much. “Chloe.”
I chuckled. Edith had been like an older sister to me since I started uni. If anyone else had approached us, I would’ve hid or something. I tucked my hair behind my ears and bit my bottom lip. “Morning, Edith. Where you off to?”
“Oh, never mind that rubbish. Who is this?” She adjusted all of her books into one arm, then grinned up at him as she held her hand out. “I’m Edith. Who are you?”
“Hello, Edith,” Malachi drawled in that raspy voice of his that I knew Edith was going to text me about after we walked away. He shook her hand. “I’m—”
“Masen,” I said for him. “This is Masen Martin. He’s an old family friend who dropped in for a surprise holiday.”
“Surprise holiday, how nice for Chloe.” She pulled her hand back and gave me a goofy grin that was definitely obvious to anyone within a hundred-foot range. “So, Chloe…where have you been? I went by your flat last night to drop your bag but Rolland was there by himself. He asked me where you were, which I thought was odd. I told him I hadn’t seen you since I dropped you off for your morning shag—”
“Edith,” I hissed through clenched teeth. My face was burning.
“Oh, sorry…” She grimaced.
I glanced back at Malachi.
He arched both eyebrows and smirked. “Ah, so that’s why you were there so early.”
I turned back to Edith and shook my head. “Well, turned out Rolland was already in the middle of a morning shag when I got there. I took off and then ran into Masen. We went back to the estate for the night.”
Edith’s jaw dropped. She pushed her tortoiseshell glasses up her nose. “My, my. What an upgrade, I’d say.”
“Thank you, Edith.”
“Well she’s not wrong,” Malachi said behind me with a chuckle.
I gasped and turned to him only to find him grinning. I shook my head and looked back to Edith. “Anyways, I was just showing Masen around a bit. You off to the library?”
“Several of them, actually.” She rolled her eyes and readjusted her books. But then she wagged her eyebrows. “You know, Masen, Chloe here has the most comfortable bed. I’ve crashed there a few times over the years—”
“Edith,” I whispered.
“You’ll thank me once you’ve shagged him, dear.” She shrugged and started to walk off. “Well, got to run. Make sure to hydrate you two, stretch the legs a bit every once in a while. Eat something other than each other before the sun goes down.”
My jaw dropped. Not that she noticed. She was already hurrying toward the door under the sundial. I turned to my soulmate and grimaced.
Malachi chuckled. “There are a lot of questions there, but I think it’s best we save those for later?”
I sighed and scrubbed my face with my hands. “Bloody bugger. I don’t know what got into her.”
“That’s on me.” When I looked up he just shrugged. “Angels make mortals nervous. Princes of Hell unravel them entirely.”
“Oh…”
“So Masen Martin?”
My face warmed again and I knew my blush had returned. “Well I couldn’t exactly tell her your name was Malachi. Not precisely a common name. Masen just…I don’t know, came to me.” Because it’s Edward Cullen’s birth name and it’s now a little inside joke for me that you probably won’t find funny.
He nodded and shoved his hands in his jean pockets. “Okay. There’s more to that but we’ll get to it later. However, I never told you my surname was Martin.”
I frowned. “Your surname is Martin— oh yeah, it is. I knew that. I remember. Oh my God, Malachi, I remember you from before. I remember liking that both your names started with an M. Except you had long hair and no scruff on your face. And your ears were pointy.”
“The pointy ears vanished when I died.” He smiled and shook his head. “Give it a few days with your magic and I bet you’ll remember a lot more from those years.”
“Not sure I want to, unless it’s of my father.” I shuddered. “Speaking of, shall we find our first rose?”
“After you.”
I looked up at our surroundings and nodded. We stood on the inside of the great quadrangle – a circular lawn with four stone buildings around it. Straight across was an archway tunnel that led out to Catte Street. The iconic domed roof of the Radcliffe stood high above the walls of All Souls College. To our right was Codrington College. In the center, raised above the tall glass windows, was the