Chapter 7
Sena
We head back to our rooms after hiding the cut-up fish all over the male dorms, only to stop dead in our tracks when we spot a group of male Shadows all tied up and knocked out directly in front of our building.
“Looks like someone got to them before they got to us,” Ember says happily before pointing to the small sign I didn’t notice.
I move closer to read the sign and laugh at what it says, knowing exactly who did it.
“Insect habitat, do not disturb.”
Only Knox calls them all insects. I glance around trying to spot him but my heart drops when I find no trace of him.
The last couple of weeks I’ve actually been having fun with the prank war. It has at least kept my mind busy from everything that’s happened. But I miss talking to the guys. I didn’t think they’d avoid me for so long but that’s what they’ve done.
There was a time not long ago when all I wanted was to learn how to block them out. But now… now I just want to hear Knox in my mind, sense Theon and what he’s feeling, see what Malakai is doing and meet Cyrus in my dreams.
I feel empty and lost without them and it hits me just how much I’ve come to rely on them.
I never let anyone in before waking up in the academy. Not like them. And if it hurts this much when they so easily broke away, is there even a point in letting anyone in again?
“Sena?” Ember calls out and I glance up, realizing I’ve been staring at the sign and lost in my head.
“You coming inside?” she asks, and I nod before moving toward them.
Remi glances around. “Hurry up. I want to get a good night’s sleep and be ready for whatever they have planned in retaliation.”
Maia laughs. “Oh, to be a fly on their wall when they realize the smell is coming from their rooms and not be able to find it.”
I laugh at her and get moving into the building when something makes me pause. A flicker of light farther out in the ocean.
“One more night. We just have few more hours before this is over,” Remi says.
The guys have yet to retaliate but with the fish prank we just pulled and the others before it, technically we’re ahead right now.
If they don’t pull off something big, we should win this.
I take another step toward our building when something stops me making me turn around to that light once more.
It flickers again and something inside me tells me to go check it out.
“I’m going to go for a walk. I’ll be back in a bit,” I tell them while trying to tell myself if I end up dead because of my own stupid decisions, it’s my own damn fault.
“Want us to join you?” Maia asks.
I shake my head with a small smile. “I’m good.”
Ember gives me a stern, motherly look before glancing around with a frown. “Be careful. They’re probably planning something.”
I nod and wave them off before making my way through the fields and paths and out toward the edge of the ocean.
As soon as I’m close enough, I spot the light that initially gained my attention. Though now that I see what it is, it was probably more the connection to the four insufferable assholes that drew me to it.
I watch on as they stand on the end of the long pier and use their shadows to drag dozens of unconscious males before tying them around the half a dozen large buoys spread out in the ocean.
There’re small lights on the buoys that disappear as soon as my mates place the Winged Shadows in front of them.
I wait there as they chuckle and watch their handiwork. After a couple of minutes, they turn and start heading down the tier. But halfway there they spot me and they pause.
They lose their humor in seconds, and my stomach drops as they share a look between them before continuing down to the end of the pier where I’m standing.
Either they’re helping us with the prank war, or the Winged Shadows just really pissed them off.
I choose to think it’s the latter considering they’ve been ignoring me the last couple of weeks.
“They must have really pissed you off,” I say waiting for one of them to reply. But none of them do. In fact, they all avoid even looking at me.
I get I fucked up by not telling them. But they’re not perfect either.
“None of you still want to talk?” I ask with a sliver of hope.
“No,” Malakai says finally looking at me and all of my hope plummets.
I blink back the burn in my eyes, ignore the tightness in my chest and nod as I take a step back from them.
My gaze runs over them one last time. “Just remember you’re the ones who drew this line first,” I tell them and watch as their eyes find mine, but I quickly turn and get moving, ignoring the urge to turn around.
Fuck them and their silence.
Bond or not, I’m not going to mope around and wait for them to realize what they’ve just lost.
I head into my room and find Ember staring longingly at a bottle of wine. “You might as well pop it now,” I tell her. “I’d say we’ve won.” Considering most, if not all, of the Shadows are knocked out and likely will be until morning. By the time they realize it, it will be too late.
Ember, Maia, and Remi pause and then slowly turn to me with confused expressions.
“The male Shadows are indisposed,” I tell them. “And will be until morning comes when the prank war is over.”
“How?” Ember says, as I walk over to her.
“They may or may not have pissed off four assholes,” I tell them.
“Your companions?” Maia asks and I nod.
Remi cackles and Maia and Ember soon join in making me smile.
“Fucking yes!” Ember says before popping the bottle while Remi gets out four glasses.
“Wait,” Maia says making us pause. “What about the rules?”
Remi rolls her eyes. “The only rules we had were not to use abilities on one another.” She shrugs. “Even if her companions used them, we didn’t. And technically her companions weren’t in the prank war so it wouldn’t count anyway.”
I take a glass and knock it back as my eyes find another few bottles beside Ember’s bed. She follows my line of direction and gives me a wink.
“Bragging rights here I come,” she says.
Maia refills her glass and mine and Embers. I take the next glass and throw it back.
I know I’m going to regret this in the morning but right now I need something to take my mind off four dickheads.
THEON
Sena’s body sways as she makes her way out of her dorm building to the small field of grass in front of it before pausing and glancing up at the moon.
Gods, she’s fucking stunning.
Everything about her draws me in and makes me want to never leave her side. It’s been fucking torture not being able to hold or touch her these couple of weeks.
She closes her eyes and starts swaying again, moving her hips and sexy-as-sin body. Her long blonde hair is wavy, cascading down her back like a fucking goddess. And it tests every damn ounce of willpower I have not to go over there and feel the heat of her body.
I’ve missed holding her in my arms. Missed her warmth. Missed talking to her and sensing each of her emotions.
I’m not supposed to be here. We all agreed to take our time and get to know her again. But somewhere along the way, I think we forgot that she’s not fucking psychic and hasn’t a clue to any of the things we’ve been doing these couple of weeks.
She thinks we blocked her out, but really we’ve been trying to stop ourselves from running to her like lovesick puppies. And every single one of us have been following her like fucking stalkers.
She also hasn’t a clue that the only reason she’s winning prank week is because we upped the ante on every single one of her pranks before scaring the shit out of all the winged dickheads.
Once they found out about our special little abilities firsthand, they quickly learned their place.
My chest tightens as I watch the pain return to her eyes. The same expression she wore when she left us at the pier.
We were all too shocked to see her and too damn stubborn to answer her. Too damn ashamed.
We should have come to her sooner. Talked to her like fucking adults, instead of running around in the shadows after her.
We fucked up. Big time.
She sways and stumbles and I move through the shadows, catching her before she falls face-first into the dirt.
Shit. She’s really drunk.
I lift her up and her watery gaze finds mine, the sadness in them nearly fucking breaking me.
“Why won’t any of you talk to me?” she asks her voice low and full of vulnerability before she closes her eyes.
“Because we’re fucking idiots,” I admit on a whispered curse before placing a kiss on her forehead and wrapping us in my shadows to keep us hidden.
She cuddles into me and my grip tightens on her as I take her pain and sadness, holding her into the early hours of the morning before I slip her back into her room and bed.
I leave her with a silent promise to get my shit together before heading back to the dorms ready to take on three stubborn fools who haven’t realized how big we’ve fucked up yet.