Tales & Time (Lost Time Academy #1)(12)

“You haven’t?” she asks, and I sigh. So it seems I’m at a major disadvantage here.

“Erm no,” I reply. Why wouldn’t my parents teach me how to fight if everyone else was taught?

“Well, fighting class is all day Friday, and they take it super seriously. It’s like sixty percent of your year grade. You have to win or at least be able to keep yourself awake for most the day,” she warns me, and I just mentally groan because there is nothing I can say out loud to that. Nearing the bottom of the stairs, we both pause in the middle of the steps when we hear a loud bang coming from just outside the doors. Seconds later, the doors are blasted open, and a man goes flying through them, sliding across the floor. I cover my face with my hands as dust from the broken door flies at us, and then when the dust clears, I see three men walking through the doorway.

Each one of them is stood next to each other, their faces so familiar that it hurts when their shocked gazes meet mine. They are the very last people I expected to see here. When I pull my gaze away to the man on top of the door on the floor, his familiar brown eyes meet mine.

“Madilynn, is that you?”





Chapter 6





Noah, Knox, Tobias and Oisin.

“Shit,” the guys say in unison as I cautiously step down the stairs until I’m stood right over Noah. He looks up at me, and his eyes widen in clear shock as he wipes blood off his cut lip. I haven’t seen him in so long, and I can’t stop myself from just gaping at him.

“Madi?” he asks me again. I try to shake off my shock, watching as he stands up off the door and wipes the dust off his torn shirt. The boy I remember is long gone, and in his place is a guy with giant muscles, handsome strong features and soft brown hair that is shaved short yet looks incredibly sexy. If it weren’t for those light brown eyes I never forgot, I would hardly recognise the boy I grew up with.

“Noah?” I ask, not even trying to mask my shocked tone at seeing him. I turn and look at the others who watch me from the doorway. Again, none of them look like the boys I remember…except for their eyes and the way they look at me like I belong to them. I always did…until they left me. I can’t get over how different they all look, nothing like the boys I remember. Tobias, Knox and Oisin stand still in surprise, their eyes locked onto me with expressions I can’t read past the shock. All three of them scream power and strength now, the geeky boys I remember seeming lost. It’s the look they give me, and I know everything has changed but that one look.

“She changes nothing,” Tobias snaps, his angry gaze meeting mine briefly before he turns and walks out the doorway where the door was once being held. Tobias was always the quiet one of the bunch. What the hell happened to him?

“You guys are still fighting, I see. Is it still over who gets to play on the computer first?” I sarcastically ask, and Noah laughs as I try to smile back at him, but it’s a tense and tight smile at best. I can’t help how betrayed I feel. They left me by choice all those years ago…and I was heartbroken back then. They all must be fairy descendants to be here, and not one of them seems to know what to say as I look them all over. Oisin just runs his hands through his wavy blond hair as he stares at me, his light silver eyes just as playful as I remember. I turn my gaze to Knox who has his massive muscular arms crossed, his dark silver eyes narrowed on me and still as serious as always. I used to play a game where the goal would be to make Knox smile or laugh, and I have a feeling those games won’t work on the guy staring at me like I’m the cause of all his problems now.

“Oh my god, you know the Tale brothers?” Tavvy harshly whispers, shaking me out of my staring, and I look back at her and nod.

“We grew up together, but I haven’t seen any of them in three years because they left,” I say, my words making some of them flinch a little.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Noah says, stepping closer to me and then pulling me into a tight hug. When I wrap my arms around him in return, I can feel the difference in his body since I last hugged him. He feels like all muscle. He smells the same though, like honey. I always loved how Noah smelt, and I used to steal his shirts to sleep in. I still have one in my bag upstairs…and the thought makes my cheeks light up a little.

“Why am I not surprised the Tale brothers are the cause of the mess here? All of you, in my office now!” Miss Noa’s sharp voice comes from behind me. Noah lets me go, running his hands down my arms as I hear Oisin reply to Miss Noa.

“The door fell off on its own. What did you want us to do about it? This place is falling apart,” he says, the lie smooth from his lips, and if I didn’t know the truth, I would almost believe him. I frown at his lie, and he seems to sense me looking his way as he turns his head to grin at me.

“So if I touch this door and use my gift to see the past, I’m just going to see a door falling?” Miss Noa asks as she crosses her arms, and Oisin laughs.

“Fine, fine. We broke the door, but give me a minute before you tell us off,” he says as he holds up his hands in surrender, before coming over to me as Miss Noa protests. But I don’t hear her words as I stare at Oisin. He was always very attractive; he just had this thing about him that any girl would have trouble ignoring. Oisin has pure gold blond hair and matching tanned skin, but now everything is so much…well, more than I remember him being. He looks like he stepped out of an advert off the television. Everything about him is alluring.