Page 60 of Laid Bare

“Magic,” Zane snickers, wiggling his fingers again like he did earlier.

“Fae-dammit, there’s two of you now,” Thaddeus mutters under his breath, but we all clearly hear him. His blue cheeks tinge darker as all three of us laugh, clearly enjoying his misery.

Maybe having the two demons around won’t be too bad if they can keep me entertained like this.

“Sunshine, I’m guessing healing still knocks you out?”

The demons shoot me matching looks, their brows raised at the second time this has been mentioned. I don’t know why they seem so surprised. I’ve already proven to be different from other supernaturals, so why can’t my healing put me in a mini coma?

“Yep, you know me. Defective in all the ways of healing.” I shrug with awhat can ya dolook on my face. “I’ll heal myself before bed and cross my fingers that I’ll wake up in time for class.”

“No need.” Thaddeus waves my words away. “I spoke to Jasper before coming here, and he said you’re out of classes for the next few days. The staff will be doing damage control, and they feel it’ll be better if…” he trails off with a grimace.

“If I don’t show my face.” I nod. “Got it.”

“No, sunshine. Nothing like that.” He crosses the space quickly and kneels in front of me, ignoring Aero completely. “It’s just that there’s a lot of talk going around the halls right now. And it’s not good. They are trying to not only protect you but give the illusion that you’re being punished for what everyone perceives is your part in it.”

“But I didn’t do anything wrong.” I feel like I can’t seem to stress that enough.

“I know. Gods, I know, Bailey. But it’s the only way to appease the masses and root out who’s going to cause you problems in the future. Please believe that we’re doing everything we can, so this doesn’t happen again in the future.” For a moment, I get lost in his light blue eyes, wanting so badly to believe everything he says. But I can’t forget that Jasper runs this academy, and all of this screams at being his idea.

“Alright.” I turn my head away with a small shake, rebuffing the idea completely. Not that he needs to know that.

“Hey.” Thaddeus reaches out and grips my chin, returning my attention to him. “You won’t miss much in your classes, and you have the wards up here, which I’ll extend once I take the wall down. Think of it this way, you’ll be able to practice your runes, and you’ll have live-in test dummies.”

“Yo!” both demons shout, their voices ripe with indignation.

He ignores them, keeping his attention solely focused on me. “It isn’t ideal. None of this is, and I know that. It’s extremely unfair to you, the innocent party in all of this. But I’ll do everything I physically can to fix this for you. And I’m not the only one. You have people in your corner, sunshine.”

“Okay.” I flash him a small smile, my heart a little lighter at his words.

“Okay,” he murmurs, flashing me his beaming Thaddy smile that I’ve missed more than I care to admit. “Now, let’s take this wall down.” He gets up and moves toward the wall, the demons joining him.

Thaddeus places his hand on the wall he plans to remove, ice spreading quickly from his spread fingers. Bane and Zane are positioned on either side of him, their own special brand of demon juju joining his.

The wall seems to crumple in on itself, revealing the dorm directly next door. It’s almost a carbon copy of mine from what I can see, except in reverse and an extra door to what I’m guessing is another bedroom.

Their walls are the same gray as mine, blending seamlessly into each other like they were never separated in the first place. The bank of floor-to-ceiling windows extends to the opposite wall, with only a small gap where the wall used to stand.

From there, they move toward the kitchen in the second dorm, making it disappear in the same fashion as the wall. One by one, they take things away, sending them somewhere, while carefully rearranging things to look like one massive living room.

Hmm, I actually quite like the look of the larger dorm.It’s not like any of the students are in accommodations like mine. They all share a room with one other person, and while I’m now sharing it with two, we each have our own separate spaces for when things get to be a little too much…

My eyes never stray from the three men making their rounds, touching objects here and there. By the time Thaddeus nods his head, you can’t even tell that the one single dorm started as two.

“Okay, sunshine. This is the best we can do for now. I also set the wards while we were at it, so the entire place is reinforced to handle your magic should it go awry. But you’ve been exuding amazing control over each rune, so I’m not worried…” his words trail off with an awkward chuckle, no doubt reliving the little lightning incident neither one of us has brought up again.

“There’s a story there,” Zane accuses, pointing his finger back and forth between the two of us. And he’s right, but Thaddeus and I ignore him since it has to do with a rune only the two of us currently know about.

“I already set up a food delivery for tomorrow morning, including most of the things I’ve observed you eating over the time you’ve been here. Luka and Axel also put their two cents in with some of your favorites, so I made sure to include them in the order. Included will be a few easy appliances to use, namely an air fryer, so you can cook for yourself and not worry about any issues with food coming from the dining hall.” Thaddeus finishes his small tirade of words, ending in a huff of breath.

It’s his way of changing the subject so the demons don’t persist in knowing the story, and I couldn’t be more grateful for his quick thinking.

“I’ll go ahead and get out of here now so you can heal yourself and get some rest. You need it after today. Icicles, I have no clue how you haven’t dropped already from the strain of your injuries. So, if you need anything, you still have my number. Just shoot me a text and I’ll do whatever is within my abilities to handle it for you.”

Thaddeus makes a beeline for the door but pauses, his hand hovering over the knob. He comes to some type of a decision and spins around, coming back to the couch where I’ve been the entire time they were magicking the fuck out of my door.

His cheeks once again darken as he leans down, offering me an awkward hug, but I accept it greedily. It’s been weeks since the winter fae has hugged me, and there’s no denying how much I’ve missed him while he’s been dealing with the fallout of the gala. And Miss Izzicle.

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