Spell.
That had to be it. He enchanted everyone using dark magic. I’d have to find a way to cut through it, to lift this twisted hex he had going for him. “Not even a little. I will expose you for who you really are, and when I do, not even siding with Alec will save you.”
With that, I took advantage of his stunned silence, pushed past him, and popped out so he couldn’t follow.
21
When I got to my room, I had company.
Rob halted his pacing as I walked in. He hadn’t changed out of his school uniform, which was a little worse for wear after tonight’s hunt. A shredded shirt no longer white and stained gray slacks that’d never come clean. The worry lines on his brooding brow deepened as his dark eyes narrowed in on me. “Where the hell have you been? Never mind, I don’t care. What the hell were you thinking pulling a stunt like that? You could have been killed.”
“Way to keep your cool, bro.” Clay twirled in my desk chair, his head resting on the back as he stared at the ceiling. He too hadn’t changed out of his school uniform, which was pretty much as trashed as Rob’s. “Just like we agreed.”
“He has every right to be angry,” Leo snapped in a sharp tone I rarely heard from my coolheaded water elemental. He pushed off the bed and charged toward me, his blue gaze wide and wild with concern. No, not concern. Well, not only concern. Fear flashed in those deep pools and tightened his boyish expression. “When are you going to realize you can’t just disappear on us, especially after everything that’s been going on with you lately?”
I threw my arms around him, so relieved to see him I didn’t care how pissed he was—that they all were—at me. He wasn’t wrong. They all had every right to hate me. The fact they’d waited in my room to scream at me thrilled me, which clearly proved I’d lost my mind tonight. It also proved they didn’t hate me even after every dick move I’d pulled.
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t make any excuses. I didn’t have any. “I screwed up.”
“Yeah, well.” He broke the embrace and thrust his fingers through his disheveled blond curls, sending them standing on end in every direction. He shrugged his trim shoulders before wiping his hands on his jeans. “There you go. Glad we got that cleared up.”
Bryan remained against the wall, his large frame holding it up, his still expression and unnerving gaze on me. He had his arms crossed, his fingers drumming on a bulging bicep as he worked his jaw. I stood there, ready to accept whatever harsh words he threw at me.
He didn’t say anything, simply stared at me. I stared back and waited. When he pushed away from the wall and slowly approached, I danced nervously from foot to foot. He reached up, and I braced myself, sure he wouldn’t strike me but tensing anyway.
He cupped my face and ran the pad of his thumb under my eye, pulling me to him and kissing me with such passion, such unrestrained want, my knees buckled. He caught me around the waist and held me close, consuming me, rendering me helpless until he was ready to let me go.
“Earth elementals are nasty,” Clay mused, killing the moment. “Look at you two, being all nasty.” He groaned when no one laughed. “Come on. That was funny.”
“Hilarious,” Bryan growled, his attention zeroed in on me.
I laughed at the joke, happy to have my playful air elemental back. “Shocker, Clay made another sexual reference.”
He waggled his eyebrows and grinned, sending his green gaze into a dance. “I’m here all week.”
“That makes one of us,” I grumbled, shifting my focus to Rob, who still had deep lines on his forehead as he furrowed his brow.
“Why haven’t you been answering any of our texts?”
“Phone’s dead.” I held it up as proof. “Anyway, let me tell you what happened. When I teleported out after, you know, I wound up at a port, and you’ll never believe who was there.”
“Spencer,” three of them said in unison.
“Your fandler,” Clay stated at the same time.
Way to spoil the surprise. “How’d you all know?”
“He popped out right after you, saying it was his job to watch you.” Rob removed his shirt, wadded it up, and tossed it in the metal trashcan under my desk. I stared at the sculpted muscles as his arms flexed to untuck his white tank top. “When I turned to ask him what the hell he meant by that, he’d already disappeared.”
“I can tell you what he meant.” I dropped onto my bed and plugged in my phone before removing my shoes, then my socks. Clay rolled over in my desk chair and pulled one of my feet onto his lap, rubbing it. Ahhhh, yeah. I relaxed and leaned back. When he stopped the massage, I sat up. “Why’d you stop?”
“Keep talking, Montana.”
“The Council brought Spencer here to watch me, worried I’d go dark. Ohhh, yeah. Right there.” My head fell back as Clay hit a sweet spot between my big toe and little toes.
“But he’s the one who’s dark.” Leo sat on the opposite side of the bed and grabbed my other foot. Oh, hell yeah. One of the many, many benefits of having more than one boyfriend. “Hey, how’d you end up teleporting to that exact location? Have you been there before?”
“Never.” I hadn’t thought about the why until now. We all turned to Clay as he nodded.
“It’s called an echo. It can sometimes be powerful enough to draw an elemental, sort of a false positive when trying to locate someone.”
“That’s what
