Spearwood Academy Volume Four (The Spearwood Academy Book 4) (7 page)

T
he long walk to the other dining hall stays quiet. There’s not much we can say without giving ourselves away. The servants open the doors for us. It only takes us a second to find them. Instead of sitting up in the loft, where they normally sit, they’re on the floor level right in front of the massive doors.

“Avalon!” Dante calls.

I rush over to their table. Maybe this means they’re fine. He only calls me Avalon when he’s being serious.  “Hey,” I say. Horace and Amr sit at the table with him. Triton’s nowhere in sight and neither is Mirren or Bullock. We’ll have to hunt them down too, if they don’t think of me as a stranger. I wonder if Bullock is still giving me lessons.

I gasp, as Dante pulls me onto his lap and wraps his arms around my waist. What in the world does he think he’s doing? I look to Maverick, who has his fists clenched again. I hope he doesn’t try to pull something. Dante has memories we don’t, but why is he acting like this with me. I’m still betrothed to Paden, or else he wouldn’t have reacted to me earlier.

Now I know how the guys felt when I was acting like a mirror image of myself.  His fingers brush my hair aside, and his warm lips meet the bare skin of my neck. It takes every ounce of control I have not to jump out of his arms. I have to go with the flow, or I’ll alert someone. A shiver runs down my spine, as his teeth scrape against my flesh. I swallow hard.

“Did you finish with saying hello to your fiancé for the day? Now you don’t have to see that tool again until tomorrow. Why did you bring his brother here?” He whispers in my ear, his hot breath traveling over my ear makes another shiver go down my spine. I never knew Dante could actually affect me like this.

“Um . . . we were wondering if you guys wanted to go riding with us. It’s such a nice day; it sounds like fun. We can invite Mirren and Bullock, too.”

He chuckles, and his grip around my waist tightens. “Fairly certain they both want your head on a pike, love. I wouldn’t go around asking them if they want to ride horses with you. After what you did to their faces? Yeah, not going to happen.”

Their faces? I never did anything to Bullock’s face. What does he think I did to him in this version? Talk about a
Twilight Zone
experience. “What about you guys? Do you want to go riding with us?” Maybe if I can get them to the Cabin, they’ll revert to their old ways, or it will have something there that will fix them. It didn’t for me, but they’ve been going there longer.

“Hanson’s your new boy toy, isn’t he? Using him to try and make the tool jealous, huh? He does look like fun. A ménage á trios would be hot.”

Heat travels all the way up from my toes into my face. What kind of girl am I in his mind? I’ve hardly Frenched kissed Maverick let alone do anything more than that! I manage to get out of his arms without making it seem too strange. “No, none of that will be happening. We’re honestly going to ride horses. Do you guys want to come with us or not?”

He stretches and pushes his long black hair out of his eyes. Their amber heat stare at me for a long second before he sighs. “We can’t. We,” he motions to Amr and Horace. “Have a project due of World Economics, and it’s kicking our asses. Have to keep up our GPAs and all that shit.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later then. Good luck with your project.”

“Good luck with your new boy toy. I hope you decided to share soon.”

M
averick and I are out of the school and to the stable faster than if our behinds were on fire and forcing us along. Both of us know that we need to get down to the bottom of what’s going on. The protection of the Cabin will provide us with the privacy we need in order to discuss what’s going on, and how we can fix it.

The servant comes out with a brown horse with a white face. It’s not my MaryAnn. “I’m sorry to be a bother, but that’s not my horse.”

The servant frowns slightly. “This is the horse you brought with you when you entered the school, Miss. You do not own any other horse. His name is Cyrus.”

Why did they think it was necessary to give me a new horse? To test my reaction? I hope not, or else I failed miserably. “Oh, right. Of course. My mistake, not yours. Thank you.” I take the lead of the horse and the servant bows to me before leaving Maverick and I.

We look to each other. We’re almost in the clear. We just have to make it to the Cabin in one piece. “Do you need help getting on your horse? He’s bigger than your last one.”

I smile. I could probably get up on him myself, but the idea of Maverick helping is tempting. I wish we could be like a normal couple. We’re older now, we could really date, see the world. If we want to. “I could use some help.” I bite my lip.

He grins. He walks over to me and places his hands on my hips. I look up into his ocean-blue eyes. Leaning over, he kisses me. Why can’t every second of the day be like this moment? I wrap my arms around his neck and deepen the kiss. He lifts me up and breaks the kiss as he places me on the horses. I turn my body and lift my leg over the saddle.

“We need to get going, so we can talk,” he says. “I could kiss you all day long and never tire of it. Just know that.”

“I feel the same way.”

He gets on his palomino horse, and we turn toward the forests on the edge of the land. “You don’t have your P.A. right?”

He shakes his head. “You?”

“Safely in my dorm.”

“Good. Want to race?”

“Of course. You know I’ll win. I always do.”

I
n the blink of an eye, we’re at the Cabin. We raced the entire way. Our horses seemed to enjoy it; they easily made it through the forest at top speed.

We tie up the horse and go to the Cabin’s door. Maverick stops before opening the door. Hanging on the handle is a necklace. The Gypsy necklace! He lifts it off the handle and places it around my neck. I hold onto it. I won’t have to transform tonight. Wedged between the door frame and the handle sits a rolled up piece of paper. I take it out and unravel it.

A.

I managed to get this back for you. Keep it hidden at all costs.

P.

Perlow did this. I guess he truly is on our side. I hand the note to Maverick and open the door. The Cabin hasn’t changed. It still has the same décor as the last time I was here and not in control of myself. I flop down on the couch with a sigh, as Maverick closes the door behind him.

“I wonder how he got it back.”

I shake my head. “Don’t know, but I’m glad to have it. I have no idea what kind of person I am to them now, but if it’s anything like the version I remember being, then I wasn’t cursed to change at night. They were able to modify that in me somehow, but this time they couldn’t touch me because of this.” I show him the Algiz mark when he sits down next to me. He takes my wrist in his hands and traces the mark with his index finger. A shiver runs down my spine; not like the one I had with Dante. This one, I swear, shakes my soul.

His eyes look into mine, and he brushes his finger over my wrist again. Another shiver racks my body, and he grins. Heat flares in my cheeks. The fireplace in front of us roars to life as if this place knows I don’t want him to see me blush and puts a spotlight on it anyway.

“I was wondering what she did to you back there, but I didn’t get a chance to ask.”

“It was kinda hectic, wouldn’t you say?”

“Only a little bit. How are you feeling?”

“Better. My chest was tight when I first woke up, but it’s gone away now. What happened after I blacked out? I know we were captured, but what was that thing that attacked me? It looked just like—”

“You? Yeah, I was surprised too. I don’t know what it was. After you went down, even more came. They just kept coming in droves. We would take one down and five more would take their place. The last thing I remember is seeing you go down and wanting to rush to your side. Then, I got hit, and went unconscious. When I woke up, I was in my room here at Spearwood. I thought it was odd that they would put us back in our beds, and let us walk around. After what we did, the punishment should’ve been more severe. Then I found Paden and realized what they had done. He’s not acting like the Paden we know. If anything, I would call him a pretentious prick. I was worried you had been affected too, when I first saw you being affectionate with Paden, but then I saw the look in your eyes, and I knew the truth.

“Yeah, I’d say that would be right on the mark. I’ve never heard him say someone acted too civilian in his entire life. Why weren’t you affected?”

“I honestly don’t know. I just wasn’t.”

“Well, at least we have each other. We need to figure out how to fix the others. It’s not like we can run off to New York again, and I have no idea what the Sea Witch used in that broth, but it tasted like pure bile.”

“I don’t know either. We’ll find a way; we always do.”

I link my fingers with his. “Perlow slipped me something.” I open my shirt pocket and take out the chip for him to see. Maybe he’ll know what to do with it. “What do you think is on it?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t know how to access it either. We both grew up away from the technology of this world. I’m still trying to grasp the basics here. We need King for his. He’s the best in this area.”

“How would you know? I thought you had all first met the night I was brainwashed?”

“We did. But do you honestly think I wouldn’t be researching the guys who were watching you while you thought I was the enemy? King is very good at technology. He would be the one I would go to in order to figure this out.”

“I’m so glad I have you through all of this. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t.”

He smiles and leans over to kiss me. It doesn’t even take me a second to return it. I straddle his lap and his hands go to my sides and brush my shirt up. The warmth of his fingers fill me with an allover heat.

I run the tip of my tongue over his lower lip and pull with my teeth. He opens up for me, and we fight for dominance. He growls, and his grip on my waist tightens. My hands move to explore his chest through his shirt, and his go under mine.

I gasp—breaking the kiss—when his hand cups one of breast. We’ve never been this far before. I never let him under my shirt when we were younger.

“Do you like that?” he asks, stopping the movement of his hand.

I nod and bite my lip. I don’t think I could mutter words even if I tried. He kisses my neck. My fingers grasp at his shirt. It feels so good.

Lifting me off his lap, he places me on the couch and lies down next to me. We kiss, as our hands continue to explore our upper bodies. Why haven’t we done this sooner?

And then his hand travel lower, over my belly button and under the hem of my skirt. I freeze and put my hands on his forearm, stopping him from going any further.

He breaks the kiss and looks at me. My cheeks must be so red. I look into the fire. His hand moves back up body, and his fingers guide my face back to look at him.

He gives me a soft smile before kissing my forehead, nose and lips. “It’s okay. I love you, Lon.”

“I love you too, Maverick.”