by Nikki Dean
He stood there, his jaw flexing as he tilted his head back to look at the ceiling, thinking. Mallory studied the column of his throat, the way it dropped to his firmly muscled chest, so different than Nico’s. Matt was thicker where Nico was lithe, his muscles outlined in gentle relief beneath his t-shirt. He wasn’t huge like Alec, or even as big as Damon, but was definitely wider than Nico, even if he wasn’t as tall.
Mallory recalled his words about her not saying no in any of the futures that he’d seen, and she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to be pressed between them without their shirts on. Matt’s forearms had a liberal dusting of blond hair on them, making her wonder if his chest matched, or was as bare as Nico’s.
The thought of finding out made her swallow, something deep inside her beginning to smolder the longer she thought about it.
I wonder if I could connect to them both, experience what each of them feel like I did that first time with Nico? There wasn’t enough time to do it again in the closet, but I can’t wait until this weekend. I wonder if it would be the same with Matt. Not that I want to find out, the entitled ass. She crossed her legs on the bed, leaning back onto her palms as she tried to look annoyed instead of needy. Okay, maybe I do.
“Matt?” Maybe making him talk would distract her from the thoughts running rampant through her brain. “Did you fall asleep on your feet over there, because I’m about to take a nap and don’t want to be woken up by the sound of your body hitting the floor.”
A little smile twisted his lips and he heaved a sigh. He groaned and looked at her, then went to sit on the opposite bed.
“I was just thinking.”
“Clearly. It was either that or you’d had a stroke.”
“Shut up,” he chuckled.
“Maybe if you’d ever explain what the fuck you’re doing here, I would.” She tried to keep most of the sharpness out of her tone, but a little leaked through anyway. “Sorry, but I’m exhausted. I used my powers pretty much nonstop during MacKenna’s class, and don’t feel like rehashing the entire thing again right now. So, either come back with beer and pizza like last week, or tell me what’s up now.”
He sat on the opposite bed and leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees as he rubbed the heels of his palms against his forehead. She barely restrained her exasperated sigh.
“Let’s go back to that conversation about being your handler,” he started.
“And all the reasons why we can’t fuck, even if I wasn’t with Nico?” Mallory asked sweetly.
His head jerked up at her words. “Fuck, Mal, you can’t say things like that then expect me not to think about it.”
If I have to think about it, then you do, too. “It’s never gonna happen, so get it out of your head. I won’t mention it if you don’t say dumbass things like ‘in all the possible futures, you didn’t say no’, or whatever you said. Why does it matter if you’re my handler?” She felt his involuntary flare of denial at her words, even if he didn’t try to contradict her.
Why is he so convinced that we’re going to sleep together? It’s not even stubbornness on his part because it barely feels conscious in his mind. It’s more like there’s already a connection between us, just like Nico feels for me. Is this what a crush feels like for a guy, or do they seriously think with their dicks so much that it’s involuntary?
“Just help me out and don’t say things like that, okay?” he asked. Mallory shrugged and nodded.
“Me being your handler matters because I’m trying to respect your desire for privacy. I said earlier that you’re pretty much my job right now, and that’s totally true. I’ve been taken off of patrols for the moment so that I can stay here at the Academy and take an active role in your training.”
“An active role? What’s that mean?” Suspicion had her eyes narrowing. “Is that why MacKenna keeps pressuring me to play chess with you?”
“Maybe. Fuck, probably. I haven’t been told anything in specific, but Fitzam knows about the meeting tomorrow. He won’t show up because that would tip his hand, but he’s taken a very special interest in you, Mal. It’ll probably be even worse after the battle simulation today.”
“Why? What’s the big deal?”
He stared at her for a second. “Do you seriously not realize what you did? You demonstrated that you can not only extract a package out of a combat situation without anyone knowing, but you can keep it safe for an unknown amount of time, all on the fly. You led half of your team away from danger and revealed that you can accurately track enemy forces, which is huge. You followed all of the rules, but did so in a way that gave your team the victory, on top of keeping a special target safe. Did you tell them about your map, or web or whatever, and that’s how you keep track of people?”
Mallory shook her head. “I told them that I talk to animals and the birds were relaying information about where the other students were. It sounds dumb, but it worked.”
“Mallory, that sounds amazing. I guarantee you that MacKenna, much less Fitzam, didn’t see that coming at all. It’s impressive enough, but if they ever found out that you can track people and animals any time you want, you’d never see a desk job. You’d probably be pulled into special operations now and thrown into active duty before you even graduate. Like me.”
Chapter 11
“Like you? You weren’t allowed to graduate?” The thought of Fitzam showing up in her dorm room, declaring that her schooling was over two years early because he needed her in the field was terrifying. “Why not?”
“I can see the future. Would you leave me in school if you had people ambushing the country every time you turned around?”
“Explain that to me,” she interrupted whatever he was going to say next. “How do you know that you’re actually seeing the future? You didn’t see the amaroq last night, so your visions aren’t always accurate. You pretty much already admitted that since you thought I was going to nail you and Nico there on the gym floor.”
“I never said that. There would have been a bed involved,” Matt muttered with a pained look on his face.
Would Nico have run us here? Or would the three of us have tripped along across campus, kissing and feeling each other up every step of the way? Clearly the former option was better, but she couldn’t help but think of touching them both, alternating between kissing Nico’s sweet lips and Matt’s more decadent set under the trees in the courtyard. She shook her head to clear it. “Whatever. The point is that future didn’t happen. So how do you know what will?”
“I don’t know how to explain it. It just feels different in my head than a daydream, or anything like that. I can sit here and tell you how I’d do something, like chess if we had a board, and tell you what your options are, but it’s a different experience than when I’m using my powers. Everything in my head is sharper, clearer, and sometimes I can literally see it happening in front of me if the odds of that future are higher than others.”
“What if someone decides to do something different? Or equipment fails, or something like that?”
He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. It always pulls through, as long as the amaroq isn’t involved.”
“What about Everett?”
Matt looked up sharply, his jaw tensing. “What about Everett?”
“You guys said he absorbs magic or something. I’m guessing he trained with you too, since he’s part of your little clique, right? So could you always tell what he was going to do?”
“I could always see how the others would react to him,” Matt answered after a minute.
“But not him, in specific? And you freaked out at me last week, too. So there are limitations to your powers.”
“So far you, Everett and the amaroq are the only ones. No one else has been able to absorb my powers, or anything else like that. And no, Ev didn’t train with us. He was actually here before the rest of us.”
“He was? Before Alec? But he was so young, so how old was Everett when his powers manifested?”
<
br /> Matt’s face closed, lines forming between his eyebrows as he frowned. He looked down at his shoes. “I shouldn’t have told you that. I don’t know specifics, but he’s older than us, so he was probably around Alec’s age when he got dumped here. You’ll have to ask him for more details.”
“Wait a second, I thought you guys don’t keep secrets between you,” Mallory protested. “You want me to trust you, but you don’t trust me? That’s not fair.”
“It’s not my story to tell. You want to know, you gotta ask.”
Mallory rolled her eyes. “Like that will ever happen. He hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you. Things are just really hard for him,” Matt murmured. “Harder than they should be.”
“Well, whatever it is, I’m going to take a nap. Come by later with food if you want me to wake up and let you in.”
“Only if you promise to yell that you’re masturbating again,” he teased.
“In your dreams, buddy. Maybe then you’ll actually tell me what the point to all of this was.”
“Just to tell you to keep your head down. People are watching you, Miss Magic. People I don’t really want you to piss off.”
“Oh, is that it? You just don’t want to get in trouble for grabbing my ass while you carry me around in the hallway?”
He shook his head and stood. “If I’m going to get in trouble for anything like that, I’m going to at least make it worthwhile, and the only way that’s happening is if you’re absolutely into it. If we get caught, it’ll be because you’re screaming my name while you come, with Nico right beside me. I’m just warning you because I know you won’t want to deal with the repercussions of these people’s interest. Hell, I can barely stand it sometimes, myself.”
She stood and frowned. He means it. That’s why this is so awkward, because he already knows all about the battle simulation and how Fitzam will react. I fucking knew I should have kept my mouth shut and let the other team have that damn flag.
Matt pulled her in for an awkward side-hug and kissed her forehead. “Just be careful is all I’m asking. No more showing off. I’ll see you at the meeting tomorrow.”
“I wasn’t showing off,” she grumbled. “What are we having this meeting about, anyway? He said it was about my prerequisites not being fulfilled, but I don’t really think that matters now. Professor MacKenna basically said as much.”
“I guess we’ll have to find out. Have a good night.” Matt let her go and walked to the door.
“So no pizza tonight?” Mallory called after him. “I think Nico’s coming down and bringing the projector. So if you’re just planning on staying in his room anyway, you could just crash here again, I guess. Even if you are an ass for assuming that I was going to sleep with you in the gym.”
“It wasn’t an assumption,” he replied with a cocky wink. “You would’ve. And you would have loved it.”
“Oh, yeah? Saw my orgasm face in your magic eight ball, huh?”
“I stopped counting at six.”
She blinked. Six orgasms in thirty minutes? What the fuck? “Jesus, that sounds like the weirdest gym membership commercial ever. ‘Want abs of steel? Have half a dozen orgasms in the next half an hour, and you, too, can have a rippling eight-pack.’”
He threw back his head and laughed. Relieved that his bad mood seemed to have finally gone away, Mallory walked over to the door beside him, unlocking it to let him out.
His eyes met hers as the door cracked open and they both stopped, just looking at each other for a moment. Matt's gaze traveled over her face, barely even pausing at her lips like she would have expected him to. Instead, he kept going, almost like he was memorizing the details of her cheeks, her brows.
All of her.
“You okay?” she whispered. Why am I being so quiet?
“Yeah. I will be,” he replied. “Just don't hate me.”
Mallory pulled her head back a little, her brow furrowing in confusion. “Why would I hate you?”
“Just promise me.”
“No.”
He gave a half shrug, as though her answer was the one he was expecting. Not the one he wanted, but the one he was expecting.
“Why would I hate you?” she asked again. “Aside from the fact that you're being so damn cryptic, telling Nico that you want to spend time with me alone, then acting like the sky is falling, but refusing to actually tell me why, aside from ‘don’t piss these people off’. I never pegged you as the dramatic sort.”
The door clicked softly as he closed it, then took a step toward her. She refused to back up, refused to give in to him as he crowded her against the closet.
“Please don't think I won't actually kick you in the balls,” Mallory muttered. “Because you're getting weird again.”
“I know. I can't help it.”
“Clearly you can,” she retorted with a roll of her eyes. “Do you want to stay and hang out for a while? It's pretty obvious that you don't want to go.”
He nodded almost immediately.
“Did you know I would invite you if you got weird enough?” she couldn't help but ask. “Because I'm not in for rewarding this kind of behavior, but if something really is wrong, you can tell me.”
“I just want to stay a while. Enjoy hanging out, you know?”
She reached out with her mind, suspicious of his motives. What she found there made her pause. He’s so lonely. It’s hard being apart from the guys all week, going home to an empty apartment after work. I guess the other guys would worry if they knew, so he hides it from them. That’s understandable. “Sure. But don't take it personally if I fall asleep. I'm honestly impressed that I haven't passed out yet. My stamina must be getting better. Damon will be thrilled.”
“That's fine. Want me to text Nico to come down now and we can all watch something together? Or I can just go and let you rest. You obviously need it.”
Her last vestiges of unease melted away at his offer to just leave. She could feel how sincere he was, and that he wouldn't resent her for kicking him out, even though he wasn't exactly acting like himself. Not that she knew him well enough to decide that.
“It's cool, I'll stay awake for a bit. Don't expect anything out of me except snoring if you stay longer than an hour, though," she warned him.
“It's cute when you snore." He pulled out his phone and fired a text off to Nico, who replied instantly. “He's going to grab us some food, then he'll be here. He said to give him fifteen minutes.”
“Wow, fifteen minutes? It's almost like he's not the fastest guy at the academy." Mallory made up her bed and shoved it into its frame, then gestured for Matt to sit. “I have a surprise for you to pass the time until he gets here."
He stilled, only his eyes moving as they narrowed. She nearly laughed at his suspicion.
“Come on. Don’t be a pussy.”
Chapter 12
It was his turn to scoff as he sat gingerly on her bed.
“What’s wrong, you don’t know what I’m about to do and it’s making you uncomfortable?” Mal asked.
“Actually, I don’t. What are you doing?”
“Just getting this out. Don’t freak out too much,” she murmured as she pulled a new, albeit cheap, chess set out from a drawer below her bed. “Nico ran to Reyes and got it for me. He’s pretty amazing.”
“Yeah, he really is,” Matt murmured. “What are you doing in your head right now? I still can’t see what’s going to happen next. It’s like my powers just stopped working.”
“Seriously?” She set the box down and took a seat on the end of her bed, crossing her legs in front of her. “I’m not really doing anything.”
Well, that might not be entirely true. I have been touching his light a little, just to see how he’s doing since he seemed so weird when he came in. Unusually serious, for him. Maybe that’s affecting his powers?
“Let’s try to play and see if anything changes,” he suggested. He glanced from her to the game box and back again as though he was unsure
of what to do.
“Okay. Why don’t you tell me about how you discovered your powers? Maybe that’ll help?” she suggested as she ripped open the plastic and jiggled the lid until it slid off. Unfolding the chess board, she tossed him a bag of black plastic pieces to open, keeping the white ones for herself.
“I was about sixteen when I started telling my dad how football games were going to go. At first he thought it was just luck, then he started doing a few casual bets on it before he realized that I was actually doing magic. He stopped after that, since he didn’t want me to get into trouble if anyone found out,” Matt answered.
The black plastic pieces looked especially small in his hands as he began to set them up on the squares lining his side of the board.
“Do you know how the pieces move?”
Mallory nodded. “I read two of the books from the library.”
He gave her an appraising look, as though he was a little surprised. “MacKenna told you to?”
She nodded and set her side up. “And Nico. MacKenna gave me a list, Nico told me which ones to read first.”
“So it’ll be his fault if you win?” Matt teased.
“You mean my fault if you lose?” she shot back. “Apparently the other guys will worship the ground I walk on if I can beat you, you’ve got such a complex about this whole chess thing.”
“It’s not a complex,” he muttered. “I just know my strengths.”
“Uh huh. That’s what they all say.”
He gestured to her and she made the first move, sliding a pawn out onto the board. He quickly fired back, moving a pawn out as well.
“Have you figured out how you took my powers that one night? Or what you’re doing right now?” he asked, pretending to study the board. Mallory knew his attention was barely on it in reality, much more interested in her reactions than the actual pieces. Even without his powers, he was an expert chess player.