Page 78 of Promised in Blood

“Congratulations for what?” I look to Alexandros for some clue. He remains seated at the table but watches us all with an unexpectedly tender smile on his face.

It’s Malachi who answers. “You controlled your powers. The curse is lifted.” His joy makes me laugh.

“You already know?”

Xavier laughs. “Fuck yeah, we know.”

Axl gives me a hard squeeze before releasing me. “We knew as soon as it happened, princess.”

I look to the professor and do my best to appear indignant, but I can’t keep the smile from my face for longer than a second. “You told me they didn’t know. You said I should wait to tell them,” I say accusingly.

He shrugs. “The boys wanted to do something special to mark the occasion, and I…” He draws a breath through his nose and pushes himself to his feet. “It has been too long since we had something to celebrate.” He holds out his arms, and I walk into them, allowing him to wrap me in the comfort of him. “And what you achieved last night is worth celebrating, little one.”

I rest my head against his chest, my eyes landing on the cake and the unicorn balloon tied to the back of my chair. This is so out of his comfort zone. A laugh bubbles from my lips. “You secretly hate this, don’t you?” I whisper.

He rests his chin on the top of my head. “More than you can ever know,” he says with an exaggerated sigh that has his breath ruffling my hair. “I expect you to make this up to me tenfold.”

“Time for cake!” Malachi shouts, and I untangle myself from Alexandros’s embrace.

“And then orgasms,” Axl declares.

Xavier fist-pumps the air. “A metric fuck ton of orgasms.”

I mouth a thank you to Alexandros and then take the seat Malachi pulls out for me. “Is this what you guys have been doing all day?”

Malachi nods eagerly. “Yep. We thought of doing something last night, but I had no idea of the full plan until Xavier came to get me after your geology class.”

Xavier laughs. “Yeah. Axl and I came up with it after you left for class, and we knew we couldn’t tell him about it because he would have spilled.”

Malachi punches him on the arm. “Fuck you!”

“It’s true.” Xavier throws his hands in the air. The boys start to squabble, and I bask in the normalcy of the moment. After a few minutes, Alexandros tells them to behave, and they fall silent.

“You each have your own unique talents, but it is only Xavier who is currently powerful enough to block Ophelia from his mind.” The overwhelming feeling of pride in Xavier ripples through all of us. Then Alexandros turns his attention to me. “That is why he had to accompany you to your classes today.”

My eyes dart between all four of them, and I’m overcome with so much positive emotion that I feel like I could quite literally burst into a cloud of glitter. I can’t believe they did all this. Tears fill my eyes, but they are tears of pure joy. “I’ve never had a party before. Thank you all so much.”

“Anything for you, sweet girl.” Malachi brushes a tear from my cheek.

Axl places a slab of cake in front of me. After taking the seat next to mine, he rests his hand on the back of my neck. “Eat your cake so we can get to the good stuff.”

Xavier groans his agreement.

“How many orgasms do you owe our Ophelia, boys?” Alexandros asks, a wicked glint in his eye that I’ve never seen before. Seeing this side of him is a rare gift, and I feel so incredibly lucky to witness it.

Malachi has a huge bite of cake in his mouth that he tries to speak around, but all that comes out are sprinkles and unintelligible mumbles.

“At least twenty-one,” Axl answers.

“Twenty-one?” My legs are shaking at the mere thought of it.

He shrugs, a smirk spreading across his face. “It’s been three weeks. That’s only one a day, princess.”

“Not even one from each of us,” Xavier chimes in.

Warmth ignites in my core, and suddenly the giant piece of cake in front of me looks much less appealing. All I can think about are their expert hands and their sinful mouths and their naked bodies.

Malachi licks his lips. “Twenty-one multiplied by three is sixty-three.”

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