“You do that,” she replies, squaring her shoulders with pride. She wipes the blood from her lip and walks away.
“Are you okay?” Dylan asks.
Instead of telling him how I feel, I push up on my toes and kiss him. Heat fires between us but not the desperate kind. Nothing dark.
His fingers skim my cheek and I feel the warmth of his healing touch.
“What just happened?” I ask Dylan, who has pushed me back up the hill to get on the path toward home.
“I think that actually was a test,” he says. “And you passed.”
Chapter Eighteen
Morgan
Back in my room, I feel better than I have in weeks. Maybe since I arrived in New York. The sense of balance that started the night before with the WishMaker and proceeded through the day until my fight with Hildi makes my head clear and my heart at peace. The lustful hunger that normally taints my every move seems to be soothed, even if I haven’t had sex with my Guardians in the last few days.
Something has changed.
There will be no skipping supper tonight, despite the fact our after dinner activities include splitting my soul. Sue made it clear with a message left in my room. I assume the others received a similar one. Dinner will be ready at seven sharp.
I’m changing when my phone rings and I’m pleased to see it’s my friend Shannon from back home.
“Hey,” I say, holding the phone between my shoulder and ear. “I’ve got ten minutes before I have to be at dinner.”
“So you’re still doing that roommate dinner thing every night?”
“Mandatory. Well, other than yesterday.”
“Ooh, what happened to break the rule?”
I sit on my bed. The WishMaker is on the bedside table. Crystal clear at the moment. “The last few days have been really weird.”
“Weird? What’s going on?”
In a moment of honesty I tell her the truth—well sort of. I tell her about Anita and her brother’s death and how I’d been with him right before he fell ill. I tell her about going to a fight club with Clinton and spending time with Sam in the park. I go into detail about Dylan taking me to the special collections room at the library. Without the death and darkness and magic it all sounds pretty normal.
“So seriously,” she says. “It sounds like you’re dealing with five amazing men.”
“Truly amazing.”
“But five? I can’t imagine juggling all that. One guy is enough for me.”
One guy.
One mate.
Shouldn’t that be enough?
“Yeah, but…” I stop.
“But what? You want them all?” She laughs.
“I mean, do I really have to choose?” I say the question to her, but the words resonate in my mind—my heart.
“Okay, Morgan, if that’s the game you want to play. What do they think?”
They want what I want. They want me to be happy. Safe. Powerful. I think about how I’ve felt since the night before when I had a taste of them all. I’ve been more balanced. More controlled.