Page 48 of Stormbringer (Tracthesian Academy #1)

I t took until the next week’s extra shielding practice for her fake boyfriend to bring up Salis. Wave wiped sweat from her brow as she climbed back on her feet.

“So, why is angel-boy constantly getting asked over for movie nights, but I’m not?” Marc growled as he prepared to blast Wave back on her ass.

“It’s not constantly,” Wave huffed.

“Three nights last week. All the nights this week that you weren’t working. I’d say it’s pretty constant,” Marc replied as a blast of air came at her and Wave fell down, rolled over, and got back to her feet. That blast had held more of a punch than previous ones.

“It’s not like that,” Wave said, cursing herself. She should have asked if Di was okay with her explaining this to her non-boyfriends. She wouldn’t betray her trust like that.

“Like what?”

“Let it go, Marc,” Wave said and crossed her arms.

“I let it go when you were hanging all over him, studying, and when the rumors about you in his shirt and him following you around shirtless surfaced, but this… What the fuck are you doing, Wayla?”

“What do you think I’m doing?”

Marc took a step closer and snarled into her face. “I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking. Care to explain yourself?”

“Explain myself? To you? Why would I?” Wave snarled right back.

“If you want him, just be honest about it. I’ll happily step aside.”

“Oh, you will? Fucking Jarred and Hellion is fine, but Salis is a step too far, is that it?”

“I never said I was fine with you fucking them either.”

Wave stopped and stepped back. She shook her head, trying to clear it. It didn’t help. Her mind ran over all the things and words they had shared. It had been Hellion who had said he could… Marc hadn’t complained when she had to burn out the power buildup, but that wasn’t a fair measurement.

“You were the one who wanted to fake-date me,” she reminded him.

“And now I’m not so sure even that was a good idea. You don’t give me even the courtesy of telling me beforehand that you’re fucking someone else.”

“I’m not sleeping with Salis.” Wave threw her hands up in the air. Hellion walked in just then, and there was fury in his narrowed eyes.

“You’re sleeping with Salis?”

“No,” Wave hissed. “I said I’m not sleeping with him.”

“Then why is he at your place all the time?”

“Ha!” Marc pointed at Wave. “I’d like to know the same.”

Wave took another step back. “You two are unbelievable.”

“Is that so?” Hellion grumbled.

“Yeah. I don’t owe either of you any explanations.” She pointed at Marc. “We are fake-dating.” Then she pointed at Hellion. “And we are… nothing.”

“I think it was a mistake,” Mark said coldly. “You just play around. You can’t even muster up a fucking shield, even though it could save you from a power buildup or serious harm when Elena finally catches up to you without Irishen around.”

“What’s up with that, by the way?” Hellion demanded to know. “He’s always there. Every time I look for you, I find you with him. Are you fucking him too? Jarred and I told you that we would draw the line at the Sleethill spawn.”

“You? You told me you draw… Oh wow. Yeah.” Wave didn’t know what to say. They thought she was sleeping with every male who even blinked her way apparently.

“You toy with people. One day it’s me, then it’s Jarred or Hellion, and in the next blink, you are inviting angel-boy over, and Irishen is hanging on your every word.” Marc’s temper was flaring, and he kept going. “You kissed Jarred, then Hellion, and then me. Did you mean any of it?”

“Mean what?” Wave asked quietly.

“Anything. I thought that maybe you’d been hurt before and that’s why you didn’t want to commit to any of us, even when we were all bending backwards to accommodate your wishes, but now I’m starting to think you are the one doing the hurting.”

Hellion looked from Marc to Wave and then back before crossing his arms too. They formed a wall in front of her. “Are you playing us against each other? Who sent you?”

“Sent me? You are making no sense. What the fuck are you talking about?”

“A smart woman like you surely can figure it out.”

“Time out,” Wave said and then rubbed her eyes before facing them again while they waited in seething silence. “Okay. Let’s take it from the top again. Marc, what exactly is this about? I swear I’m not sleeping with Salis.”

“I don’t believe you,” Marc spat out. “You’ve landed in bed with any male that has shown you any interest and refused to commit to any of us. You hold yourself back, you use us. I didn’t see it at first, but now…”

“Okay,” Wave nodded, letting his words sink in.

How stupid could she have been to think there was something growing between them?

Despite all the secrets, she had felt… safe.

Gods, it felt like her insides were bathed in acid, and her hands were balled into tight fists.

Slowly, she forced her fingers to straighten and breathed in deep to make sure her tone stayed even. “So, you’re done with me?”

Marc refused to answer beyond a shrug.

Wave took a deep breath and turned to Hellion. “Right, your turn. What did I do or not do to piss you off?”

“Besides playing with our feelings and toying with us?” Hellion asked coldly.

“For the sake of brevity, let’s go with yes. What, besides that?”

“Irishen.”

“I’m not sleeping with him either,” Wave said evenly. Part of her was hurting, another part was telling her told you so . She had let herself imagine it could be different this time. That they could be the exception to the rule.

And they were right. She hadn’t committed to any one of them. She had committed to all three of them. She hadn’t looked at another male… except that she had. Wave closed her eyes and took a long breath before opening them again and facing the two of them.

“Okay. You’re right,” she said.

“What?” Marc roared. Hellion just seethed silently at her.

“You’re right,” Wave repeated. She faced Hellion. “I’m interested in him.” Before he could explode on her, Wave turned to Marc. “And I’m not sleeping with Salis. But I could be sleeping with someone else.”

A blast of fiery wind hit her so hard it threw her across the room. Wave didn’t even try to push back or pull up an external shield. She didn’t want to fight, and at some level, she felt like she deserved their anger and pain, no matter how misplaced their reasoning was.

Besides, they weren’t really trying to injure her.

If she had managed the shielding Marc had tried to teach her, none of this would even bruise her.

As it stood, well, she had gone through worse, so she let Hellion and Marc both blast her against the back wall as long as they wanted and then fell to the floor.

“What the fuck is going on in here?” Jarred roared from the doorway, and then he rushed over. “Wayla, are you all right?”

Wave coughed a couple of times and shrugged as she pushed herself up into a sitting position. “I’m fine. They were just making a point about the importance of shielding. I should really learn that shit, huh?”

Her joke fell into deaf ears and, after making sure she was, in fact, in one piece, Marc turned and marched out of the room. Hellion threw one more quelling look at her and followed suit.

Wave just stretched back to the floor. What was there to say? They weren’t right on point, but she was lying and hiding things from them. It was wrong that she had led them on like this for so long.

If only she could tell them the truth, but the look on Hellion’s face told Wave what would be the result of that discussion. Wave shuddered and closed her eyes for a second. Things could always be worse.