Supernatural Academy: Year One (Supernatural Academy #1)(99)

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I found Asher in the pool, his muscled frame cutting through the water with angry slices. My heart was fluttering like crazy as I stood on the edge and watched him power along—his head remained down, not a single breath taken.

“He’s been swimming for days,” a low voice said from behind me. I turned to find Axl there, his expression shuttered, his eyes wide and shiny as he stared at me. “Whenever he’s not sitting with you, he’s swimming. All of us have been.”

“I’m sorry, Ax,” I said softly, knowing that our separation had been hard on all of us.

He wrapped his arms around me and I sank against my friend. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” Axl said. “The last three weeks have been hell.”

I thought that I’d cried myself out during my isolation, and still my eyes burned. A splash behind us had me spinning around, Axl all but forgotten as a naked Asher stalked toward me.

It was the first time I’d gotten a chance to see all of him, and the sight had my mouth dry and knees weak in the same instance.

“Ash,” I breathed, my heart thundering in my chest.

He hunted me across the wooden deck of the pool and scooped me into his arms. I wrapped my legs around him and oddly enough, it almost felt like more of my energy settled inside. Between Asher and the pendant Louis gave me, I might just figure out how to keep this power at bay.

Our lips crashed together in a kiss that almost stopped my heart. It was desperate and filled with lust and need and … something deeper. We’d been through a lot now, the past year defining me in ways that the previous twenty-two did not. Kissing Asher now, in this second that both of us were safe and free, made it really hard not to cry at how perfect this moment was.

When we finally pulled away, Asher ran his fingers through my hair, gently caressing the long strands, his thumb brushing across my cheek.

“When did you get out?” he asked, the silver back in his eyes. There was a small tic high in his jaw as he worked to keep his shit together.

“Just now,” I told him. “I came straight here.”

To you.

He was the only thing I could think of.

His breaths were ragged as he dropped his head into my neck, breathing me in. I thanked everyone I could think of for magical baths, because I hadn’t actually had a shower for almost a month.

“I lost my fucking mind every single day,” he whispered, his breath hot against my skin. “I bargained and bribed and destroyed, but they would not let me see you.”

“I lost my mind too,” I admitted.

Asher strode across to one of the loungers, sinking down, pulling me on top of him. “Tell me everything that happened from when you were taken,” he said, holding me closer. Neither one of us wanted to let go.

Trying to think around the hard, delicious, naked body pressed to me was not easy, but I managed to tell him about the healing, and how my energy was insanely strong. When I got to Louis’s temporary solution, Asher touched the pendant on my chest, letting the cold stone slide across his fingers.

“I need to know what happened to you as well,” I said softly. “When Shera took you.”

Asher stiffened, but he didn’t hold back. He told me about the weeks of endless searching and how he started to hone his skills under the water. He told me about finally finding the entrance and the connection he felt to Atlantis—or the walls at least—when they first found it.

“It calls to me,” he said.

I nodded. “Yes. It was the same for me. Something inside those walls was calling me, and I’m scared to find out what it is.”

He cupped my face, kissing me softly again. “You won’t be alone. No matter what happens, we’ll face it together.”

I lay against him for a few moments, listening to the thrum of his heartbeat under my ear.

“The chick I saw in my dreams, the one pawing all over you … she’s another Atlantean?”

Shera had said something like that, but it still bothered me to remember her touching him.

Asher’s chest rumbled. “She’s Shera’s daughter. Born from my mother’s body.”

I jerked my head up. “What? And she was trying to get you two to hook up?”

They were basically related, and she had to be pretty young. Funny, she hadn’t looked that young in the dream. There was something predatory about her.

Asher let out a dark laugh. “Shera was desperate; she would have tried anything. When I finally figured out the fire spell, I was glad to be rid of her. Only I left it too late to try the spell. She’d drained so much of my energy that I couldn’t power it.”

“Don’t ever do that again,” I whispered to him, my lips close to his. “I don’t care how high the stakes are, don’t run off to play the hero. I can’t go through that again.”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think things over while I was gone,” he said, eyes silver, “and I’m sorry it took me so long to get my shit together. To figure out that fighting my feelings was stupid and redundant. I won’t waste any more time.”

His mouth landed on mine, soft and gentle, caressing as our tongues danced together. At least it started that way, but the moment his hands gripped my hips, pulling me closer, I lost control.