She had no fight left, if it was even there to begin with. Sage let her head fall onto the dip between his neck and shoulder. Elbows bent inward, she twisted her hands to his biceps. The ache inside her chest overflowed and she let it cascade out of her, sobbing without shame.
As the rain fell around them, for what felt like an eternity, she didn’t break away. She let him hold her. And it felt like home.
Chapter Nineteen
It was almost midnight when they returned to campus. Mason took the school driveway and Sage flew through the forest to the top of the dorms. They had planned to go to their respective rooms and reconvene the next afternoon, but somehow Sage hovered at the forest edge, unable to let go of the night.
She shifted back to human form and sat, not caring about the damp grass beneath her. Purple hair hung in strands around her face, still dripping from the earlier downpour. It was cleansing, in a way. At the same moment that she finally succumbed to her emotions, the heavens opened up, as if applauding her courage.
Mason parked his bike near the boys’ dorm and glanced up to where she sat. He was still for a moment and she wondered if he could see her in the shadows. Then, his eyes flashed red and she knew that he could.
Her heart flipped as he began walking up the hill toward her. She straightened her matted hair, as though she didn’t just say goodbye looking the same way. He strode confidently, without a care in the world—something that would have annoyed her a day earlier.
“You know,” Mason said as he reached her. “I’ve been thinking…”
Sage kept a straight face as she teased, “I hope it wasn’t too difficult.”
“Ahh.” Mason grinned and pointed at her. “Now, who’s the jester? Can we talk properly for one minute, Sage? Honestly.”
Sage tried not to smile. This guy, he was nothing like she thought he was. Irritating, yes, but also endearing. She watched him as he dropped beside her and casually hung his elbows over his knees. She said, “Tell me, what have you been thinking?”
“Well, I know you said that I’ll teach you boxing and you’ll teach me how to shift and then we go our separate ways… but, I, ahh…” He scratched at his neck, his gaze firmly on Sage. “I was wondering if you’d reconsider? The going separate ways part.”
Sage chortled. “I thought that was obvious.”
“Good!” Mason sat up straight, letting his arms fall behind him. He leaned back onto his elbows. “I kinda assumed you’d never want to see me again. Especially after knowing the truth about Ben’s plan to get you to turn me.”
“Yes, well. It’s him I have a problem with, not you.”
Mason glanced at Sage, eyes filled with the warmth of a fireplace at Christmas. He gazed at her for a moment before his eyes twitched and his mouth lifted into a smirk. There was a distinct mocking tone in his voice as he said, “You’re not going to kill him, are you?”
“Why not? I’ve broken two rules, why not three?” Sage was joking but thinking of Ben’s sick plan to make sure she turned Mason swiftly changed her mood. “I honestly don’t know why you’re even talking to him after he did something so vile to you.”
“He’s my blood…” Mason paused before adding, “And I love him.”
Sage frowned. She knew that blood didn’t mean much. “He stole your right to choose. That doesn’t sound like love to me.”
Mason sat up again, jaw clenching. “He would never have done that if he didn’t know you’d turn me to save me.”
The fact that Mason couldn’t see that his own brother didn’t care about him infuriated her. If he was that blind to it, Sage didn’t think that anything she said would make a difference, but she said it anyway, “How would he know for sure I’d turn you? Seems to me like he gambled with your life.”
Mason tried to smile, but his lips curved down. Sliding fingers over a blade of grass, Mason said, “He dreamed of being a Guardian his whole life. You know, if he didn’t have such a temper, he’d probably be following right now in our father’s footsteps. But the truth is, dad got sick of his constant manipulations in trying to be marked. He hasn’t been welcome home for three years. He’s only trying to be let back into the fold.”
Sage was beyond holding her tongue. She liked Mason, which made the whole situation worse. Seeing him being used by his brother broke her heart. “You’re making excuses for him. Whether confident that you would be saved or not, the fact is, your brother killed you. There is no excuse for that, not in my world.”
Mason winced as though her words struck a chord. “It was all he had and now I’m all he has. He was told he would never become a Guardian. I don’t want to dismiss him, too. Can you imagine that? Having family reject you because you weren’t enough for them?”
A lump formed in Sage’s throat. She’d lived through that. “Yes,” she snapped, “I know.”
“You do?” Mason looked shocked.
Sage couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes. The thought of reliving her childhood was enough to make her want to hurl. But she knew that Mason needed it. Swallowing hard so the tears wouldn’t rise, she pulled the ties from her braids and weaving her fingers through her wet hair.
With her hands busy, she tried to sound nonchalant as she explained, “My aunty. She took me in after my parents died. She hated it. I could tell. I was ten and apparently such a burden on her.”
Sage stopped for a moment to pull a scrunchie from her wrist. She darted her eyes to Mason and tied the ends of her hair. Purple locks fell out of the loose hold. Dropping her hands to her lap, she continued, “My aunty would tell me almost every day how different her life would’ve been without having to take care of me. I get it, she’d lost her sister and looked at me as though it was all my fault. So, not only did I lose both my parents, I lost an aunty, too.”
Sage swallowed, almost relieved at the splurge. Inhaling deeply she turned her torso toward him. “Don’t you get it? The fact that she’s my blood, doesn’t mean I owe her. Just like you don’t owe your brother.”
When she finally looked at Mason, she found him staring at her, mouth agape. “I didn’t know,” he said. “Your parents died?”
“That’s not the topic,” Sage said quickly, regretting the choice to bare her soul. “The thing is, you need to stop defending your brother.”
Mason rose, locking his fingers and wrapping them at the back of his neck. He looked out to the school field and sighed. “I can’t just give up on him because he did one selfish thing.”
So close. Sage knew she was getting to him. She hated saying the words, but he needed to hear them. “Ugh, he’s using you, Mason. You would have died. Can you let that sink in, just for one moment can you hear me? He killed you.”
“Stop,” Mason yelled to the night sky. His voice rolled down the hill and echoed through the campus.
Sage leapt to her feet and grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to turn around and look her in the eyes. “Listen, I get it. My aunty fed me, clothed me, gave me soup when I was sick. But does that make it right that she left for a whole weekend when I was eleven and let me fend for myself? Or that she drank herself to oblivion the first four months of me living with her? Or that she sent me to this school at the first chance she could so she could finally travel the world without responsibilities? We don’t owe these people anything. We walk away from them, vowing to never treat anyone else the way they’ve treated us.”
Mason was silent for a while. As his eyes flitted between hers, they softened. With a small smile, he said, “You’re amazing. You know that?”
“Yeah? Well you are, too.” Sage pressed a pointed finger against his chest. “If only you had people around you who didn’t treat you like crap.”
He stepped closer and reached for her face, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. “I think I already do.”
The touch was like a switch. Sage felt her blood heat and pool at her cheeks. She averted her gaze. “I’ve never told anyone much about my aunty. I mean they know dribs and drabs but—”
“It’s safe with me. You’re safe with me. I won’t hold it against you...” Mason let his hand relax around the bottom of her ear, his thumb caressing her cheekbone.
Her body reacted—heart skipping a beat, warmth moving from her cheeks to other places. Sage lifted her face. This guy was too much.
“If,” he said, grimacing a smile. “You maybe promise to drop the whole brother thing?”
Sage exhaled loudly as she studied his expression, full of hope. She guessed that if Mason was okay with it, then that was something he’d need to live with. She’d just have to forget about it, at least for the time being.
“I can do that,” she whispered.
“Thank you,” Mason replied, lifting his other hand to cradle her face. He added, “Floss.”
Sage wanted to roll her eyes, but she couldn’t keep them off him. His tensed jaw. His earnest gaze. His quickening breath.
A flash of light near the girls’ dorm caught Sage’s attention. On high alert, she tore herself away. As she squinted, trying to focus in the moonlight, Mason’s hand hovered in the air for a moment before he let it fall.
“Sage?” he whispered.
At the forest end of the girls’ dormitory, two sapphire-like eyes searched the perimeter. They blinked, then vanished. There were only two Guardians with an aura that color. Caspar and Nadya.
“Sit down.” Sage blurted, pushing Mason down. She couldn’t risk Mason’s tiger being seen. If Nadya or Caspar looked at him while half-shifted, they’d see he was a Guardian.
Sage stood over Mason, her mind racing.
That was what loosening up did. It made her forget about what was important. It made her exposed. It made trouble.
“Is everything okay?” Mason asked.
“I should go,” she said, backing up.
Mason lurched forward, “Will I see you tomorrow?”
Sage half-shifted to give herself strength. She pushed against his chest, forcing him back down. Returning to human form, she scolded, “I said sit. Stay here. We can’t be seen on campus. Not out in the open. The arrangements of our deal don’t change.”
Even in the cloud covered moonlight, she still saw the heartbreak in his eyes.
It was necessary, she decided. It was better to break his heart than to risk her secret being revealed. But looking at him made her question everything.
A surge of fear and excitement buzzed through her veins. He was cracking her open, or rather, showing her how to fill in all the missing pieces. And she wanted more. More excitement. More life. More of him.
In that moment, she couldn’t quite remember why the secret was so bad.
And, so she wouldn’t change her mind, she leaned over him, took his jaw with one hand, and planted her lips square on his.
He didn’t taste like bourbon as she first thought. He tasted like morning walks and misty rain and evergreen leaves. Like that time between winter and spring. He tasted like life renewed.
Pulling away, she gasped, “But yes, I will see you tomorrow.”
Chapter Twenty
Sage felt as light as air. She walked along the cobblestone path, swinging her arms and smiling—actually smiling. Well aware of her mood but not caring one bit who noticed, she entered the academic building, holding her head high. As she flung her locker open and grabbed her math book, she felt her phone buzz inside her blazer pocket.
A text from Mason lit up the screen. Can I see you? Courtyard. Now.
Sage’s smile grew. It was against their agreement to be seen together on campus, but she wasn’t in the least bit surprised that he didn’t care. And if she was honest with herself, the whole thing was getting less worrying and more exciting.
Camila rested an elbow against a locker and leaned toward Sage. “Where the heck did you go last night?”
Sage bit into her bottom lip to reduce her grin. Faking ignorance, she said, “Huh?”
Frowning, Camila’s eyes dropped to the phone in Sage’s hand. She snatched the phone. “Oooh, how romantic. A lovers’ meeting.”
“It’s not like that,” Sage said, whipping the phone out of Camila’s grasp and locking the screen.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Camila dropped her head and looked at Sage as if she were peering over invisible glasses. “You and I are best friends, right? You think I can’t see that weird glimmer in your eyes. Something happened. Holy crap, what’s happened?”
Sage grimaced. “Nothing?”
“Ha!” Camila guffawed, smiling. “Liar.”
Sage returned the smile and closed her locker. She cleared her throat and brushed past her best friend.
“Just like that, huh?” Camila called after her. “Is that all you’re gonna give me?
Spinning around and walking backward, Sage said, “I’ll see you in class.”
One quick wave later, Sage kicked up her heels. Running wasn’t allowed in the corridors, but she had almost hit a full sprint by the time she reached the courtyard. She burst through the doors and spotted Mason sitting on a table, toes balancing on the edge of a seat.
The sight of him made her heart flutter. His head was low, sending brown tendrils of hair over his brows. Shoulders curved in such a way that made his muscles bulge. He rested his elbows on his bouncing knees.
He looked nervous. Did she make him nervous? A rush of anticipation surged through her.
When the door shut behind her, Mason swung his head around. Sage half expected to see that innocuous grin of his, but instead there was only sadness in his eyes.
Noticing her, he pushed his hands against his knees. “Hi. There’s something I have to tell you.”
He said the words quick, as though he was pulling off a Band-Aid.
“What?” Sage asked, walking over.
As she approached, he turned away from her and hung his head, smothering his face with his hands. She ran the rest of the way and smoothed her hand across his back. “What is it?”
“Sage?” A curt voice came from the other side of the courtyard.
Sage glanced over her shoulder to find Nadya looking at them. Her eyes bounced between the two of them for a moment before settling on Sage. “Can I talk to you?”
Sage made her way around the tables, annoyed at the intrusion. Nadya probably wanted to make some remark about her being tardy. Always with the backhanded comments to make me feel less than perfect.
Before Sage even reached her, Nadya said, “I’m just gonna spit this out. What were you doing last night?”
It was uncharacteristic for Nadya to blurt or seem unconsidered with her speech, and there was a twinge of urgency in her tone. Sage felt the color leave her face. “Last night?” she said, forcing herself not to look at Mason. She shrugged and offered, “Sleeping?”
Nadya’s steely expression didn’t change. “No, you weren’t. Not until after midnight.”
Sage swallowed, remembering the pair of beady blue eyes searching in the dark. She felt like she was being tested. But she couldn’t cave in now, not after everything. Staring deep into Nadya’s icy glare, she held her ground. “You seem to already know the answer. Tell me, what was I doing?”
“I saw you get on a bike. With him.” Nadya peered over Sage’s shoulder and pointed. “Then later, I saw you on the hill.”
Sage nodded. Pursing her lips together, she waited for the follow up. The part where Nadya said she knew Mason was a Guardian and that Sage had turned him.
Still looking behind Sage, Nadya said, “Isn’t that Mason?”
“Y… yes,” Sage stammered.
“The bully from the library?” Nadya turned her attention back to Sage, top lip curling. “A name on AJ’s list?”
Nadya’s fists clenched beside her, an unfamiliar expression casting over her face. Sage thought she looked as though she was about to break a rule and shift in public.
Putting her hands up in surrender, Sage whispered, “He’s not a Guardian. Remember? I told you yesterday. It’s just a coincidence.”
Again,
Sage waited for the onslaught—for Nadya to point her finger and say; “I got you. I already know what you’ve been hiding.” But it never came. Nadya kept staring at Mason, and eventually said, “Are you sure?”
In that moment, all Sage could think about was that there was a chance, albeit a small one, that even in her half-shifted phase, Nadya still didn’t see Mason’s Guardian on the hill. So, she took that chance and ran with it.
“We snuck out.”
Nadya’s expression turned from rage to confusion. “Huh?”
“Last night. We snuck out to… to kiss.” Sage said it loud enough that her truthful words echoed across the courtyard.
A chuckle from Mason bellowed behind them. And soon after, he stood beside her and swung an arm around her shoulders. “Yes. We are lovers. Isn’t she amazing?”
“You’re…” Nadya’s eyes widened. “Together?”
It was a stupid confession, but it was better than the alternative. Sage took Mason’s hand in hers, deciding to throw Nadya off the scent completely. “Yes.”
“And that’s how you know he’s not…” Nadya smacked her lips together and finished her sentences with a nod.
“Right. That’s how I know.” Sage pulled her hand from Mason’s and led Nadya to the door. She whispered, “Listen, I want to keep this a secret. It’s been so awkward that he was involved in that whole library assignment thing. I don’t want him to get caught in any of this.” Sage glanced over her shoulder at Mason. He gave an awful cheesy grin and blew her a kiss. Rolling her eyes, Sage turned back to Nadya. “He’s a soft gooey teddy bear on the inside and the whole Shadow Society truth will freak him the hell out.”
Nadya crossed her arms. “Mmm, is that so? How come you didn’t say anything before?”
Sage shrugged. “Embarrassed, I guess. You all think he’s a bully.”
Squinting, Nadya gave one last glare at Mason. She faced Sage, huffed, and went inside.
Academy of Magic Collection Page 131