If the monsters didn’t get me, embarrassment was about to straight-up murder me.Don’t think about him without underwear. Don’t fucking do it.
“There are monsters surrounding the school,” I blurted out.
His casual indifference faded as he lifted his head, towering over me. “The blanket is intact. That can’t be possible.”
Intact.Wait, what? It had been down. I’d felt that pulse against my magic, but... I expanded my power and it hit the cloyingsensation. The blanket had returned.
“I think it might have been down for a few minutes,” I whispered, trying to piece it together in my head. “The power pulsewoke me, and I saw dozens of monsters outside my window.” Logan’s room was an interior, so it didn’t have a real window, onlya magically created one. “I’ll show you in my room.”
He didn’t move, and I was done with his shit for the night.“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a few monsters, Kingston.” Shooting a sneer at him, I left his dorm and ran for mine, hoping that he’d be curious enough to follow.
To my immense relief, I felt the burn of his power not ten seconds later. At my room, I pressed my hand against the palm reader,cursing at how long it took to open the door. “Calm,” Logan said, placing his hand on top of mine to ease my jittering.
Calm was about the last thing I felt when Logan touched me, but he was strong enough to ease my hold. When the lock finallyclicked, I raced over to the window and flung a hand out to show him what lay below. “The monsters are everywhere,” I rasped.“They’re surrounding the school.”
He was a huge warlock, so he filled the window as he looked out. My body was trembling beside him as I tried to ignore thelarge tattoo on his back which looked a lot like a giant mountain lion, and instead focused on a plan to destroy dozens ofmonsters. If we woke the whole school, could the professors help?
“Paisley...”
I jerked my head to find him calm and staring out the window as if still searching. Pushing into his space, I drew on strengthI didn’t know I had to ignore the heat of his naked, tatted chest in lieu of finding the monsters.
Only there were none.
Not a shadow. Not a creature. The moonlight was strong and bright, its energy washing into my own magic until it swirled inside.
“Where?” Logan said shortly as he backed up a step. “Where are the monsters?”
I swallowed roughly and spent another minute frantically staring around the grounds. “They were everywhere,” I whispered, rubbing my head as I panicked that I was actually losing my mind. This was the incident in the lake all overagain, only this time cranked in intensity. “Dozens of them. Some that looked like the ones I’ve already seen, but a lot of different ones as well.”
Logan arched an eyebrow in my direction, and this time when he leaned closer to look out the window, he spanned his arms oneither side of me, trapping me in front of him against the windowsill.Fuck fuck fuck.“Show me them, Paisley.”
I couldn’t even breathe, let alone do anything else. I also couldn’t show him monsters that were no longer there. Logan’sbig body surrounded me, his hard edges and all that power and strength pressing against my back.
A squeak was the best I could manage, and his laugh was husky. “If you wanted me in your dorm to finish what we started theother night, you only had to ask, Precious. No need to make up stories about monsters.”
I was starting to hate the wordprecious. Especially when it came out of Logan’s pretty mouth. His arrogance did return my voice at least. I whipped around in hishold and slammed my hands against him to push back. “Listen up, asshole, I would never pretend there were fucking monstersto get your attention. It might come as a surprise to you,Hottest Warlock of the Year, but I don’t want your attention. I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole.”
The unflappable asshole shot me a slow burn of a smirk. “Wouldn’t touch me with a ten-foot pole, hey. That’s not what yousaid when my tongue was buried in your pu—”
“Enough!” I choked out as my fingers flexed against his skin. “That was healing magic bringing us together. Tonight has nothingto do with it, and I swear to you there were monsters everywhere. I don’t know what happened to them...”
Maybe it had been a nightmare that I’d taken a few seconds to wake from. I’d sworn there had been no blanket on the school, along with those telltale tingles of dread down myspine, but now everything felt calm. Either I was going crazy or someone wanted me to think I was.
“Whoever brought them must have gotten rid of them,” I mused, rubbing a hand over my tired eyes.
Logan watched me closely, his expression assessing in that dissecting way he had about him. “You should get some sleep.” Therewas no bite, just a soothing tone as he finally released me from his hold. “It was a stressful day, and tomorrow isn’t goingto get much better. Our private classes start in the morning. Be fucking ready.”
Before I could conjure a smart retort, he left the room, taking his immense energy with him, and I all but collapsed againstthe window. When I caught my breath, I took one last look out at the grounds. The monsters truly were gone. Unless they nowroamed the halls of the school, there was no sign they’d even been here at all. Amazing. I’d made a fool of myself in frontof Logan again, and I couldn’t forget what he’d said to me:our private classes start in the morning.
Why hadn’t I told him I had less than zero interest in training with him after that shit his father pulled on Mom today. Hedidn’t get to order me around, and I had to stop going to him when danger hit. It was confusing to us both, and I had no ideawhy I was so drawn to him.
Tomorrow, when he tracked me down for training, I had to be strong enough to resist his pull. If I wasn’t, that spellcasterwould destroy me. He might not be behind the monsters, but there was more than one way to break a witch.
And I was pretty certain Logan was an expert at them all.
Chapter 31
The next day started off slow, and I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this tired.
