Magic Academy (A Fantasy New Adult Romance) (22 page)

Or for the titillating show?

She was so lost in thought she didn’t
even detect him move beside her, rest a hand upon her hip. “You
brought so much,” he said with his curious tone of excitement,
“and it all smells so good, my sweet Firi.” He reached
around her, plucking up some and taking a bite. “Mm, to go
without real, material food for so long…”

“This place has a lot of food.”
She should know, she was already softening in the hips a bit, and his
hand felt so nice against it. It seemed more sensual in some ways.

It was probably the fact that she’d
been gawking at him so recently that made it so.

“If you need more…”

Varuj sat himself down and pulled her
onto his lap with his strong hold upon her hip. “Eat with me?”
he asked softly, offering her a tiny morsel upon his fingers as he
smiled. “I have missed the little things. Like company while I
eat. Even though… we got to experience it so little together
as is,” he lamented.

She accepted the offered food but
squirmed on his thigh. She knew what lay beneath it, so tentatively
hidden from her, and it made her adrenaline rush. She didn’t
know what she wanted, of him, of anyone. But she couldn’t deny
how seeing him nude made her feel, and being so near to him –
to it – thrilled her as much as it frightened her.

Her motions had an effect she didn’t
intend however, and she felt him stir beneath her, and she could see
the light flare of his nostrils that went with it. “You are
anxious?” he asked softly, taking another bite of food himself,
squeezing her hip as he took up yet more to offer her, such a small
bite she had to use her tongue to take it from betwixt his digits.

What was the right response?

What was the real one?

She chewed thoughtfully but it tasted
of the salt on his fingertips and instead of disgusting her it made
her yearn for more.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she
pictured Mae’lin, looking so hurt and betrayed by Bran kissing
her. Yet this man… this demon. He posed such a larger threat
to the sweet elf.

“I have to get to class,”
she finally managed.

With a slow nod he said, “I know.
But we have a moment more, do we not? I would treasure savouring it
with you,” he said so sweetly, though that contrasted the thick
throb of his manhood beneath her that signified so much that
confused, frightened and aroused her.

Her breath was quick and shallow, but
she didn’t want to leave. Or, at the very least, she didn’t
move away from his body. It felt so comforting, so inviting, and her
blue eyes fluttered closed. “What if someone catches you?”

“I will set about measures to
protect the room,” he said, continuing to eat and feed her at
intervals. His smooth motions were so suave, his tender rub of her
side so pleasant. “We will need such privacy when we begin anew
our training, sweet Firi. The academy is swimming with magic and the
magicians who wield it. We must be careful for the time being,”
he moved in towards her, pressed his nose to hers, their eyes locked.
“I will look out for us.”

“Well, you better, because it
took long enough to break those wards and I don’t know how to
make new ones yet.” Her nose felt so small against his, and it
was a struggle to keep her gaze on his. She kept picturing him, naked
and staring at himself in the mirror.

A corner of his lips crooked upwards
and he gave a low laugh. “Those wards did us no good, don’t
fret. I will handle everything. And someday teach you how to do the
same. For now, however, we do not have the time to wait.” He
gave her rear a squeeze and kissed her cheek, right at the corner of
her lips again. “Rest assured at your classes.”

Her mind went hazy as his mouth touched
hers, and she inhaled his scent.

She’d missed him more than she
thought possible.

“I have to go,” she
whispered and slunk off his lap.

Varuj stood up and brushed his hands
off. “I know. I shall miss you all the same,” he said
with a resilient smile. “Do hurry back to me though, yes? We
have much to do if you are to be prepared for what’s to come.
And I do not care to leave anything up to chance when it comes to
your future.” He reached up and cupped her cheek, stroking his
thumb over the soft flesh. “Sweet Firi.”

She took a quick step back, needing to
be away from his touch. From his flesh.

He felt so good, so warm, and she was
greedy for it and that frightened her. “I’ll see you
tonight,” she promised as she reached for her bag. “Please
be careful.”

“I shall,” he said, a hand
upon his belt as he turned sidelong to her and plucked up yet more
food. The pose was so similar to when she’d walked in upon him
that it was nearly dizzying to think of how he’d looked beneath
that wizard’s robe…

Her body buzzed with the fantasy and as
she exited her room, the air felt so much cooler on her scorched
cheeks.

Classes went much the same as usual,
which is to say a lot of complicated jargon that Firia was only
beginning to grasp. Though something she couldn’t help but
notice was the absence of Mae’lin from the day’s lessons.
Neither he nor Bran were present that day, and the only response she
could get out of Ala’nase as to their whereabouts was a shrug,
a smirk and a teasing: “Off fighting over you, no doubt.”

“You’re not helping,”
she muttered back ruefully.

She didn’t know which she sought
distraction from more. The two men, or the demon that awaited her
back in her room. Either way, it was becoming too much, too quickly,
and it fogged her mind from what she should have been focusing on.
School.

Her one chance for success, to leave
the life of drudgery behind.

So why was it so damn hard to focus?

As the two young women made their way
down the hall out of the building the gentle melodies of some
hypnotic music carried to them, and before she even realized it,
Firia had detoured off her usual course a ways and found herself
outside a crowded classroom from whence it came.

“What’s going on?”
asked Ala’nase, looking as entranced as Firia felt. The pair
were compelled to prod at the students clustering about the doorway
to take a peek inside.

It was there she saw a familiarly
unfamiliar sight. For sat upon the stool at the front of a classroom
was the devilishly handsome and fiendishly tricky Gway’lin. He
looked serene as he played upon his flute, all the students seeming
summoned to him as he swayed and bobbed his head with the haunting
melody.

Firia had, of course, listened to many
a musician over the years. Music making and song playing were great
pastimes of the humans back home, but nothing they had ever done
approached the curiously unworldly tunes that came from the elf’s
playing.

It was almost as if the music itself
warped reality about him, his long, billowy black sleeves seeming to
lift up and dance with the sounds. His hair rising up like numerous
pythons out of some story book, entranced. Yet the moment she tried
to focus in on any one of these things she saw it was not so. A trick
of the eye? No, it had to be magic that empowered his playing. That
made the whole world seem to spin to his whim, that made the lights
dim for all the world but its very core: Gway’lin the musician
magician.

Firia had been struck breathless,
though it didn’t dawn on her until he finished playing and
reality seemed to return to normal. Applause was quick to break out.

She joined in, though her blue eyes
went to Ala’nase. Since when was she concerned with what others
thought of her, or what she enjoyed?

It was so foreign to her, all the
changes she’d been struggling against since coming to the
Academy. She had friends. People she actually cared for, outside of
her father.

She was letting herself open up. Just a
little.

From out of the crowd, the musician
himself came up to her, the students slow to disperse as the
lingering effects of his playing dissipated. “Ah, there you
are, young madam,” he said with such glowing warmth. “I
was hoping to attract you to me this afternoon and spare me a trip.”

The look of envy Ala’nase gave
was palpable.

Oh firecrackers, this was all she
needed. Another person for Ala’nase to make sly jokes over.

Firia was glowing red and she tried to
hide behind her black hair. She’d been growing it out, slowly,
and it finally covered most of her jaw and part of her neck
successfully. “It seems a bit excessive, if you ask me, to
summon an audience just to save yourself a trip.”

“Perhaps,” he said, his
handsome face still practically glowing as he stood before her, hand
on hip, looking as confident and sure of himself as ever. “The
message was marked as urgent, however. Though it arrived by mundane
means.” He reached into his robes and pulled out a scroll.
“It’s marked as private, so…” he let his
eyes trail to Ala’nase before going back to Firia, “I
suggest you read it alone.”

With that he extended the scroll out to
her, smiling pleasantly.

She didn’t share his enthusiasm
and tried to still her hand from shaking as she took it from him.
“Well, thanks.” She tried to force a smile, but dread
pitted in her stomach.

There was only one person outside of
the school who would contact her, and she prayed for it to be good
news. “Ala, I’ll meet up with you later, okay?”

The young elven woman nodded, then
quickly swooped in to Gway’lin’s side. “Hey teach,
what was that class you were just instructing anyhow? How to make the
ladies wet their knickers?”

That and the instructor’s joyous
laugh was the last she heard as Firia rounded the corner and headed
straight back to her dorm.

Upon opening the door, she saw an empty
room. Though once it closed, he seemed to take form out of the
shadows itself, his exotic, striking figure standing before her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, though she hadn’t
been aware that she’d betrayed her distress. Some subtle cues
in her behaviour and appearance betraying her to the charming devil
that knew her so well.

Her lip twitched in annoyance as she
walked past him, settling in on the bed. She didn’t want to
open it.

Why was she even dreading it so much?
She didn’t have reason to.

Well, except for the fact that it was
marked urgent. What good news is ever urgent?

She took in a deep breath, feeling out
the parchment, trying to will herself to simply rip it open and get
it over with, but terror stilled her hand.

Very gently, Varuj settled in beside
her upon the bed, his curiously masculine scent tickling her senses
as he put an arm around her. “Here,” he said smoothly,
sliding both of his hands up to hers and helping prod her along to
open the message.

The scroll unrolled with the help of
his guiding hands, and she saw the very obviously human scrawl
written upon it.

She didn’t need to read it all,
couldn’t read it all. For when she saw that her father was
being tried as a rebel and a saboteur, her heart skipped a bit and
her vision failed her.

“No, no, no, no,” she kept
repeating, and she was only vaguely aware of it. This couldn’t
be happening. The man she’d spoken to at the station, he’d
seemed so kind. Like he would take care of it. Didn’t he
promise her that?

She felt Varuj’s arms wrap around
her, but instead of being a comfort, it was confinement. Confinement
like this stupid Academy.

She was trapped there, kept away from
her father when he needed her most!

It was like her whole world was caving
in on her, crushing her under its tremendous weight. Not even the
handsome demon’s comforting grasp could take away its awful
bite.

Her father. Her lone family. About to
face trial for treason. And wrongly so. She just knew it.

He lived a simple life, and though he
was not a simple-headed man – she knew that for certain –
he was not a violent or conspiratorial man. He remained focussed on
their life, on getting her out of their cycle of mediocrity, enforced
by rigid social standards.

“What does this mean?”
asked Varuj curiously.

Her lip trembled and even as she tried
to form the words to let him know, she couldn’t. Her mouth
simply wouldn’t let her say such horrid, terrifying things.

How could she say it?

Instead she looked away, down to the
floor, slumping in the bed lower and lower.

“I have to do something,”
she finally managed out between sobs.

“But what?” he asked, his
arms moving about her waist, supporting her, keeping her from
slumping down too low. “You have your exams to be concerned
with. We have not even begun our training as of yet.” His voice
laced with concern for her, though her own mind was worried for her
father.

“And what’s that all
matter, huh? When dad’s…” She couldn’t say
it. “I’m just supposed to forget about him and move on?”

“You would throw it all away to
go to his side then?” he asked so calmly, though the
implications weren’t necessary to state. Her father had gotten
himself into trouble just trying to give her an edge in the
competition so she could one day be an independent sorceress, and not
a groundskeeper.

But it didn’t matter.

All the stress, the pressure, the
confusion, it was all too much to handle. She thought back to the
simple life she could have led, and it seemed so much sweeter for
that moment. To give it all up, to throw it all away, to retire
herself to mediocrity.

Would she do that for her father?

She pulled away from the demon, rolling
onto her side as she curled into a fetal position.

Even then she could see through the
haze of torment and know she didn’t want that. She didn’t
want his life.

But that didn’t mean she didn’t
want to
save
his life.