From the backseat, Jack moaned in good humor, “God, she faints like a girl. She squeals like a girl. What’s next? Does she want praise like a girl?”
Peering at him in my rear-view mirror, I saw his grin. “Yes. I do.” I mock scowled, but whispered seriously, “Do you know how hard it was for me to go in there and even try?”
“Hard enough you forgot to eat,” Ezra grumbled, but a second later he placed his hand on my thigh, chuckling softly. “Sweetheart, you were very brave.” A gentle squeeze, his words soft. “I don’t know anyone else who would have gone in front of four Kings and tried to do an Awakening if they were in your shoes.” Another squeeze. “You did good.”
Pearl’s hand landed on my elbow — below window level — and she whispered breathlessly, “That was so amazing! I was so scared there for a second, but you did it! You walked,” she paused, and amended, “you were pushed right into that gym and had the balls to go for it! That bloody rocks.”
Jack’s hand landed right above hers. “Seriously, Lily, what you did today was kickass.”
I smiled, feeling truly content. The way I always did around them. “Thank you, guys.” I paused, and then my tone was soft. “And, thank you for protecting me when you thought I’d fainted for other reasons.” A quick glance at each of them. “Seriously, you guys are the best.”
Jack chuckled, rubbing my arm before releasing me. “You would have done the exact thing if the roles were reversed.”
I nodded. “Duh. I love your ass.”
He groaned again, but I saw him smiling in the rear-view.
Pearl patted my arm again before sitting back. “We need to celebrate. We’re done with King Hall. No more classes. No more teachers.”
Ezra rubbed his thumb over my leg and pointed with his free hand across me, his arm obscuring my line of sight for a second. “There. Let’s grab some grub and head to the beach for a few hours.”
My stomach growled on command. Sounded like a plan.
Now, if we went to the beach, we did so on private property. We had promised the Kings we would do so, and since none of us wanted to be caught on national television killing Coms again, we actually obeyed the rule. Plus, this was one of the few privileges afford us during our extensive “grounding” and we didn’t want it taken away.
We picked up food and our swimsuits, and went to the assigned older Mage’s beachfront house. I really liked the old man, Richard. He always had tons of junk food in his cabinets when we dropped by. Also, I think he enjoyed our company too, since his mate had died many years ago. He was a recluse, and definitely off, his scent even corked, but that didn’t mean he didn’t chatter up a storm whenever we were there, and his magic felt mighty powerful. Sweet and innocent gramps look-a-like or not, his power was astounding.
After filling our bellies in his kitchen, he herded us out back, babbling merrily, “Shadows aren’t always innocent, vegetarians aren’t always sweet, not everyone enjoys killing, opposites inevitably attract, emotions can be destructive and deadly, never ask a favor from someone you don’t know, the dead stink, kill any bastard with silver skin, children are a true gift, with dark comes light, Commoners can advance, dragons from children’s fairy tales are my favorite creature, time keeps moving, innocence doesn’t mean innocent, the mighty fall head over heels, and remember you’re young.” A shooing gesture. “Go act like it while you can.”
We stared. Yeah, definitely off.
More hand shooing in our direction.
So, we did.
Pearl and I sunbathed lying on beach towels over warm sand.
Ezra swam so far out he looked like a tiny dot in the ocean, and then zoomed back to the beach in ten seconds flat, only to repeat this multiple times, the equivalent of a Vampire doing laps.
And, what does a water Elemental do around the ocean?
Cause trouble, that’s what.
Jack enjoyed making a wave swell up over Pearl and me when we were almost asleep, and then, fall down on us. He also delighted in making Ezra shoot up from the ocean in a spray of water. Moreover, he found it extremely entertaining, immediately following this, constructing a grand throne of water a few feet into the ocean that he sat on high above us so we couldn’t reach him when we tried to pummel him.
All in all, it was a perfect afternoon.
Other than the seaweed I had to pull out of my hair.
Chapter Twenty