Magic Academy (A Fantasy New Adult Romance) (20 page)

She’d brushed her hair back into
two pigtails and dressed more casually than her day robe, though it
wasn’t saying much. She was still stuck with second hand
clothes and few at that, but her smile was bright.

She needed to learn to control her
thoughts, and him catching her in a daydream was another reminder of
that.

In the looming evening shadows he
guided her along, “I trust I didn’t catch you before you
had time to prepare,” he stated, glancing to her as he guided
her to the same secret hiding spot he’d shown her before. She
was slow to realize he’d changed his clothes. No longer wearing
his fancy wizard’s robes, he instead had on a rather striking
suit. Black boots, pants and jacket, with a high collar.

Did she not look prepared? She looked
down at the worn outfit and frowned, wishing she had something nicer.
It was just another thing that made her stand out among the sea of
elves.

“I’m ready.” She
brushed her bangs out of her face, as if that would make her feel
more confident, but as usual it didn’t work. “You…
really didn’t have to get dressed up for me.”

The glade was even more beautiful at
night, and silver of the moon reflecting off the flowers, the grass
and surrounding trees. She saw then another beautiful spread upon a
very spacious blanketed area, and he took her there, helping her
down. “Nonsense,” he stated so pleasantly. “A
gentleman should look good for his lady.”

His lady? Her nose crinkled. This was…
a study appointment, right? She thought they’d been clear in
making plans. Still, when she tried to open her mouth she felt
flustered and unsure of herself, afraid that she was reading into it
too deeply.

“Well… a lady,” she
finally managed, but it was choked out.

Bran paid her words no heed, but
offered her some of the food as he smiled. “I was training this
afternoon with fire. It made me think of that performance you put on
at the competition, which I sadly missed. How I’d love to see
you do that again someday,” he remarked.

“I’m not sure I’ll be
up for it any time soon,” she admitted. “Not until I get
more control over it, anyways. I mean, Mae’lin really could
have been hurt…”

Bran merely laughed as they continued
to eat. “Oh well, I’ve been made to feel more than a few
lumps by overzealous elves in practice. They just love to make us
upstart humans hurt,” he said with a flash of his brows and a
grimace.

“I don’t know. I’ve
never been hurt like that.” She’d been the one far more
out of control, and then earlier with Ala’nase … She was
getting worried that if she didn’t get Varuj back, and fast,
she’d never be able to make it through her first year.

“You’re lucky then,”
he said. “In the magical immersion program the elves were
always ganging up on me with their newly learned spells.” With
a shrug he said, “It forces you to toughen up to survive. And I
got a few scars to show for it,” he remarked as their meal
continued.

“Sounds like it kind of…
sucked. No offense.”

With a brush of his hands he nodded to
her before pouring up some cups of drink from a decanter. “It
did. But it made me a stronger sorcerer. I figured something similar
had to have happened to you to get so far, with so little training. I
mean… by all accounts you’re pretty amazing, Firia,”
he said with a charming smile as he handed her the cup.

“You keep saying that.” She
took a sip of the tea thoughtfully before she shook her head. “I
just always knew this was what I wanted. It’s always been what
I’ve worked towards, before I even knew it was a goal.”

Bran sipped his drink as he watched
her. “You’re determined,” he said after some
thought. “That’s important. It’s what matters most.
And to have held onto that determination for so long? So many let it
die out before it really matters.” He smiled and lowered his
free hand, resting it next to her leg so that his finger brushed her
knee.

“Yea, well… Being a
groundskeeper isn’t exactly what I wanted for myself. And it’s
not what my dad wanted for me either. So I guess what kept me
motivated is just wanting to do something…” She didn’t
want to say better, because it wasn’t necessarily better. It
was just better for her.

Cozying up beside her, Bran rested his
cup down then placed his arm around her back. “You didn’t
want to be chained to mediocrity,” he stated. “You’ve
a great deal of promise with magic, it would be a crime if that were
to happen to you,” he stated confidently, a thin smile on his
face illuminated by the moon.

“Still… You look so
comfortable with it. Like nothing bothers you.” She felt him
press around her and it felt so safe, like when her dad would hold
her after a long day. And she’d had so many long days, filled
with so much excitement and worry.

And loneliness.

What was comforting suddenly changed
and her body prickled as she shifted away from him a smidge. “I
just hope I could get to that level.”

Bran didn’t back off though, for
he reached up and trailed the backs of two fingers along her jawline.
“Together we’ll go to levels no human magic-users ever
have before, Firia,” he said in a husky, firm voice. “I’ve
always known I was destined for greatness.” He lowered his hand
back down to her knee, resting it atop it this time, “But now I
realize that together, you and I? We could surpass even my dreams.
We’ll be the envy of all others.”

Her skin was electric to his touch, and
she felt such intense need. To be close to someone. Anyone.

Yet Varuj’s voice rang in her
memory and she stood up instantly.

Had she forgotten about him?

The thought haunted her, but what
bothered her most was… Should she care if she had? The thought
of the demon’s body pressing against hers, kissing her neck and
feeling so right was horrific, and she looked down at the confident
Bran. They had so much in common, didn’t they? The only two
humans at the school, in the same year. Both so determined.

“Sorry,” she apologized,
though she didn’t know why. Was she afraid of offending him?

Why did Varuj have such a hold on her?
No matter how she tried to organize her thoughts, they kept coming
back to him.
He’s a demon, damn it!
she cursed herself.

Bran stood up with her, a look of
confusion on his face. “Are you okay?” he asked, “I
don’t understand what happened,” he struggled with the
words, for the first time seeming to have lost his intense feeling of
control over all situations.

“Come sit again,” he
pleaded, reaching for her hand, “It’s too early to end
the night already.”

She looked up at him with her blue
eyes, and she wasn’t sure what happened either. She just…
panicked.

“Do you like me?” she
asked, her voice skeptical.

The look that crossed his face was
something of relief, and the most pure expression of joy she’d
ever seen the stoic sorcerer exhibit. “Absolutely,” he
said. Though from there it did not go as she anticipated, he lunged
for her, arm around her back, the other on her arm as he pressed
their lips together in a passionate kiss.

Bran was much larger than her,
stronger, and he held her in such a tight hold, pressing her to him
as he tongued her lips beneath the silver moon.

She couldn’t believe what was
happening. She was simply shocked into inaction, and she didn’t
even protest. Couldn’t!

Was she sure this wasn’t another
dream?

Suddenly she was both afraid of and
hoping for Varuj’s interruption, for him to imply she was
selfish. That she’d forgotten him and got lost in her interest
for another.

Yet the kiss wore on and there was no
demonic presence, no shift in perspective. Just the taste of his hot,
spiced mouth on hers.

Bran was such a strong presence, so
confident, and he took control of her then and held her petite frame
against his chest. She felt like he might never let go as that smug
young wizard pushed her to the grass and…

A gasp broke the moment, and Bran tore
his lips from hers to twist his neck around and looked behind.

There, Firia and Bran saw standing
behind the bushes a gaped-mouth Ala’nase and a terribly
sullen-looking Mae’lin.

“What are you two doing here?!”
insisted the shocked Bran, still holding onto Firia.

“We didn’t mean to
intrude!” Ala’nase looked both shocked and apologetic in
equal measure.

For a long moment Firia wished she
could simply disappear into the grass. She couldn’t even get up
and flee with the weight of the man on top of her. She gasped for
breath and squirmed beneath him, but that only made it so much worse.

What was happening to her body? Why did
his weight on top of her feel so damned good when she should be
feeling ashamed?

She didn’t want her friends to
see her like this. To get the wrong idea, but it was far too late for
all of that.

“It’s not what it looks
like,” she pleaded with them, but what good would that do?
Mae’lin was already gone, she noticed, and Ala’nase was
holding up her hands and backing away.

“So sorry, Firia!” the
elvish woman called out as she receded back through the bushes. “I
am so, so sorry!”

Bran, filled with irritation at the
interruption, finally looked back to her, clutching her hand. “How
did they find us here?” he lamented, but squeezed her hand and
leaned in. “Now they all know about us anyhow,” and he
kissed her lips again.

She pulled away and shook her head.
“Bran, I have to find them. This… I’m so not ready
for whatever this is,” she finally managed as she struggled
free.

The confident young wizard looked
simply confused by that declaration. “What do you mean…?”
he muttered, still lying there on the grass, supported on one palm as
he watched her go. “Firia! We’re partners now, you said…”
he struggled for the words.

She didn’t know what he thought
she’d said but she grabbed her book. She hated having to crush
him so, but what other option did she have. “Look, we’ll
talk later, okay? Thanks for dinner,” she shouted over her
shoulder as she ran towards the exit.

“It’s good that they know!”
she heard him call out as she left.

She ran through the bushes, but no
sooner had she come out the other side of the secret entrance did she
go crashing into Ala’nase. The two went sprawling with the
impact, and Firia’s satchel spilled its contents about the
grass behind the library.

“I said I’m sorry!”
Ala’nase cried out as Firia lay atop her slender, elvish form.

She couldn’t control her magic or
her bumbling form, and she rolled onto her back to free her friend.
“Listen, it wasn’t what it looked like. We were just
talking and he grabbed me and… it just happened so fast, I
didn’t know what to do.”

It would be different if she felt for
Bran, wanted it to happen. But it hadn’t even really occurred
to her, and the surprise had made her slow. And embarrassed.

Ala’nase, for her part, rose up
onto her palms and began her own hurried explanation. “No, you
don’t need to explain! It’s my fault, I saw you get
grabbed from one of the upstairs windows, and I thought you were in
trouble! So I ran out to get you, Mae’lin saw me in a panic…
and as soon as he heard what I saw he refused to give up. So the two
of us went searching for you and… It was a big mess! I’m
so sorry for barging in like that. I shouldn’t have let my
imagination run away.”

Firia felt so flustered as she pushed
herself up off the ground. “Where’d he go?”

“He’s back inside, isn’t
he?” she said with some confusion, slower to brush herself off
and get back up.

“I don’t know,” she
admitted. “He just… Damn, he looked really hurt.”

I was going to propose.

The dream with Mae’lin popped
back into her mind and she couldn’t help that it made her heart
pound, despite what Varuj wanted. Regardless of his interruption.

“Bran look hurt? So why’d
you leave him then?” she asked with confusion. “Or you
mean… Mae’lin?” Ala’nase looked about, slow
to catch on to the complexity of what had really just happened. “I
don’t know, he was really concerned for you. He’s
probably gone back to his room,” she explained.

“Look, we’ll talk later,
okay? Just… I need to find him.” She didn’t wait
for a reply, though. She didn’t need one right then.

She just didn’t want for Mae’lin
to hurt a second longer than he had to over this.

Night had sunk its claws into the sky
deeply, it was very dark on the campus, and the moon was hidden
behind one of the buildings wherever she went, it seemed. She went
back to the dormitory and up to Mae’lin’s room. She
knocked on it there. But no sound emerged.

“Mae’lin?” she asked,
knocking again fruitlessly.

It wasn’t long before one of the
other male students looked to her curiously and she asked, “Have
you seen Mae’lin?”

He shook his head. “Not in a
while,” he remarked.

Damn, damn, damn.

The only other place she thought she
might look and actually find him was their study corner in the
library.

Or maybe she was just hoping he might
be sentimental enough to be there.

The library was so labyrinthine, the
endless corridors; up and up she went. Only the convenience of the
air tunnels the arch mages put in made getting around it take less
than hours. Though still, she was breathless when she reached the
proper section.

She headed down, passing off row and
row of book shelves. She knew exactly where their little hideaway
was, but all the same, she checked each row as she went by to see if
she could see him.

As she neared her destination however,
she saw something…

It was a bag of some sort. It was dim
and hard to see, but there was something there – someone! –
in the section. She hurried towards it faster when suddenly that now
familiar bell tolled so ominously.