Page 32 of Stormbringer (Tracthesian Academy #1)

W ave adjusted her bag into her lap as Marc cradled her closer. Truth be told, she was starting to feel better, but she wasn’t about to ruin her favorite transport method by blabbing too soon. Of course, Marc had to poke at it, though.

“How are you feeling?” Since she could hear the genuine worry in his voice, she answered honestly.

“Better. Not so fried, and the healing is starting to kick in.”

“Anyone care to tell me what actually happened?” Salis piped up. He had kept his mouth shut in class, especially after Elisa’s comments, but now he had his arms crossed and a frown on his handsome face.

“None of your—”

“Don’t be rude, Marshall,” Wave huffed, using his full name. Thank you, Jarred, for letting it slip . Marc stiffened and then looked down and growled at her.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Don’t act like a caveman in front of my friends, and I won’t.”

“Just friends?” He quickly caught on.

“Well, I can’t expect miracles out of you, now, can I?”

“No, no, you can’t.”

Wave grinned. She just couldn’t help it.

“Um. So, you two are together,” Salis asked. Marc’s lips twisted into a snarl, and Wave rolled her eyes.

“Officially, yes.”

“Got it,” Salis quickly nodded.

“What do you mean, you got it?” Marc sounded suspicious.

“Let it go, muffin,” Wave said. Marc looked horrified and shook his head.

“Oh, no. Absolutely not! You are not calling me muffin.”

“I don’t think you get a say in that,” Salis said with a grin. Then his stomach grumbled, and Wave sighed.

“We can work on that. And I need food too.”

“Where to, princess?”

Wave frowned. “Okay, you can veto muffin if I can veto princess.”

“Deal. Now what do you want to eat?”

“Can we finally go back to Grand Hall?” Salis pleaded.

“Have you been avoiding it?” Marc asked, and Salis looked at him like he was dumb.

“Your girlfriend didn’t feel like making another scene, and you all always eat there.”

“Thanks for ratting me out, perky butt,” Wave huffed.

“Anytime, sugar tits!”

“No! No commenting on body parts in front of me. My caveman control extends only so far,” Marc groaned and started walking. “Come along, angel-boy.”

They made their way to the Grand Hall under the sunny sky and crisp air.

Whispers followed them and, by Wave’s estimation, roughly half of them were curious, but didn’t really care one way or the other.

About a quarter held a malicious tone, which had both Marc and Salis tensing up.

Wave just kept toying with Marc’s hair. Another quarter seemed to be on her side.

‘ You go, girl’ and ‘ get them’ , were the sentiments—and some were even shouted loudly. She ignored those as well.

“I don’t know how you can be so calm,” Salis muttered.

“I’m not,” Marc snapped back.

“Yeah, I was talking to Wayla.”

“What should I be doing?” she asked. “Roll in tar and feathers or pour ash over myself and wail at the world?”

“Of course not.” Salis snorted.

“Should I make a neon sign saying ‘I’m getting good dick and you are not’ ? Perhaps I should thank everyone for noticing, whatever they are noticing?”

“Well, no,” Marc growled.

“Flinch, shout, pout, cry, cheer? What the fuck would you two like me to do?” Wave was getting annoyed now. “And more importantly, why the fuck would I give a fly’s shit? I don’t even know most of their names.”

“When you put it like that,” Salis murmured softly. “But Wayla, most beings don’t act like that.”

“Fine. I’ll get ‘weirdo’ tattooed onto my forehead and we can all get on with our lives.”

“Sparkle, he didn’t mean it like that.”

“Oh, now you’re defending him?” Wave snarled. “Put me down.”

“No.” Simple as that, he just kept walking with a frown. His eyes moved from Wave to Salis and then back. “Fuck it,” he finally said. “If you blab, angel-boy, I’ll tear your wings off. Got it?”

“What? Uh. Yeah.” Salis looked confused and flustered, and Wave wanted to punch something.

“Good,” Marc said calmly. “Get my phone from my front right pocket, please.”

“What? Me? Why?”

“Just do it,” Marc groaned. Salis rushed to his other side, and Marc stopped just long enough for him to fish the phone out. “Jarred is on my latest call list. Call him for me.”

Wave didn’t know what was happening, but she wasn’t happy about it. She clenched her fist, and Marc’s eyes snapped down to her.

“If you punch me, sparkle, you’ll only hurt yourself.”

“Stupid shields,” Wave grumbled, but forced her fingers to straighten.

“Yeah, those stupid shields could have helped you to avoid the fucking power buildup, so shut it.”

“Marc?” Jarred’s voice came from the phone. Salis lifted it, and Wave saw they were on a video call. “Precious! What’s wrong?”

Marc focused on the screen. “My guess is that she’s starting to heal and burning calories at the rate—”

“Where are you?” Jarred interrupted.

“Heading to the Grand Hall.”

“I’ll get there.” And the screen went black.

“What power buildup?” Salis asked after a while. Wave was still pissed, but Marc’s comment about healing curbed some of her annoyance. She was starving. Still…

“We are not changing the subject,” she huffed. “I would looooove to know what you want me to do about all of that.” She pointed generally at everyone around the yard.

“Nothing, sparkle,” Marc replied.

“Then why—”

“I think he’s worried, buttercup,” Salis said and hurried to continue when Wave’s lips pursed. “I know I am. My feelings would be hurt by all the people whispering and commenting behind my back.”

“Yeah, that,” Marc agreed. “It gets under my skin when they call you easy or a slut. I already got Grant to beat up one idiot who planned on cornering you at the first chance he got.”

“You what?” Wave half shrieked.

“He’s in Grant’s staffs and polearms class. He got volunteered to spar against him.”

“And that, Wayla darling, is why everyone is so scared of them,” Salis said with a lecturing tone. “They can hold their own well enough, but they also watch each other’s backs. I guess you’re included in that now.”

“But why,” Wave began to murmur and then cut herself off. Power. They all held a lot of it, and while none of them pushed that aura around as far as she was aware, it didn’t mean that power wasn’t there. “Okay, fine,” she sighed and buried her face against Marc’s chest.

He kissed the top of her head. “You are my girlfriend, sparkle. It does come with some perks besides the sex.”

Salis tripped, and Wave lifted her head just in time to see him almost faceplant. His skin turned darker as he climbed up to his feet, looked at Wave, then at Marc, and then at Wave again.

“Power buildup. Girlfriend,” he choked and covered his face. “I get the pillow now.”

Marc started laughing so hard that Wave bounced against his chest.

“Ha-ha,” she huffed, but managed to hold in her smile. “The pillow was Jarred’s idea,” she added primly and was rewarded with Salis stumbling again. “Hellion helped.”

Salis stopped, turned to gape at Wave, who kept her face serene, and then gulped. Marc was still laughing. Salis took a couple of deep breaths, and then a devious smirk spread over his face.

“Please tell me there’s a video.”

T uesday morning, Wave felt much better. Almost all the soreness was gone, and her muscles only ached mildly. Marc and Jarred had made her stuff her face at lunch and then tasked Salis to make sure she had snacks for the rest of the day.

The moment her final class was over, Hellion had been there with a smoothie. They weren’t willing to push her strained body through healing, but they were clearly hellbent on offering her own body all the tools to heal itself.

Food, massage, nap, more food, another massage, and then an early night. Pampering bastards, Wave thought with a wide smile on her face.

“Are you sure you should go for a run?” Chrissy asked from her upside-down yoga position.

“I need to move,” Wave replied.

“Sure, but maybe do some yoga with me instead of running. You know, a high heart rate might not be the best for now.” She was clearly worried, and Wave sat on the floor next to her.

“And you mean to tell me that whatever that is,” Wave pointed at Chrissy’s twisted body, “is less straining than a jog around the park?”

“Well, obviously, you’d start with beginner stuff. I’m thinking you’d benefit from some limbering, considering the number of men I saw marching in and out of your room.” She giggled and lost her posture, smoothly rolling down and then up to her feet.

“I’m very limber, thank you very much,” Wave replied and demonstrated by straightening her legs and grabbing her knees with an exaggerated moan.

“So, tell me,” Chrissy said as she grabbed Wave’s wrists and pulled her into a proper stretch, “have they already gotten over the pampering and worry phase and moved into anger and lecturing?”

“Is that a thing?” Wave frowned. Diana’s door opened, and then Ginny’s. They both looked like normal people should this early in the morning, sleepy.

“Is what a thing?” Diana asked.

“Males lecturing females because they were scared and don’t know how to express it otherwise,” Chrissy said.

“Oh, that. Yes, it’s quite normal,” Diana said over her yawn.

“Really?” Wave had a bit of a hard time believing them.

Ginny turned on the coffee maker and nodded sagely. “If you hadn’t done this or that, or the moon hadn’t been in the sky, you wouldn’t have been hurt. So, you should have done that and this and controlled the whole world to avoid being injured.”

“You are joking, right?!”

“I can’t believe you haven’t come across this phenomenon before,” Diana said while sipping her smoothie.

She wasn’t much of a coffee drinker as far as Wave knew. She also didn’t eat meat or sacrifice goats on the full moon. Wave had asked. Apparently, druids had gotten some bad PR when a few of them had paired up with some blood demons.

“Can you grab me a smoothie too? I promised Jarred I’d drink one before any coffee. And, I don’t know where I would have stumbled on that nonsense before?”

“Your previous boyfriends?”

Wave stared at Ginny blankly.