourselves with who could assist us and how.
“I’m not looking forward to the dark arts.” A pain lashed down my spine from sitting rigid in my chair.
Ever since the wards mapped my mind, more memories cracked through my thoughts beyond the snake tongue Gable pried free. Lessons with my grandfather where he slapped or humiliated me if I didn’t perform to his expectations. Locked alone in a cell if I failed to apprehend the gantii he needed for a life-preserving spell.
Cole’s fingers went easier on me, responding to my tension, and I loved that he knew the cues of my body well. “My Dark Princess should excel at it.”
I leveled him with a hard stare. “Not funny. I dread that subject.”
He skimmed his palm along my quad. “Why? Are you nervous about your classmates?”
I bristled. “A little. I’m worried that looking at specific characters or reciting certain words will bring memories back.” I buried my face in my palm. “I do not want to go Dark Luna.”
He clasped my knee, the weight and warmth of his palm pumping me with reassurance. “Don’t hide from your past, Luna. Embrace it. Light and Dark Princess. All of it. Just because you were trained in the dark magick, doesn’t mean using it will turn you evil.”
He sounded like Gable, reminding me how the white magick lightened the darkness in my heart, mind, soul, in my very DNA. Evidenced by the discoloring of the second dark snake on my wrist from black to white.
I clasped his hands and squeezed. “Sometimes I need to hear that when everything reminds me of what I’ve done wrong.”
I reeled off a list in my mind: my snake tattoos branding me evil, disobeying orders to save Blaze, dating my teacher when it was against the rules, and my friendship with Gable. I shuddered at the last one, disgusted by my powers to control a gantii and snake against its will.
“I know, baby.” Cole pressed one palm to my heart. “You’re good in here, and that’s all I care about.”
I let out a gush of air, swallowing back a sob, grateful for his endorsement, commitment, and love. “I haven’t encountered the worst of it yet. Imagine what it will be like when all my memories come flooding back.”
“We’ll take it one day at a time,” Cole reminded, his voice low and soothing. “Don’t worry about it until then.”
Easy for him to say. He had all his memories, as horrible as they were. Maybe I was lucky in that respect. Some part of me wanted to keep the past buried, while the other wanted to unleash my full potential. I shoved those thoughts aside to enjoy the rest of my afternoon.
He changed the direction of the conversation again. “Let’s start planning a vacation since our mid-year one went to shit.”
His suggestion brightened my dulled mood and gave me a heightened sense of appreciation and trust that we felt comfortable broaching these topics when I didn’t feel secure addressing them with Talon or Blaze, given our rocky history. Our vibe changed from enemies to lovers to trust, friends, and hot tamale sauce spicy lovers. Oh, God… Astra rubbed off on me. Regardless of our status, I didn’t get into certain topics with my bonded or prince, and I was okay with that. Cole and Gable were enough to confide in.
Cole’s fingers tapped on my leg. “What about a Christmas vacation or even a weekend getaway with your harem?”
Harem. The first time he used the word when he previously avoided it.
I cupped his face. “I’d love to explore Sydney. Mom and Dad never took me there. Too many of Grandfather’s spies.”
My man’s mouth curled up into a secretive smile. “I might have something up my sleeve. Stay tuned.” He patted more of a beat into my legs and grinned.
“I love surprises.” I rubbed my chin, tossing up possibilities.
Cole tickled my belly. “Don’t even think of prying it out of me, Princess. These lips are sealed.”
I laughed and wriggled, my body ticklish. “I’m not!”
My boyfriend’s gaze held my eyes for a few beats and then dropped to my lips. “Come on, Wildfire. Let’s get these churros to go. I have a body to taste all over.”