I’m slowly wrapping my head around that, getting over the shock I felt when they first told me. And it’s no wonder they all keep shooting me worried glances. I wasn’t really aware of time passing, but they’ve spent weeks waiting for me to wake up.
But if there’s one benefit to this bullshit… it’s getting to see how they all behave around each other. The guys are kind and loving to Maddy, treating her like a little sister. Even Dmitri is sweet and gentle with her. Cam and Asher tease her and joke with her, and Roman’s been teaching her some magical theory stuff so she’ll have a leg up going into her second year.
Everyone’s become really close. The slight gap I felt between Roman and the other three has disappeared, and they’re all getting along.
It’s amazing, although it makes me even more pissed at whatever fuckface threw the spell that knocked me out. As cool as it is to see the way things have shifted between them all, I feel a bit left out, honestly. They got three months of bonding, and I got… Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.
And there’s another thing too, something that’s been stuck in my mind ever since Roman kissed me in front of the others.
If the guys are all on board with this sharing thing, if they’re all getting along and liking each other… taking this in stride…
Then there’s really no excuse for me to keep being a damn coward, is there?
It might be time to grow a pair and admit what I feel for each of them.
Admit how much I feel for them.
Chapter 4
Thanks to that fantastic spell I was hit with, I woke up with only a week left before school starts. Which is, in my humble opinion, a complete load of bullshit. I missed out on summer vacation and on all the guys and my sister bonding—and now I have less than a week before my return to the school where I’ve become notorious for several reasons?
Super duper.
At least I’m pretty sure whoever knocked me out with that spell didn’t actually mean to hit me. I was just a casualty of the general chaos and confusion caused by Johnson’s attack. But honestly, that knowledge only helps a little.
I get in as much time with Maddy as I can before she has to go back to her own school, Neptune Academy. Mads is an elemental mage who can control water, and she’s going into her second year of training just like I am. Cam, Asher, and Dmitri are good about giving the two of us some one-on-one sister time, which I appreciate. Roman is too, but that’s partly because duty calls—he has to leave early to set up for the semester anyway, since he’s a professor.
He pulls me aside the night that he leaves. I’m not sure what he’s going to say or do, and I’m a bit nervous as we walk into the master bedroom, the one he’s been using this summer. We haven’t really gotten much alone time since I woke up a few days ago, and I forgot how overwhelming his presence can be, how powerful the pull I feel toward him is.
Roman’s bags are sitting by the bedroom door, packed and ready to go. He’s only got two small suitcases, probably just clothes and a few books. I’m tempted all over again to ask him about his past, about why he has this huge family home that’s beautifully furnished but somehow still seems a little empty—about why he can pack his entire life so easily into two little bags—but now doesn’t seem to be the right time.
Besides, I’ve been the one who’s been gun-shy about our relationship getting more serious. He probably would’ve told me a lot more about himself by now if I hadn’t been pushing him away this whole time. That’s something I need to fix, and after everything that happened this summer, even if I wasn’t awake for most of it, I really want to.
He’s told me straight out that he wants to be with me, wants a real relationship with me, and that he’s willing to share me with the others… but maybe even more importantly, he’s shown me the truth of his words over and over. Roman has never given me a reason to distrust him.
So maybe it’s time I give him the trust he deserves.
“See you at school, prof. I’ll make sure to sharpen all my pen—” I start