Thornhill Academy. Chapter 118

**Allison**

Cage was nice again today, and that, somehow, is more terrifying than when he’s a jerk. He smiled too easily, his tone too even, his eyes too watchful. Every time he said 'sunshine', it sounded less like a tease and more like a test. By the time class ended, my skin felt too tight, my magic crawling restlessly under it. Kael and Evander were waiting outside the lecture hall, just like they always do now. Kael leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets, that lazy grin hiding the fact that he was scanning every face in the corridor for a threat. Evander was calm as ever, his shoulders squared, eyes finding mine first thing.

Kael’s grin softens. “You look like you’re plotting murder, trouble.”

“I’m considering it,” I mutter.

“Cage?” Evander asks, falling into step beside me.

I don’t answer, which is answer enough. Kael lets out a low, humourless chuckle. “I’ll add him to the list then.”

We walk through the quad, the sun bleeding down over Thornhill’s spires, and for a moment, the whole world feels suspended between beautiful and dangerous. Students laugh in little clusters around the fountain, and I envy them. They get to worry about exams and dorm gossip. I get to worry about my pulse jumping every time one of my mates looks at me like I’m their universe, and about one who looks at me like I’m a puzzle to solve.

“He’s being… weird,” I finally say. “Like he’s trying too hard.”

“Manipulators usually do,” Evander says easily. “He wants something.”

“Let him try,” Kael growls under his breath. “We’ll make sure he regrets it.”

The fierceness in his tone makes my chest tighten. “You two don’t have to fight all my battles.”

Kael flashes a smile that’s more teeth than warmth. “Maybe not. But it’s more fun that way.”

By the time we reach my dorm, the tension has eased enough that I’m smiling again. Kael bumps my shoulder playfully, Evander holds the door open, and the smell of tea and wood smoke greets us like home. Rhaziel materialises from the shadows, not even five seconds after we walk in, as if on schedule. It’s strange how natural it feels, sharing the room, the space, the bed, with all of them. It should be overwhelming. It should feel impossible. Instead, it feels like gravity.

Raziel’s eyes find mine immediately. “Hummingbird.”

My stomach does a stupid little flip. “You’re early.”

“Your sadness from the other night has not returned. I wanted to be sure it stayed that way.”

Evander hides a smile, moving to pour tea, and Kael leans in close and murmurs, “Shadow demon daddy’s punctual.”

Raziel’s brow lifts. “I heard that.”

Kael only grins wider. “You were meant to.”

Their banter fills the room like background music, easy and warm, and I can finally breathe properly. Dinner turns into a lazy sprawl of conversation and laughter—Kael recounting a disastrous sparring match, Evander trying not to laugh while correcting him and Rhaziel humming softly in amusement. Later, when the plates are cleared and the lights are dim, the four of us end up tangled together in the massive bed that’s somehow become ours... I think. Raziel’s arm is heavy around my waist, Kael is draped half over my legs, and Evander’s warmth is steady at my back. It should feel crowded, but it doesn’t. It feels... safe.

“Sleep, hummingbird,” Raziel murmurs against my hair. “You’re safe here.”

Sleep finds me fast, thick and heavy. But somewhere in the middle of dreaming, I feel heat crawling up my throat, a strange tickle that’s not unpleasant until it isn’t. I jolt awake to a flash of orange across the room, smoke curling lazily toward the ceiling, and Kael’s startled shout mixes with Evander’s curse. Rhaziel just sits up, completely unbothered, shadows extinguishing the flames with a single flick of his fingers.

My heart pounds as I sit up, wide-eyed. “Did I just—”

“Breathe fire in your sleep?” Kael finishes, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, trouble. You did.”

Evander exhales slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. “You fed from me tonight, didn’t you?”

I blink. “Maybe?”

Rhaziel’s lips curve faintly, his voice deep and amused. “It would appear, my queen, that your body holds more than just affection when you feed.”

I drop my head into my hands, groaning. “Great. I’m a walking dragon hazard.”

Kael laughs, warm and teasing, and Evander just grins, already checking the scorch marks on the wall. Rhaziel reaches out and tilts my chin up, eyes gleaming like polished obsidian.

“You are magnificent,” he says simply.

Something inside me is changing...I can feel it humming beneath my skin, restless and hot, like my magic is trying to tell me something I’m not ready to hear. The boys tease me for a while longer, Kael calling me “fire hazard,” Evander insisting he’s going to install a sprinkler system “just in case.” Raziel stays quiet through it all, amusement glinting in his dark eyes, but I can feel the way his energy coils protectively around me. The air itself seems to hum with it, shadows shifting to match the rhythm of my breath. Eventually, things settle again. Kael flops back against the headboard, Evander stretches out beside him, and Raziel slides down until my head is resting on his chest. It should be easy to fall back asleep, surrounded like this. But my mind won’t stop wandering...It drifts back to the one who isn’t here. Cassian. The image of him in that office—head bowed, voice rough when he said I can’t—plays on repeat behind my eyelids. The professor with his steady hands and calm eyes, who held himself like the world might fall apart if he let go. I hate that it still hurts this much. I hate that just thinking about him feels like pressing on a bruise that won’t fade. He said the Council denied his petition. That touching me could cost him his life. But the bond between us doesn’t understand words like *forbidden or execution.* It just aches. Constantly.

Rhaziel’s fingers move absently through my hair, the steady rhythm of it tugging me back to the present. He doesn’t speak; he doesn’t have to. He knows I’m thinking about another mate. And somehow, he doesn’t seem jealous. If anything, his purr deepens, softer, as if he’s soothing me for someone else’s sins. Evander shifts beside me, murmuring something sleepy about closing his eyes before I accidentally light him on fire again. Kael snorts quietly, and the sound makes me smile, just a little. But when the laughter fades and the quiet returns, I stare at the ceiling and let myself whisper his name in the dark, just once. “Cassian.”

The bond hums faintly in response, a soft pull somewhere deep in my chest. I curl closer to Raziel’s warmth, closing my eyes against the ache. I have three of my mates here, wrapped around me, hearts beating in time with mine and still, a part of me is somewhere else, trapped under a Council that wants us broken. The thought burns just as hot as the fire did.