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“Did I miss something?” Sindri glances back at me. “Is this a lovers’ spat? Did you two do the horizontal tango and demon boy here wasn’t up to par?”
“Fuck you, Sin,” Emrys says.
“What he said.” I smile sweetly at Sindri. “And we were talking about Ash.”
To my surprise, he doesn’t push it, doesn’t answer back. He hurries on, disappearing over the top of the rise, Emrys following him.
Out of breath, I struggle up the last bit of the path to step on the flat summit, the Academy grounds spreading around me like a painting of trees and quaint buildings with the lake to my left—but where is the city? There seems to be a distant wall surrounding us, but I can’t see anything beyond it.
Magic, I think, shocked. Does it keep the city hidden from us—or us hidden from the city, and why?
Sindri and Emrys have walked down to a shaded spot under an oak where a bench is set—to take in the fake panorama? I hurry toward them, barely able to think after everything that happened today but still worried over Ashton.
And there he is, kneeling on the gentle slope, his fingers buried into the soft soil. Water bubbles in front of him, forming two brooks that sluice down the rise with a light swish and burble.
But that’s not what stops me in my tracks, ice gripping my spine.
He’s begun to transform. I mean, the cat ears were cute before, and still are, but the tail is new.
Definitely new. Black and sleek, it twitches on the ground behind him. His jeans are shredded over his legs that are bulging with muscle, black fur showing through, the same that is covering his arms, his neck… His jaw, too, is covered in silky black fur, I realize, when I take another unsteady step toward him.
And he has whiskers.
Oh, my heart, he’s so frigging cute and sexy and… and it’s terrible because he’s obviously in pain, his whole body shuddering, his pointed teeth pressed into his lower lip, blood dripping down his chin. Muscles shift under his skin, and his eyes—pale gray but somehow looking larger and feline with a ring of crimson—are too bright. A tear is rolling down his cheek.
“My God, what happened?” I drop to my knees beside him.
“Stay back,” Sindri says, too late. “We don’t know if he can hear us.”
“Did someone attack him?”
Sindri looks grim. “He doesn’t seem hurt. But something must have triggered the shift and he lost control. I told you, elemental magic is hard to manage, tied to the earth lines and emotions.”
“Which is why you should never have a problem, fae boy,” Emrys mutters. “You’re cold and emotionless like a rock.”
“Well, pardon me for not being a constant emotional wreck like you demons,” Sindri sneers.
“Guys, can you please focus here?” I snap. “How did you know where to find him?”
“I felt him,” Sindri says.
“Like… actuallyfelthim?” I whisper, confused.
Sindri’s voice drops. “I felt a sort of a tug in my chest…”
Emrys is quiet. After a moment he says, “Fuck, I think I felt it, too.”
I stare at them. “You did?”
In between going down on me and doing me on the bed?I think uncharitably because I’m annoyed with him. Mainly because I’m annoyed with myself—for allowing that to happen. For allowing myself to get attached. For being the traitor he accused me of being. For forgetting that I’m in the right because the boys seem so good and kind—or nasty and sexy—and I can’t seem to tell the difference.
“Maybe he got upset over something,” Sindri is saying. “Once I got bad news and my magic went haywire, and that was before the spelled arrows.”
“What the hell do we do?” Emrys says.
“Leave him here to rot?” Jason is climbing up the rise to meet us, hands in his pockets. He’s frowning. “Why did I get a supernatural phone call to come here?”
Emrys folds his arms over his chest. “You felt it, too?”
