Page 54 of Heartflame

“Because my mother was there,” Wild said quietly, meeting the man’s gaze without flinching.

He stopped dead in his tracks. “That’s not possible.”

“That’s what everyone keeps saying,” Wild huffed. “But she was there. Atlas saw her too. And so did these two,” he added, gesturing to me and Aeron.

The man hesitated for a moment before stepping closer. He lifted a hand, pressing it tenderly to a bruise on Wild’s cheek. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Elias,” he nodded, placing a soft kiss on his lips. “Really. Atlas got me out in time.”

I stood there, watching all of this with my jaw practically sitting on the floor.

“Okay,” Aeron said at last, breaking whatever tender moment these four men were having. “I hate to break up this admittedly hot polyamorous thing you all have going on right now, but will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?”

Chapter 22

Aeron

“We don’t know yet,” Atlas replied, looking over at me. “It’s obvious the Purity Front just attacked the academy, but you know about as much as we do at this point.”

“And that someone has, no pun intended, resurrected necromancy for the first time in centuries,” Wild added. “That, I think, is the more worrisome part of this. We always knew the Purity Front would attack the school again.”

“You knew?” Quill spat, his brows furrowed. “You knew we were all in danger and you told everyone to go back to campus anyway?”

“I know what it looks like,” Atlas said, holding up his hands. “But we had no reason to believe the wards wouldn’t hold. They were supposed to be indestructible and keep everyone trapped outside. We thought it would give us an opportunity to capture the Purity Front and remove the threat. The students were never in danger.”

“Obviously that’s not fucking true,” Quill shot back. “They got through tonight. And who knows how many people they killed…”

“We don’t know if anyone died,” Elias said.

“Not yet,” I scoffed, keeping Quill close at my side. “You will soon though because I guarantee people died. If the Purity Front could kill five members of the Elder Council, picking off students would be nothing to them.”

Elias’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue. Instead, he turned to Wild, his dark eyes sharp with calculation. “We need to contact your grandfather immediately, Aeron. And the rest of the Elder Council. They need to know what happened tonight.”

“I tried to use my phone after the wards went down,” I said grimly. “But nothing was going through.”

“Well the academy is in the middle of the Appalachian mountains. It’s not exactly a hot spot for cell service,” Wild replied in a flat tone. “Not to mention there’s enough residual magic there to disrupt just about everything.” He looked up at me. “Shouldn’t you know that with all your private tutoring?”

“Now wait just a fuckin’ minute your pointy-eared fairy⁠—”

“Okay,” Atlas barked, stepping between us. “That’s enough of that.” He looked over at Caden. “Take Wild to the atrium and get him patched up please.” He turned back to me and Quill. “And you two will come with me. I’ve got a room where you can rest.”

“I don’t want to rest, I want to talk to my fucking grandfather!”

“I know,” he replied, talking to me like I was a pissed off toddler. “We have secret channels to communicate with the Elder Council already set up, but things are weird at the moment. Everything is chaos. Once we’ve contacted him, we’ll let you know and you can talk to him, alright?”

“Don’t tell me what⁠—”

“Aeron,” I heard Quill say at my side. “Come on. Let them do their jobs.”

I looked down at him, still irritated but unable to snap at my own mate.

“They’re with the Elder Council,” he continued, pulling at my arm. “They’ve got this under control.”

I let myself be guided away from the tension, though every part of me wanted to keep arguing. Quill was right, though. These people clearly had resources and connections I didn’t fully understand yet. And even if I didn’t personally like Wild all that much, he and that werewolf had gotten us out of an active war zone. The least I could do was give them a chance to prove they knew what they were doing.

Atlas led us down a corridor lined with more tables and enchanted trinkets, all of which looked ancient and odd in some way or another. The sanctuary, if that’s what this place was, seemed to be filled with magic. The walls had a faint shimmer to them, and every so often I’d catch glimpses of ghostly figures passing through walls. Each window we passed was frosted with a faint hint of stars beyond it, giving no hint as to whether we were actually in the Veil or not. I still wasn’t sure that was even possible.

“How long have you been running this place?” I asked, trying to get a read on the situation. “And more importantly, how many people know about it?”