Page 8 of Group Studies

That last bit was true, at least.

Abe nodded sharply. “You’ll have your three evenings. I’ll text you with the dates.” Her long nose pointed away from me, and she sniffed. “Ram, why’s your potion giving off a green glow? You really are useless without your harem to do all your work for you.”

As she stormed away from me, a few people in the class laughed. I glanced behind me at Ram, glaring around the room, before pressing my hand to my racing heart.

I’d done it! Step one of operation DUMP complete. Okay, maybe I needed a different name for it. What was important: I could now make my three potions—one to bring out my inner beast, one for me to drink, and one to connect me to the inanimate object I chose. I would figure out how to charge them once I had them.

“What are you up to?” Saffron’s baritone made me shiver as his breath danced across my earlobe.

A zing of our combined magic rushed down my neck and swirled around the hickey he gave me last night, hidden under my collar. As I swiveled on my stool, he reluctantly stepped back to make barely enough room for my knees. His hungry gaze devoured me right there in the middle of class. My magic still sparked in his hair, enhancing his physical appearance as it called to me.

And God damn, a piece of me wanted him to push everything off my workstation and fuck me senseless.

“Aphrodite,” Abe barked.

I turned so fast I had to press my palms against the thick wood for support.

The alchemist narrowed her gaze and looked behind me. “Saffron, you have your own potion to attend.”

Saffron backed up with his hands raised innocently.

I couldn’t stop myself from glancing over at Yasmine, one of the Dealership who lived to make my life miserable. She didn’t look up from where she was madly typing on her phone. I let out a breath, wondering how Mercedes would try to punish me this time.

Saffron wouldn’t have approached me if my magic wasn’t messing with him. Operation DUMP had to work. He didn’t even like me.

I let out a dark chuckle. Screwing Saffron in Professor Garnet’s office was not ‘fitting in.’ I wonder if the good professor saw the irony there.

Ram’s gaze burned into my back when Abe finished critiquing him. I ignored it. There was nothing else I could do.

Time ticked by at a snail's pace. When class finally came to a close, Saffron stepped between me and Ram’s view of me. My magic sang, and despite knowing I’d pay for it later, I gave Saffron a grateful smile. “Maybe he’ll forget about me.”

Saffron snorted. “Maybe pigs fly.”

“Some of them do, don’t they?” I asked, remembering one of the lectures on the magical fallout. “Magic infected animals too, right?”

Saffron gave me a half-smile. “Well, some do. It’s part of my area of study, but this time it’s an expression.”

I peered at the Greek God’s too serious expression. He was a powerhouse and the heir to Gibson Supplies. Animal handling sounded too tame. In the professor’s office, Saffron had slabs of metal and stone he constantly tinkered with and carved runes into. There was no way the complicated patterns had anything to do with animal handling. Was he messing with me?

I picked up a cleaning rag and began wiping down my work surface. Saffron’s sour expression didn’t change as he took the cloth from my hand and dried my last beaker. I snatched it back, pointedly looking at Yasmine, though just as annoyed with the unreadable mage in front of me.

Saffron’s scowl deepend, but he let me dry the rest of my beakers alone.

Leaving the alchemy lab, I stayed as close as Saffron would let me. Although we still didn’t touch, at some point over the last few weeks I’d graduated from trailing behind him to walking at his side.

Mercedes gave me an especially nasty look when she came up opposite me. Tall, confident, and athletic, with long silky red hair, I could never decide if I wanted to kill Mercedes or be her.

“Aww, Apheeee,” Mercedes said, butchering the nickname Saffron called me. “Is Ram super scawy today?”

I knew she attempted to get a rise out of me, but I found myself nodding. Abe’s teasing of Ram pretty much put a target on my back. I was the reason the MA killed his harem.

Saffron wrapped his arm around Mercedes' waist. “Give her a break, Mercy. How did your quiz go in Cosmetology?”

I tripped on the flat floor. In the month I’d been here, I never heard Saffron stick up for me. Not once. And based on Mercedes's glare, neither had she.

“Give her a break? Frick, Saff, no one gets a break in here,” Mercedes said, her rimless eyes flashing angrily. “We’re almost out, don’t throw it away on a Skeleton, sweetie.”

She ruffled Saffron’s hair, and a bit of my magic zapped her. Yelping, she pulled back and narrowed her eyes.

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