by Sarina Dorie
“Mr. Thatch,” Imani whispered. “Something is wrong with him. Seriously.”
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked in alarm. “Have his eyes turned all black?” His eyes had done that once before when he’d been in the throes of pain magic. It had made him look like those in the employment of the Raven Court—which he probably was.
“No. It’s weirder than that,” Greenie said.
I couldn’t imagine anything worse. I jogged through the hallway with them. Even more interestingly, they led me toward the front courtyard.
“Wait?” I asked. “He isn’t in the dungeon?” Thatch hardly ever left his moldy lair.
“No. He’s outside acting strange.”
Okay, so this was already suspicious. “Does he have his bird with him?”
“No.”
Just as we stepped out into the frigid March air, Vega stepped into my path. “No running in the school.” She looked to Imani. “Five points from the Celestor team.” She looked to Greenie. “Five points from Amni Plandai.” She looked to me. “Five points from… . Oh, it’s you. Can’t you just learn some magic to make yourself taller than the students?”
Imani grabbed my arm and dragged me down the steps. The air was cold, and I wrapped my arms around myself. We passed a frozen fountain. Our feet crunched over icy earth. The stark branches of trees lined the path.
We found Thatch sitting on a bench smiling. The way he stared off into the distance, his usually somber face transformed with a cheerful smile, didn’t look natural. I understood why Imani and Greenie had thought he was cursed, but surely Thatch wasn’t one to succumb to enchantments so easily.
Two students walking by on the path snuck furtive glances at him. He held a daisy and twirled it between his fingers. I don’t even know where he had found a flower considering how bleak the grounds looked right now.
“Go back and get some dinner,” I told Imani and Greenie. “Nothing is wrong with Mr. Thatch.”
More likely this was what love did to Thatch. Though, I hadn’t ever imagined Thatch would let himself get this stereotypically sappy.
“There is something wrong, Miss Lawrence,” Imani said. “You know he doesn’t smile. Please, check on him. Please.”
I couldn’t very well tell students Thatch wasn’t his normal self because he had gotten laid—which probably hadn’t happened for a hundred years. Maybe that had broken his resting-bitch face curse.
Tears filled Greenie’s eyes. “He’s been hexed, hasn’t he? Can you see if there’s dark magic at work?”
I waved the girls off. “Get some dinner before it gets Lord of the Flies in the cafeteria.” Even if dinner was flavorless and bland, it was still food, and there never seemed to be enough of it.
I hugged my sweater around myself and made my way over to Thatch.
“Beautiful day, isn’t it?” He scooted down the bench to make room. He patted the wood.
The two girls huddled together, glancing over their shoulders as they headed back to the school. The building looked like an octopus with multiple personality disorder, each wing stretching out from the center built in a different style and during a different era. Wood was layered over ancient stone and sections of brick. The towers at the end of wings didn’t match in size or shape.
Reluctantly I sat down. “So, um, you came outside? I didn’t know you did that. Everything okay?”
“You’re so droll! It’s not like I’m a vampire and I’m allergic to sunlight.”
“Right.” The girls stood at the top of the steps. It looked like Vega was scolding them for something.
I turned back to Thatch, finding myself tongue-tied.
I had found my long-lost love and cured Derrick with magic—or sex. Why was it such a surprise Thatch might have benefited from a little sex magic too? Sneaking peeks at his contented face, I wanted to congratulate him and talk about our mutual happiness. I wanted to trust him and tell him all about Derrick.
I knew Thatch was a good person deep down. He was like Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series, the guy who pretended to be bad, but would turn out to be the hero in the end. Or perhaps I only wanted him to be a hero.
“There’s a … curious matter I ought to mention.” He tore his gaze away from the flower to look at me. “I was speaking with Miss Periwinkle earlier… .”
Panic jump-started my heart. She’d told him about me stealing his clothes. I was in such trouble. I stood. “Sorry, gotta go.”
He grabbed the back of my sweater and tugged me onto the bench. He spoke slowly, enunciating each word with his British accent. “Why does Gertrude think you have a key to my room?”
“No idea.”
“You don’t have a key, do you?”
“No.”
The sun sank behind the boxy structures of the school, casting us in gloomy shadows.
Thatch smelled the flower. “I confiscated your lockpick kit, and you don’t have another. Correct?”
I nodded, waiting for the question to come. What were you doing in my room? He twirled the flower between his fingers. I slid away from him and rose. He didn’t stop me this time as I walked away.
That was strange. He didn’t act suspicious or question me further as he usually would have. I glanced over my shoulder at him. He did seem a little too happy. I ascended the steps.
“Ugh,” a deep female voice said from the shadows of the doorway. Vega Bloodmire, my evil roommate, crossed her arms. “Where’s the nearest rubbish bin? I’m going to vomit.”
I glanced behind me. Thatch plucked the petals of the daisy, smiling.
“That is the most cliché thing in the world,” she said. “I can’t believe I ever dated that man.”
Eew. Now I wanted to barf.
I quickly piled my plate with food and snuck away to the spiderweb hallway that led to the section of the school in ruins, tripping over a bit of rubble along the way to Derrick’s room. A roll fell onto the floor. His room was locked, and I knocked.
He peeked out. “It’s about time! Where were you? You said you’d be back.” He opened the door wider and let me in.
“Ugh. Thatch’s new girlfriend erased the report cards I filled out and made my life miserable today.”
“Thatch doesn’t have a girlfriend. Wait! Do you mean Vega Bloodmire?” He wore the white T-shirt I’d brought him earlier. The fabric hugged his muscular chest. He hadn’t dressed in the rest of the clothes, though, just a pair of boxer shorts he’d found under his bed. I hoped they were clean.
We ate dinner, a bland curry that Derrick improved by adding the magic ingredient: salt. He lit candles around the room to brighten the gloom. The romantic lighting cast the rugged angles of his face into sharp sections of golden light. He was even more handsome than I remembered from high school. And just as quirky with his sky-blue hair.
As I told him everything that had gone wrong that day, he fell back onto the bed laughing. “Miss Periwinkle and Thatch. That is hilarious! Was he really plucking daisy petals? She’s so old!”
“Not anymore. I fixed the glamour spell that made her look that way. That’s how I got to be trapped in her office the other day when you came and blew the door down.” I set my empty plate aside before any of the curry sauce got on his bed.
“And the first thing he does to help her is hook up with her?” Derrick laughed harder. “How could she think you’re going to steal Thatch from her?”
“Shh!” I said, covering his mouth to muffle his unguarded roar. “Someone might hear you.”
“No one comes back to this wing.” He mussed my hair, pink locks flopping into my eyes.
I smoothed my hair into place again. “My students meet in that room you painted with the murals.”
“Yeah, but they think I’m the school ghost and it’s haunted back here.” He walked across the room to the dresser he’d painted in a kaleidoscope of patterns, setting our tray on top. His boxer shorts hugged his muscular backside.
/> “How come you aren’t wearing the clothes I brought you?” I asked. Not that I minded his choice of attire, but he had asked for clothes. “After all that work to steal clothes that would fit, the least you could do is wear them.”
He opened a drawer and withdrew a handkerchief. “Sorry to break the news to you, but I’m too fat for Thatch’s clothes.”
I eyed the shirt stretched tight across his muscular chest. “You aren’t fat.”
“I know.”
At least if the clothes didn’t fit him, I could return them to Thatch’s wardrobe, preferably without him or Miss Periwinkle noticing.
He plopped down next to me and dabbed at my cheek with his handkerchief.
“Did I get food on my face?”
“Yep.” He leaned in close to kiss my cheek. Or I thought he was going to kiss me. Instead, he poked his tongue out and licked me. “Right here too.”
“Gross!” I scrubbed my cheek with the cloth. “Why did I decide I liked you?”
“You don’t like me, you love me.” He winked. “You want me to be your boyfriend.” He scooped me up and kissed my cheek for real this time. His lips trailed across my jaw and down my neck, nibbling and tickling with his teeth. “I think you got food down here too.”
“I doubt it.” I giggled.
He buried his face in my cleavage. “You definitely dropped something down here.”
His hands were warm on my back, one of his thumbs dipped beneath the edge of my blouse, stroking a sliver of skin. Arousal blossomed inside me. I wanted to lose myself in the pleasure of his touch like I had before. My affinity fluttered to life inside me. Now wasn’t the time for magic. I visualized it decreasing and staying contained.
Focusing on my affinity squashed my rampant hormones. My mind sharpened and remembered what was important. “Did Khaba ever find you today and talk to you about doing memory magic?”
“No.”
I kissed along his jaw. “We should find him and get him to help you remember so we can figure out if Thatch still works for the Raven Queen.”
“Ugh, why do you have to bring him up? Can’t we just have a romantic evening and not think of the dungeon master?” He squeezed me closer.
I drew away enough to stare into his sky-blue eyes. “How can I think about being romantic when Thatch might find out about you being visible at any moment and do something nefarious?”
He planted a peck on my lips. “I’m sure he’s too busy with Miss Periwinkle to be interested in me right now.”
“Let’s go see Khaba. He’s expecting you.” I slid off his lap and stood.
He tugged me closer again. “Mr. Khaba isn’t going anywhere. He can wait.”
I started to protest. He kissed me again. At first his lips were soft and hesitant, but as they pressed against mine, he kissed me more deeply, more passionately. The taste of his lips, salty and sweet, and everything I wanted, drowned out all other ideas in my head. He held me close, the familiarity and tangibility of his body too alluring to ignore. I wrapped my arms around him and threaded my fingers through his hair. His erection pressed hard and insistent against my leg. I wanted to be wrapped in the warmth of his embrace. Every part of me not in contact with him felt naked and cold.
He broke away, his breath tickling my hair against my cheek. “We can go see Mr. Khaba if you want.”
“Never mind.” I kissed him again.
“I might as well get rid of some of these clothes. They’re too small anyways.” He pulled his shirt off. I smoothed my hand over the contours of his muscled chest. As a teenager, I had never imagined he would look like an underwear model underneath his clothes.
Desire spiked inside me. My affinity mirrored the rise in my arousal. I calmed it again. Now wasn’t the time for magic.
He lay back on the bed, pulling me down with him. We fumbled with my clothes. I didn’t feel any less bumbling than I had the night before. We laughed as my arm got caught in my sleeve and one of the hooks from my bra snagged my ponytail.
Derrick chuckled as he unhooked it. “Life never has a dull moment with you around.”
My words came out mumbled against his mouth. “I think you mean there’s no end to the goofy things I end up doing to myself.”
“Yep.”
We both laughed again. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. Finally, I had Derrick, just as I’d always wanted.
His lips trailed down my body, stopping to pluck at my breasts and nibble at my belly. He kissed me between my legs, and I arched up to meet him. He stroked me until I cried in pleasure.
“I want you,” I said.
I was slippery and ready for him. Or I thought I was. His finger dipped inside me. That penetration was where the pleasant sensation ended. My muscles ached where he dragged against me. I felt ragged and raw inside.
I told myself it was a tolerable level of torment considering the reward that would be coming. He shifted so that he faced me. His smile was so sweet and reassuring, it made all apprehensions melt away.
The moment his erection slipped between my legs and pressed against me, pain jolted through me. The red magic in my core transformed to lightning and sharp spasms stabbed in my belly. The energy shot through me, fighting to be released from my body and into the origin of my pain. It took all my will to contain that magic and make sure I didn’t shoot lightning out of my vagina and into him.
“No! Stop!” I said, squirming back.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” His eyes brimmed with concern.
He withdrew so quickly, I feared I had shocked him.
“Did I burn you?” I asked.
“Burn me? No, why would you think that?” He repositioned himself beside me.
“I—my magic—it hurt when you touched me. I almost lost control of my affinity and shot lightning at you. I’m sorry.”
The magic tumbled around inside me, slowly subsiding as I calmed. I shivered, and Derrick covered me with the blankets. His arm was warm and secure around me.
He smoothed hairs from my face and kissed my forehead. “Are you all right now?”
“Maybe. The last time that happened …” I swallowed. “It was with Julian. I was trying to protect myself, and I killed him. I gave myself electrical burns.”
“Shocking.”
I didn’t laugh. I could see why Derrick and Khaba got along.
He touched the tip of my nose with his finger. “Some men complain they can’t find a woman hot enough for them. I have one that’s so hot, I don’t know what to do with her.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Do you think it’s because of last night?” he asked. “You still hurt too much from losing your virginity? Maybe your affinity is protecting your body right now?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s plausible.”
He hugged me to his chest and cuddled close against me. “That means I need to be careful and only give you good feelings so you’ll shoot out rainbows instead of lightning.”
“Easier said than done.”
He laughed. “Challenge accepted.”
“Derrick,” I groaned. “Does everything have to be a joke to you?”
“Not everything. You aren’t a joke to me.” He dipped his head down, brushing his lips against the corner of my mouth.
He teased me with an almost-kiss. I turned to meet his mouth, but he pulled back just enough that my lips missed his. His smile was mischievous. He kissed me, softly and tenderly. His lips grazed across my cheek and down my neck, dizzying me with desire.
“How do you do that?” I asked.
“Magic.” He grinned. “Can we just lay here naked for a while?” He kissed me again.
“Okay.”
He pressed his mouth to mine. “Naked and making out?” He cupped my breast.
My answer came out mumbled against his lips. “Okay.”
“And you’ll let me touch you if I’m careful?” His hand left my breast and stroked between my
legs.
I moaned by way of response. I was slippery and wet where he caressed me. My affinity burned red-hot inside me, but it didn’t threaten to jolt out of my body like before. I visualized it subsiding.
He kissed me deeply, and my breath caught in my throat. I melted into hungry abandon, clutching at him and claiming his lips all for my own. He was mine. This moment was mine. I wouldn’t allow my affinity to ruin it. I sank deeper in the swell of pleasure as he continued to touch me.
Delicious waves rose up inside me and crested. I cried out in ecstasy. All the while, I kept my affinity in check. It roiled like serpents and pressed against my diaphragm, the magic unspent and wanting to break free. This might have been the first time in my life that it hadn’t exploded out of me.
He stared into my eyes. “Was that better?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He kissed my nose. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
“You’re probably just saying that because I gave you an orgasm.” He winked.
“Probably.” I laughed, and he did too.
We lay in each other’s arms, huddled under the blankets and basking in the paradise of each other’s warmth for several minutes. As the oxytocin subsided, my worries returned.
“We really should go see Khaba now,” I said.
“I would do anything for you,” Derrick sat up and reached for the T-shirt he’d earlier dropped on the floor. “Even squeeze myself into Professor Jerkface’s clothes for propriety—for you.”
I could only hope Khaba would help us discover the truth about what had happened to Derrick.
CHAPTER NINE
The Usual Suspects
Khaba wasn’t in his office, which wasn’t really a surprise considering he usually patrolled the school, alert for students up to mischief. Derrick and I snuck to the corridor where the knight-and-dragon tapestry hid the hall of mirrors. No one was around. We ducked under the tapestry.
From up ahead came a light and whispers.
“Uh-oh,” I said.
I recognized the feminine laugh of one of those students. Maybe I should have at least waited until after the students’ curfew to go out.