Smoke and Wishes (Best Wishes #1)(39)

My lungs burned from the lack of oxygen, my vision tunneling. His soft fingers were hard, digging into my neck…





12





September 6th

Thursday Evening

Logan





Landon and I collapsed on the loveseat in our dorm. Energy manipulation was rough today, I felt drained and tired. Our yin and yang style powers allowed us to work together in practice, I would create force fields while he worked to destroy them. The only power we both had was to control hellfire. Kicking off my shoes, I texted the rest of the guys to head on over.

Logan: “we’re back, door’s open. Not moving until it’s time to pass out.”

Dante: “I’ll head down, want anything to drink?” Leave it to Dante to think of drinks after an exhausting day.

Camden: “bring something, I could use it.” Has hell frozen over? Cam never has alcohol.

Nik: “you ok?” He must have also realized something was wrong.

Hudson: “we’ll tell you when we get there. It’s not good.” Trepidation worked its way into my chest. My twin felt the same if the frown on his face was any indication.

Landon: “did something happen to lemon drop?” That was my first thought as well. He started to put his shoes back on, probably planning to go find her, when we got another response making him pause to check his phone.

Camden: “she’s okay, but it is about her. Heading over now.” I looked over at Landon, seeing a matching look of worry in his eyes. At least I’m not alone.





Our misfit family filed into the living area, Dante set two large bottles of liquor on the table along with some plastic cups and 12 pack of soda. Cam, in a very un-Cam-like fashion, grabbed the whiskey, unscrewed the top and took several large pulls before handing it off to Hudson who did the same. Between the two of them, they finished over half of the bottle.

Mine, along with the rest of the group’s, eyebrows had reached their hairlines at Cam and Hudson’s odd behavior. I felt my heart jackhammer in my chest with worry. I busied myself with pulling out the rolling chairs from mine and my twin’s rooms. Dante and Nik looked confused, but Cam and Hudson’s faces were what held my attention as they sat down. They wore matching grave expressions, tense and worried.

“What happened with Lucie? I know you said she was okay, but are you sure? Do we need to go get her?” Landon couldn’t hold on any longer, his leg was bouncing while his fingers twisted in front of his lips. He was always the quicker-to-action brother, his emotions more explosive and closer to the surface compared to mine.

“She’s supposed to be taking it easy for the rest of the day, she texted me saying she was just going to just relax in her room the rest of the night. She drained a lot of her mana today in mental shielding while working with Dean Renaud instead of one of the students. Not only was she able to lock down her mind, but she pushed him out completely. No weak spots, nothing could penetrate her shield.” Holy shit. Cam had taken it upon himself to explain, but then looked over to Hudson to continue whatever news they were about to drop on us as he grabbed the bottle again, this time mixing himself a drink.

“Dean Renaud wanted her to build the shield as most students do, you know that brick visualization. According to Lucie, she was struggling so he suggested something else,” he paused as he ran his hand through his hair. “He wanted her to focus on a memory where she felt unsafe, to use that as a motivator to help ‘protect herself’,” he finger quoted, “whatever she used was strong enough to produce an advanced level shield and the rejection of any outside influence.” Hudson shifted forward to grab the bottle from Cam, taking another swig before resting his elbows on his knees, the bottle dangling between them.

“She was drained as I said, so I don’t know if that was a factor in her being so open or not, but she admitted that the memory she used was related to her anxiety,” Cam took over the story. A knot formed in my stomach. Please don’t be what I think it is. “And her scars.” Fucking shit. I felt my stomach roll, and I willed myself not to be sick. “She didn’t confirm or deny if it was an ex-boyfriend, but I’m going to guess that’s who it was.” Cam’s admission hung heavily in the air. My eyes closed, rage burning through my veins. Our Lucie had been hurt, by someone who was supposed to love her. Landon’s jaw cracked with the amount of pressure he was clenching his teeth.

“Are we sure it wasn’t someone else, like a family member?” Nik’s voice rumbled deep with fury from the door frame he was leaned against. Out of all of us, he knew what it was like to be at the end of violence that resulted in permanent damage. Hudson looked up from staring holes into the carpet.

“From what I understand, the only family she has is her mom and her best friend, Charlie, who’s a human,” Dante added into the tense air, I was barely listening at this point. This asshole broke her ribs, he stomped on her, scarred her beautiful face. Landon couldn’t handle it anymore and got up, going to the back of the loveseat to pace. I looked around the group, I was clenching and unclenching my fists as my knee bounced violently. Cam and Hudson were still as stone, Dante ran his hand through his hair as his free hand strangled the arm of his seat, and Nik was rubbing his eyes with his hand. No doubt remembering the night he lost his eyesight. A drink was sounding pretty good about now, I calmly stood and poured myself a glass before sitting back down.