Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Uh, girlie? Girlie! Hey, you with us? I was wondering if I could borrow your Draughts and Potions flashcards?”
I jerk to attention, offering Alyssa a guilty smile before passing the stack of flashcards over.
I’m seated in the basement of the library at Cafe Ciel on a tall cafe stool, studying with my friends, Darika, Luca, Cassian and Simon, but all my thoughts have been about Marcus.
I’m slowly cooling off after our fight. Part of me wants to cling to my anger and hurt a bit longer, to hold on to my convictions about his lies.
Another part of me can’t forget the way he looked at me when he told me he loved me.
I so want to believe him, that he lied so he could protect me, but would things truly have been different if he’d told me the truth about how he wasn’t immune to me?
I drum my pen on my notebook. I wouldn’t have trusted him with my heart so easily, wouldn’t have accepted his protection and care if I’d known.
I might even have requested a new honor guard.
I never would have carried this deep love for one of the best alphas I know.
Saints, he makes it too easy to want to fall into his arms. What am I even resisting anymore?
“Earth to Junie,” Bitsy says, waving a hand in front of my eyes. “Damn, she’s really not here with us tonight.”
“I’m here, I’m here,” I say, throwing my hands up and cracking my textbook for Intermediate Casting open.
In truth, I’m stuck in my thoughts, and not just about Marcus.
Our study group has grown so much. It used to just be me and Luca studying on the bridge near the omega residences, and now I’m packed up and surrounded by friends.
A pack I wouldn’t have if not for Marcus.
Instead of letting me spend time with Luca, he could just as easily have forbidden it.
I’d never have gotten to take off around Deer Island on the back of Luca’s bike.
Luca would never have donned the Baphomet mask to spy for me.
He never would have been pulled into Cassian’s lies and then unraveled them all before my very eyes, letting me see Cassian as the boy I once loved, now grown into a strong, caring alpha.
I never would have let Cass touch me, let alone bite and mate me.
Somehow, Marcus is inextricably woven into all my highs and lows since coming to Fairhaven. And all the moments in between.
“Oh saints, Bitsy,” Ellie says, pulling me from my thoughts once again. “You know Connor’s stance on streaking. And mine. And Jace’s.”
Bitsy waves her off. “Your stance changes after three drinks.”
“Want me to quiz you, Lys?” I ask, banishing further thoughts of Marcus from my head. Saints, I need to actually study if I plan on acing my finals.
“Oh, yes please!” she says, brushing her soft brown curls out of her eyes and handing me back the stack of flashcards.
We work together on memorizing every single sigil of the spells we could be tested on in Professor McNamara’s final until my eyes feel bleary, and I definitely need another coffee if I’m going to keep studying.
I stand up from my stool and stretch, immediately feeling Marcus’ eyes tracking me as I cross the cafe’s seating area to the counter.
I catch his eye and come to an abrupt halt.
Saints, Marcus looks terrible. As though he hasn’t slept at all since our fight.
I consider him for a moment as I go for my coffee.
While I’ve had my pack to help deal with the gulf between us, Marcus has had no one to help him through. I sigh.
“And a black coffee, too, please,” I say to the barista.
When she hands me over the drinks, I drop by the table Marcus has been occupying, finding his book set aside for the moment.
Our eyes meet as I set his coffee down on the tall cafe table, and he hesitates, as though he wants to say something more than the “thank you” he finally says.
I give him a smile. A real one.
For the first time in a long time, I feel like we’ll find each other again across the chasm between us.
I’m on edge as I walk toward my first final of the semester: Intermediate Casting.
I can’t help but remember the devastation that occurred as we sat our midterm exams. The greatest institution of our government was attacked by the Soldiers of Saint Aldous that day.
Gerard was struck down by the Ever Ember hex and barely survived.
My scent sharpens as I recall the video Rad sent me.
I try to put on a brave face when all I am is terrified.
Terrified that something worse could happen during finals.
Baphomet’s Prince had wanted to launch his armies by summer.
Will we get a preview of that during finals?
But no, there’s no reason Baphomet’s Prince would do such a thing in line with something as petty as academy exams. He’s not Rad, my savage ex-betrothed, determined to ruin my time at the academy I love.
There won’t be an attack. Not today. Not this week. I haven’t had any visions suggesting such, though my vision during midterms came right as we began our exam. I suck in a shallow breath. Saints, please let me get through my finals without a vision.
Marcus stops me outside the classroom door, and I turn to him quickly.
My eyes widen. “What is it? A threat?”
“Not a threat,” he promises, slipping a bag of SweeTarts into my hand. “For luck.”
I squeeze his hand and stare up at him. This is his version of a black coffee during a late-night study session, his olive branch to help bridge the gap between us. “Thank you, Marcus.”
“You’re going to ace your exams. I know it.”
“Oh,” I say with a self-satisfied grin. “I know it too.”
I finish the written part of Professor McNamara’s exam before anyone else and turn it in before heading out to the hall to wait for the practical portion of the exam.
I’ll have three practical exams for my finals this semester, and I’d like to think I’m well prepared for them.
I already know I got every answer right on the exam I just took.
Marcus follows me out, and I drift down the hallway a bit before taking a seat on the stone floor.
Marcus sits beside me, so close our shoulders brush.
Saints, I’m not even sure he intended for us to touch, but the touch makes my heart swoop.
He’s warm and strong beside me and, for a moment, all I want to do is rest my head against his shoulder and breathe in his wintry scent.
But I can’t. Not yet. It’s too soon after our fight, and part of me is still hurting.
I told him I needed time, and I tell myself the same thing as I fish my Applications of Magic flashcards out of my bag.
“Will you quiz me?”
He arches a brow and nudges me with his shoulder. “You know all the answers backward and forward already.”
“One last round before my final this afternoon couldn’t hurt.”
He takes the stack of flashcards from me, our fingers brushing. “All right then, let’s see what you’ve got. What type of magic is used to transmute materials into usable objects?”
“Transmogrification.”
“Exactly right. What is the most commonly transmuted material in the world?”
“Oh, I know this one. It’s not metal or plastic, but concrete. Magic is used to strengthen it and make it more durable.”
He smiles at me and nods as he flips to the next card.
Slowly, the hallway begins to fill around us as other students finish their written exams, but all I see are Marcus’ encouraging smiles.
I’m more than ready for my Applications in Magic final when it comes around, though I am not ready to sit in the same seat I did when I got the video Rad sent me about the attack on the Hall of the Council of Nine.
A shiver runs down my spine as I force myself to take a seat, Marcus taking the seat behind me.
He lightly taps my shoulder, and I turn.
“It won’t be like midterms, Juniper.”
I force a nod as Professor Hayes passes out our exam papers. I’m not the only one who’s agitated, though. Anxiety is like an electric current buzzing through the air in the classroom as we all start into the exam.
It’s a simple multiple choice and short essay test, one that I’m well-prepared for, but I can hardly focus on it as I force my way through question after question.
Once I’ve made it through the multiple-choice questions, I sit back in my seat and shut my eyes, taking a centering breath.
Though we’re not supposed to use magic during our written exams, I know my affinity won’t be noticed.
I let it flow through my body and cast for a vision until I’m dizzy.
I have to be sure there won’t be an attack.
Finally, my head throbs with a spike of pain.
I grit my teeth against the burning pain and sink a little lower in my seat in case I swoon.
The vision comes quickly.
Wind whipping through my hair, a motorcycle purring between my thighs as I hold tight to Luca, breathing in his scent and the scent of his leather jacket. Flying down the curving roads that follow Deer Island’s coasts.
And that’s it. No Soldiers. No attacks.
I swallow hard, shut my eyes tightly for a moment and open them to resume the exam.
I dive into the essay questions with a lightened heart and answer every single one of them to the best of my abilities.
I flick back over the multiple-choice questions I had to force myself through, checking my answers for what very well may be the first time, changing an answer here and there.
Once I’m satisfied, I turn in my exam and leave with Marcus right behind me.
We cross the quad to where Luca is sitting his Advanced Transmogrification final and presenting his final project—a beautiful crystalline rose in the prettiest pink quartz he sculpted for me with his magic.
He bounds out of the classroom, and I all but dash into his arms. He swings me around until I’m laughing and kisses me until I’m not, until my blood heats for him, and our kiss is more than just congratulatory.
“Later, princess,” he tuts, but he’s grinning his panty-dropping grin, and I groan, shoving him away playfully.
“I had another vision in class today,” I tell him. “I was able to call it myself.”
“And? What did you see, Junie?”
I smile. “Us on the back of your bike again. Are you sure you’re not going to tell me where we’re going?”
“Absolutely sure.” He kisses my temple. “I’m glad it was a good vision, though. You deserve those.”
I sigh and lean into his side as we walk back to Briac’s Hall where Cassian and Simon are presenting their final Casting Seminar projects.
Drawing on all the knowledge of casting they’ve learned in the past three years, they were challenged to create a spell from the ground up.
My mate and my love have been working hard—harder than even I have—and I’m sure they’re going to crush their presentations.
Simon’s presenting a spell he’s been working on for over a year: a spell to increase security and encryption on cellphones with just ten sigils.
Meanwhile, Cassian has devised a new type of shield that clings to the caster’s body, covering them and protecting them fully.
It’s one I’m sure he’ll want me to learn, and I can’t wait to revel in his success.
When they finally emerge from Briac’s Hall, and find Luca and I under the bell tower, I run into their arms, hugging both of them together.
“Did you ace your presentations?”
Simon scoffs. “Of course we did. We’re brilliant. And you’re brilliant too, so I bet you crushed your Applications final.”
I beam. “I think this calls for a celebration.”
“The fancy drinks from Ciel kind or the naked kind?” Luca asks, tracing his eyes down my body in a way that makes me shiver.
“Both,” I say with a smirk. “Definitely both.”