Page 15 of The Last Aether

The man looked somehow older, as if the lines in his face had deepened over the past three days. “You’re all right. They got you a healer?”

The moment the guys filed in behind me, Quincy’s eyes widened, and his jaw went slack. “Y-you’re bonded.”

9

Phoenix moved so fast he was a blur in my vision. One second, he was standing next to me, the next he had Quincy pinned to the wall. “Watch your tongue, old man. You don’t know what you say.”

“Ph-Phoenix,” Quincy stuttered. “I meant no offense.”

I rushed to them, grabbing Phoenix’s T-shirt and pulling hard. “Let him go.”

Kai and Atlas were at my side in an instant, but neither seemed to be too worried about Quincy. And Phoenix didn’t show any signs of wanting to relinquish him.

“Please.”

It was my soft tone that did it. Phoenix loosened his hold on the old man, letting him back on the floor.

Quincy rubbed at his neck. “That was a bit of overkill, don’t you think?”

Riven’s eyes narrowed on him from across the room. “Is it?”

Quincy’s gaze swept around the room before settling on me. “Okay, maybe not.”

“How did you know?” Atlas asked.

“It’s the testing affinity. I see elemental power, can feel it more than any normal elemental.”

“But no one else will be able to sense it, right?” Kai pressed.

Quincy shook his head. “Only those of us with this gift. There are only five others, and none of them live anywhere near here.”

Wisps of smoke swirled around Phoenix. “I’ll need their names.”

Quincy’s eyes widened. “Not if you’re planning on killing them.”

“He’s not,” I assured Quincy, then glanced in Phoenix’s direction. “Right?”

“No,” he said through gritted teeth. But everything in Phoenix’s demeanor told me he wished he could. “We need to make sure to keep our distance from them.”

“And we need to know why we should trust you with this.” Riven’s tone was so cool and even, you never would’ve thought he was asking Quincy to prove why he shouldn’t kill him.

“Stop it, all of you. Quincy has done nothing but help me from the moment I met him.”

Quincy reached out and patted my shoulder. “It’s all right. It’s the bond. It will make your men overly protective in this first season.”

“What do you mean by overly?” They already took my safety to extremes. Sleeping outside my dorm room. Threatening murder sprees. How could you take that further?

Quincy’s lips twitched. “They won’t like other males around you. Anyone that’s hurt or insulted you should stay away. And they themselves won’t be able to keep their distance from you for long.”

I rubbed at the spot along my sternum where the bullet had struck, the place that had flamed with a burning pain when Riven had walked away. I couldn’t help that my gaze pulled to him. He pushed off the wall, moving towards us.

“We aren’t horny teenagers, Quince. We’ll deal. What we need to know is how to keep this under wraps.”

Quincy frowned at him but nodded. “There will be many who come for her. Who will come for all of you.”

I swallowed, trying to clear the tightening in my throat. It didn’t do any good.

Even Kai didn’t have a quippy response to that. “What has the word been around campus?”