“Magic meld,” Professor Halifax said.
“Wait, what?” My eyes widened. Magic melds were dangerous. Everyone knew that.
“Not yet, but that’s the goal,” she said. “You four are bonded to Raven. But to be stronger, you need to connect all of your magic.”
“I’m not sure I want to bond with anyone else,” Ben said.
“You won’t bond the same way you did with Raven,” Professor Halifax said. “The mating bond is different than a magic bond.”
“I don’t know,” Matt said. “It seems to have bonded us.”
“Because you were already meant to be her mate,” Professor Halifax said.
“Mages don’t do that,” he said.
“Fae do,” I said, starting to feel uncomfortable. Were they regretting what we did? “But we didn’t know I was fae then.”
Matt crossed to where I was standing and stopped in front of me. He grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I’m damn grateful that you are. I don’t want to undo what we have.”
I nodded, appreciating how easily he could feel my thoughts.
“Alright, everyone’s feelings need to be set aside. Coach Miller brought in a dragon to try to take some of you out in the practice trials. There’s no telling what he’ll do this time.”
“Don’t you have some say?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I was lucky I was able to snap up your group for private sessions. He wanted you five for himself.”
I couldn’t imagine what weekly sessions with Coach Miller would have looked like. Probably a whole ton of running the stairs for no reason.
“Where do we start with all this if the magic meld is the grand finale?” Luka asked.
“You need to learn each other’s magic. You need to be able to sense it, feel it when it flares, and channel it with any member of your group.”
“How?” Ben asked.
“We start simple,” she said, walking toward the benches where we sat for class. “You boys sit.”
My mates followed her instructions, sitting awkwardly with large gaps between each of them, on the front bench.
“Raven, you stand here.” She pointed to a place in front of the guys, in the middle of all of them.
I took the position.
“Now, you need to use your magic and they are going to focus on what your magic feels like until they could identify it in a whole room full of mages using magic,” she said.
“Okay,” I said.
“Just go with a basic fire ball,” she said.
I moved my hand, the fire coming to me easier than ever before. There were so many benefits to that final mating bond snapping into place.
“You four, hone in on her signature, find her magic. Memorize it,” she said.
We repeated the exercise over and over. Me making fire balls, my mates staring at me. It was exhausting. As I continued the process, though, something started to change. I could feel other magic joining mine. With each round of creating fire, the tingle of magic grew, leaving an electric charge hanging heavy in the air.
I could feel all four of them.
And it was doing things to me.
As the magic grew, my face flushed and my core heated. I bit down on the inside of my lower lip, trying to keep my thoughts on the task at hand and not the growing dampness in my panties.
What was happening to me?
The more magic they sent my way, the more aroused I got. My breathing grew heavy and it wasn’t from the exertion of the magic. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to jump on them. Any one of them. All of them. I never wanted them so badly in my life.
Finally, we were dismissed.
I said the fastest goodbye ever to the four of them and rushed to my dorm room, closing the door behind me. Stripping my clothes off as I walked toward my bathroom, I tried to push the arousal from my mind. What the hell had just happened?
Thank god for cold showers.