Knowing I couldn’t let Asher deal with my mistake, I took a small step forward. “Actually—”
I was cut off by a hand over my mouth as Jesse wrapped his arm around me and lifted me back behind him. Rone and Calen closed in on either side of me.
“It’s definitely water magic,” Asher told him while I wiggled in an attempt to get free.
“Quiet,” Jesse hissed, his warm breath brushing across my ear. “Let Ash handle this.”
Why? I wanted to shout, but his hand was still over my mouth. I barely…barelystopped myself from biting him.
“I think I can reverse it,” Asher was saying, “I just need some time to make sure that there’s nothing else going on here. I don’t want to make it worse.”
“What caused it though?” Princeps Jones asked, and while I couldn’t really see him through the broad shoulders surrounding me, I sensed he was looking in my direction.
Asher sounded confident when he replied. “Right now, I’m not sure. But I’m going to do my best to find out. I suggest making this an out of bounds area, and we can let the students back in once I’ve contained the situation.”
“What will you do?” That voice was unfamiliar, and I assumed it was another teacher.
Even though I couldn’t see him, I knew Asher would be shrugging, his broad shoulders casually moving like he wasn’t stressed at all. “Probably easiest to send it into our water world. But again, that’s something I’ll assess after doing some magical tests.”
The next pause was long and filled with tension. My body was practically vibrating, and I had to close my eyes and breathe deeply so I didn’t explode everyone here. Jesse’s familiar scent helped to calm me, even if I was pissed at his manhandling. Dude better hide his balls when he let me go.
“Okay, Asher. Keep me updated,” Princeps Jones said. “I expect you to let me know by the end of the day what we’re dealing with here. If you can’t figure it out, I’ll have to bring in someone else with advanced water magic skills.”
Asher must have agreed, and the princeps must have left, because suddenly I was released. Spinning around, I punched Jesse right in the gut, not even caring that it was going to hurt my knuckles more than his hard abdomen. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”
His expression was amused, and I was reeling back to smack him again when he winked at me. “It was the only way I knew to shut you up. I could have kissed you, I suppose.”
I swallowed my next angry retort.
“If you had kissed her,” Asher said, some of his cool finally shattering, “you wouldn’t have walked away from the punch. Now let my fucking mate out.”
When he called me mate, it basically sent me into a tailspin of emotions.
Mates were like married couples in the supernatural world. Chosen mates were two who came together by choice—hence the name—with no magical bond. They could be from different species, which was how mixed-race children were born. True mates were only between the same race and it was the fairy tale that everyone searched for: an actual mystical, fate-driven bond that tied your souls together. I’d been told it could happen through sex or kissing or even touching for the first time. Every bond was different, and just because Asher and I hadn’t formed that sort of bond yet didn’t mean it couldn’t happen.
But it was highly unlikely after all we’d been through and our level of intimacy.
And yet he’d still called me mate like that.
“She’s going to cry, man,” Calen said, sounding strained. “You know I don’t do crying chicks. All that emotion scares me.”
He was totally full of shit, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m not going to cry.”
I was.
Tears were burning my eyes, and when Jesse and Rone stepped aside to let Asher at me, I swallowed hard. “Mate?” I said softly.
His hand cupped my face, the other tangling in my hair so that he was cradling my head. “Baby, you’re the only supernatural I want or need. There’s no other like you, Maddi, and I will protect you whether you like it or not.”
Ah, he was reminding me about Princeps Jones. “You gave the guys the signal to shut me up?” I guessed.
Asher nodded. “Until we know what we’re dealing with, I don’t want you to admit to anything. There are already members of the school faculty, and some parents, who are uneasy about you being here with your unknown powers. I won’t give them another reason to look your way.”
I blinked, having had no idea that anyone was uneasy about me. It made sense though … especially for parents, because their children went to this school and I’d already brought trouble to the Academy’s doorstep. “Why didn’t you tell me that?” I asked softly.
“You’re dealing with enough,” Asher said seriously. “There has only been some talk, nothing concrete enough to worry you further. But for now I need you to keep your head down. Don’t create waves.”
As one, all of us looked up at the ocean above. “There’s no waves at least,” I said.
