by Sadie Moss
“I’m glad that you were able to take care of this without anyone getting hurt,” Stone assures us. “That will reflect well on IUM. And we can make it clear to the public that this wasn’t an Unpredictable issue.” Stone eyes me up and down, taking in how exhausted I am. “Will you be available tomorrow for a press briefing?”
“I’ll be just fine, sir, I just need a good night’s rest,” I reply. I was going to be fine tomorrow—I’m not going to sit around like an invalid. This is definitely the hardest I’ve ever pushed myself on my telekinesis but it was worth it to destroy the magic that was doing this to people. Now nobody will ever be hurt like that, used like that, ever again.
The Circuit officer we were able to take back to his family after some examinations by the health workers in IUM. He lives with a couple of roommates usually but he requested that he be taken to his parents’ house which, if you ask me, was totally understandable. I’d want to be with my siblings after something like that. His mom burst into tears when she saw him.
My heart aches just thinking about it. If that magic got a hold of Penelope or Max, I would want to tear the world apart. I’d cry when they came back to me, safe and sound. I hope that I never have to go through something like that.
“We’ll make sure she gets her rest, sir,” Logan says firmly. I just know the three men are going to be babysitting me to make sure I actually do rest up after today.
“Good.” Stone glances over at Nick. “Looks like you had fun. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you want to sign up permanently.”
“You don’t know better,” Nick replies, his smile as cocky and charming as always.
“Mm. You’re not an Unpredictable.”
“Aww, come on, I’ve earned honorary status by now, right?” Nick grins.
Stone doesn’t reply and looks over at Saint instead. “You still have to do work to commute your sentence,” he notes.
The gruff man nods, as if he expected this. Stone looks at Logan before jerking his chin at me. “Get her some food before she keels over.”
“Ah, yes, sir.”
Logan starts to lead me to the cafeteria once we get out of Stone’s office, but Nick clucks his tongue. “Hell no, how boring do you want to be? We just defeated a powerful, deranged, never-before-seen kind of magic. We need to celebrate. To the death of Ichtaka!”
“Stop calling it that,” Logan and I groan at the same time.
Nick just laughs. “Come on, let’s go.”
Logan is the one that chooses the place, and I grin when we pull up outside the same bar he took me to when we’d first been assigned together as partners. My heart warms as we all get seated in the same back booth. It’s big enough for all four of us, if we squish just a little, but I know that none of us mind that. I welcome the contact, the warmth. I really am exhausted, even though I’m never going to admit it out loud.
Nick orders a ton of food, as well as drinks for all of us.
“I’m not sure I should be having alcohol right now,” I point out.
“Nah, you’re fine.”
I look over at Logan, who’s clearly the most responsible one here besides me.
He shrugs, his bright blue eyes gleaming with pride and happiness. “I think you’ll be okay. We got you a physical, and you weren’t really hurt in the fight. You’re just tired. Alcohol’s not going to do any damage.”
That’s fair. Saint says he’ll be the designated driver and get us home, and Nick insists on us all crashing at his place for the evening instead of Logan’s or mine. “Yours are all too small.”
“My apartment is cozy, thanks very much,” Logan protests.
“That’s what all people who have small apartments say.”
“Maybe I like it small.”
“Said no woman ever!”
“It’s not the size, Nick, it’s how you use it.”
“Guys, guys, guys,” I admonish, putting my hands on both of their shoulders. “Settle down.” I’m trying to be stern, but I’m laughing. I know they’re just having fun, teasing each other, and I have to admit—it’s fun to listen to.
Our food arrives, and Saint dives right in, eating with one hand while the other hand rests lightly on my thigh. The little gesture of closeness and affection warms me. Nick and Logan are still bickering in a friendly way, and it hits me that… we really did fight the magic off. We finished it. It’s over.
That means I can think about other things now. Things besides finishing the mission. Things like the three-headed elephant in the room.
I can’t help but think about the kisses that we shared down in the portal room, right before the battle. How they each kissed me in front of the others, and how none of them seemed jealous. In fact, they all seemed to expect it. Not just accept it, but be ready for it.
Maybe—no, definitely—it’s time for me to stand up and say what I want. And what I want is to be with all three of them, all at once.
Equally. No one person favored over the other.
This isn’t testing the waters or keeping my options open. This isn’t just casual dating. I don’t do that. I never have, and I don’t intend to start now. I want to be with each of them, in a real, true way. There’s nobody else I like, and I don’t care to find anyone else.
I want to see where things go, with all of us together as a unit.
Of course, thinking those things and saying them out loud are two entirely different issues. My stomach is slip-sliding all over the place with nerves. I’ve never had to go through the whole bit where you talk about a relationship with someone, not even as a teenager, and so this is all new to me.
But these men clearly like me. It’s not like I’m going to be rejected. I just have to say it.
Because I don’t want to ever give this up.
I want to keep having this for as long as I can. The guys teasing each other, crammed in a booth together like this, comfortable and easygoing. I want to go back to an apartment with them—any apartment, doesn’t matter whose—and let things unfold from there.
I’ve kissed each of them before, but I want to kiss all of them. I want to feel their hands on me all at once, until I don’t know where I end and they begin. I want to go to sleep with all of them in one big bed, and hear them breathing, and know that they’re safe and with me.
I didn’t know that it could feel like this, to feel like my heart is so full, and to have it be comforting instead of scary. I don’t feel any anxiousness about putting my heart out there because I know that they’ll catch it.
Suddenly it’s so much easier to breathe, and I don’t even have to think about what I’m going to say for once.
The words are just there.
I clear my throat. It’s not particularly loud, but all three men stop and look at me instantly. It warms my heart. They’re so attuned to me, just like I am to each of them.
But before I can launch into my big speech, I feel something inside of me.
It’s like an echo, like the twinge you get when you sprained something and it’s mostly healed by every once in a while you move that limb the wrong way and you get that sort of… reminder of what you once injured.
It’s like for a second, I feel a splinter deep inside my chest. There’s no way an actual splinter could be inside of me that deep. And I was checked out by medical back at IUM, so I don’t have anything broken inside of me, no foreign objects like a nail or something.
The splinter’s there and then gone, like it was a flicker of a candle flame, but I know what I felt.
Something flits through my consciousness. A glow of blue in the back of my head, behind my eyes.
That same blue magic that I’ve come to hate and fear so much.
My chest seizes up in panic. I know it was only there for a second, but I know what I felt. I swear I can hear an echo of the scream from before, the cry of the dying magic. It’s like it’s sunk into my bones, like the scream has invaded my brain.
Oh.
Oh fuck, no.
; The magic isn’t dead. Not all of it.
How could I have been so stupid? We should have found a way to shield me, or put Nick’s shield up around the magic again. Something.
Because we left the magic an escape route, without even meaning to. When I was tearing it apart, I wasn’t paying attention, and not all the pieces fizzled out when the rogue magic died.
One of them survived.
A piece of the magic survived in me.
The series concludes in Rogue! Find it on Amazon HERE.
Want to find out more about Elliot and her guys? Their series, Academy of Unpredictable Magic, is complete and free in Kindle Unlimited! The first book, Spark, is available HERE.
Also by Sadie Moss
Magic Awakened
Kissed by Shadows (prequel novella)
Bound by Magic
Game of Lies
Consort of Rebels
The Vampires’ Fae
Saved by Blood
Seduced by Blood
Ruined by Blood
The Last Shifter
Wolf Hunted
Wolf Called
Wolf Claimed
Wolf Freed
Academy of Unpredictable Magic
Spark
Trials
Thief
Threat
Hunt
Clash
Institutes of Unpredictable Magic
Shadow
Fury
Rogue
Hidden World Academy
Magic Swap
Magic Chase
Magic Gambit
Her Soulkeepers
Sacrifice
Defiance
Ascension
Feathers and Fate
Dark Kings
Wicked Game
Wanted Angel