by Laura Wylde
I pushed myself up into a sitting position with furrowed brows. “And why exactly would that bother you?”
I couldn’t see her, but I could practically feel the blush from here. “Well, everyone knows that I like Connor and that I have been chasing him. It will be embarrassing for me to lose him. My reputation will be ruined…”
“Your reputation?” God, was this some sort of joke? “Zena, you are the most beautiful, wanted druidess here. I’m sure your reputation is fine.” Aside from the whole being nice to people, she was okay. “Why would you care about some guy who doesn’t show you the respect you deserve? People would simply respect you for holding your head high and carrying on, not letting an unrequited crush destroy you. You know, if it goes that way…”
I felt bad about not being one hundred percent honest, but I also didn’t owe her. She hadn’t ever been a great friend to me, she hasn’t exactly treated me well, so I didn’t have to tell her. Yet anyway, until I was sure.
“You think so?” Even in the dark I could see her tossing her hair over her shoulder. “You might be right.”
“People will respect you whatever you do, Zena.” I rolled my eyes in the darkness. “You don’t have anything to worry about in that department. You are lucky in that way, so I really wouldn’t worry about it.”
“You think so?” She cocked her head to one side and smiled. “I guess I am pretty popular.” She didn’t say ‘unlike you’ but I could feel those words in the air anyway. As if I cared anything about popularity anymore. “I guess I will be okay. I mean, it isn’t like I haven’t been inundated with offers, you know? Guys like me.”
“Oh, I bet they do.” My sympathy was waning by the moment. I wasn’t sure that she cared too much about Connor at all. He was probably just someone who hadn’t show her the affection that she wanted yet. “Of course, they do.”
“Anyway, I suppose I need my beauty sleep. Especially if I am going to wow the world tomorrow.”
“Er, yes.” I gulped back a thick ball of emotion. “I need some rest as well. It will be a big day. Back at the academy, it’s… been a while.” Why was I lying? She wouldn’t buy it. “Goodnight, Zena. Sleep well.”
“Night, Megan. See you in the morning. All Hallows Eve… should be fun. Our first one at the academy.”
“Oh right, of course it is. What a day to return.” Typical of my life! “I will see you in the morning then.”
But as I lay back down and I really started to consider sleep, the horrifying thought struck me that I might lose this warmth now. It was all well and good thinking about being rejected by Connor and the others in a hypothetical manner, but the reality would absolutely kill me. I was in love with them, I needed them, they were the only guys that I could ever see myself getting comfortable around. If it didn’t work out, then I would shut myself off for sure.
Was that why Connor and the others sent me away? They didn’t ask me to stay? Surely, if they wanted things to progress with us, they would have given me some indication about it. I might not have told them how I felt about them, but I showed them. I let my body do the talking for me, but it might not have been enough.
Now, back at the academy and surrounded by stunning girls like Zena who weren’t afraid to tell them how they felt, what would make them want to stick around with me? What if I couldn’t give them what they needed?
I turned around under the sheets and wondered if this random moment of girl bonding that had come from a surprisingly hostile place could go both ways. I wondered if she would be willing to offer me some advice as well. But then, what would I even ask her? How do I know if a guy likes me? How do I become attractive to men? What do I need to do to turn a connection into a happy ever after? No, it was too embarrassing. Plus, it sounded like she was snoring anyway, completely relaxed in her life that was a million miles away from mine. Not a worry in the damn world. Obviously, her emotions when it came to Connor didn’t mean that much if she could sleep so easily. I couldn’t drift off and switch off so easily because I really did have big feelings for him and all of them. Waiting to see if they felt the same way about me was going to be sheer torture. I really needed them to choose me.
I was going to have to suffer my torment alone and hope that it didn’t last too long…
All Hallows Eve was a big deal in our community, I had always celebrated it with my family, but as it turned out things at the academy were very different. It was going to be a night of work for us, to keep the portals and the world safe. I was damn well done with demons, I never wanted to see one again, but I didn’t have a choice. Me and the dragons had earned ourselves some rest time, but it wasn’t about to start yet. Not on All Hallows Eve.
“So, now you all know what you will be doing…” The teacher glanced her eyes around the room, drinking us all in. “Making sure that nothing comes out of the portals, but now it’s time for me to assign your groups.”
I sucked in a breath and held it. I was late to class this morning, I had overslept because I was clearly more tired than I thought and my brand new ‘friend’, Zena, obviously didn’t deem it appropriate to wake me up. So, because of that, I didn’t get a chance to see the dragons, never mind sit near them. I was too nervous to even look at them now because I wasn’t sure what glance I would get back. A loving one or one that barely acknowledged me. I didn’t know which way I wanted the teacher to place things. It was going to be a nerve-wracking challenge if she put me in the same group that I had been working in before, and it would crush me to work with someone else too…
“And Megan.” My eyes snapped up as soon as my name was mentioned. “You will work with Connor, Duncan, Artemis, and Trevor.” She smiled as if she was doing me a favor. “In Inverness, like before. The same portal.”
Wow, this truly was going to be our moment of redemption, the day that we went full circle and proved that we wouldn’t let another demon through a portal. Being sent back to where all of this began was going to be as cathartic as it was overwhelming. But if things were going to be good, then I would have the strength to do it.
I dared to shoot a glance their way and found Artemis’s kind eyes welcoming me back in. As he grinned at me, I wasn’t even sure why I allowed myself to get all worked up. Of course, everything would be the same as before. I didn’t imagine that connection in Ireland, we all felt it and it wasn’t going anywhere. Why did I even doubt it?
Artemis gave me the courage that I needed to look at the other guys and I was over the moon to have the same gratitude and love coming my way. All Hallows Eve was going to be a very interesting one, hard but important too because I wasn’t going to come back to the academy again without knowing my answer at long last. We all needed to have a conversation and we couldn’t avoid it for another second longer. I smiled at them all and even winked at Connor who tossed his head back and laughed loudly. A few people shot him strange looks, I knew that there was going to be gossip about us, but it didn’t matter when it was probably going to turn out to be true. We were going to end up as a harem, if things ended up as I wanted them too, so let them talk all that they wanted…
It looks different here, doesn’t it?” I commented idly as we all stood around the portal. “Unless I didn’t look at it then because I was too busy arguing with Connor.” I let out a little laugh. “It’s actually really nice.”
“You know I think it might be weaker,” Artemis narrowed his eyes and stared intently at the area which freed the shadow before. “I wonder if it was thinned because of what happened before. The shadow might have done something back then and we didn’t even notice it. Remember when it sent us to that dark place? We don’t know what was going on. Of course, it was escaping, but he could have done anything else as well and we wouldn’t have known anything about it. I think that we might need to be extra careful tonight. On top of things, you know.”
I shuddered as did the rest of them when we thought about that dramatic moment. It was awful, we were all put in a hole of negativity and horrible
emotions, leaving us with a trace of vulnerability for a while. I never actually considered the idea that other things could have been going on during that time. But that was what made Artemis special. He seemed to have a sixth sense about these things and he saw what others didn’t.
“You think it could have happened then?” I demanded fearfully. “What does that mean for tonight?”
Artemis stared at me. “It means that we have a long night ahead of us. All Hallows Eve is a nightmare anyway because the portals are easier for the demons to slide through, so if this portal really is weaker and the protection around it is gone, then I’m afraid our fighting days aren’t over yet.” This statement was met with a collective groan. “I know, I know, it sucks and we’re all still worn out from our journey around the country, but this is another chance to prove ourselves and to protect the world. We’ve made an impression on the teacher anyway, so let’s go a step further.” He raised his hands high as if he was rousing an army with his motivational words. “Let’s kick ass.”
I was still tired, but Artemis was right. We did need to do this. All Hallows Eve was one of our main duties.
“Okay,” I agreed. “You’re right. Let’s do this. Whatever comes through this portal, let’s take it down.”
It wasn’t going to happen yet, it was midnight when trouble would rouse and we’d need to act, but I still didn’t feel like this was the time to start asking them if they wanted to be with me. That could come after the battle.
Instead, I held out my hands to everyone else and they took it, eventually all of us forming a circle. A union. I glanced at everyone in turn and saw the determination behind the fear in their eyes. We could do this, just like we had beaten everything else that was thrown our way. Together, we had a strength.
“Oh, wow.” I collapsed to the ground hard, my knees aching with the force of the floor. “That was intense.”
Sweat poured from my forehead, my breaths were ragged and intense, every limbs of mine ached… much as I expected All Hallows Eve to be crazy, I didn’t think that it would be that bad. Artemis had to be right. The portal was weakened. It was going to be something that we needed to keep an eye on overtime.
“Are you okay?” Connor grabbed me and rolled me until I was lying on top of him. Even if I definitely didn’t look my best, he was still staring at me like I was the most beautiful woman alive. “That was hard.”
“It was something else.” I nodded. “Definitely not we needed after our last fight. But it’s over now.”
“It sure is and you kicked ass. You were incredible as always. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
I loved hearing him say that, it meant so much. Particularly since he was the one who seemed so against me in the beginning. But the desire in his eyes was getting to me, making me want to lean down and kiss him once more, but I definitely couldn’t do that until we’d had the conversation. I couldn’t drag any more feelings into this until I knew whether it was going to go somewhere or not. I just wanted that confirmation.
“Actually.” I peeled myself off of Connor, instantly missing the heat of his body. “I wanted to talk to you all. I don’t know what the plan is, whether we’re going back to the academy straight away or whatever, but before we do, I would just like a moment of your time to say this… this thing.” Oh God, now that the moment was here and everyone was looking at me, I couldn’t quite find the words. Only a heat traveling all the way to my face. “I… well, basically in Ireland, I realized that… that…” I giggled awkwardly as I felt myself making a real mess of this. I would have loved to be one of those people who could just be cool about everything. But that would never be me. “Okay, look I want you to be my harem. I have fallen for you all hard, I appreciate you all, and I would love it if we could make this more permanent. I know that might be not what you guys want since you could have anyone but…” I waved my hands all weirdly in front of my face as I spoke, trying to express myself fully. “Well, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t put the feelers out there and see how you feel.” I needed to get away for a moment, this was getting too much now. “So, I’m going to have a walk, take a moment in the forest to let you guys discuss it. Don’t worry whatever the answer is, I won’t hate you or anything, I just…”
Urgh, that was enough. I didn’t need to talk anymore. I just needed to run.
Chapter 16
Trevor
“Why is she running off?” I asked as we watched Megan vanish off into the trees. “We all know the answer, right? This isn’t something that we need to discuss. We could have just told her when she was there…”
“She’s nervous,” Connor said with a tone of bemusement in his voice. “She thinks that we might say no.”
“But we love her as much as she loves us. We need to run after her to let her know.” Why wasn’t anyone in agreement with me? “We can’t let her panic that we’re going to turn her down when she’s perfect.”
“I think that instead of chasing after her, we should do something nice,” Artemis surprised me by replying. “I think that the pressure of the academy is too much at the moment so we should all take a few hours to just hang out here.” He darted his eyes around the area. “This is a nice field here. We could set up camp. Have a sleep, make a picnic, something like that, and just be together. No pressure. Show her how much we love her as well as tell her.”
I nodded along, interested in the idea. It would be good to be sweet to Megan because she deserved that. After finding it a challenge to locate her place in the world, we needed to let her know that she was with us. That we needed her as much as wanted her because she fulfilled us, she completed our harem, she made us whole again.
“Okay,” Connor jumped in. “So, we all need to make this work quickly before she comes back. I have a feeling that once she recovers from the shock of what she just said she will become curious about the answer, so let’s get to it. Artemis, you need to make a tent for us all, can your magic stretch that far?” Artemis nodded and smiled, ideas already forming in his mind. “Duncan, can you get a fire going? Yep, of course you can, and Trevor, since you are the only one who can get away with flying in the daytime, so could you get us food? Something sweet and romantic?” Of course, I was more than happy to agree to that. “And I will be in charge of flowers and gifts.”
We parted and went off on our own individual missions to make the date perfect for Megan and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I did. Finally, she had put her feelings on the line, which definitely wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to do, and now we could all move forward together. All of the hardships that we had faced were worth it for us to finally be at the point where the world was our oyster. We had a family at last, and with the best woman in the world. One that I knew I could be happy with for the rest of my life…
“Where is she?” Connor was wrong, Megan had been gone for ages now. I couldn’t sit still around the fireplace until she came back so I had been pacing up and down until my legs ached. “What if she has changed her mind about us? Or what if she’s lost? Maybe something happened to her in the forest. It seemed like we got all the All Hallows Eve Demons but what if we didn’t? It wouldn’t be the first time we let one slide passed us…”
As I got myself increasingly worked up, I thought about the wild goose chase the shadow took us on, mainly focusing on Big Ben as I did. Perhaps that was because Megan seemed fixated on it at the time, so this was a link that I could have to her. I kept trying to work out what we might have missed, because if anything slipped by us then there was a chance that more terror could come our way and we weren’t done yet. If that started with Megan going missing, then it would absolutely destroy me. I would blame myself for the rest of my life. I knew that it wasn’t right to let her go and I did it anyway. I let Connor convince me that she needed some time to think.
“Stop panicking,” Duncan insisted, joining in with Connor’s relaxed and laid back way of thinking. “It hasn’t been that long at
all. It just feels that way because we got this date set up quickly. She will be back soon. This is the first time in what feels like forever that we haven’t needed to save the world, so just enjoy it.”
I stared desperately at Artemis, silently begging him to be on my side, but surprisingly since he was the worrier of the group, he didn’t seem too panicked either. Then again, he did seem to have some kind of deep-seated connection to her, so if he wasn’t flapping about then maybe I needed to trust him and calm the hell down.
“There she is!” Connor finally leapt up from his seat and stiffened up. The effect that Megan had on him was apparent. “Oh God, she’s coming. Are you all ready to tell her that we want her as our druidess?”
My eyes darted over to the tent which Artemis had set up to be filled with a soft big bed, nice music playing, and roses everywhere, which I knew we would all end up enjoying soon enough. Focusing on that rather than the words to come before helped me to relax a little. Showing how I felt was much easier than saying it.
“What’s going on here?” Megan looked adorably flushed. “What have you got going on?”
“We wanted to make this moment special for you.” Connor stepped forward and took her hands in his. “Because what you said to us was amazingly brave, and delicious to hear as well, because obviously, we feel the same way.” He sucked in a deep breath. “That’s especially hard for me to say because I have been the most closed off in our clan to a true romantic connection, which is probably why I was an ass at first, but now… well, I want you to know that I love you.” He pressed the softest, sweetest kiss to her lips. “And I want you in our harem.”
“Me too.” Immediately, Duncan took over. “Because I have the most fun with you, I enjoy your company so much. You always make me laugh.” He beamed from ear to ear. “And of course, you are the most gorgeous woman that I have ever laid my eyes on. The red-haired Irish beauty that captured my heart. And of course, I have to mention your amazing family because they saved my life. I wouldn’t even be alive without you all.”