“And that’s exactly the reason for that little performance we all just witnessed.”
“Wow, that’s… wow,” Evira breathed.
“You inspired her,” I told her.
She raised an eyebrow. “Me? What? No, I don’t think so.”
Vax clasped her hand across the table. “How you’ve handled yourself since you arrived—dealing with Keuric, sparring with me, fornicating with Zayn. She might not know yet about what happened atVantiqeas it was only last night when it all transpired, and seeing the four of us together is brand-new to everyone as of this morning, but she’s seen the rest. For somebody so awfully restricted and controlled, seeing somebody like you also with a duty and expectations forced upon her step outside that realm of control is an extremely powerful thing, a great jolt to her psyche and perception of things.”
Evira took his words in, then a lovely smile spread over her face. She stroked Vax’s hand on hers. “Thank you. All of you.”
“It’s your strength and power,” Zayn told her. “Just making sure you see that.” He dropped the spell, then we all rose from the table.
I smiled out at the three of them.
At us.
It was surreal.
In the best possible way.
Coming here to Loxley Academy had certainly brought many surprises along with it.
And what we’d found together was definitely the most precious of all.
18
~Evira~
Tonight was finally the night.
The last few days had been incredibly busy.
Classes were in full swing, so the workload had become intense. Readings, assignments, and projects were coming in hot. For all of us.
Sylas had put his foot down about Winter’s pre-apprenticeship prep, and because Winter had been glitching for so long—unknown to anyone outside of our unit—he’d had to play catch-up when it came to that in a major way.
He’d been so reluctant to perform one of the required necromantic feats that Sylas had outlined, known as Undead Domination, that I’d asked a favor of my vampire friends, the couple, Isabella and Marian, and they’d agreed to volunteer to have that performed on them. The two of them had enjoyed what they’d termed the “freeing feeling” of it so much that they now kept bugging him to do it again. Not sure it was the healthiest thing on their end, but it had been for Winter, because it had given him his first positive response to doing something like that. Beforehand, he’d just considered it a nasty violation upon death-touched beings.
Over the last few days, I’d realized that the boys had been trying hard to tone down the sexual aspect of our relationship. They’d been concerned about it overwhelming me, given my previous well-known inexperience. And they’d also wanted to ensure our relationship didn’t devolve into just fucking.
But I’d had enough of that approach and put my foot down. So, two nights ago we’d all come together in one hell of a filthy, carnal, and very animalistic marathon of fucking in Vaxan’s dorm room. Or as Vaxan had termed it:deep eroticized expression.I chuckled to myself at the thought. He was really something. That night I’d also discovered that he was a sculptor, and that he and Zayn shared that artistic nature. He’d shown us all his special sculptures that he’d made from shaping stone with a mixture of Basilisk vibrational abilities and his magic.
Tonight we were all finally going to do the racing that Zayn had suggested many days ago now, and I was really looking forward to it.
Right now, I had myPrimal Mastery: Harnessing Instinctclasswith Professor Willa Rossun for all shifters and shifter hybrids. This was the practical session, not the theory, meaning no sitting in a lecture hall just taking notes this time. I would get to spend most of the two-hour class in full dragon form this time.
And if that wasn’t enough, there was even more good news. Today was the last class ofArcane & Elemental Synergywithout Winter. The next one, he would be present in along with the rest of us, because he would have completed four sessions of the prerequisite class all hybrid beings needed to take beforeSynergy.
It was turning out to be a great day.
I turned the corner, making a left down one of the dark marble corridors that led to the east side of campus outside where Morphic Range was located. It was a massive area whereeven dragons like me had enough space to shift into their animal forms, and use their abilities freely.
I was taking a roundabout route to it, because I’d wanted to finish my text conversation with the guys before I reached the area and then got immersed in it all.
Speaking of that, I hadn’t managed to keep from contacting T for several days like I’d told him I would after his attack on Winter. I’d messaged him just a day later to make sure he was okay, because he’d been going through a lot with the fallout of that attack and his crumbling relationship with Fanor.
And immediately he’d apologized. Not just that, he’d even shown that he recognized that he should have come to me instead of performing some archaic chivalrousdefending-of-my-honorbullshit as though I was incapable and just some pathetic damsel. Mistakes happened. I knew that. He knew that. And the two of us didn’t hold grudges between us. So, we’d moved on, and we were back to our regular supportive pseudo-sibling dynamic.
