Night Witch (Weatherstone College, #2)(32)

The crystals I smuggled in my bag went on the windowsill first, settling between my potted herbs. I’d cast a self-watering spell over them before I left last year, and I was relieved to see they’d made it through the long winter break. “Hello,” I cooed, running my hands over their soft foliage. “I missed you guys.”

I wasn’t a nature sprite, but all of us with magic in our essence were connected to nature and the energy of the Earth.

When I was done unpacking, I took a long nap. Thankfully, Sara managed to remain awake and got Haley and me up in time for the welcome ceremony.

“I knocked on Belle’s door, but there was no answer,” she said when we started down the hallway.

My gaze shot along the crowded hall to find Belle’s door just as closed as it had been before. Fuck. I didn’t like this. A tingle traced down my spine, and it wasn’t the monster tingle, but . . . it wasn’t a good one either.

If Belle didn’t show up to classes tomorrow, I’d go to Headmaster Gregor to see if he would tell me anything. Our regular phones didn’t work at Weatherstone due to all the magic and wards around the college, but I’d try her from the landline.

One way or another, I was determined to find out what was going on with Belle.

Even if it meant that the truth about how she felt toward me, and my affinity, tore us apart.

If she was safe, I’d accept the rest.





Chapter 14




My exhaustion had returned by the time I tumbled into bed that evening, having sat through the welcome ceremony and the family dinner, where Trevor elbowed me out of the way to get to the food first—yeah, I might have teared up at the familiarity of his assholeness.

He was no longer holding my silence over the winter break against me and had decided to just go with the flow and get back to being family.

There’d been no sign of Belle, Logan, or Noah through any of the first evening events, and without my phone to check in, worries mingled with my weariness.

Sliding under the covers, I let my mind wander to dinner. Trevor had acted completely normal with me and Jensen, joking and throwing his fire powers around, but I hadn’t missed the way he’d searched the hall, just as I’d been doing.

I’d been hoping for a glimpse of Logan and Belle.

Trevor was only interested in one of those two.

Our missing friend was playing on all of our minds, and I was determined that tomorrow I’d get some answers. Eventually, I fell into a restless sleep, tossing and turning. Darkness crept around the edges of my mind; heavy energy and shadowy magic oozed into my subconscious; the tracing ten drils of monsters scraped across my skin until soft music filtered through the carnage.

Consciousness returned in slow increments, and when I realized I wasn’t alone in the room, my eyes shot open, my heart pounding hard. The moon was hidden behind thick, ominous clouds, and I searched my dark room, noticing a large shadow perched in my desk chair.

When my eyes adjusted, I relaxed. The monsters hadn’t found me yet . . . It was my very own monster slayer.

Logan was sprawled back, his legs spread out before him while he softly strummed his guitar. I wasn’t sure if he knew I was awake as he continued to play his soft, soothing melody.

Magic swirled within me, and I could have cried as it smashed against the suppression potion, unable to reach the warlock. We’d been apart for weeks now, and I was desperate to feel our connection. To feel our bond. A bond that I’d come to accept over our time apart, because nothing else made sense.

“Precious,” he rasped—he’d known I was awake all along. “Sleep, baby. I’ll keep the monsters away.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks, and I wished I wasn’t always crying when he came back to me. I’d just missed him so fucking much, and having him here with me again was too much emotion to contain. “Why did you choose music as your escape?” I whispered. He’d spoken about it briefly, but I wanted to know more. To dig deeper than what he showed the world—I wanted the real warlock. His soul-deep essence.

He didn’t stop weaving the song around me, but he did shift closer, until my arm that was resting along the side of the bed pressed against his hard thigh. His eyes fluttered as we touched, and I wondered if he’d been as desperate for this reunion as I was.

“It started as a fuck you to Dad,” he murmured, his stare burning into me. “He thought music was stupid and frivolous, and while he allowed me to take lessons and form a band, it was only so he could use it to force me to do his bidding. If I wanted to hang out with my friends, I had to swim in his evil world first. In truth, music saved me. It was a piece of my magic that he couldn’t touch, and it gave me an outlet when I was drowning without you.”

The last of my control snapped at those words, and desperate to comfort him, I swung my legs off the bed and stood between his spread thighs. I wanted to be closer, to feel his power and mine connect. It was a need that eclipsed everything else in my existence.

His strumming halted as he stared up at me, and in a move so fast I almost missed it, his guitar was set to the side and his calloused palms wrapped around the back of my bare thighs. He squeezed gently at first, his huge hands spreading warmth across my skin. As his hold turned firmer, my breaths sputtered in and out.

“Rafael believed that he owned my soul,” he whispered, and even in the low light, there was no hiding the intensity of his stare as he slowly dragged me closer in slow, teasing increments. “The evil fuck had no idea I’d freely gifted it to you years ago.”