Broken Knights (Gifted Academy #4) - Michelle Hercules Page 0,52

side to deepen the kiss. Quickly, my body responds to our proximity, and yearning hits me hard. I want our clothes gone so I can connect to him skin to skin.

But he pulls back, leaving me bereft. “I didn’t come here for sexy times. You need to wake up.”

My eyebrow furrows. “Why? What’s going on?”

“Impromptu secret meeting. Join us by the lake shore in five minutes.”

The dream disintegrates like a beautiful sandcastle destroyed by the sea. I wake up to a void that smells faintly of mildew and old furniture. I’m back in the old bungalow with the lumpy mattress. However, my lips still tingle from kissing Phoenix in the dream, and desire dances around my hips, teasing my sex. I’m so turned on right now it’s not even funny.

At first, I see nothing. It’s pitch black inside the room with the light turned off and the windows shut. I wait a minute for my eyesight to adjust, then slowly swing my legs to the side of the bed and get up.

I slept with my street clothes on because this place is too dirty and cold to undress. But I’m barefoot save for my socks. Blindly, I get to my knees and search for my boots. I know I left them by the side of the bed last night. When I find them, I grab the pair and get ready to leave. I’ll put them on outside. But the jacket is another story. I have no idea where it ended up, and I’m not going to look for it in the dark and risk bumping into something.

I check on Rosie first. She’s on her belly, her favorite sleeping position. The steady rise and fall of her back tell me she’s out cold. Felicity took the bunk bed across from us for herself. She’s snoring, which means she won’t wake up until morning. Renata is the only wildcard here. I don’t know her sleeping patterns, so I can’t figure out if she’s in deep slumber or not. She took the third bunk bed, the farthest one from us.

Well, there’s nothing for it. I have to move if I want to get out of here.

Walking on my tiptoes, I veer toward the door. The old wooden floor creaks as I put weight on the boards, making me wince. Renata sighs in her sleep, slinging her arm across her face. I freeze and wait for one, two seconds before I continue. I finally make it across the room, but now comes the hardest part. The door hinges are old and mega noisy. We also latched the door last night.

Holding my breath, I slide the latch to the side slowly. It clicks as it releases, and I hold my breath. Renata mumbles something in her sleep. It’s too incoherent for me to understand. She rolls toward the wall, curling into a ball. I wait another beat, and when the room remains quiet, I open the door. I can’t do anything about the noise besides hoping all my companions remain in dreamland.

My heart is beating a little faster, and my stomach is twisted in anticipation by the time I’m finally out of the bungalow. It must be the exhilaration of doing something sneakily. I put on my boots first, then hurry down the steps toward the path down to the lake. Before I reach the end, four shapes appear in my field of vision. My boyfriends. It seems like forever since we all hung out together after our relationship solidified. I’m not sure how the dynamics are going to work out. If my heart was beating fast before, now it’s racing.

“Hey,” I say. “What’s going on?”

Bryce turns to me, his expression solemn and hard. “I need to tell you what happened at school.”

“Oh.” I’m a little disappointed. I think after the sexy dream with Phoenix, I was expecting something else. “It couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”

“I don’t think tomorrow we’ll have much time.”

“Why not?”

“I’m sure Harry and Artex will be banging on your door at the crack of dawn,” Morpheus replies. “I wish we didn’t need their help. They rub me the wrong way.”

“I don’t like or trust them either,” Phoenix adds.

“Same here,” Rufio chimes in. “It’s like they don’t see you, Daisy. They have you on a pedestal.”

“We don’t have much choice in the matter. If their organization is providing lightning-glass to the Knights, we have to work with them,” I say.

“Daisy is right. We have to collaborate with them, even if they act a