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I linger there with the door half open behind me, trying to make it out, but, of course, I don’t have any luck. My ears are no match for Fielder’s magic. The sound of voices echoes down the hall and the conversation of the boys cuts off immediately. Which confirms that they didn’t toss up that spell to keep other people from hearing, but me.
Now that they aren’t talking, I step out into the hall fully, let the door close behind me, as I shrug into my jacket. They all turn toward me, taking in the water soaking through my white shirt. “I’m ready,” I say quietly, pushing past them and leading the way out onto the campus.
I’m still shaky, still coming down from the attack. My muscles are screaming at me with every step I take, but I refuse to ask for help, to lean on one of these men. Even when I stumble over my own feet. Ezra catches me, keeps me from falling flat on my face, but as soon as I’m steady again, he releases me.
And fuck, that hurts, too, how quickly he releases me.
I don’t make any sense. I know that.
As soon as I’m in my dorm room, safe behind the locked door, they disperse, leaving me to the space I said I needed. But I almost just died and now I’m feeling all kinds of alone and bereft and there’s an itching need in me to experiencelife.
You know how in movies someone who has a near death experience almost immediately wants to jump into bed with the hot counterpart? Yeah, that shit is real, and need is running through me.
I ignore that feeling by going through the motions of washing the chlorine water from my skin, putting on clean dry clothes, making myself a cup of tea in the suddenly fully stocked kitchenette, and getting a head start on my assignments. By the time the Merritt comes home, it’s nearing eight pm and I’ve done pretty much everything I can think of to get rid of that itch. But it’s still there.
Merritt stops just on the other side of the door, takes me in, likely looking miserable, and then says, “What happened?”
As soon as the words are out of her mouth, the tears start all over again, and the entire story comes pouring out of my mouth. Merritt sits next to me, holds my hand and makes noises of outrage and distress at all the right points.
I sink into her comfort and presence and let everything that has happened recently spill out of me.
Twelve
By the time I’m done talking we’ve missed dinner, but Merritt tells me it doesn’t matter because we have a stocked kitchen now. I don’t ask how that happened, just give my thanks to the gods above as Merritt tosses a frozen pizza into the oven.
She also hands me a glass of wine that I have no idea how she got, considering we’re underage and stuck on a college campus. Though I guess that’s never stopped college students before.
She slides the cooked pizza onto the coffee table and plops down next to me. “Okay, do you want the real talk before or after eating?”
I roll my eyes and say, “during, maybe it’ll soften the blow if my mouth is full of pizza.”
She chuckles as I lean forward and grab a slice of the hot pie before she does the same. “Okay, I understand why you don’t trust them. Hell,Idon’t trust them and Ezra is my cousin, even though he’s always been nicer to me than the rest of my family.” My hand clenches around my stemless wine glass, and I have to bite back words about how fucked up her situation is. “But,” she says, “my power is kind of like a lie detector. Not like I can tell when someone’s lying, but it will leave me with impressions about situations.”
I nod. “Like you could tell that Gabe is going to be a problem.”
She rolls her eyes. “Everyonecan tell he’s going to be a problem, not just me. But like meeting you. Do you know how long I avoided everyone? It was just easier to stay alone than to have friends. Either they were using me to get close to Ezra and the guys or they were overtly mean, thinking it would give them an in with them. But with you, I took a chance, because my magic told me I could trust you, could trust the situation.”
A warm spot forms in my chest at her words. “I can’t tell you how happy I am that you became my friend, Mer.”
She beams at me. “Me too. So my point is that this situation you’re in with the guys, I’ve had visions about it. I know I have, even if I can’t remember them. And the feeling I get about it, Ro, is that you can trust them. They aren’t trying to trick you or hurt you or anything like that. They are genuinely trying to help you.” She taps her chest. “I can feel it.”
I nod and shove half the slice of pizza in my mouth and chew, sensing she’s not done. “And even if I couldn’t tell that was the case, I would still tell you to stick close to them, to learn from them. There’s a reason they are the heirs to the sects of the coven. They are powerful and knowledgeable, and they’ll get you where you need to be.”
I chew through another bite of pizza as I chew over her words. I swallow. “You really think that they aren’t going to trick me? Suddenly pull the rug out from under me?”
She reaches out and squeezes my arm, her eyes going all soft with sympathy. “I really don’t. And if they do, then I’ll tear each of their dicks from their body.”
A surprised laugh bursts out of me. She chuckles too and soon we’re clutching our stomachs and leaning on each other, laughing our asses off. We laugh until my abs hurt and tears fall down my face, and damn, it feels so good. Like the release valve on a pressure cooker.
She sighs as we settle down, running a hand down her face. “I also know you’re struggling with your feelings for them, Ro.” She holds up her hand to stop my protests before they can even start. “You’d be insane not to be conflicted. They’ve hurt you a lot. They’ve done awful things and we know that the ends rarely justifies the means.”
“Ain’t that the fucking truth? Especially when they’ve brought me back here into the Vipers’ den that they were so intent on saving me from.”
She sips her glass of wine. “Yeah, I’m thrilled to have you here, but I don’t think tossing you in to the deep end is all that smart. But they are right that having you here, learning how to use your power here, is better than one of the other schools.”
I sit up. “Hold up. There are other schools?”
She laughs. “Of course, there are! Did you think all the witches in the world come here to learn?”
