Page 55 of Wildfire

He wasn’t even sure he’d known where they were.

Wilder had no name for the warmth in his chest, but it was grounding in a way nothing else ever had been. He’d always drifted through his life, uncertain of what to do next whenever plans hadn’t gone exactly as expected. When David’s family had been horrible to him, he’d wandered Central Park for half the winter holiday. When he’d lost the promotion to Ward, he’d spent months untethered and confused.

But Hermes?

Hermes was not going to stop needing him, or stop existing. Definitely not the first, and the second, not if Wilder could help it.

He must have managed to drift off to sleep eventually, because he woke just before dawn to the sound of the front doorbell. It played the moonlight sonata, so it would be sure to get his attention even from the second floor.

Hermes was still snoring, arm wrapped tight around Wilder’s waist and head on his chest, right over his heart. He didn’t even twitch at the sound of the bell.

For a second, Wilder thought about ignoring it. He didn’t think Hermes slept often, so if he was snoring away, he clearly needed the rest.

Unfortunately, the bell came again almost as soon as the sound of it stopped echoing through the hall. Then again before it had finished the second time. It was lovely, layered on top of itself, but annoying that someone was so impatient that they couldn’t be bothered to wait a moment.

He sighed and reached to peel Hermes’s arm off him, and predictably, that woke him up. He gave a violent snort and sat up in bed, rubbing his face and blinking repeatedly. For a moment, he seemed confused when his eyes focused on Wilder, brows scrunching together and nose wrinkled up.

Then the doorbell sounded again, and he scowled at the hall. Glancing at the window, he mumbled about how it wasn’t even dawn yet, and he wasn’t entirely wrong. The light of dawn was just starting to creep in, and being woken that early was frustrating. School was basically over for the year. Getting up early was annoying, and not having to do it in the summer was supposed to be the good part of being a teacher.

Hermes shoved up, grabbed his borrowed black underwear, and stomped out of the room. As he reached the hallway, he turned back, brows still furrowed, but now in indignant irritation. “I’m not answering that,” he announced, then pursed his lips in a cute little pout. “I’m going to get my brownies, if Melly didn’t eat them.”

Wilder had a moment’s fright, since cats definitely should not have chocolate, but Melly was usually a good girl and didn’t jump up on the kitchen counters, so she probably hadn’t touched them. Instead of rushing down to check on her, he stood, grabbed his robe from the hook on the back of the bathroom door, and belted it around his waist as he headed down to answer the door.

If they wanted him dressed, they could wait until eight like a reasonable person.

He was almost—almost—sorry when he opened the door to find Dean Woods waiting on the stoop. It was strange, the repeated ringing of the bell. She’d never struck him as the type for that kind of behavior, and knowing that she was the goddess of wisdom made it seem even more out of character.

Still, these weren’t normal circumstances, and everyone was on edge.

Without a word, he opened the door and ushered her in.

Seeming to understand instinctively where to go, she preceded him into the kitchen, where he realized the smell of hot coffee was starting to fill the air. He’d have kissed Hermes, if his boss hadn’t been standing right there to watch. Instead, he smiled and opened the fridge to locate the half and half.

“Let me guess,” he said aloud to Hermes, who was sitting on the counter eating a brownie straight out of the pan. “You take half a cup of sugar and no cream?”

Hermes scrunched up his nose and waved at the two mugs he’d set on the counter. “Those are for you two. I only like coffee blended with ice cream. Or as an ice cream flavor. But mint chocolate chip is better. In both ice cream and milkshakes. Or frappes, whatever you wanna call ’em.”

Wilder had to work not to laugh, but it made the warmth in his chest from the night before—which had never exactly left—spread. Hermes had made coffee for him, even though he didn’t want it. To Dean Woods, he lifted the half and half carton. She nodded, so he poured first the finished coffee, then a little cream, into each mug.

Hermes turned up his nose but didn’t say anything.

So Wilder went to the fridge and hunted around till he found the thing he knew would work. Turning, he held up his prize. A single can of Coke. Hermes grinned and held out both hands, even though one still had half a brownie in it.

“Sugar fiend,” he muttered.

Hermes grinned at him as he opened the can and downed half of it in one go. “Milk would have worked too, but it’s better when the brownies are warm.”

When Wilder turned back to the dean, she was frowning at Hermes. Her brother, he reminded himself, and then wondered if he was about to be informed, again, of Hermes’s fickle nature.

But she simply shook her head and turned to Wilder. “I came to talk about graduation.”

Wilder scowled immediately. “We can’t have a graduation ceremony. The students will understand.”

The face she made, a raised eyebrow and little grimace, said she had doubts, but she shook her head. “You misunderstand me. We’re not simply holding graduation because it’s what we always do.”

A hole opened up in Wilder’s stomach, and he set his coffee down so that he wouldn’t drop it. “You’re planning to use the students as bait.”

“Only the ones who agree to it,” she answered, fast, holding her hands up defensively. “But they have as much of an interest in catching him as you do, and if not this, what have they been training for?”

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