“Plus, I can see through illusions. Those vampires used an enchantment stolen from a sorcerer here that fabricated illusionary magic. It enabled them to mask the scent and appearance of the true state of your food to even get past your highly-perceptive senses, so they were able to poison you with things you can’t eat as a Basilisk,” I told him.
Yeah, I’d looked into the whole thing.
Both him and Evira looked stunned.
Zayn not at all, because he already knew about it, and he’d even seen me employ that skill once as well.
“That’s not an inherent ability of either Wraith or Necromancer,” Vaxan pointed out.
“No, but it can be. With the right training. And enough of it.”
“Sylas ensured you could do it?” Evira asked. “You use your necromantic side to see through illusionary magic?”
“Exactly.” My dad had taught himself how to do such a thing in his twenties, after he’d been faced with some brutal situations where illusionary magic had been used against him in devastating ways. Glasswake Massacre, for instance. He’d ensured that could never happen again. “But it won’t even be necessary for breakfast. Those two vampires were exceptions,nothing more. The rest of the student body respects and reveres you. Even the other vampires and vampire hybrids here don’t resent you for the Sunveil protections. I promise, Vax. If it will put you at ease, and if you even think you could bring yourself to head down there, I can definitely do that for you, though.”
“Hold on. How do you know that about the student body?” Zayn asked me. “I mean, I know all that, but I keep an eye on things, and I have for the last three years before you guys got here. You’re more of a chill-in-the-corner kind of wallflower guy, staying out of everything.”
“I might have ensured that I was made aware of every single student’s intentions here ever since the attack.”
Evira chuckled. “That’s some real protective and territorial dragon-like energy you were channeling there, lovely.”
“What?” I asked Zayn as he eyed me with amusement. “You know better than anyone how intense I get when I grow close to someone.” Off his look, I added, “Fine. Maybe verging on obsessive.” I acknowledged Evira’s observation. “Territorial, too. But in a protective way… not toxic alpha posturing.”
“Toxic alpha posturing?” Zayn chuckled. “You’re not capable of that. Nothing to worry about there. And I mean that as a compliment.” He winced. “That was my thing.”
“‘Was’being the operative word, Z.”
He smiled that sweetheart smile of his, one that had been all too rare beforehand.
“Thank you,” Vaxan spoke, looking between us. “Your efforts are much appreciated, and deeply thoughtful.” He told Evira, “You also with the magnificent draconic river rock, beauty. I believe taking breakfast together in the Cafeteria will be an agreeable way to start our day.”
“You’re sure?” I asked.
He leaned in and brushed his lips over my cheek. “Very much so.” As he eased back, he said, “I wish for us to all be together asone in the light.” He winked at me, making it clear that had been a nod to me being unable to be acknowledged by Evira and Zayn for so long.
He’d kept that promise to me.
At the time, I’d just never thought it would be possible that it would come to include all four of us.
Yet here it now was.
No more dirty little secret.
Things had shifted.
And I was here for it in every way.
As Zayn bounded over to Evira and wrapped his arm around her, the four of us heading off the balcony and back into her suite, she eyed me. “As we shower and dress, want to fill me in on your plan of action concerning the magical attack on you last night?”
“Definitely. Like you said, no more lone-wolf approach.”
She beamed out at me, her relief clear that I was sticking to what I’d agreed to last night after our intense talk, even in the light of day.
Of course I was. This development between the four of us meant the world to me.
And I’d absolutely honor it.
While Zayn had been fussingover what to wear, I’d taken that extra time of the delay it had caused us in leaving Evira’s suite, to respond to all the text messages from my family, managing to calm things properly and put them at ease.
