A chill ran the length of my spine, and gooseflesh prickled my skin.
“Didn’t the high mage let everyone pick their element… at the beach?” I asked. “Maybe I misunderstood when he asked if it was my favorite place—”
“There was no beach…”
Nerves churned in my gut as I realized that maybe no one else had had the same experience as I did.
“Not a beachfor real,” I hurried to explain. “More like a mental landscape. I couldn’t see you all for a few minutes, and we were on the beach—like a relaxation technique and then—” Their wild looks made me realize that my suspicions were correct. He’d only done that little number for me. But why would he do that? All the thoughts whirling through my head only scared me more. High mage equaled bad news, and I didn’t want any favors from one of them.
“Never mind.” I shook my head and waved away my previous words. “I’m a bit traumatized from today, and clearly not thinking … clearly.”
Was this something to do with that water symbol on my solar plexus? Now, there was no way I was going to ask them about it for fear they’d put me on the crazy train—one-way ticket and all that.
“You wanna lie down? I mean, you just got in a full-on battle.” Kaja pointed to her room while the other sisters nodded and started to fawn over me.
I wanted to be alone and rock in a corner and cry—definitely not going to say that out loud though.
Instead, I just nodded. “You know what. A nap sounds great. I’m gonna head over to my place though and lie down.”
All five of them winced.
“That condemned rathole?” Kaja grimaced, her expression an exclamation point.
I chuckled. “Yeah, but it’smycondemned rat hole.”
Nell pouted, her bottom lip stuck so far out it was almost comical. “If we were allowed to co-mix, I would totally give you a room here. We have more than enough.”
Her sweet offer was so typical of Harvest generosity. I gave her a sad smile and patted her hand. “Thank you. But rules are rules.”
Grabbing my borrowed fire textbook, I forced a cheery smile. “I’ll catch you at dinner. I’m serving!”
Because my life was awesome. If the blood and guts weren’t cleaned up by then, I’d definitely be looking into therapy.
With that, I ran out of their house, afraid one of them would say something else about my weird beach encounter with the high mage. Hauling my butt across the courtyard, I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Kaja wasn’t coming after me, and when I turned around, I skidded to avoid full-on crashing into—ugh!—Rage. Ibarelybumped into him, only a little. And then I stood in front of him, clutching my book with both hands and gasping for air.
We just stared at each other. I waited for him to yell at me, but he just keptlookingat me, his gaze darting over every curve of my face. The silence stretched, weirding me out a little, or a lot, but legit, I could stare at his face all day and be okay with it.
Yummy ugly troll.
Finally, he sighed. “Thank you for your help today with the selkies.”
My mouth popped open.
Did he just compliment me? I reached up and felt his forehead. No fever.
“You feeling okay?” I narrowed my eyes. “Are you really Rage? Or maybe Noble beefed up a little?”
I tapped his giant bicep as if I couldn’t tell him and his brothers apart. A slow grin curled one side of his mouth into a lopsided, sexy smirk, making my insides melt.
Mother Mage, why did my internal compass point to the bad boy?
“You can’t tell?” He stepped closer, and I could feel the heat rolling off his body. “You’ve never seemed to have a problem telling us apart before?”
His gaze dipped to my lips, and I sucked my bottom lip in—to make sure I wasn’t drooling. Or slobbering. Or panting.
I wasn’t sure what was happening here, but I didn’t want to be done. I wanted nice Rage to stay and never leave.
“Where’d you learn to fight like that?” he asked, looking my body up and down like I was a prized specimen.
