Blood Pledged (Arcane Arts Academy #3) - Elena Lawson Page 0,73
tool shed shook. The dishes in the cabinets clattered, and somewhere outside, thunder rolled in the distance. A second later it was gone, and I felt faint, dropping back into my seat. A pulsing pain stabbed at a place behind my eyes and I knew what would happen if I didn’t rest.
This shed wouldn’t withstand the storm my magic could create. And Granger had only just finished with the repairs on the academy from the last time.
Now that I’d opened the faucet, though, holding it in would be harder.
“Was that…?” Cal started, cocking his head at me.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to stave off the pain and grunted as I shoved the rest of the frantic energy back down as deep as it would go, and then buried it. “Sorry. I can’t help it sometimes.”
Cal and Adrian shared a look.
The pain behind my eyes started to subside, but there were still dark spots clinging to edges of my vision. It was Adrian who stepped forward and knelt next to me, all the glow gone from his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice tight. “I shouldn’t have—”
“Shh,” I hushed him. “Don’t even worry about it. I should have—” I winced as a lance of pain shot through my skull and a little aftershock of my power drained out from my toes to shake the floor a bit more. “I shouldn’t have shoved you.”
“We’ll figure this out.” Cal knelt at my feet beside Adrian and took my hands in his. “Together.”
I offered them both a small smile and nodded. “Okay,” I said, blinking away what remained of the black spots. “But you can’t come to class with me. They’ll kick you out.”
Cal expression blackened. “Fine,” he said between gritted teeth. “But the at the first sign of trouble—”
“I’ll call for you.” I pulled my hands free and reached out to stroke his face, wanting to put it back to the smirk it had when he first walked in. I rested my other hand on Adrian’s cheek and gave him an apologetic stare.
He covered my hand with his and a tremor rushed through me at his intense warmth. “Swear to us you’ll tell us if you’re in danger.”
He knew me too well, already.
Frowning, I grudgingly replied. “I will.”
I slept like a baby. When I awoke at dawn, long before Bianca would’ve attempted to drag my ass out of bed on any other given day of the week, I felt blissfully refreshed. Sleeping next to them did that, even with the meager five hours of sleep I got after we’d poured over the books I brought and debated all the gruesome possibilities. My least favorite was the most obvious: that Draven was to blame for Bianca and the dead students.
It made the most sense. I knew that. It was hard to ignore the facts. But… I couldn’t bring myself to believe it. I didn’t know him well, not by any stretch of the imagination, but I just had this feeling that he wasn’t the one to blame. Cal and Adrian wouldn’t listen, though. They told me if he came back to see me again to send him to them. Not to let him in. I didn’t make any promises, though.
They could think it was him all they wanted.
They were wrong. And I was going to prove it.
I climbed from the bunk carefully, trying not to disturb them. Cal stirred and I planted a soft kiss on his forehead. “Where are you going?” he asked sleepily, still half unconscious.
“I have to get back,” I whispered. “Go back to sleep. I’ll call if I need you, okay? I promise.”
Cal gripped my hand when I tried to pull away, and I turned back to find his one visible eye open, staring at me with something like fear. “Be careful,” he said.
I was about to reply, but he tugged me down to his level again and kissed me. My head spun and my stomach fluttered in surprise. “I mean it,” he said as he pulled away. “Don’t go looking for trouble.”
“No need,” I said with a note of sarcasm. “Trouble has a way of finding me all on its own.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“I’ll be fine. You can come to check on me whenever you want, okay? But don’t be surprised if you aren’t exactly welcomed with open arms.”
Cal sighed, rolling onto his back. “How many more years are you stuck here, again?”
“Three.”
He groaned, pressing his palms into his eyes. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”