Page 51 of Bonds of Magic (Vesperwood Academy: Incubus #3)

I gathered that most of the professors had nothing to add, given how quickly Isaac dismissed them. Nat and Seb each spoke with him briefly, then motioned for me to follow them out of the room. I shook my head. I needed to talk to Isaac, and we needed privacy. I had to go last.

Isaac spoke with Autumn and Orlando at the same time, getting a blow-by-blow of events.

I did my best to appear inconspicuous, leaning against one of the brick pillars that held up the vaulted ceiling.

It was interesting to hear them describe what had happened.

Autumn sounded certain that Hans had choked on his food, but Orlando was equally as certain that he hadn’t.

“His windpipe was clear,” Orlando said. “I scried him. A yellow aura implies a system-wide poisoning, not a physical object.”

“Yeah, but a poisoning hex takes time to set up, and we would have seen someone cast it,” Autumn objected.

“Did you sense any enchantments on him?” Isaac asked Orlando.

Orlando shook his head. “No. If it was magic, then whoever did it knew how to cover their tracks better than I thought was possible. There was no spell residue whatsoever.”

He cast a glance at me, clearly wondering why I was still there, and why Isaac was permitting me to listen to this conversation. I looked back blankly. Simplest not to say anything.

Isaac nodded as if Orlando’s answer was what he’d expected.

“Then we’ll have to assume it was a poison from the mundane world.

We’ll need to determine what he ate.” He frowned at Orlando.

“Do you have any sense of how fast-acting the poison was? Need it have been administered during this meal, or could ingestion have taken place earlier?”

“I don’t know.” Orlando spread his hands. “For all I know, it wasn’t even ingested. It could have been administered by inhalation or touch. I won’t know without examining Hans in greater depth.”

“No.” Hans’s voice rang out in the now-empty hall. He’d been leaning quietly against the table, watching the discussion, but now he spoke. “You’re not touching me.”

Orlando frowned. “Hans, I—”

“No one is touching me.” Hans’s eyes were wild. “I don’t trust you. I don’t trust any of you.”

“I saved you.” Orlando sounded both annoyed and amused.

“Only after I almost died. What are the chances you had the antidote on you anyway? Awfully convenient, don’t you think?”

“I always carry a general antidote substrate with me.”

“If you won’t let him look at you,” Autumn said, “how about we take you up to Cinda and let her examine you?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Orlando blustered. “Cinda is a perfectly fine nurse, but when it comes to forensic medicine, you want a world-class Healer. I don’t mean to brag, but I—”

“No.” Hans was even louder than before. “No Cinda, no you, no anybody. I’m sick of people touching me and poking and prying. I’m fine on my own.”

Even Isaac looked askance at this. “Hans, you’re undoubtedly entitled to time off to recover, but I insist that you allow a Healer of your choice to give you a thorough examination and clear you.”

“No. If you can’t accept that, you can fire me, but no one else is coming near me unless I say so.”

He glared at Isaac, then Autumn, Orlando, and even me.

I blinked. What had I done to earn his wrath?

I’d never gotten within ten feet of him tonight.

Though I had been the one to find him in the woods yesterday.

Maybe he still resented that—or thought that I’d poisoned him while I helped him back to the manor.

Eventually, Isaac accepted his refusal and sent him to his rooms to rest, then dismissed Orlando and Autumn. Autumn cast a worried glance in my direction as she walked away, but said nothing.

“I assume you wish to speak with me?” Isaac said as the other two left. “I have much to do yet this evening, so this will have to be quick.”

“Sheridan,” I said, stepping close to Isaac.

“What about him?”

“You need to look into him too.”

“Look into him?”

“As Hans’s potential poisoner,” I said. “That’s why you were asking Autumn and Orlando all those questions, isn’t it? Because they were physically close to him before the choking started?”

“From what I understand,” Isaac said, “Autumn repeatedly touched food on Hans’s plate. And Orlando poured him some wine.”

“Sheridan did too,” I said. “Right before he left. He wasn’t even sitting at Hans’s table, but he went over and refilled everyone’s wine anyway. Strange, don’t you think?”

“Certainly something to investigate,” Isaac agreed. He rubbed a hand over his face, the most tiredness I’d ever seen him express. “It’s been hard enough keeping the Council from taking over the school after Erika’s death. After an attack on a faculty member, I’m not sure we’ll have any choice.”

“Maybe it’ll be for the best?”

“I never pegged you for an optimist.” He gave me a sidelong look.

“The Council has disapproved of our acceptance of paranormal students from the start. They’ve been looking for an excuse to meddle, or even to shut Vesperwood down, for years.

I agree that added personnel could help to ensure student safety, but I doubt that it will end there. Now, if there’s nothing else—”

“Actually, there is.”

I filled him in quickly on what I’d learned from Teresa, including my inclination to believe her, and my doubts about the wisdom of that choice.

“I left it open-ended as to whether I was working on your orders,” I finished up. “But she’s not stupid. She’ll figure it out soon, if she hasn’t yet.”

“Thank you, Noah. I appreciate all that you’ve done for me regarding this matter.”

After Isaac left, I was alone in the refectory. My eyes moved around the room, and landed on the table where Cory had sat. I was helping Isaac, yes. But my motives had changed. I no longer simply wanted to defeat Argus. I wanted to keep Cory safe. Whatever it took.

I hadn’t seen him leave tonight. Just as I hadn’t seen him leave combat class. There was no reason to worry, but I found myself walking through the halls towards his room anyway.

I’ll check in quickly , I told myself. Make sure he’s alright .

But I’d said that last night, and look what had happened. I couldn’t control myself around him. I was helpless.

Fear threaded through my gut. Caring for Cory was dangerous, because it gave me a weakness that any enemy could exploit. If I had any sense, if I really wanted to keep him safe, I’d stay as far away from him as possible.

It’s physical , I reminded myself. Attraction. Nothing more than that . I care about him the way I care about my other students .

But even I could hear the lie in that.

I’d made a promise long ago that I’d never let myself care again. That I’d never open myself up to that weakness. Never put anyone else in danger.

I needed to stay away—but no sooner had I reached Cory’s door than I was knocking on it, turning the knob, pushing inside.

“Noah?” Cory looked surprised, setting a book down on his nightstand and getting out of bed. “What are you—”

I closed the door behind me and pulled him in for a kiss. It caught him off guard—he gasped as my lips hit his. I walked him backwards to his bed, and he sat down with a thump when his calves hit it.

He looked up with wide eyes, his chest heaving, his lips plump and pink. I wanted him so badly I couldn’t think straight. All the desire that had built up through the day, from seeing him but being unable to touch, erupted at once. I didn’t want to hold back anymore.

But the way Cory stared up at me, like he wasn’t even sure this was real, made me realize I’d handled this poorly. Just because I wanted him enough to ignore my better judgement didn’t mean he felt the same. At the very least, I shouldn’t have forced him into a kiss before even saying hello.

“Sorry,” I said, my voice thick with desire. “I should have asked.”

“I don’t mind.” He flushed as he smiled. “I was surprised, is all. I wasn’t sure you actually—I mean, I didn’t know if—if we would ever do this again.”

We shouldn’t , said the voice in my head, but I didn’t care. Not with Cory right here in front of me.

“I thought about you all day,” I confessed. “I couldn’t stop watching you. Combat was torture. I don’t know how to be around you and not be with you. It’s hard to control myself.”

“So don’t.” He smiled up at me, lips pressed together like he was holding back a bigger grin. “Because I don’t want you to.”

He reached out and grabbed my joggers, pulling me closer, and I couldn’t fight it any longer. I crawled on top of him, pushing him up the bed and covering his body with mine. He was so much smaller than I was, but his body was perfect, and I wanted to worship every inch of it.

I kissed him deeply, caressing his tongue with my own. Then I worked my way down his jaw, neck and collarbone. I slid a hand under his shirt and he gasped.

I pulled back from where I’d been sucking at his skin and looked at him. “Everything okay?”

“Y-yeah. It just—it feels so good when you touch me.”

“You know you can tell me to stop whenever you want me to, right?”

“Yeah.” He laughed breathily. “But I don’t want you to stop. I don’t even want you to listen to me if I tell you to.”

I frowned. “Cory—”

“I’m kidding,” he said quickly, and his cheeks, already pink, turned a deeper shade of magenta. “But I want you to do whatever you want, because I want what you want. You know so much more than I do, and I just…” he looked down at his hands, and I watched his long lashes flutter. “I just want you.”

I pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I want you too.”

I moved my mouth to his ear, sucking the lobe in gently, enjoying the gasp he gave in response. I could listen to him gasp forever.

It didn’t take long to get his shirt off, which let me cover every inch of his skin with my mouth. Cory was so responsive, moaning and whimpering under my touch. I slid a hand down and palmed his cock through his jeans.

“Can I take these off?”

He nodded frantically, and thank God, because I wanted to take in every inch of him. I stripped off his jeans and boxers. His cock was hard and begging for attention. I kissed my way down his stomach.

This still felt so forbidden, sucking off my own student. It shouldn’t be allowed, and probably wasn’t, but I didn’t care. I wanted to make him feel good. Wanted to show him how good being with a man could be.

But Cory stopped me when I kissed his hipbone, his fingers gripping my shoulder tightly.

I looked up, searching his face. He looked hesitant.

“Want me to stop?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I already told you, I don’t want that. I was just going to say—” he broke off and swallowed. “I was going to say, if you wanted to, um, have sex. We could do that too.”

My eyes went wide. That was the opposite of what I’d expected. But leaving aside semantic arguments about whether blowjobs counted as sex, I still didn’t think that was a good idea.

“I don’t think so.” I tried to make my voice as gentle as possible. “Not tonight.”

“You keep saying not tonight, not tonight. But you also say you want me. So when is it going to be yes tonight ?”

I smiled. “I don’t know. But not tonight.”

Cory made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. “But that’s what I’m saying, we can—”

“Cory, Cory,” I broke in. “Listen. It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s not that I wouldn’t enjoy it. But I think we should wait a little longer before we take that plunge.” I smiled apologetically. “I already ruined your first kiss. I don’t want you to regret your first time too.”

“You didn’t ruin it.” He glared at me. “And it wouldn’t be my—”

“Please, Cory.”

“I don’t regret that—”

“Please.”

“I’m just saying—”

“I know.” I leaned down and kissed his stomach. “Look, I don’t want this to become a fight. And I don’t want you to feel rejected. But I don’t even have any condoms on me.”

“So don’t use any,” he said, still glaring.

“I don’t have any lube.”

“So don’t use any.”

I pushed up into a seated position and looked at him in confusion. “Cory, come on. No matter what we do and when we do it, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Maybe I want you to hurt me,” he said stonily. He pushed back against the headboard and crossed his arms over his chest. The air between us had definitely chilled. “I told you I like it rough.”

My eyes narrowed. “You told me that you might have given Sean that impression. You didn’t say that was actually what you wanted.”

“Well, I’m telling you now. You’re rough with that guy, Lew, aren’t you? You can be the same way with me.”

“I don’t want to be that way with you.” It came out angrier than I intended. “I don’t know what your dad made you think—”

“My dad has nothing to do with this,” Cory snapped.

“Really? Because it seems like he’s in the room any time we’re together. The guy clearly did a number on you, and I’m not going to hurt you just because he made you think—”

“Get out.”

I froze at his words, my sentence still hanging on the edge of my tongue. His voice was cold. I peered into his eyes, expecting frustration, maybe even tears. What I saw instead was fury.

“Cory—”

“Get. Out.” He enunciated the T’s like he was on stage. His eyes were hot with anger, but his tone was icy.

“I didn’t mean to—”

“Do you need me to say it again?” He was shouting now. “Jesus, you’re the one always bugging me to tell you what I want. What I want is for you to leave. So are you going to do it? Or are you going to prove you don’t actually care anyway?”

His sharp breaths made his chest rise and fall visibly, and I stared at him for a minute. A moment ago, he’d claimed he didn’t want me to listen when he said to stop. Was this a test, or a weird kind of flirting I didn’t understand?

I didn’t know. All I could tell was that right now, he seemed desperate for me to go. And I did care—even if I didn’t want to. I was baffled about how things had gone south so quickly, but I wasn’t going to force myself where I wasn’t wanted.

There was so much to say. But Cory’s eyes burned. I held my hands up.

“Okay.” I stood up. “Okay, I’m going.”

I walked out of his room and did just that.