Page 4 of All Her Feelings

Holly followed Kallan out of the meeting hall. Synora stepped into pace next to her as they headed toward the portal they had just come through from the Academy. Around them, Fae and Elven soldiers bustled around, securing the Fae lands. Holly spotted a few witches she knew from her coven, Brandlevine, casting wards around the main buildings.

They reached the portal and stepped through without any fanfare. Compared to the bustle of the Fae lands, the lobby of the Academy’s administrative building was silent. Holly had the sudden realization that this was the first time she’d been alone with her mates since the battle. She twisted her fingers together as the silence dragged on.

“Shall we go to the library?” she finally suggested. The only other option that came to mind was her room, and she did not want to be alone with them there just yet, in that small space.

It wasn’t as if she was scared of sex. Holly enjoyed sex. Except with her Empathy abilities, sex became… complicated. Growing up, she thought all she could do was take in negative emotions from other people and slightly influence them to feel other emotions. But the first time she had sex, she realized her Empathy magic had other abilities.

One lazy summer night, Holly had slept with a young wizard visiting Brandlevine for the summer. Blanton wasn’t the best lover, but it was a good enough for her first time. She even came. The problem came the second time she slept with him. When she orgasmed, her emotions spiraled out of control and leaked into her Empath magic, causing him to become obsessed with her. Luckily, Andy was his mentor that summer, and she kept him busy enough until the obsession wore off, but Holly had learned to be careful ever since. She kept her sexual endeavors to one time only—quick encounters with minimal intimacy. It had worked… right up until her mates walked into her life.

That was a problem for a different day, though, Holly thought, as she led them into the library to one of the tables. She almost went to the couches where Claire and their friends would hang out, but that felt too intimate still. Kieran shouldered Kallan out of the way to pull out her chair, and Holly fought to keep the blush off her face. She wasn’t sure she succeeded, as Kieran gave her a small smirk.

They all quickly took seats around the table. Holly looked at Kallan, waiting on him to start the meeting. He stayed silent, just looking at her. A quick glance around the table and she realized the others were looking at her as if waiting forherto start the meeting.

The force of their attention had her wanting to shrink in her chair. She wasn’t used to being the center of attention at a table. She wasn’t the leader—that wasn’t her role. She didn’t make the plan. She pointedly looked back at Kallan again, but he kept staring at her, a small smile playing on his lips. “So, who do you think the inside man is?” she finally asked.

Holly didn’t want to sound rude, but the other thing frustrating her was that she couldn’t get a read on him. On any of them, actually. Holly had spent her life reading other people and managing their emotions to make sure they had a good time and were successful. And, of course, the first people she ever met that she couldn’t get a read on were her mates. It was throwing her off.

“We should probably start with Roland and Vanya’s closest associates,” Synora offered.

“And Maxios’s,” Holly added.

Kallan and Kieran shared a look. “Maxios probably isn’t as important as Roland and Vanya are. Maxios was clearly expendable to them.” Holly bit her lip as she nodded. Their reasoning was sound, but this was also why she didn’t make suggestions—because she wasn’t any good at it.

Kieran looked at Kallan. “So, focus on the shifters first?”

“I think that would be wise,” Kallan said. “Roland sounded like the one who called the shots, based on the people we interviewed. It’s likely that the inside person—their right hand, maybe—was a fellow shifter, as he would have been someone they trusted.”

“He or she,” Synora corrected. “Don’t underestimate women.”

“I would never,” Kallan said, and when Holly looked up from her notes, he was staring at her. She bit her cheek and looked back down.

“The shifters first, and then I think the dragons should be second,” Kieran said. “Even if the right-hand man wasn’t from there, we still have the missing ingredients to think about, and Dragon Fire was one of the ingredients for the ultimate weapon.”

“Right, the ingredients.” Kallan scrubbed a hand over his face. “We need to find those before the escaped prisoners can. Maybe we should knock out the Dragons first, then.”

Holly bit her lip. Bethany was likely headed to the shifters first as well. It might be better to liaise with them to track the prisoners and see if, based on Zack’s research, there were likely places they would go hide. But she wasn’t the planner. That wasn’t her role. But what did it hurt to offer the suggestion? “Would it be better to liaise with Bethany and her team at the shifters first? If they have an idea of where the escaped prisoners might go, we could head them off from the ingredients.”

“That’s a good idea,” Synora said warmly, reaching across and squeezing Holly’s hand. Holly let a small tendril of warmth curl inside her stomach at Synora’s praise.

“So shifters, Dragons, and then likely the witches after that.”

Holly nodded her head as she took down notes. She could probably help streamline the process with the witches, as she had met most of them back when her papa had different plans for her besides attending the Academy. Plans that included her being married to some of the most eligible, powerful sons.

Oh God—her parents. In all the craziness, she hadn’t even thought to send word to them about her mates. She darted glances around the table as her three mates discussed travel plans. Her papa could be… elitist. If she was honest, most of the Realm had been too before Claire. How much power someone had determined their standing in the Realm. Her papa took it one step further, though, and was adamant that witches should marry witches, shifters marry shifters, and so on. Being that two of Holly’s mates were Fae and one was Elven… Holly took a deep breath. She didn’t always agree with her papa, especially on this stuff, but she had always managed to artfully avoid the topic. It didn’t seem like she would be able to for much longer. Not when she had a personal stake in the game.

She bit her lip. There was no reason to worry about this now. They had much bigger things to worry about. Holly would face her parents with her mates when they got to the witches’ territory; she’d try to put it out of her mind until then.

CHAPTER4

Aknock at the library door paused the conversation about travel arrangements. Helene poked her head around the door and scanned the room. Her eyes sparkled when they landed on Holly and her mates. “Ah, there you are.”

“Is something wrong?” Kallan stood up from his chair, the warrior switch in his brain flipped on. Holly was not ready to admit to herself how sexy he looked at that moment.

“Oh no,” Helene said, “I came to get you all for dinner.”

Dinner with Andy and Helene sounded like a fantastic idea, as it meant Holly could hide from alone time with her mates just a bit longer. “That sounds lovely,” Holly said as Kallan opened his mouth.

Helene’s lips quirked up on one side, but she simply extended a hand to Holly, who slipped an arm in hers and allowed herself to be led from the library, her mates quick on their heels.

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