Page 27 of Too Many Beds

“How about you take that middle finger, Asher,” Xem said in a low, dangerous voice, “and put it to better use?”

Asher hissed in surprise as he was unceremoniously peeled off the wall and manoeuvred by the vines around his limbs down onto all fours. And then Xem used his earth magic to drag his offending left hand behind his back, forcing it under his breeches and down the crack of his arse.

Someone whistled. Asher felt his cheeks flush again, but this time with rage. The fucker better not-

“Alright, that’s enough,” their professor said in a rather half-hearted way. “Get back to your seats.”

Xem cocked his head, holding Asher’s furious gaze.

And for a moment Asher thought he might do it anyway, might actually make him finger himself in front of the whole class, and the expressions on the other students’ faces said they thought so too.

And then Xem shrugged and turned away as if it meant nothing to him either way, vanishing the vines without warning so Asher collapsed to the floor. He heaved in a breath, glaring at the tiles beneath his face.

“What?” Professor Allarie shrieked a moment later, and the alarmed tone forced Asher to lift his head.

She was staring at the cage that was still resting on her desk, yet its metal door was scuffed and twisted as if something had blasted through it. The resulting gap was more than large enough for a rat to escape, and now the cage sat empty.

“Mr. Larsen, I’ll have you in detention every night for the rest of the year!” Her voice had gone shrill, her eyes bulging as she rounded on him with an accusing finger, and Asher’s heart sank. That was as good as expelling him. Without the time to practice, he’d never be able to catch up to the other students and then-

“I’m afraid I had Asher’s feeble magic all tied up, just like the rest of him,” Xem drawled from the other end of the classroom where he had his booted feet insolently propped up on his desk, and there were a few tittering laughs in response.“Regrettably, it couldn’t have been him, professor.”

Allarie threw Asher a disgusted look but didn’t accuse him further.

No, the rats’ rescue hadn’t been Asher’s doing.

Because as he took his seat at the front of the classroom and stared at the mangled cage door a couple of feet away, the scent of cinnamon wafted from the bent metal in Xem’s unique magical signature.

Asher was seated on the floor in a dim corner of the Academy library, trying and failing to cast the vine magic that Xem had used on him earlier that day. After he’d found the relevant textbook, he’d retreated further into the stacks to hide from the other students. He didn’t want them to see how he’d triedit fifty...sixty times now, each attempt resulting in miserable failure.

He frowned down at the open book in his lap and tried again. Little fingers bent and held tightly to the palm by the thumbs. The three middle fingers turned to face first the caster, and then the victim—in this case, an innocent oil lamp that had, so far, avoided all of Asher’s efforts to wrap it in restraining vines. And then a finalpushwas meant to finalise the casting and make the earth magic materialise.

It did not.

“Here.”

Asher startled as cool hands folded around his from behind, the cinnamony aura of Xem settling itself over him like a warm blanket and his chest brushing against Asher’s back. Xem’s pale, angular face appeared in his peripheral vision, and Asher imagined for a stupid moment that the other mage might rest his chin on his shoulder.

“Did it occur to you that you’re doing it wrong?” Xem asked bluntly, and Asher rolled his eyes. He probably had a pointy, uncomfortable chin anyway. Who needed that digging into them?

“No shit. How do I do it right?”

He expected to be told to fuck off again.

“Like this,” the mage murmured, and used his hands to guide Asher’s.

Asher forgot how to breathe, so acutely aware of everywhere they touched and the way Xem’s chest rose and fell against his back.

Xem manoeuvred him into the first movement, and then the second, then the third-

Vines sprang into existence and wrapped around the lamp, throttling it so tightly that its flame was instantly extinguished.

“But...!” Asher said in wonder, pleased to knowhe’ddone that. Albeit with help from a prickly rival-almost-enemy. He glanced down at the textbook again. “It says to push, like you’re shoving something heavy off a table. But you just-”

“Slid,” Xem corrected. “Think of it as moving that heavy something across the table without letting it fall. The difference is in the wrist movement.”

He backed up, releasing Asher’s hands in a bittersweet sensation of loss and freedom. Banishing the pitiful urge to beg to be touched again, Asher ran back through the somatic movements and cast a further set of vines to twist around the lamp.

“Good,” praised Xem, sounding...well, almostsincere. “I’ll leave you to your studies.”

---