“If you ever try to hide something like this from us again, there will be words, Reed.”
“Y-you’re not breaking up with me?”
He made a face. “Hardly.”
I made a face as well. “But I tried to kill you.”
He shrugged, drawing my attention to his massive shoulders. “You tried. You didn’t succeed. I’ve had ex-girlfriends do worse.”
“Than try to kill you?”
He took my hand and frowned as he spotted not so much as a scar where the wound had been when I’d attacked them. “What the… Bro, check it out.”
Bryan knelt next to Rob and studied my hand, mirroring his frown. “It’s gone. How’d it heal so fast?”
“I countered it with earth,” Stace explained. “It’s a good thing you’re here, Bryan. I’m feeling a little run-down, and she could really use another boost.”
“How’d you know to do that?”
“Something Katy said. She was calling earth right before she noticed the cut. If it really is dark magic at work, it makes sense that the dark elemental responsible would use the opposite element to attack. It would explain why her air element hasn’t been responding. By calling earth and pushing it to her, the element overpowered the spell binding her air.”
“Permanently?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never encountered a spell like this before. I’ll have to do some research. At least we discovered Katy’s primary in the process.”
Both the guys whipped their attention to me. It was Bryan who said, “It’s earth, isn’t it?”
“Surprise,” I sang in a small voice.
15
“Are you sure this is okay?” Bryan kept sitting next to me on the couch, then standing and pacing the length of the room, then sitting again. He repeated the exercise several times.
Stace and Syd had left for the night once she’d convinced the healer the wards she’d placed on the cabin were even stronger than the wards protecting Clearwater. Rob was out on the front porch, giving us privacy. We knew what we needed to do and hated that everyone else knew it too. The bond we shared was between us. Period.
“Why can’t you just transfer your call to me again?” I asked as I watched him pace. It wasn’t like this was the first time we’d ever had sex, ever transferred our powers to each other. We’d done it lots of times. Literally.
“Because we are at our most vulnerable when our focus is, um…elsewhere.”
“So we watch a movie.”
“You know what I mean.” He went back to pacing and added pushing his fingers through his hair. “I don’t like being forced into this.”
“No one is forcing you,” I snapped. Was having sex with me such a huge burden? I enjoyed it, and he definitely didn’t seem to mind when we bonded on a whole other level. “Look, if it’s going to be that big of deal, forget it. I’ll take care of it myself.”
Wait, that came out wrong.
Embarrassment engulfed my cheeks as I pushed off the couch to storm to another room in dramatic affect. I hadn’t yet explored the cabin, so now seemed as good a time as any. Bryan needed space to get his head in the game, or his head was never going to make it inside me, not tonight. Maybe not ever again if he kept acting like sex with me was this massive undertaking.
Back to the cabin. Everything was hardwood, from the polished floors, to the D log walls, to the vaulted ceiling. It reminded me of something I’d see in Montana. Rustic. Secluded. Full of charm, just like the state and the people in it. Maybe the guys and I could visit my old stomping grounds before the snow hit. I loved Montana, missed it like crazy, but I did not miss the mountains of snow and bitter cold that turned the state into the arctic six months out of the year.
I checked out the bathroom. It was cute, a little small for my taste, but perfect for someone like Stacey Layden. The bear-claw tub took up half the room. I definitely planned to take a swim in that before I went back to the academy, where we only had communal showers. I left the room and walked down the hall, peeking in a bedroom. Like the bathroom, it was a bit small for my taste, but served its purpose. Black-and-white pictures of towns at the turn of the century decorated the walls. A colorful knitted afghan covering the double bed was a nice contrast to the colorless images.
I closed the door and padded down to the door at the end of the hall. When I opened it, I let out a breath, impressed. Now this was more like it. The room had to be the size of the living room and kitchen combined. I walked in and glanced around, enjoying the way my feet sank into the plush carpet. Floor-to-ceiling windows lined the wall facing the trees. The room was big enough for two bedrooms, at least. It was set up as a bedroom and den, complete with a fireplace and shelves full of books.
This place was the bomb dot com. I could totally live in this room alone, and thought of all the reasons to convince Dean Carter to let me live off-campus. Not every student lived in the dorms.
I walked up to the windows and stared out, wishing I’d wake up to this view every morning instead of my cranky roommate and her infatuation with pink. Although that wasn’t really a problem right now. As soon as Spencer went away, she’d be back to her awesomely annoying self.
That thought stuck with me. Would that be what launched her to the dark side? Would Spencer leaving do it? What if Jules came back to convince her twin to come with her? Would Jess follow her this time?
I yawned and eyed the
