Page 18 of Overwhelmed By Magic

It's clear that Stellan is fucking exhausted but once again I have more questions than I have answers. As much as I want to leave this to tomorrow, I know Jade isn’t going anywhere. He hasn’t had this kind of relief in years and no matter how much I fuck him, it won’t be enough to satisfy his essence.

I wish it was.

Fuck, I just wish I knew what we all were.

“Care to tell us what’s going on, Stellan? I saw it before that you were burning up. Does this happen often?”

Stellan tucks his head into the crook of Jade’s neck and a tendril of jealousy tries to see its way through. I quickly tamper it and wait for the man’s response. It isn’t Stellan that answers me, though. “There’s too much essence,” Jade says as he cradles the fire elemental. It’s an odd sight to see him touching someone else, especially so lovingly. “He has no outlet.”

That doesn’t make any sense. As far as I know from the years of lessons I’ve suffered through, essence is recycled through the Earth. There is a limited supply and Magila can run out of essence if they deplete their own. Granted, it will replenish but it isn’t unlimited which is one reason why Jade constantly needs me.

Stellan breathes out another sigh of relief before turning slightly to face Ambrose and me. “It is always like this. The fire is so much. I’ve burst into flames a few times and it doesn’t hurt me. Just those around me. Why is this working? I don’t feel as hot anymore.”

“He’s an Incubus or some form of one,” I offer up so that Jade doesn’t have to explain. “He needs essence, sexual or otherwise.” I watch their auras mingle and intertwine, my jealousy rising again. They seem to mold together, becoming this mesmerizing purple and orange glow that is impossible to look away from.

The moment I catch a hint of Jade’s pain, however, I’m dragging him away from Stellan and putting myself between them. The fire elemental just sits there, blinking before meeting my gaze. He doesn’t seem ashamed of his nakedness, though, I can’t tell seeing as his body is flush with heat. “You claimed him? You claimed Jade?”

Ambrose snorts and I punch his arm, growling at him as I remember the conversation we had earlier. Jade is confused as he stands behind me, his hands settled on my waist and his chin hanging over my shoulder. “You want to claim me, Rumi?”

“This isn’t a fucking conversation that I’m having in here. Stellan, will you be alright till morning?” I probably shouldn’t dismiss it and maybe there are other questions I should be asking but I just want to figure it out later.

Stellan hums as he brings his hands to his face, staring at them as if his fingertips might light on fire. They don’t. “I think I’ll be okay. It’s still uncomfortable but I’m not in pain like before. Thank you. Jade, right?” The color of his eyes softens to an almost gray-blue as he peers up at Jade. There’s gratitude and relief lingering in his expression.

I twist around to see Jade offer him a small, embarrassed smile, something blooming between them. Maybe it’s jealousy that has me immediately ushering Ambrose and Jade down the hall back to my room without so much of a goodbye. You’d think that a man over 100 years old wouldn’t be able to feel jealousy anymore but my essence burns bright around me, threatening to choke me in a cloud of possessiveness that Jade doesn’t deserve.

Ambrose lingers just inside my room as I sit on the edge of my mattress, Jade glaring at me from a few feet away. He’s never been angry with me and certainly not dominant but I can feel that something has changed. His arms are folded across his chest, the purple in his eyes nearly black as his aura matches the same color.

It takes me a moment to realize that it’s because of the amount of essence he’s absorbed.

“Since when have you wanted to claim me? You can’t claim me. I would kill you!” Jade whisper-yells. He’s terrified and I get that but he’s been mine since the moment he stepped into this academy. He has to know that.

Perhaps he doesn’t because I’ve never told him.

I reach for him but he shies away from my touch. My heart breaks a little at his dismissal but as much as I want to hold him, I know that doing so would cheapen the conversation. “Jade, if your essence was going to kill me, you would have done it ten years ago.”

He grits his teeth, his expression morphing from worry to anger to exasperation. He’s frustrated but I don’t know why. “I can’t always control it,” he pushes through clenched teeth. Ambrose steps closer, knowing that this conversation isn’t for any outsiders stupid enough to be roaming the halls this late.

I lean forward, searching his face. “And I’m here to help. I’ve always been here to help.” I’m so full of bullshit. Ambrose was right. I don’t just want to claim Jade. I’m in fucking love with him and I have been for far longer than I want to admit. The problem is that Jade would never allow that. He truly thinks he’s going to kill me one day if his essence goes awry.

“You don’t understand,” he whines.

“Then make me understand, Jade. What is going on?”

Goddess, I need to hold him. Fuck the hardass exterior bullshit I put on for everyone else. In this room, I’ll be as soft as Jade needs. The Incubus starts pacing, running his hands frantically through his hair. In the ten years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him stressed. Angry, scared, sure. But stressed? No.

He doesn’t want to upset me.

Jade travels the same path a few more times before stopping beside Ambrose, his hands fisting and unclenching at his side a few times. Then he steps up to me and grabs the scruff of my shirt, pulling me to my feet so that our lips are inches from each other. I can nearly taste him, one inch forward and my lips would be on his. I don’t, though.

“I want you to be enough, Rumi. I need you to be. But you’re not. I won’t hurt you.”

“Jade, love…” I’ve never called him that before but it feels right. I keep my hands at my sides, knowing that I’ll spook him but goddess, it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done—right up there with not tearing Dmitri’s throat out after he sentenced me to Grimrose Academy.

He growls in my face and releases my shirt before putting distance between us again. “At night, after you fall asleep, I get up and walk through the hallways, soaking up any essence I can. Anyone practicing with it, I take that. If it’s lingering, especially in the classrooms. There’s more where the library used to be but I’m always so fucking hungry. You help take the edge off but it’s not enough.” Tears glaze his eyes as he struggles with the words.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I ask.

“Because you do so much. I didn’t… like Stellan, there’s no way to stop this. No one knows what I am, what you are, what any of us are. Everyone out there expects us to die off or fuck up enough for them to justify killing us. I’m just trying to survive.”

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