Fire & Flood (Mythverse #1)

Book 3 Chapter 18

18

I rush to Val and slip under his arm, helping him walk on his ruined ankle. I know he’s hurting, but right now my heart is breaking too. Val was a ringleader. He is definitely getting expelled.

“You’re going to have to leave MOA.”

“Don’t worry, Edie. It’ll be fine,” he assures me. Grabbing onto my arm, he steers me toward the infirmary.

We pass Tina who looks more cheerful than I’ve ever seen her before. So cheerful that she’s whistling, despite the jagged s***h on her arm and puncture in her cheek.

“I’m so sorry,” I tell her...and Val too.

“I’m not,” Tina says. “This place has sucked since we were outed. I’m fine with getting kicked out.”

“Yeah,” Val says. “There’s always UWA.”

I take a deep shuddering breath, fighting tears. Val doesn’t even seem to care that we’ll be at different schools with no way to communicate. That we might in fact never see each other again.

“We’re going to the infirmary,” I tell Tina. “You should probably come with.”

“Nope,” she says, veering off in the other direction. “I want to gloat over their dead and make sure our own are treated with the respect they deserve.”

I have no idea how to respond to this, and luckily I don’t have to as Val tugs me away. As we walk along one of the beautifully landscaped paths, I can’t help but think how every part of being on campus will be less enjoyable without Val. I never left my room without hoping I might run into him. And those times when I did and we had a few moments alone together…

Even when he was engaged to Larissa, I couldn’t fight the spark between us.

But on Val’s side it seems to have gone out.

I’m so lost in my own feelings, that I don’t even notice we’re not anywhere near the infirmary until Val comes to a stop. Blinking, I look around.

“Why are we at the lagoon?”

Without answering Val pulls his shirt over his head and drops it onto the sand at our feet.

I swallow audibly and he looks at me with a smile and then reaches for the waistband of his pants. Without any warning, I find out that Val is definitely a boxer briefs guy. And they look good on him.

Turning, he hops toward the water on his good foot. He should look ridiculous, but I’m not anywhere near laughing. We’re in the middle of a beautiful lush lagoon and yet my mouth is dry like we just trekked into the desert.

At the edge of the water, Val uses his injured leg to squat low and then leaps, flipping in the air before diving beneath the water.

I laugh as he comes up for air. “Show off.”

Wading in the deep end, he gestures. “Come on in, the water’s warm.”

“No thanks.” I hug my arms around myself. “I’m a little chilled from that unexpected rainstorm we had earlier.”

With long strokes Val swims toward me. “Come closer.”

“Are you going to pull me in?”

“Nope. I’m going to convince you to get in of your own free will.”

I walk nearer to the water’s edge. It feels like something bigger is at play right now between us, but I can’t quite figure out what it is. “All right. Convince me.”

Flipping onto his back, Val puts his hands behind his head and floats. “There’s an old story,” he begins. “About a bet between the wind and the sun. They saw a man walking along a beach much like this one, wearing a long coat. The sun boasted that she could get him to remove it first. The wind, not to be outdone, said he could do it much quicker than the sun. The sun, confident of her abilities, allowed the wind to get first.

“So, the wind, as expected, blew against the man. Tugging and pulling at his coat. The man, of course, pulled his coat tighter against his body. The wind blew again, even harder. The coat flapped against the man’s legs, but he did up every button and huddled deeper inside it. Finally, the wind blew as hard as it could. The man was pushed backwards and then even flew up into the air, but his coat stayed on. Defeated, the wind grumbled to the sun, ‘Fine, you try, but that man must love that coat more than he loves his life.’ With a silvery little laugh, the sun beamed down on the man. Softly at first. He relaxed, no longer holding his coat tight. She blazed brighter, warming him further.”

Suddenly, sweat drips down my face and realize the sun in real life is imitating the one in Val’s story. Toeing off my shoes and socks, I let the water lap over my feet.

Meanwhile, Val continues, “The man unbuttoned his coat, letting it fly open. Encouraged, the sun covered him with her rays. She was burning him, blistering his skin, but the man no longer cared. He threw off his coat and all the rest of his clothes, then jumped into the water.”

As Val says this, I follow suit, pulling off my uniform and tossing it over my shoulder. No longer floating, Val stands in the water. Wearing only my b*a and underwear, I run into the water and then into his arms.

We fall into the water together. Our limbs tangle as the water covers our heads. Every inch of my skin feels alive. The water is like a warm caress. But it’s Val’s cold skin that I crave. Even here in the warm water, beneath the hot sun, he remains icy to the touch.

We come up for air and then descend again, becoming otters. We play tag, taking turns chasing each other. His cold hand slides the length of my leg before closing around my ankle in capture. Then it’s my turn. My hands travel the length of his muscled back before locking around his middle.

The unspoken words with each capture: I got you. I got you. I got you.

Finally we collapse on a small island of soft grass at the far corner of the lagoon. It’s just barely big enough for the two of us to lie side by side. But we don’t need much space as we grab hold of one another, our mouths meeting hungry and hot. We help each other shed the last bit of clothing separating us from each other, and then—

Well, maybe Val’s Moggy past means he has a witch in his family too.

Because what happens next is magical.

I curl into Val when it’s over, wishing we could stay here forever.

“So in that story,” I say with a yawn. “Am I the sun, or are you?”

Val chuckles softly. “We’re both the sun and the world revolves around us both.”

“You should get Tina to put that on a T-shirt,” I laugh. But the mention of Tina pulls me back into the real world. “Oh gods, I hope Artemis doesn’t show up to drag you away!”

“I already know I'm getting expelled. Let them work for it.” Val stretches lazily, obviously no longer concerned with what Themis wants now that he’s on his way out.

“I’ll miss you,” I say in a small voice, trying not to feel pathetic. And n***d. Although I am in every way.

Reaching over, Val pulls me close again. “No, you won’t. Because there are ways around the rules and I will find all of them. It seems like Tina and I are probably going to end up at UWA. So you sneak into the underworld and I’ll sneak back here. And when we can’t get away, we’ll use Kevin.” Val holds up a hand and almost immediately Kevin lands on it. “I’ll send him here. Tomorrow night. And you can return him when you come visit me at UWA.”

“When I come visit?”

Val gives me a lopsided smile. “I’ll tell them you’re thinking about joining the non-living so we can be together. They’ll give you a day pass. Then we can find the next piece of your sword.”

I frown, studying Val. “I thought you didn’t want me to put the sword together?”

“No, I wanted you to be fully aware of what having that sword means.” He shakes his head. “I was being an a*s. I’ve been at your side in several battles. You do what needs to be done. You’re a merciful killer.” Running a hand through his hair, Val sighs. “We both saw Mr. Zee this afternoon. He’s looking more and more like a dog that needs to be put down. If it comes down to it, you’re the one I trust to do it.”

His belief in me feels like an almost physical thing that I can carry around with me and call on when I’m uncertain. But I also think it’s misplaced.

“Val, I don’t think I can—”

He jumps up and as I struggle not to ogle his below the waist parts, he pulls me up beside him. “One last swim,” he demands, tugging me toward the water once more.

The clouds, that Val had formed above, shielding us from the sun, part, and it beams down once more.

“What about Themis?” I ask.

Val throws me over his shoulder and jumps high into the air. Right before we hit the water and go under, he answers, “Let Themis wait.”