Page 25

Cassian’s audacity has my fucking blood boiling, even now, hours later. Gone is the seclusion I’ve given myself when my mates aren’t around, and now, except for when I’m sleeping, I’ll have the demon brothers to entertain.

All women, hell, men too, value their privacy, and mine has been stolen right out from under my nose. You would think with my mates around, they wouldn’t be needed, but nope. There were no concessions made—not that I took the time to ask. I was more focused on leaving the office before I exploded.

But still.

It’s one thing to tell myself to give them a chance and get to know them, but it's completely another when it’s being shoved down my throat the way it is.

I could have fought against his orders, but I held myself back because Cassian is the only reason I’m still fighting another day for my survival in a world that’s bound and determined to rid me of this life.

So I’ll have to suck it up for now. There’s bound to be times where they have to do other shit than sit around my dorm for all hours of the day.

“Alright,” Bane claps his hands, jolting me out of the pissed off thoughts running through my mind. “So, Bailey, we’ve come up with a solution to this little,” he waves his hand, “problem.”

Zane plops down next to me on the couch, man-spreading his legs, ignoring the indignant huff from the normal-sized Aero whose head is on my lap.

“We know you’re not all that happy about us moving in here. It’s bullshit, we know, and we agree with you,” Zane murmurs, bumping my shoulder with his arm. “So we’ve called that fae prince professor dude to come and voodoo the wall away between your dorm and ours.” He waggles his fingers like he’s doing magic. “That way, the two dorms will become one, and we’ll be on opposite sides. It’ll still give you the illusion of privacy while we’re still following orders and living in your ‘dorm’.” Zane finger-quotes the word dorm with a roll of his eyes.

Well, damn. That’s… fuck. That’s a brilliant plan.

“Oh my gods! I could kiss you guys right now!” I squeal with excitement, ignoring the smoldering look Zane shoots my way.

“Well,” Zane spreads his arms across the back of the couch, “I’ll pucker up, pinky. I’m ready.” His statement is followed by kissy noises that makes heat spread up my chest and into my bruised cheeks.

“Gods,” I huff, shoving at Zane’s side. “I wasn’t serious.”

“Shame,” Bane mutters, heading toward the door before I can question why he said that. He pulls it open, scaring the Smurf standing at the threshold, who fumbles with his phone, dropping it to the floor.

“Fuck,” Thaddeus curses, bending down to grab his discarded cell. “How the hell did you know I was here? I hadn’t even knocked yet.”

“Magic,” Zane snickers, wiggling his fingers again like he did earlier.

“Fae-dammit, there’s two of you now,” Thaddeus mutters under his breath, but we all clearly hear him. His blue cheeks tinge darker as all three of us laugh, clearly enjoying his misery.

Maybe having the two demons around won’t be too bad if they can keep me entertained like this.

“Sunshine, I’m guessing healing still knocks you out?”

The demons shoot me matching looks, their brows raised at the second time this has been mentioned. I don’t know why they seem so surprised. I’ve already proven to be different from other supernaturals, so why can’t my healing put me in a mini coma?

“Yep, you know me. Defective in all the ways of healing.” I shrug with a what can ya do look on my face. “I’ll heal myself before bed and cross my fingers that I’ll wake up in time for class.”

“No need.” Thaddeus waves my words away. “I spoke to Jasper before coming here, and he said you’re out of classes for the next few days. The staff will be doing damage control, and they feel it’ll be better if…” he trails off with a grimace.

“If I don’t show my face.” I nod. “Got it.”

“No, sunshine. Nothing like that.” He crosses the space quickly and kneels in front of me, ignoring Aero completely. “It’s just that there’s a lot of talk going around the halls right now. And it’s not good. They are trying to not only protect you but give the illusion that you’re being punished for what everyone perceives is your part in it.”

“But I didn’t do anything wrong.” I feel like I can’t seem to stress that enough.

“I know. Gods, I know, Bailey. But it’s the only way to appease the masses and root out who’s going to cause you problems in the future. Please believe that we’re doing everything we can, so this doesn’t happen again in the future.” For a moment, I get lost in his light blue eyes, wanting so badly to believe everything he says. But I can’t forget that Jasper runs this academy, and all of this screams at being his idea.

“Alright.” I turn my head away with a small shake, rebuffing the idea completely. Not that he needs to know that.

“Hey.” Thaddeus reaches out and grips my chin, returning my attention to him. “You won’t miss much in your classes, and you have the wards up here, which I’ll extend once I take the wall down. Think of it this way, you’ll be able to practice your runes, and you’ll have live-in test dummies.”

“Yo!” both demons shout, their voices ripe with indignation.

He ignores them, keeping his attention solely focused on me. “It isn’t ideal. None of this is, and I know that. It’s extremely unfair to you, the innocent party in all of this. But I’ll do everything I physically can to fix this for you. And I’m not the only one. You have people in your corner, sunshine.”

“Okay.” I flash him a small smile, my heart a little lighter at his words.

“Okay,” he murmurs, flashing me his beaming Thaddy smile that I’ve missed more than I care to admit. “Now, let’s take this wall down.” He gets up and moves toward the wall, the demons joining him.

Thaddeus places his hand on the wall he plans to remove, ice spreading quickly from his spread fingers. Bane and Zane are positioned on either side of him, their own special brand of demon juju joining his.

The wall seems to crumple in on itself, revealing the dorm directly next door. It’s almost a carbon copy of mine from what I can see, except in reverse and an extra door to what I’m guessing is another bedroom.

Their walls are the same gray as mine, blending seamlessly into each other like they were never separated in the first place. The bank of floor-to-ceiling windows extends to the opposite wall, with only a small gap where the wall used to stand.

From there, they move toward the kitchen in the second dorm, making it disappear in the same fashion as the wall. One by one, they take things away, sending them somewhere, while carefully rearranging things to look like one massive living room.

Hmm, I actually quite like the look of the larger dorm. It’s not like any of the students are in accommodations like mine. They all share a room with one other person, and while I’m now sharing it with two, we each have our own separate spaces for when things get to be a little too much…

My eyes never stray from the three men making their rounds, touching objects here and there. By the time Thaddeus nods his head, you can’t even tell that the one single dorm started as two.

“Okay, sunshine. This is the best we can do for now. I also set the wards while we were at it, so the entire place is reinforced to handle your magic should it go awry. But you’ve been exuding amazing control over each rune, so I’m not worried…” his words trail off with an awkward chuckle, no doubt reliving the little lightning incident neither one of us has brought up again.

“There’s a story there,” Zane accuses, pointing his finger back and forth between the two of us. And he’s right, but Thaddeus and I ignore him since it has to do with a rune only the two of us currently know about.

“I already set up a food delivery for tomorrow morning, including most of the things I’ve observed you eating over the time you’ve been here. Luka and Axel also put their two cents in with some of your favorites, so I made sure to include them in the order. Included will be a few easy appliances to use, namely an air fryer, so you can cook for yourself and not worry about any issues with food coming from the dining hall.” Thaddeus finishes his small tirade of words, ending in a huff of breath.

It’s his way of changing the subject so the demons don’t persist in knowing the story, and I couldn’t be more grateful for his quick thinking.

“I’ll go ahead and get out of here now so you can heal yourself and get some rest. You need it after today. Icicles, I have no clue how you haven’t dropped already from the strain of your injuries. So, if you need anything, you still have my number. Just shoot me a text and I’ll do whatever is within my abilities to handle it for you.”

Thaddeus makes a beeline for the door but pauses, his hand hovering over the knob. He comes to some type of a decision and spins around, coming back to the couch where I’ve been the entire time they were magicking the fuck out of my door.

His cheeks once again darken as he leans down, offering me an awkward hug, but I accept it greedily. It’s been weeks since the winter fae has hugged me, and there’s no denying how much I’ve missed him while he’s been dealing with the fallout of the gala. And Miss Izzicle.

While I wanted to advocate for him to get back together with her, bring her back from Faerie, I’ve observed just how much he isn’t bothered that she isn’t here. I don’t know the ins and outs of their relationship, but the parts I have seen, there’s no way he could have been all that happy with her. Especially with how readily he shipped her ass off back to Faerie.

“Be good, sunshine,” he murmurs lowly in my ear. “If you have any issues with the demons or need a break from them, just let me know. I’ll pop them through a portal to the winter lands in Faerie. They’re own hellfire will be no match for the freezing temperatures there.”

I giggle, grateful for the blue Smurf in front of me. He always seems to know the right thing to say when I need to hear it.

Thaddeus makes his exit after that, leaving me with two gaping demons.

“What?” I question with a raise of my brow.

“He likes you,” Bane mutters disapprovingly, throwing a glare at the door like it can penetrate through the wood and hit Thaddeus square in his back.

“He does not,” I retort, punctuating it with an exaggerated eye roll and ignoring the fluttering of butterflies rioting in my belly.

“Oh. You like him back,” Zane returns, though his words are gritted out through clenched teeth.

“I do not. He just broke up with his longtime girlfriend about a month ago, and there has never been anything romantic between us. Now or back then. You two sound suspiciously like you’re jealous over the friendship I have with Thaddeus.”

Zane looks like a fish out of water, his mouth opening and closing, but no words escape between his lips. Bane doesn’t look any better, though there’s a pink coloring on his cheeks that doesn’t match the light gray of his skin tone.

“On that note… Come on, Aero, let’s go to bed. I don’t know how much longer I can stand the pain in my ribs without storming out of here and kicking that Giles fucker, so he feels the same thing I do, only I’ll have Luka freeze his healing, so he has to live through the pain.”

Aero gives a quiet neigh in agreement, disappearing into my room. No doubt he’s already sprawled at the foot of my bed, snoring to his heart’s content. Because let’s be real. That damn Pegasus can fall asleep faster than I can blink.

“Good night, guys. I’ll see you sometime tomorrow.”

“Night, pinky. Don’t let the bed demons bite.” I chuckle sleepily at his version of a good night, but Bane refuses to be outdone.

“Dream about me, snow. I plan to frolic through them all night long.”

The smile on my face remains long after I close my bedroom door and change into pajamas. Like I thought, Aero’s snores lull me further into a sleepy state, but before I can sleep, I know I need to heal, or I’ll be even worse for wear come tomorrow.

My magic automatically responds, giving a happy zip before settling into the cross on my chest. The walls of my room glow with a pink hue as the rune illuminates, the shadows in the dark corners dissipating like daytime has already begun seeping through the windows.

I bite back the scream that’s bubbling up my throat as my healing kicks in, erasing the bruises, taking away the swelling, and mending the cracks in my bones. This is always the worst part. For other supernaturals, this part is painless, but I have to take what I can get. I could be no better than a human and live with these injuries until they heal up on their own. But I’m not, so I’ll concede and deal with the few painful moments so I can wake up in better shape than what I’m going to bed in.

My vision darkens at the edges, and by the time my healing cuts off and the pain disappears, I’m already passed the fuck out.