Page 6 of November Reign
“Not Cody, though. He’s not meant for battles.”
“None of us are.”
Toth spared me a glance. “No, we aren’t. Some of us just weather it better. Cody is not one of those. Damon will rise to the challenge, but he needs to be pushed.”
“Can’t Thyme—“
“No. Thyme is like Cody, though not as sweet, soft. You are the one who needs to push him.”
“What about Gregoris?”
“He can’t teach him witch magic. Besides, he’s too afraid of upsetting his mate.”
Parker would defend Damon, his adoptive brother, to his last breath. Gregoris was still attempting to bond with Damon for his mate’s sake. Their relationship was improving.
I sighed. “Fine.”
“Not Cody,” he reminded me. “You leave him for Thyme to train.”
“Right.”
“Oak?”
“Yeah?”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks. I’ll need it.”
Toth smirked at me before leaving the room, pulling the door closed as he went.
With a click of my fingers, I illuminated the room. I got up to check what he’d brought me. The food looked delicious! There was even a slice of cheesecake on the tray.
At least his threats came with goodies.
Try Harder
Oak
Determined after my talkwith Toth, I made a plan of action for the morning. One where Damon would be studying rather than just physically doing magic. We had taken so many shortcuts with his magical education; it was no wonder we were hitting speed bumps now. There was no foundation for Damon to work from.
Young witches were always given basic rune training. They worked with the elements, crystals, even did the basics of potion making so they could heal the injuries they were most likely to get. Damon had none of that. Worse, he had an ingrained hatred of magic from his time in the foster care system.
Basically, we had an uphill climb with Damon and I’d need all the help I could get.
I ate my late dinner quickly, suddenly famished after the magic I’d performed earlier in the day and having had no lunch. My sleep was all messed up thanks to Basil and Thyme and I was burning up so much energy to get through the day. The two brothers wereon my mind constantly. Though Damon was technically one of their family, he was so different, except for his eyes, from the others, that I often forgot they were related.
Once finished, I returned the tray to the kitchen, rinsed my plate and stacked it in the dishwasher. I even ran a cycle, seeing it was full. We all had to pitch in to clean, since Gregoris wouldn’t let us hire a cleaner, citing it as an unnecessary security risk. We barely let the higher up coven members into the house, he was so paranoid about safety. To be fair to him, he took his turn cleaning the shared rooms and his wings helped him with the high dusting.
We’d come to a compromise with the coven: weekly meetings with senior members like Aster, Rose, Sky, Birch and Florian. Most communication with the rest of the coven was done via text message chains. Gossip was rife within the coven hierarchy and we didn’t know who we could trust even in the senior members so we limited information where we could. Not that the coven liked it, but Damon didn’t care. As he saw it, too many interfered when they only caused more problems instead of solving them. He wasn’t the most popular Head Witch. Not that it bothered him.
“Thanks, I was just coming down to do that,” Thyme’s voice was gentle as he padded into the kitchen in his socks, his pajama pants slung low on his narrow hips. I loved the way they clung to his body, highlightingthe curve of his ass and showing off the imprint of his cock. He looked so vulnerable, soft and so sexy.
No, no, no. I couldn’t be alone with Thyme this late at night. There were too many thoughts about him in my head already. My brain chose to rewind my earlier activities and replay them in full HD, complete with Thyme’s imagined moans.
“Oak? Are you okay? I came by your room earlier.” He stepped closer to me. His fingers flexed as if he was holding back the urge to touch me.
“Sorry, I’ve just not been sleeping.” I put some much needed distance between us by heading to the sink to clean it out. The thing was sparkling. I just needed something to do with my hands, so I didn’t reach for Thyme.
