Wicked Heirs (Electi Academy #1)

24. ~Xavier~

24

~Xavier~

“You’re being impossible!” Alena cried, giggling as Talon snagged her around the waist before she could head into Orpheus’ ensuite bathroom to take the shower she wanted so she could get going and go to class.

He dropped her on the bed, and then Orpheus was there, pouncing on her and caging her in. She looked so alluringly edible in her little purple and gold negligee. The purple had just made it all the more enticing for Ore.

I was there in a blink, pushing out of the covers where I’d been relaxing and watching Tal and Ore tickling her and messing with her, teasing her.

I was behind her at her head then, and I leaned down and brushed my lips over hers and took her in a brief upside down kiss, before easing back and stroking her hair in that way I loved to do. It was my love language with her.

Ore’s was getting up intimidatingly close in an all-consuming way and challenging her, his eyes burning into her angel eyes that sparked with the hint of the devil.

And Talon’s was his playfulness with her.

We’d all slept in Ore’s room again, because she loved his four-poster bed and what she called luxurious sheets. And she’d also developed an affinity for his balcony garden. During breaks between ravaging her, she spent time out there talking to the flowers and listening to him telling her about the specific spells he’d used to grow them, along with the special care each one required to thrive. He’d been over the moon that she felt that way and had taken an interest in something he loved.

It didn’t matter to me where it was, I just enjoyed having her with us and for whatever reason, not just getting physical.

In fact, we hadn’t made love last night.

After exploring her primal kink a few nights ago, we’d been going easy on her to give her time to absorb it and recover mentally. Physically, it was mere moments for a Nephilim.

We’d spent the night here doing something mundane—watching some of Talon’s action movies that he’d brought over.

The thing was, it hadn’t seemed mundane with her present.

Nothing ever was when she was a part of it.

“Not so fast, little angel,” Ore growled, breathing her in like I was, letting her sweet cotton candy scent infuse me.

Tal bounced onto the bed right beside us. “We have something to show you before you run off to classes.”

“I wasn’t going to run off. I wanted to hurry so we could all hit the cafeteria and have breakfast together before the day got started and we had to be apart for too much of it.”

“Aww, missing us already, Alena?” Orpheus asked.

“Yes,” she admitted openly.

The three of us exchanged an elated look. Perfect.

She was ours through and through.

He kissed her forehead, then pushed off her and settled beside her, between me and Tal. “Do the honors, brother,” he told me.

Alena sat up and looked on eagerly as I called my magic and with a brief burst of my vibrant-blue fire, a necklace hung from my open palm.

She choked as she took in the crystal necklace with multicolored magically-generated gems made by Ore and me combining our magic and Talon assisting with fashioning the crystal aspect.

“Wow,” she breathed. “This is incredible.”

“Made by all three of us,” Tal told her.

“It’s infused with mine and Ore’s magic and Talon’s phoenix fire helped to forge the crystal.”

I handed it to her and she took it reverently. “This is the most amazing thing anyone has ever given me. Thank you. You guys are… you’re another level.”

We all chuckled at her reaction.

“Actually, it’s the only thing I’ve ever gotten from a guy.” She winked. “Or, guys.”

“Seriously?” Tal asked as he eased it from her, then draped it around her neck and clasped it for her.

“Thanks,” she said, kissing his cheek.

“You’re welcome, my firecracker.”

“You’ve never been given a present from a man before?” I queried.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Orpheus spoke.

Off mine and Talon’s fierce looks, he held up his hand, then told Alena, “I meant because until recently, you just took things, accepted them as they were. And you hid your true self, your ferocity, your passion. You didn’t express your wants and needs. To some extent, not even to yourself. Now you are, you’re demanding respect, you’re fierce in what you want and what you don’t.” He smiled. “You’re the formidable and impressive woman you were always destined to be.”

“That was… beautiful,” I uttered, extremely impressed that he’d put that out there so earnestly and… vulnerably.

“Orpheus, I—” Alena started, beaming out at him.

But she was pulled up short by his glowing purple and silver IC Watch suddenly sparking and buzzing, the sign that an interdimensional communication was coming in.

He swept his palm over it, activating his response with his magic.

And then a hologram of Saryan Hart pacing up and down his throne room came into being.

“Orpheus, it’s imperative that you return to the Kingdom. We must have words.”

It dissipated in the next moment.

“He bypassed the conversational option and went straight to leaving a message,” Orpheus murmured to himself, worry all over him.

“Means he didn’t want to give you the chance to say no,” Tal said.

“Precisely,” Orpheus agreed. “And that makes it all the more worrying.”

“Call him back then,” Alena suggested in that rational way of hers.

“He can’t,” I told her.

“It’s a two-way communicator, yes?” she questioned.

“It is, but he just got a summons from Saryan Hart. He can’t decline. He has to go.”

“When?”

Orpheus reached out and stroked her cheek. “Now, little angel.”

“What? No. What about classes, what about—”

“Us?” he asked, giving her that intense stare of his.

“Yes,” she admitted.

He cupped her cheeks and vowed, “I’ll be back as soon as I can, believe me. There’s nothing I want more than to come right home to you, Alena.”

He brushed his lips over hers, then reluctantly pulled back and climbed off the bed, heading for his closet to pack a bag.

He could’ve just used his magic to do so, but it was clear he wanted to draw it out at least a little—all Saryan would allow—before he had to take his leave of us.

“What do you think he wants to see you about?” Tal asked, voicing what we were all wondering.

Orpheus avoided eye contact. “Who knows? It could be any number of things.”

In that moment, I knew.

He thought it was about Alena.

Perhaps Saryan had gotten word that his son was seeing the daughter of his enemy.

We’d been all over campus together lately, all lovey-dovey, intimate, and close.

Hell, it could be someone like the bitter bitch, Isabella, who’d ratted him out in a bid to upset things between us.

He caught my eye briefly as he turned to grab some clothes from his dresser, and he discreetly shook his head at me, realizing I’d deduced what he was avoiding saying.

He didn’t want Alena to know.

Talon either.

Our firebird became extremely anxious at any upheaval, especially when it presented a threat to his intimate relationships. It was his intense abandonment issues as a result of the premature death of his parents and the brutally traumatic way in which they’d been ripped from him without so much as a warning.

I gave a nod.

I wouldn’t say anything.

It wouldn’t help matters anyway, instead doing the direct opposite.

Besides, it would be okay.

Orpheus Hart could talk his way out of anything—and into anything.

He could do the same with his father.

There was nothing to worry about.

Absolutely nothing.

Everything would be just fine.