Magic Academy (A Fantasy New Adult Romance) (18 page)

Varuj looked down upon her. “Have
you forgotten me, Firi?” he asked, sounding a little hurt.
Wounded.

She blinked, startled from the
pleasantness of her surroundings, of her company.

Instead it had warped and she suddenly
felt wracked with guilt.

Why?

She shook her head, but words wouldn’t
come. It wasn’t the free flowing sensation she had with Mae’lin
where she knew he understood her. This was the silence of shame, of
trying to hide from the questions the demon posed.

There was still the heat and hardness
of his body pressed against her, his bare chest upon her in her light
dress. “I can’t hold on forever, Firi,” he said
sadly. “I’m counting on you to get me out,” he
pleaded.

She looked away in her shame. She’d
wanted to help him, but failed. Then to be caught in such a private
fantasy…

He kissed her again upon her neck, soft
and pleasing, so caring and romantic. “Use what I taught you,”
he husked lowly. “I gave you the tricks you need to free me.
Just… use what I taught you. Please. I miss you so much,”
he confessed in a low voice. “I long for your company.”

She missed him too. The isolation was
so great at night, when she was trapped in her room. Yet when she was
out and studying, she couldn’t bring herself to think of him.
Of the loneliness she was so desperate to escape.

“I don’t know how,”
she whimpered, but the feeling of his body was so pleasant. She could
feel every bit of him, every thud of his heart, every breath.

“I’m trying, but I don’t
understand.”

His sweet, hot lips moved across her
neck to her ear, and she felt him suckle upon the lobe. “You
have what you need, you don’t need to know,” the words a
bit raspy but full of desire. She felt his strong hands move across
her form, touch her thigh and slide up it, taking the dress with it.
“You have the key to free me, Firi. Don’t let me down
when I need you most.” The curl of his tongue took the bite off
his words, the sensuous movements of his hand and mouth so
mesmerizing, so pleasurable…

She’d been making it so much more
complicated than it needed to be. Figured she needed to learn a
spell, a way to unbind herself from the academy’s bondage.

Yet even those thoughts began slipping
away as she felt the demon’s hands and lips move against her
flesh. Her body was on fire as she whimpered beneath him,
half-heartedly trying to move away but she didn’t want to. Not
really.

“I miss you,” he rasped as
his hand moved beneath her dress and across her thigh. “I need
you,” he added with a husk as his fingers rubbed over her
panties to such glorious effect, the other hand clasping her petite
breast and squeezing ever so pleasantly.

She squirmed and a moan escaped her
against her will. “No,” she breathed out but she didn’t
want him to stop.

She simply didn’t want to like it
so much.

To feel so uncomfortably warm, a heat
emanating from her core and igniting as his fingers moved against her
clothed sex.

He didn’t stop, but the
sensations, the touches, only got more pleasurable. The swell of
heated man flesh only more appetizing. The press of his body only
greater… and she trembled before opening her eyes and seeing
him as he was when she’d first summoned him: giant, hulking,
and terrifying. “I long for you, Firi,” came his growling
voice. “Don’t betray me…”

She nearly fell out of her bed as she
gasped awake. Her skin was burning and she threw off the blankets,
needing the air, but it wasn’t enough. She had to throw off her
nightgown too, yet that somehow only made it worse. Her flesh felt so
alive with sensations, with needs, and she whimpered as she begged
her body to calm down.

She’d woken with such desire a
few times before but never to such intensity. It felt so overwhelming
and no matter which way she turned, she couldn’t get
comfortable. She was so confused by the dream, by what it meant.

Was that really Varuj?

Or just another of her fantasies?

The thought occurred to her that
realistically, it was likely a mix of both.

Varuj had been seeming so much weaker
inside her since she’d arrived, and his warming presence within
her had only seemed to fade more with time. Did he even have the
ability to influence her dreams like that anymore? Or had she waited
too long to act?

Her thumb ran across the ring as she
lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. She mulled over what he’d
taught her, what she’d seen, and wished he wasn’t always
so cryptic. Though the books had a habit of hiding their secrets as
well, and she deciphered them in time.

There had only been time for him to
teach and do for her a few things. He had bonded the ring to her,
which had saved her at least once. Then there was the familiar…
He’d taught her some tricks with it, how to command it…

She remembered searching the old civic
building on her trip to the academy. She’d simply asked the
familiar to search out some sense of magic, then to find the flaw in
the stone she needed. Could she command the ethereal minion to find
whatever wards were keeping Varuj at bay and dispel them?

Standing up, she immediately did the
motions bringing forth the conjuration, its shimmering light filling
the room as the magical fox looked to her with swaying tail.

It was harder to concentrate, in some
ways, because of her dream. Because of the way it made her feel. She
only wore her panties, but of course, Luka was a part of herself and
she felt no shame around it. The idea of putting clothes on her
sweltering body was simply too much.

“Luka. Find what’s keeping
me in here.”

The diligent familiar went to the task,
and she watched as he snuffled about the room, seeming to pinpoint
one place, then another. And another.

It wasn't until he had found several
such points of interest that he yipped and turned to her, giving that
subtle sign of affirmation that a job was complete.

She went to the last one he’d
found, her hand moving behind his ears before she knelt to inspect
it. A little security system. It made sense there’d be multiple
points, she supposed, though she had no real knowledge of these
things. “Good boy,” she purred, stroking him tenderly.

The shimmering fox nuzzled against her
arm and hand, the creature so closely linked to her own soul it
craved her affection and approval it seemed, eagerly twining itself
up against her ribcage.

She still didn’t quite know what
to do, to get rid of those invisible spots that kept him trapped.

For all others’ talks of
cleverness, there were times she felt like she couldn’t be more
daft.

Varuj had taught her how to command the
fox in many various tasks, how to retrieve things for her, how to
change its shape so that it could better perform certain duties. He
had told her the options were near limitless for her dear pet, and
it’d help prove that by finding the wards so effectively.

Luka raised its front paws onto her
knees and brushed its nose up against her collarbone trying to get
her attention.

It occurred to her then.

“Remove the wards, Luka,”
to which the fox immediately yipped and bounced down from her lap.

It was a curious sight then. The
familiar sat in the middle of the floor and before her very eyes
seemed to begin to unravel. The strands of light coming apart as he
swirled and increased in size, but not density. She could feel the
magic all around her, Luka versus the academy’s defenses.

It swayed and shifted, but only barely.
The wards were strong for the poor fox, and she could sense it
wouldn’t be a short or easy struggle.

As she waited and watched, it occurred
to her that it would be awhile yet before Varuj rejoined her.

The morning was going slowly. Firia was
anxious to know when the seals would be broken and Varuj could
return, but her obligations to study were unavoidable. She couldn’t
let anything interfere with that: not her tiredness, or her confused
feelings from a night of curious dreams. Though as the elderly wizard
demonstrated at the front of the class for them, one thing that began
to draw her attention was the feeling of being watched.

She drew her focus from the lesson for
a moment and caught Bran, a row ahead of her and to her right,
watching her with as much rapt attention as she gave her lessons.
Unlike Mae’lin, however, he didn’t look away shyly, or
appear embarrassed. He smiled to her, confidently, the expression
standing out amongst a sea of elves. He was, after all, the only one
like herself she ever saw on a regular basis.

Her brows raised at him curiously, not
sure what to make of it before she turned back to the teacher. Still
her skin prickled with the sensation and she let her dark hair
partially shield her face as she tried to take her notes.

It was hard concentrating, knowing you
were being watched. It was an odd sensation of being out of control,
of awareness of just how visible she was, and it made her heart race.

Once the class ended, Bran met her as
she exited the room. He was a big man, not quite so tall as Mae’lin,
but a bit broader, as human’s normally were. “You never
let anything pass you by without studying and absorbing it, do you?”
he remarked as they walked, a smile on his face as he looked to her.

“I try not to,” she agreed,
her lips turned up gently as she glanced to him. “I can’t
imagine it’s that interesting to watch.”

He was very different from Mae’lin,
he didn’t flush or shirk her looks. He seemed to embrace her
attempt to embarrass him. “You’re the only other human I
get to see regularly,” he remarked. “And you’re
very special. You’d have to be to get in here, after all. So
that means we have some major things in common,” he pushed open
a door for her in a gentlemanly sort of fashion, leading out into the
sunny day outside.

She laughed lightly. “Well that
must mean you think you’re pretty special too. They couldn’t
wait to get you enrolled, after all.”

With his chin up he moved back beside
her as they went. “I am,” he remarked with full
confidence. “Like I said, we’re both very special. If we
weren’t, how could we have gotten here, huh?” He brushed
his arm up beside hers, walking so closely beside her as they went.
“It makes sense to stick together. Two magically-inclined
humans, with the ability to show up elves much older than us. That’s
noteworthy.”

She was partially just glad he wasn’t
holding it against her that she’d been so bitter about him at
first and so gave a quick nod. “Well yea. Though if I don’t
study my ass off, well… they’ll have no trouble getting
rid of just another stupid human who couldn’t make the cut, I’m
sure.”

With a derisive sneer Bran looked off
ahead for a moment. “Well we won’t let that happen, will
we?” he remarked so firmly. “Firia,” he said
looking to her as he took her arm and pulled them both to a stop. “We
should make an alliance. You and me, sticking through this together.
I can help you,” he stated, looking at her with his confident
gaze. “Ala’nase said you don’t have the kind of
formal training the rest of us do. So I could give you a boost while
we’re at it.”

She bit her lower lip, her eyes
narrowing a bit. “Ala’nase was talking to you about me?”
It wasn’t like it had been confidential, but still she was
embarrassed that anyone knew she was struggling, let alone having it
talked about behind her back.

With a nod he said, “I asked her
why you were spending so much time with that elf, Mae’lin. She
assured me it was just to try and catch up.” He smiled
confidently and reached out, taking her arm by the wrist and lifting
it gently. “Meet with me at lunch. I know a quiet place off
behind the library. I can help you a bit,” he said with such
calm authority.

She stared up at him, scrutinizing his
face as she thought it over. She was so far behind, but her pride was
holding her back. Making her want to not admit to her struggles.

“Mae’lin and I usually
study during lunch,” she shrugged.

“But what can he teach you that I
can’t?” he remarked with a raised brow, sliding his
fingers down to her palm, holding her hand. “There’s no
way he can understand what it’s like for one of us.” He
bent down and kissed the back of her hand in a gentlemanly fashion.
“I’ll see you behind the library, Firia,” he said
with a confident smile, turning and heading off.

She sighed, resisting the urge to roll
her eyes. She shouldn’t be so ungrateful to people willing to
help, she reminded herself, but it was still no less embarrassing.

At least she’d be able to teach
Mae’lin whatever Bran taught her.

With the first exam of the semester
fast approaching, Firia couldn’t afford to turn down help.
Especially since she didn’t know whether Varuj could be freed
in time.

So as planned, she went to the back of
the library as instructed by Bran. There was nothing of note there,
just a few bushes and trees near the wall. Was it truly where he
wished to meet?

When her classmate emerged from betwixt
the bushes he gestured for her to follow before vanishing back
between.

It was one of the most curious sights
she’d seen in a while, and she’d been at a magical
academy for some time.

Following after him, instead of the
strange little hidey-hole on the other side of the bushes she’d
expected to find, she instead found herself standing in a beautiful
grove, at the heart of a lush forest. Flowers everywhere, birds
chirping and…

“Welcome,” came Bran’s
voice, as he stood by a lovely little picnic setup. Blanket and
basket at his feet, a great assortment of food ready for her.

Firia was impressed, she had to admit.
Her smile spread across her cheeks as she placed her books down atop
the blanket, shrugging her bag off after it. “Alright, this
seems a little more than what I figured for some homework help,”
she grinned.