Page 247 of Caelum

Or turned on.

Fuck, who knew a mate telling you what to do could be a turn-on?

I seriously wanted to fight her then, to ‘make’ me calm down, but I didn’t. Not in front of Bartlett and Avalina. If they decided to leave the room for some reason, I’d be on her faster than Vegemite oozed into hot toast.

Maybe she saw the effect her words had on me because she blushed, turned back to Avalina, and murmured, “As far as I can tell, there’s no way of controlling the glow. It just comes in fits and starts.”

“That’s a shame. How did the markings come to pass?” Bartlett replied, sitting forward, the scientist in him evidently curious.

“We crossed the portal prior to her graduation,” Dre muttered, speaking out for the first time—dude seemed to have left his voice back on Caelum. Considering he was usually an ass, that wasn’t much of a hardship, though.

Avalina turned her focus to him. “You crossed the portal? All of you?”

“It’s a long story,” I drawled.

“I have all the time in the world. Literally,” Avalina retorted, releasing her hold on Eve’s hand so she could fold her arms across her chest and glower at me.

I cut Frazer a look. He huffed and explained, “About a month ago, we were involved in a mission in Nigeria. The McAllister Nest had set their sights on a small town on the delta. The town had oil reserves and a company was coming to discuss terms with them.”

“That was when the Ghouls decided to take over, hmm?” Bartlett inserted.

“Yeah, seems you’d be the ones to know what they’re like.” Frazer ran a hand through his shaggy hair. “Anyway, we went in, got the job done. Handled the situations, but they were mostly pecus-level Ghouls. Nobody high-ranking, just the sheep.” He tugged at his ear. “McAllister obviously worked with someone at Caelum to get the drop on us. Before we left, we were drugged. The only way was to get to our water or our food, so it had to be someone on the inside.” When the professors sucked in a sharp breath, Frazer quickly stated, “No one was hurt. At least, not that we know of. The drugs didn’t affect Eren as much.” He pointed to Eren. “He managed to save us.”

“How?” Bartlett questioned, his brow furrowed.

“The seven of us wished for the same thing at the same time.”

Avalina and Bartlett froze then shot each other a look. But it was the wife who spoke, “What did you wish?”

“For Caelum to be safe.”

“That was a very clever wish,” Bartlett replied, his tone rough as he sank back into his chair like he’d run a marathon in five minutes. “That’s the thing with wishes: they’re temperamental. They’re not supposed to be depended upon, and that’s in their nature. That means you have to word them carefully, be specific and yet broad.” He shook his head. “Under that level of pressure, with the odds against you, you picked a very good wish.”

Eren didn’t preen as many in his situation might. The guy was a hero, after all. Instead, he mumbled, “It wasn’t like I could sit around and twiddle my thumbs. We had a nest of Ghouls approaching us in helicopters. We had to act.”

Dre cleared his throat. “When the wish worked, and the threat was nullified, we hauled Eve out of the Academy. The gates were wide open. Might as well have hung up a ‘welcome’ sign for the McAllister bastards. We crossed it because it’s easier, and when we did, I was carrying Eve, and it was like she was given an electric shock.”

I wasn’t the only one who noticed Eve cut Dre a quick look, one that was loaded with sadness. In contrast to his carrying her out of the Academy, Dre now seemed to be doing his level best to avoid Eve, and though I didn’t understand his reasoning, we all did what we thought was best.

Even if it was fucking stupid sometimes.

“That was how she got the markings. They appeared a little while later when we were safe.” He shuddered, and I empathized. Seeing the markings grow, literally spread over Eve’s form, had been one of the most terrifying moments of my life. Bar none.

“The branches and leaves began to furl around her arm,” Stefan continued. “Then, it seemed to center in her chest. It formed a tree that glowed then sank into her skin.”

Avalina gasped. “??? ???????? ???? ?????.”

We blinked at her, understanding the Hebrew even if we didn’t understand why she’d switched languages.

As he’d been raised Jewish, it probably figured that Samuel was the one to blurt out, “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? How is that…” He shook his head. “That can’t be possible. Eve is a person, not a tree!”

What the hell was going on with my life when something like that had to be clarified?

I mean, seriously. Could no one cutus some slack?

Running a hand through my hair, I muttered, “Is this getting weird for anyone else?”

When Dre shot me a glance that was sympathetic, I knew shit really had started to derail. Dre? Sympathetic? Not bloody likely.

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