“Oh, really?” He tries to sound only mildly interested, playing the game we do here. Student and professor. Nothing more.
I enrolled at Ramla starting this fall, working toward a history degree.
Also, I’m auditing one creative writing course.
This way, I can learn about an interesting subject, but there’s no true conflict of interest because Broderick isn’t grading any of my work. Not officially anyway.
“Yeah. Only I’m wondering if there’s a restriction on what I can write about.” I keep my voice casual.
The witch adjusts the strap of his bag. “Only that it should fit with one of the prompts.”
“I think this does, but”—I lean close, lowering my voice even though we’re alone in the room—“the story might be slightlyerotic.”
He doesn’t respond. Not other than clasping one of my hands in his and tugging me toward the exit.
“Wait,” I gasp while grinning. “Where are you taking me, Professor Shelly?”
Broderick’s spine goes rigid, and he turns blazing eyes on me. “Home. Where I can teach you a lesson about what it does to me when you call meProfessor Shelly.” My witch glances around quickly, eyes frantic, then drags me in for a hot, desperate kiss. He’s breathing heavily when we part. “I love you so fucking much.”
I cup his face. “I love you too.” Then, I rub my nose against his. “Sorry for torturing you with sex eyes. You’re too tempting.”
He groans and drags me—laughing—from the room.
Days like this help me forget about the pain and fear from my past.
So does therapy. Jack got me in touch with a professional he talks to. A mythic. Ame had originally encouraged him to go to counseling. The wolf admitted that he was reluctant to talk to a stranger at first, but he’s found it helpful.
And now, I do too.
The panic and anxiety attacks are less frequent, and I have tools for managing them when I can’t avoid slipping into that bad space. Broderick’s magic is always the final option, and when I’m struggling, I know his eyes are on my chest. Waiting for me to press a fist to my heart. Simply knowing that he has the power to ease the twisted pressure in my chest and head offers a sense of safety.
As we step into the twilight of the evening, a welcoming hoot sounds from overhead, and a large barn owl wings down from the branch where she’s been waiting for us.
“Hello, Moonlight. Have a good sleep?” Broderick reaches up to offer his finger for a gentle, affectionate nip. The familiar trills another note before soaring away. She’ll arrive at his window later tonight, tapping her beak on the glass of the kitchen window in a demand for admittance.
There’s a perch for her in almost every room of the witch’s house, though she spends most of her time in the woods.
Before I can break off and head for my truck, Broderick pulls me in for another kiss—chaste in case his students are around.
“I’ll see you at my place?” he asks, as if there’s somewhere else I’d rather be.
“I’ll be right behind you.”
But then his phone chimes, and when Broderick glances at the screen, he groans.
“What’s up?”
“Mor wants me to close up the library for her.” He turns his screen so I can see. “She has a monster emergency.”
I grimace in sympathy. For his sister, not for him—Broderick will get laid tonight, just a bit later than he was hoping. A delay in his sex life is nothing compared to what Mor is going through.
She finally found a safe way to break the enchantment on the metal statue and free the being within.
Things have not gone well since.
Jack and I both caused our own slight disturbances in the town when we were freed of our curses. Even now, things with the wolves are still delicate, and Georgiana never offers me more than a clipped ‘hello’ when we run into each other around town. However, Jack and I have made efforts to find spaces for ourselves in the community and settle in. He’s working as a sort of mediator between the two wolf packs, and I’ve met with some harpies and sirens—more open-minded ones than Georgiana—about establishing a safe space for flying in our mythic forms, probably aided by some helpful witches. Jack and I want to belong.
But this new arrival has a different, more destructive mindset.
