Arrowan

I had thought I was starting to figure Luin out – he was a proper kind of person who only let his guard down if he was with people he trusted deeply, and the fewer, the better. Large crowds made him hide behind manners and primness, which made it all the more special when the two of us were alone and he became blushing, pliant, and easy to fluster. The way he opened up when it was just us was endearing and special, and it made me feel like we were growing much closer.

Then he found out about our plans to confront the Unseelie and I saw a whole new side of him, one I never imagined could exist. He lashed out emotionally in front of other people and for the rest of the day, he had trouble putting his mask back on. At first, I wondered whether I had just missed this side of his personality, or maybe whether I had misjudged him entirely. As the evening carried on and we told him more and more about what we were planning, though, I started to understand. The emotional outburst wasn't something I had missed or misjudged. In fact, Luin seemed just as surprised by his reactions to things as I was. This was new, and I thought it had to be because of me. Missing me, feeling neglected by me, feeling worried about me. It was all understandable.

And since Luin had let himself relax tonight, I wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him against my side. We were still all sitting around the dining room table. Leftovers had been put away and we nursed our various drinks while we chatted and looked over maps, looking for an oceanside clifftop where we could stage my fake death.

Luin looked a little surprised, but then he smiled and laid his head on my shoulder. The bond between us trembled and swelled a bit more, and I couldn't help kissing the top of his head.

"You guys are just the cutest!" Safiya crowed. Luin tried to pull away, but I didn't let him, so he buried his face against my arm. Of course, Safiya couldn't let it drop there. "Aww! See? Glenna, don't you want that?"

As the conversation moved off of us and onto Glenna – Safiya had been trying to talk her into letting Fen activate her bond – Luin emerged from my shirt and looked up at me with laughing, chagrined eyes. "You okay?" I asked, since no one was paying attention to us at the moment and he'd had a long day.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Worried, but okay."

"This is going to work," I said. "I really believe that or I wouldn't be doing it."

"I trust you," Luin said, and I thought I could feel that trust like a warmth through our bond. It was growing more and more sensitive.

We let the conversation wash around us – Glenna wanted to find love for herself the old-fashioned way and Safiya thought she was crazy. Roderick was refusing to take sides, which led to Safiya saying, "What, you're taking her side? Are you saying you didn't want to find your soul mate?"

Safiya was obviously joking, and Roderick's eyes glinted with amusement. "No, sweetheart, I'm so glad you found me."

I realized I had gotten so distracted with planning and with the company that I had totally forgotten this was the day Fen and Lachlan were supposed to meet up with someone from that school. "Have you heard from Fen yet?" I asked.

Safiya perked up and tuned back into our conversation, watching Luin expectantly. When he shook his head "no," she pouted.

"That man needs to get a phone," she complained.

"I don't have a phone either," I pointed out. "There's no need for one, really."

"If you had a phone, you could handle your own appointment scheduling instead of having it all go through us," Safiya pointed out.

Okay, fair point. I shouldn't have brought the conversation around to me. "I'll think about it."

Luin yawned hugely and blinked his eyes a few times, trying to clear the exhaustion out of them. I wasn't fooled. A quick glance at the clock on the wall told me it was creeping up on our normal bedtime, and it had been a busy day for all of us.

"I think it's time we got going," I said, pulling Luin out of his seat. He laced our fingers together and waved goodbye, letting his head rest on my shoulder.

"See you guys tomorrow!" Safiya said.

"Thank you for dinner, it was delicious," Glenna added.

Roderick just gave a two-fingered salute as a farewell.

Luin squeezed my hand in warning and the next moment, we were in our living room. "Today was fun," he said.

I snorted, amused he could think so after having been so upset this afternoon, but then thought back over the last few hours. "Yeah, it was good." I didn't know how Luin had manage to build up a network of such good friends, but I already felt more connected here than I ever had back in Alterra, and that was something I had never expected for myself. When I had looked to the future, I always thought it would be me, my bond mate, and a lifetime spent running and hiding from danger.

Sure, things weren't perfect or easy now, but they were already so much better than I ever could have hoped.

"Bed time?" Luin asked hopefully.

"Sure," I agreed, and kissed him because honestly, he was too adorable not to. His lips moved almost lazily with mine, and he was satisfyingly pliant against me. I wrapped his arms around my waist and his fingers dug into the band of my pants, which pressed us more firmly against each other. Still, there was no hint of urgency in his kiss. Must be the exhaustion.

Lately, our time together had been getting more physical, and each session seemed more heated than the last. We'd been driving toward more intimacy, but Luin always shied away from even taking his clothes off around me. He changed with his back turned and got all bashful and red-faced if I changed in front of him. Now, with his fingers driving deeper into the waistband of my pants and slipping underneath my boxers, I was having a hard time not pushing his boundaries.

But he was tired, and when he asked for bed time, he hadn't meant anything physical. I reluctantly pulled away after pressing one final kiss on his pliant lips. "Let's go," I said.

His eyes, heavy-lidded with sleepiness and a bit of the same smoldering need that had ignited within me, were out of focus for a few seconds before he rapidly blinked and seemed to regain some clarity. "Right. Sleep."

I bit back a laugh – it was fun to see a less-eloquent side to Luin but I knew better than to make fun of him right now – and we headed down the hall to sleep.

--

Luin beat me out of bed the next morning. I eased into awareness when he started shifting around and woke in an instant when he threw the blankets off himself and blasted me with chilly air.

"Sorry!" he squeaked, tucking me back in. It was too late, though. I was awake now.

"What's got you up so early?" I asked.

"I want to know how things went with Fen. I was going to go back to sleep, but I couldn't stop wondering." He looked and sounded irritated about it, and I might have laughed except that I was curious, too. Luin's friend had been having a rough time, and I hoped he was doing better now that he was making some progress.

Besides, the mysterious, magically-cloaked school had piqued my curiosity. What, exactly, were they hiding?

I threw the blankets back off myself, wincing at the brisk air, and together Luin and I went to find Fen.

For once, he wasn't holed up in his room. He was sitting at the kitchen table, eating yogurt with granola and smiling a bit to himself. "Good morning!" he said when we walked in.

"You're in a good mood," Luin observed.

Fen beamed at him. "It's a good day."

I pulled two bowls out of the cabinet and got breakfast for myself and Luin, knowing he would do all the digging without me having to say a word.

"So, what happened yesterday?" he asked.

Fen's whole face lit up with excitement and threw his spoon in his bowl, splattering yogurt onto the table and his cheek. He wiped it away absently while he spoke. "We met with this woman, Patricia. She works as their relations coordinator – she's the barrier between the world and Ashen Oak Academy. She had this device she used to scan us and it was able to tell her that we were a fae and a werewolf. I've never seen anything like it."

"Okay, and?" I prodded when Fen took too long to continue.

"And it turns out, that place is a school for the supernatural. They have wings for different species and a diverse teaching staff, and it's all kept completely secret from humans."

Okay, so this wasn't such a big revelation. Magic school had always been much more likely than any other explanation any of us could think of. Still, I had never heard of such a thing before. Oh, sure, we had schools back in Alterra that taught all sorts of magical classes. We only had fae in Alterra, though, so it wasn't nearly as diverse as Ashen Oak Academy sounded. That was the intrigue for me. "What species are there?"

"I didn't get a full list, but she mentioned witches, various shifters – not just werewolves, pixies, vampires, and nymphs. No fae, of course."

It sounded like a recipe for disaster. I badly wanted to know how it all worked out. How did the school keep the students from killing each other? Young vampires could be impulsive. Pixies were full of tricks and mischief. I didn't even want to think about how it must be to try and manage a hoard of immature witches. Safiya was enough of a handful, and she was a witch in her twenties, not an adolescent.

"What happens next?" Luin asked. Of course he would be more interested in how this impacted Fen than on the school, itself.

"Well, I didn't exactly tell her about my bond mate working there," Fen said hesitantly. "I didn't want him finding out from anyone but me. So I asked if it would be possible to have a tour... and she got all suspicious about why a grown fae would want to tour a school. Especially after I told her I didn't have any kids I was looking to enroll."

I snorted at that. Fen looked too innocent to be doing anything too weird, but the lady had a point and looks could be deceiving.

"That can't be all," Luin prodded gently. "You wouldn't be so happy if that was all."

Fen flashed a blinding smile now. "Well, I panicked and I said the first thing I could think of – that I was interested in a job there if they had any openings. She was really surprised at first since usually they only hire teachers that have the same species as their students, but then she started getting really excited about me being able to teach Fae Studies. So I'm going there this weekend for a tour and an interview!"

Now that was progress! Luin and Fen grinned at each other, and even I felt lighter knowing things were going so well for Fen. If he got a job in that school, he could get to know his bond mate gradually. If he'd just gotten a tour, he would have had to take any opportunity he could to talk with his bond mate and find some way of connecting with him again. This was so much better.

When the two of them calmed down a bit, Luin asked, "But do you actually want to teach?"

Fen shrugged. "It could be cool. I mean, I've always done whatever work was given to me. I got my job because I can do bond magic, and I never had a real chance to think about doing anything else. I want to try something else, and why not try what my bond mate does?"

It was flawed logic. Teaching was a calling, not something you should do on a whim. I couldn't blame him for pursuing it, though, and it was true that he would be able to offer his students first-hand knowledge that no other teacher in that school was capable of. Besides, surely the school wouldn't hire him if they found him totally incompetent. Right?

I finished my cereal and left Luin and Fen to chat while I got ready for work. I really thought they would be in there for a while, since this was their first chance to catch up with each other since Fen started feeling better. So I was surprised when Luin came into our bedroom just a few minutes later. He started getting ready and when he caught my questioning look, he said, "I'm going to the magic shop with you today. We can hammer out those plans of yours when you're between jobs."

He looked suspiciously calm about the plan to fake my death. "Are you sure?" I asked.

"Of course! And don't worry about Fen. He's going to be riding this high until Friday – and then he'll start stressing about his interview."

That wasn't what I had been thinking at all, but I just nodded. After we got ready for the day, Luin teleported us to the magic shop.

"You're taking the morning off," Safiya said before I even had a chance to take in my new surroundings.

"Funny, I could have sworn I had appointments on the schedule," I said, lifting a brow at her. Obviously, she had done something. The question was, why?

She grabbed my hand and one of Luin's and started pulling us out of the shop, through the living room, and down the hall. She let us go to open a door, revealing a home office. Glenna and Roderick were already there, and between the five of us and the furniture, the little room felt cramped. I didn't care, though – not when I saw the huge whiteboard on the wall and the map spread out over the desk.

The map had photos next to it showing the landscape from several angles. It was exactly the sort of place I was looking for. There were high cliffs over the ocean, and there were little caves dotting the coastline, too. In all of the pictures, the water looked wild, with high waves dominating every frame. Best yet, there were nastily sharp rocks dotting the water.

"This is perfect," I told them.

"I know!" Safiya gushed. "Ricky found it."

It took me a few moments to realize that "Ricky" was Roderick. "Working after-hours?" I said, smiling.

He shrugged. "They were having a sister's night, so I hung out with my ol' pal Google."

"We can use these caves," I said, thinking out loud. The Unseelie couldn't think I was planning on them catching me or they would realize I was up to something. It had to look like we were caught off-guard and it had to look like my fleeing from them and subsequent death were completely unplanned.

"That's what I was thinking. You and Luin pretend you've been living there. Let your protections drop for just a bit – like you're tired or something – and when they chase you, lead them away from Luin. Then you take a fall and I cast some nasty illusions of the rocks absolutely tearing you apart. You sink into the ocean and the Unseelie check you off their list," Roderick explained neatly.

"I like it, except for the part where Luin's there. Can you make a simulacrum that looks like Luin, too?"

Roderick winced. "It's going to be tough enough to manage yours and to coordinate the death scene just right. I don't think I can do that and look after another one."

"Besides," Luin chimed in, "if they follow the same pattern as last time, they'll hold me captive while they take you down. If they realize they only have something that looks like me, the whole plan will fall apart."

Luin was right, but I couldn't agree just yet. My mind scrambled for some way to keep Luin safe through this and it landed on the simplest option: "Then you aren't there at all. They'll just think I went off on my own to protect you. It's plausible." It's what I might have done if I thought it would let him have a normal life.

Now Luin wasn't happy. "I want to help," he said. "You can't honestly expect me not to be involved in this."

I wasn't going to involve him just because he wanted me to. He had to bring enough value to the plan to outweigh the risk... and with this plan, he really didn't need to be there. I looked to Roderick, begging with my eyes for him to jump in and talk Luin into stepping down. I thought Luin would take it better not coming from me. He would think I was just trying to protect him – which was a fair assumption – but he wouldn't have the same qualms about Roderick.

Roderick shrugged at me and held up his hands, signaling that he was staying out of this. I glared at him, but I couldn't really be mad. I would certainly not get in the middle of an argument between him and Safiya.

I reluctantly turned to Luin, who was watching me expectantly. "I think this will be cleaner if you just let me and Roderick handle it."

Luin was unimpressed and unconvinced. "And if something goes wrong, you might need me. I'll just hide with you. Then, if worst comes to worst, I can teleport us to safety."

Damn. He had a point – I couldn't teleport like him, and I wouldn't be able to hide myself away with a mirror big enough to fit through if I needed to flee. "Okay. Maybe."

Luin seemed to realize that was the most agreement I was capable of for now, since he smiled and kissed me sweetly. "Okay."

"Now that that's worked out, let's talk specifics," Safiya said, though she was smirking and looking between the two of us like we had just put on a highly entertaining show for her. Luin blushed lightly and let me lead him to the last two seats in the room. We settled in for a long discussion.