The hallway was dark and quiet as Jared and I made our way down to the dorms, but my head was anything but. The prophecy kept echoing off my skull—The door will bleed. Only living shadows can seal the wound.
“You’re quiet,” he said.
“Can you blame me?”
He shook his head, then lifted our joined hands and kissed my knuckles. “At least you have company this time.”
I shot him a scowl. “Yes, it’s so much better knowing my dad and boyfriend are in the crosshairs, too. What?” I added when he smiled.
“Boyfriend,” he said, his voice full of heat. “I do like the sound of that.”
I rolled my eyes, but it had worked. My mood had improved by at least five notches. And then five more when I saw the heat flicker across his expression. “We could just skip the meeting redux with the gang and go back to your room.” He bent over and kissed my ear. “You spent so much time decorating it, it’s a shame not to thoroughly christen it.”
“You, sir, are too transparent.”
“Parent being the operative word?”
“Stop,” I said, fighting a laugh. “What if my mom’s lingering?”
“She’d just think we’re enjoying your extra space. I know Mindy approves.”
“Of you or my new room?”
He flashed that lust-worthy grin. “Both.”
I swallowed a laugh. When I’d upgraded to my own room in the residential part of the mansion, I’d told Mom it made sense because I was doing more teaching than studenting now. But Mindy knew the truth—Jared. Because the tiny dorm room converted from servants’ quarters that Mindy and I had shared was hardly date-friendly.
And because she’s my bestie, she’d assured me that she didn’t mind.
Considering how she liked to spread out all her computer gear, I thought she might even have been secretly turning cartwheels about having the room all to herself.
I let my mind drift back to earlier. The way it had felt with Jared’s hands on my skin. The way my entire body had seemed to be nothing but want and need.
The way my mom had burst in.
I jumped a little, jarred from my lusty thoughts, and realized we’d almost walked right past the common room.
“Mind elsewhere?” Jared teased.
I brushed a soft kiss over his lips. “Maybe. But don’t even think about heading back to my room yet. You know they’re all huddled in there waiting for us to give them the scoop.”
Sure enough, the entire—albeit small—student body was gathered in the common room. Mindy on the couch with her laptop, my cousin Eliza cross-legged on the floor, and Renand Ana tangled together on the loveseat, still in that always-touching, new relationship stage.
Jared took his place in an overstuffed armchair and pulled me into his lap as Mindy said, “We heard everything.”
“Really?”
She nodded, her newly short, wavy hair was a mess, as if she’d been dragging her fingers through it, and her eyes were bloodshot. For that matter, all of them looked a bit wrung out, and I felt a weird sort of warmth knowing that these guys were here because they had my back—even though I didn’t have a clue how they’d heard a thing.
“The study,” Eliza explained, probably because I looked clueless. “The door that opens onto the sitting room. We thought it was painted shut, but it’s not.”
“It was just stuck,” Mindy added. “WD-40 fixed it weeks ago.”
“And?” I glanced around the room at all of them. “Please tell me you worked some mojo and figured out the prophecy. I mean, it’s been at least ten minutes. I expect results from you guys.”
“We totally have the answer,” Ana said. “You’ll kick some ass and save the world.” She shrugged. “Because that’s what you do.”
And the cool—and terrifying—thing was that she actually meant it. Cooler still is the fact that she said it aloud. When Ana first came to the Academy, she was a mousy little thing who’d been sucked into herself after her parents’ death and had somehow ended up on Forza’s radar. Now, she’s grown into a stunningly pretty girl, with real confidence and some pretty kickass fighting skills.
