Chamber of Magic

Chapter Two - Awkward Welcoming

დ. Ellora. დ

“Are you dead?” I heard Riley’s voice and opened my eyes. “Oh, you are alive, you sleep like the dead,” I watched as she walked away, and I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t sure what her point was, didn’t everyone sleep like the dead?

“How about a simple, good morning?” I asked, looking at her as she pulled out some clothes from her closet.

“Morning,” Riley sang out and I groaned.

“You’re a morning person,”

“Yup,” she said popping the ‘p’. That annoyed me. “I’m a morning person and you aren’t, your grumpy,” Riley was frowning at me and I rolled my eyes. Second time in less than a minute. “Come on, get finished, otherwise we’ll miss out on the good stuff,” I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but I got out of bed and shuffled my way into the bathroom. After taking a long hot shower, I felt a lot better.

“What should I wear?” I asked as I exited the bathroom.

“What took you so long? This is the last time I wait for you and you can wear whatever the hell you want,” Riley was annoyed, and I felt guilty. Although I didn’t understand what the big rush was, however, I did decide to get dressed quickly.

“All done,” I said as I pulled my long black hair into a high ponytail.

“Great, let’s go see what’s left,” she mumbled, and I followed her downstairs to the kitchen. Finally, I understood. The dining room and kitchen was open plan and I could see that the two large dining tables were full of people. Some sat on the floor and ate, while others could be heard from the sitting room. Riley headed over to the island and groaned, joining her, I once again understood her frustration. As we took a plate and started dishing up the leftovers, I leaned over and whispered in her ear.

“I’ll make sure we are to be earlier from now on,” she flashed me a grateful smile and I followed her to the sitting room. There wasn’t a lot of people here and I sat next to Riley on the sofa. I wasn’t paying attention to anyone as I ate my breakfast. I was nervous. I had every right to be. I had left home, in search of answers and now I was living in a mansion with a bunch of magicians. Or was it witches? I wasn’t sure but when I was done eating, I took my empty plate back to the kitchen. A lot of the people had gone, and I wondered what would happen next. Riley was right behind me.

“Ok, whenever a newbie joins, we all meet outside. So come on,” I just nodded my head and followed her outside. It was still early and luckily it wasn’t cold, but I noticed quite a lot of people.

“How many people live here?”

“Ok, first off, the cooks are Janet and Tessa, the cleaners are Emma, Lucy, and Jay. Then there’s the security team of about five tough guys and three women, I don’t know their names as yet. Each group that I was telling you about has a leader, you’ll be introduced so don’t worry about that,” I had a lot of questions but suddenly everyone went quiet and looking around I noticed Adam standing on the patio.

“Morning everyone,”

“Morning,” everyone said, not all at once of course. It wasn't a choir or anything.

“As I am sure all of you know, yesterday Ellora Stone joined us. Ellora, could come up here?” he was looking for me and I blushed as all eyes fell on me as I quickly made my way up to where he was standing. “Ok, so everyone this is Ellora, please don’t be shy, get to know her,” he turned to me with a smile. “Ellora welcome, its tradition to show your ability to the other members here and then I can place you into a group,” I felt sick. I didn’t want to show my ability to all these people. I didn’t know them, what if they judged me. On top of that, turning on my power would result in a headache. He gave me an encouraging smile and I turned to look at the people standing around. They were interested, I could tell, curious about the newbie. I turned on my power and looked around, all the voices in my head were already annoying me. I spotted a pretty looking girl and zoned in on her. Pointing to her, I decided not to reveal anything too embarrassing.

“Kia Taurine, aged nineteen,” I sifted through her thoughts, memories, and desires. “Your mother gave you a jewelry box on your sixteenth birthday and you play the tune every night before you go to bed. It calms you,” I hesitated as she narrowed her brows at me, while others looked on in awe. “You have a soft spot for cheesy romance movies, and you enjoy the friendship you have with your roommate,” she smiled then and I looked around, spotting the other girl, I zoned in and pointed at her. “Molly Seng, aged twenty, Kia’s roommate and best friend,” the crowd got excited while others were mumbling that I had been given the information beforehand. Looking over at Adam, I mentally sent him a question. “They seem hard to please, do I have your permission to take it to the next level?” I watched as he turned to me, shock evident in his expression. He didn’t answer but gave me a quick nod. “Could you both join me up here, as I can tell there are some non-believers in the crowd,” Molly and Kia smiled at each other and made their way up to join me. The onlookers were curious as to what I was going to do next.

“Hi,” Molly greeted me with a small smile.

“Hi, thank you for joining me up here,” I took a deep breath and concentrated. It wasn’t a hard thing to do but I did want to impress the crowd. “Molly, can you tell me what you see right now?”

“Oh!” she cried out as she reached out. To everyone else, it looked as if she was just waving her arms around. Yet, I knew that she was seeing butterflies of all different colors. I shifted to Kia and made her see the same thing. “Butterflies!” Molly cried out and I smiled.

“So pretty,” Kia added. The crowd was confused I could tell. I quickly changed the butterflies into bats. Kia and Molly started screaming in horror and I felt Adam reach out and touch my arm. I ignored his touch and turned my attention back to the two screaming girls.

“What’s wrong?” I asked them innocently.

“Bats!” Molly screamed out, ducking and looking like a fool. I felt bad for a moment and changed the bats into adorable Labrador puppies. Soon, Kia and Molly were reaching out to pet the fake animals. I noticed that the crowd was even more confused, so I let them all in on what I was doing. Shrieks of delight and awe hit me as everyone started looking around them. Except for Riley. She was the only one that was unaffected. I frowned as I tried to enter her mind but for some reason, I couldn’t. The pain that suddenly hit me, made the image of the puppies disappear and the crowd let out a loud ‘Aah’. Riley frowned as she caught my eye, but I shrugged it off. I would address that issue with Adam soon enough.

“Any doubters?” I asked the crowd casually as Molly and Kia left me and rejoined the others. There where a few hands raised, and I quickly looked over at Adam. “Can I answer them?” I threw the question at him mentally and he nodded. “Ok, you,” I pointed at a good-looking guy. Before he could answer, I called him again by name. “Sorry, yes you, Jordan,” he grinned sheepishly and pushed his way forward.

“You can make us see things, but can you make us do things?” he asked, and I refused to smile. Instead, I made him start jumping. “Woah!” he cried out. “I have no control!” he added as I made him jump higher. I stopped and he grinned. “Nice,” I looked around and saw another hand.

“You, um, Jessica,”

“Can you take memories away? Like forever?” I frowned at her question and sifted through her thoughts. She had a dark secret and I gave her a sad smile.

“I understand why you would want that specific event to be erased from your memory, but it would take away a part of who you are. That thing that happened to you, is what made you stronger. It gave you the push you needed in your life. If I take that away from you, you won’t be the same person anymore,” I answered her truthfully. She nodded her head and I could tell she was fighting to hold back the tears. “I can see how hard it is for you, forgiveness is key,” I added. I noticed that the people were a lot more accepting of me and I saw Kael’s hand up in the air, waving it around. I giggled and pointed at him. “Ok Kael, what’s your question?”

“Can you make someone like me?” he asked looking smug.

“I could, or I could do this,” suddenly the three girls that were standing close to him, turned to look at him in disgust. The blonde headed girl snorted as she took a step back.

“Ever heard of a shower pal?” she hissed out at him. Kael’s face went from looking smug to one of disbelief. The redheaded girl sniffed the air around him and swatted away with her hand.

“Eeww,” she moaned out.

“Ellora!” Kael shouted out in distress and I quickly changed the last girl’s mind. She was quite pretty too with her short brown hair. The look of disgust faded from her face and she smiled seductively at him.

“Looking good Kael, want to stop by my room later?” she invited him, and he got that smug look back and nodded. I returned them all back to normal and the girl blushed, looking back at me. I did, however, notice Riley wasn’t impressed and I remembered that she had a crush on him.

“Yeah, Kael, I can do just about anything, but I must tell you that finding love should be done honestly and you shouldn’t just look for a quickie because the girl for you is crushing on you so hard and you aren’t looking,” he frowned as he started looking around. Riley panicked visibly and I spoke up quickly. “Don’t be in such a hurry to find her, when the time is right, you will know,” he turned back to me and nodded.

“Ok, I think that’s enough,” Adam said. The crowd growled out their disappointment and he laughed. “I know, I know, it’s the first time we have a mind controller in our midst, but we have to get on with the day,” he turned to look at me and tilted his head to the side.

“What?” I asked as I had already turned off my power. I was quite exhausted.

“Your ability is both, defense and attack, but I think, attack is your strongest point, so red group for you,” I heard a couple of people shout out in joy and I smiled. “Alright guys, quick break and training start in fifteen minutes,” I watched as they turned among themselves chatting.

“Who is my leader?” I asked him and he shook his head.

“Don’t see it as someone being your leader, we are all on the same side here and you still have much to learn. When it comes to your ability, you’ve already explored it, but you don’t know what you are and what our purpose is,” he explained to me. An older man came up to us and he gave me a soft smile.

“Hello Ellora, my name is Manny,” he held out his hand and I smiled in response. “You are in my group, but I think you should sit down with Adam and get a proper understanding before we start training, ok?”

“Ok,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

“Let’s go to my office,” Adam said as he placed his hand on my lower back, guiding me back into the house and to his office. I felt the excitement from his touch but brushed it off quickly. It wouldn’t be wise to have a crush on him. Besides, there was only one guy I had the hots for and that is Jareth. “Do you have any idea what you are?” Adam asked me. I shook my head, too embarrassed to say the words out loud. “There are many names but in reality, we are just gifted. The abilities that we have don’t come from magic. Or not in the way you’d think. We don’t draw on energy or do spells and rituals for power. It comes from within. Our abilities aren’t gifted to us from God or the Devil or something like that. What I’m trying to say is, our gifts don’t define if we are bad or good, it is what we do with it that defines us. Understand?”

“Yes,” I was interested in what he was saying.

“We don’t do magic tricks or hang around places taking innocent normies money for their entertainment, you see Ellora, our gifts are a secret. We aren’t the only ones in the world who have abilities. In fact, every single human being has a gift,”

“So then?” I asked, confused.

“However, not every single one of them taps into that part of themselves. The people you saw outside this morning, each and every single one of them has had an experience that brought out their ability. A tragic event that left them scarred and vulnerable to opening themselves to their true gift. I know it sounds silly, but trust me when I tell you, I’ve done a lot of research on this,” I was sitting on the chair with the desk between us and I had a million questions running through my head. “I met a man, named Gregory Ronald. An extortionary man. He had the ability to control the mind, such as yours but on a different level. He was the first to unlock the secret power that radiates in us all. He explained to me that the power we hold within ourselves is opened up and gifted to the chosen ones. We can call ourselves witches or sorcerers or any other kind of mystical name, but he claimed to call us, the gifted. Magic is overrated but we are magical. We are an illusion to some and a joke to others,”

“Gifted magic,” I say, thinking of his words.

“Yes, exactly, gifted magic,”

“Am I evil or good then?” I ask him in panic. He said we decide who we are and what we do with our ability defines us. “But what makes us good or evil?” I continue my thought out loud.

“Think of it like this, my ability is invisibility. Do you think my gift is evil? Or good?” he asked me. My first thought was evil, but I didn’t want to admit that to him. “Be honest Ellora,” he added as if he knew.

“Evil,” I admit honestly.

“Why evil?”

“Because people are sick and having a gift like that could only lead to evil,” I answered without really thinking about it, almost forgetting that his ability was invisibility and that I had literally just told him he is evil.

“Exactly, but because I am not that kind of person, I don’t use my ability in such a way. Instead, I use it to fight evil,” he told me.

“Fight evil? You mean those that are magically gifted that use their abilities for evil?”

“Yes and no, you see Ellora, some stories are true,”

“What do you mean?” I asked confused.

“I’m talking about ghosts, demons, monsters. Things that go bump in the night,” he looked amused, but I continued to frown.

“Wait, you actually want me to believe that those things are real?”

“Yes, just like I want you to believe in magic and witches and all those kinds of things. I know it isn’t easy to believe, but once you see it for yourself you will understand. There isn’t a lot of good in the world as it is, never mind people being bad, but creatures of the night aren’t considered good,”

“Ok, but am I good or evil?” I ask again. Desperately wanting to hear his opinion.

“Honestly, it's too early to tell and you’ve just gotten here, only you know the answer that question. Think about it, you made Molly and Kia see beautiful butterflies but then changed that magically happy moment into something that terrified them both. You scared them. You didn’t stop to think what would it do to them. I know why you chose bats; you know why you chose bats; do you think you did a good thing?” I looked down, not wanting him to see the tears that suddenly filled my eyes. He was right. I had chosen bats because both girls had scary memories of bats and I used that against them. I didn’t consider how they would feel about it. I didn’t think if I upset them. I just wanted to impress. “I don’t want you to think you are bad, just because you didn’t think something through, I just wanted to bring that to your attention. You have one hell of a gift. You could easily go either way, without even realizing it. I want you to be aware, don’t fear it, just be aware of it. You can do a lot of good with your gift, but you could also destroy with your gift,” as he explained, I looked back up at him and nodded. Finally, I was getting some information, some answers.

“I understand and thank you for looking out for me,” I said. I meant it. After my parents were murdered, I felt alone. Aunt Lisa had lost her sister and wasn’t truly interested in looking after me or having me intrude on her life. She didn’t hate me, but she wasn’t ready to become a mother and I wasn’t prepared for any of it. I didn’t want it. I ran away to understand myself and after almost a year of searching, I finally felt like I belonged. “I don’t want to be evil, I’m not an evil person, but I do understand your point, I was so caught up in showing off that I didn’t consider them. I will talk to them both and apologize, not because you said something but because I don’t want to hurt anyone and what I did was wrong. Actually, I should apologize to Kael too,” Adam laughed when I mentioned Kael.

“No, he deserved that, he walks around here and thinks all the girls worship him as if he is some kind of s*x god,” I giggled at that and then blushed as I noticed how Adam was looking at me. He seemed to pick up on that and looked away. “Ellora, I won't hide my attraction to you but I won't force you to feel anything for me and since you’ve just arrived, I'd like to give you space and time to settle in. However, I am giving you the heads up that I’m interested and at some point, I will make a move,” his voice was thick with something that I couldn’t quite place, yet it piqued my interest. I blushed as I looked back down at my hands.

“Alright,” that was what I said to his little speech. I didn’t want to go into any details or tell him yes or no. At that moment, I felt flattered at his attention and yet disappointed as it wasn’t from the guy I actually wanted. Feeling guilty at the direction of my thoughts, I stood up. “I should ah, I don’t know, go see Manny maybe. Just watch or something. Or is there something else you wanted to talk to me about?”

“It’s alright Ellora, you can go, we can talk again later,” he smiled at me and I felt the butterflies in my tummy. He wasn’t ugly, he was quite sexy, but he wasn’t Jareth. I nodded and quickly left his office and rushed up the two flights of stairs to get my room. I was surprised to find Riley in the room.

“Oh,” I said as I saw her laying on her bed. She gave me a look and I realized she was just as surprised to see me.

“Oh, indeed,” she giggled. “Come, sit, tell me everything,”

დ. Riley. დ

I was surprised when Ellora entered the room but curious to hear what was going on in that weird head of hers. I was half-listening as she is re-telling me what Adam had told her. I’d heard it before, just two months ago actually when Adam had told me the same thing. Ok, it wasn’t exactly the same, but it was pretty much the same.

“Can I just interrupt you?” I asked butting in. She raised her eyebrows at me but then nodded. “Why can’t you read my mind? Or manipulate me? I mean, we have people here with the ability to shield and yet you manipulated their minds, so why not me?” I was curious about that and I wanted to know why. Why was I different? Ellora looked upset. “Why do you look upset? Is it something I said? Is it because you can’t control me? What is it Ellora?” I pushed her.

“Would you just shut up for a moment!” she suddenly shouted out. I jerked back, shocked by her tone. “Don’t give me that look, you’re asking me a thousand questions and not giving me a chance to answer them,” she informed me, and I felt guilty. She was right. It was, unfortunately, a bad habit of mine.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized sincerely.

“Ok, it's ok, let's see, what was your first question? So many,” she was shaking her head while I shrugged, not even I remembered my first question. “Ok, well look, I have no idea why I can’t read your mind or manipulate you or whatever. I mean, I’ve tried and all I get is a massive headache. I actually noticed this morning that you weren’t seeing the puppies,”

“Oh, so that what it was, I wondered,” I interrupted yet again, and she gave me a look.

“Anyway, I actually wanted to bring it up with Adam but forgot about it when he was explaining everything to me and the reason I looked upset was because I could see that me not being able to read your mind was upsetting you and since I do actually consider us to be friends, I don’t like seeing you upset,” I smiled as she spoke. I, too, considered her my friend and I could understand her explanation.

“Ok, I think we should ask Adam later about it,”

“I mean, maybe you are special Riley, I mean more special than your normal special,” I was surprised to hear her rambling, it wasn’t like her.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her, she seemed momentarily surprised but then she hung her head and blushed. “You have to tell me now,” I urged on, seeing her reaction, I was sure something had happened.

“Adam showed an interest in me,” she confessed.

“What?” I shouted out gleefully.

“Yeah, he um, said that he is attracted to me and he would wait for me to settle in before making a move,” she explained.

“Omg! Adam is so sexy,” I told her. “After Kael of course,” I added. Kael. Just mentioning him had me blushing like a lovesick fool. Which reminded me. “Oh, and by the way, I was not a fan of your little teasing act with him earlier, “I informed her sternly.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, but I did think I recovered quite well,”

“That you did my friend, that you did,” she giggled, and I smirked over at her as I picked up my phone. As per usual, no messages. “I wish he would notice me though,” I glanced back over at her and saw she was avoiding my gaze. “Ellora? Do you know anything?”

“Look, Riley, he needs to figure it out for himself, it’s like I said when the time is right. Don’t force it, let him chase after you,” she was trying to convince me, but I knew she was hiding something. I wanted to press the issue but then quickly decided not to. She was right. He needed to figure it out for himself without any extra help from me or anyone else for that matter.

“Ugh, you’re right, so tell me what you think about Adam having an interest in you?”

“Well, he is sexy, and he makes me get butterflies, but the thing is, I’ve got my eye on someone else,” this piqued my interest and I stared at her open-mouthed. “Close your flytrap,” she snapped, and I burst out laughing.

“Oh, hell no, tell me who is this person that caught your attention?” I questioned her. This was not something she would be able to hide from me.

“It’s no one-”

“Bull lay it on me,” I pushed.

“Riley, I-”

“Nope,” I sang out. “You are going to tell me because I will annoy it out of you,” I pushed out my chest to make a statement and she blushed.

“Fine, its Jareth,”

“Wait, what? Jareth Yates? As in Kael’s long-time best friend?”

“I guess,”

“Holy s**t Ellora, Jareth is dreamy sexy, but he is so cold, what made him catch your eye?” I asked her curiously. He was seriously sexy but had quite an emotionless attitude that got on my nerves. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I blamed Jareth for Kael’s lack of interest.

“He is hot,” Ellora announced simply.

“Yeah, I get that, but so is Adam,”

“Adam is sexy, yeah, but Jareth, mmm, I don’t know, there is just something about him that draws me in,”

“Ok, if you say so, but I have a bad feeling Ellora, Jareth Yates will hurt you,” I told her honestly.

“He probably will but until then, Adam is a no, no,” I shook my head but smiled at her regardless.

“Ok, well, whatever, I’m gonna see if I can spot Kael,” I didn’t miss her rolling her eyes at me. “You can come too,” I offer and see her shaking her head I add. “Ten to one, Jareth will be with him,” she started nodding and I rolled my eyes at her this time. She followed me out the door and downstairs. I figured they would be done with the first part of the training, which I, by the way, skipped just to catch a quick nap. I spotted Kael by the island drinking juice and I smiled. He is beyond sexy with his stunning jade green eyes and spiky rose gold colored hair and the soft freckles that ran across his nose. It helped that he was well built, and I wished he would wear tighter clothing so that I could drool over him. He turned as if sensing someone watching him, and I blushed.

“Oh, hi guys,” he greeted us, and I saw Ellora rolling her eyes. Must be because Jareth wasn’t around.

“Hi Kael,” I breathed out and then coughed. Ellora gave me a weird look and I shrugged brushing off the awkward moment. Kael didn’t seem to notice as he was too busy drinking his damn juice. “So, where is your other half?” I asked teasingly. He lifted his shoulder in an ‘I don’t know’ gesture and finished his juice. He went over to the sink and rinsed out the glass.

“So, Ellora, you gonna tell me who is crushing on me so hard?” he asked as he turned to give her his full attention. Jealousy ran through me and I struggled to hide it. I knew I didn’t have anything to fear as she had literally just told me she was crushing on Jareth. Still, what I wouldn’t give to be the center of his attention.

“Now, why would I tell you?” Ellora asked him.

“Because I bet, you’re a sappy romantic and would want me and this girl to have a happily ever after,” he was smug, and he looked even sexier as he smirked at her. For me though, I was too busy daydreaming after hearing that he intended to be with his crush forever.

“Oh Riley, it's you,” Kael whispered as he pulled me into his arms. I smiled shyly and looked up at him, silently begging for him to kiss me. “I want to be with you forever,” he promised before lowing his head and smashing his soft full lips against mine in a kiss that would make any woman’s heart mel-

“I probably am a sappy romantic and I would love for you and this girl to have your happily ever after, however, as I told you, figure it out for yourself and stop looking around for your next lay,” Ellora’s words cut through my daydream.

“Hey! I’m not just looking for a lay,” he was saying, and I sighed. He was a bit of a player and I wasn’t surprised that Ellora had already picked up that about him. She threw me a look and I knew she was going to tell me to get over him. I didn’t like that idea. What did it mean? Did he fantasize about banging some chick?

“Look, I tell you what, why don’t you use your brain and open your eyes,” Ellora said to him, quite harshly, I might add. I couldn’t help but feel somewhat satisfied with her jibe towards him. It wasn’t right that he wanted to just get laid and not think about me. I suck, I know.

“Ellora, you’ve got me all wrong,” Kael argued. He snapped his fingers and suddenly Jareth was standing next to him with a book in his hand. Jareth did not look happy, although, I did see that Ellora blushed at his sudden appearance. “Jareth, please do me a favor and correct little Ms know it all over here,” he pointed his finger over at Ellora and I waited to hear Jareth’s answer.

“You got me here to help you fight some petty little thing?” Jareth asked him coldly. I shivered that’s how cold he sounded. Like worse than ice. Poor Ellora.

“Just tell her that I’m not a player just wanting to get an easy lay,” Kael begged. I took a small step back to watch this play out.

დ. Jareth. დ

 I looked over at Ellora and gave her a blank look. I wasn’t happy that Kael had just zapped me into this awkward and weird situation. I pretended to be considering Kael’s words while I checked her out. She was wearing tight black skinny jeans with a soft baby blue long-sleeved top. She was the sight of utter beauty. I cautioned myself not to think about her too much as I knew she could pop into my head at any moment. Her mesmerizing ocean blue eyes where staring at me and I felt the blush coming on. I quickly stopped myself.

“Kael is just confused,” I started as I looked over at Riley. I was very much aware of the fact that the girl that was crushing so hard on my best friend was none other than Riley. She was seriously pretty but not my type. I could feel Ellora’s eyes on me, so I continued. “He isn’t just looking for some girl to get lucky with. It's like trying on a pair of shoes for him, you try them on until you find something you like, so it's like that for him and right now he is confused as to which kind of shoes he actually likes,” I tried explaining without any emotion but I couldn’t help but smirk at Kael’s reaction to my explanation.

“Dude! You're supposed to be on my side,” I glanced over at him.

“Well, maybe next time you won't just zap me into this kind of silliness, now zap me back,” he rolled his eyes at me but didn’t zap me back to our room.

“I for one, think that your explanation is right on pare,” Ellora said glancing over at me. “So, Kael, you can either take my warning seriously or you can continue to "try on shoes",” she said looking at him and she even went so far as to make the two-finger quote action from my example. I wanted to laugh; I really did but I forced it back. “Trying on shoes makes your feet tired and so when the right "pair" comes along, your too blind to notice,” for some reason, she sounded irritated and I wondered why. She made me curious. I stopped myself from thinking about her further and lifted up my book to continue reading or at least pretend to read.

“Ellora,” out of the corner of my eye, I saw Adam coming towards us, calling out to her. I didn’t miss the way she blushed when she turned to look at him. I stopped reading to watch the interaction between them.

“Oh, hey Adam,”

“Hey guys,” he casually said to the others standing around, even though it was obvious he was here for her. “Listen, Ellora, I hope I didn’t, um, overstep earlier,” what did he mean overstep? Her cheeks went a darker shade of pink and I couldn’t help but frown.

“Ah, no, you didn’t,” she informed him. I wished that I could read minds, just so I could know what they were talking about.

“Good, because I wanted to ask you if you would join me for dinner tonight?” Adam asked her. Her eyes went big and she actually paled. “Not like that, just to continue our talk,” Adam hurriedly added.

“In that case, we would love to join you,” Riley suddenly spoke up. Adam glanced over at her, nodded and then left. The whole thing was way too weird for me, but I hung around, hoping to find out more details.

“What the hell was that Ms little know it all?” Kael questioned her and I couldn’t help but chuckle. She threw me a look and softly punched Kael on the arm. Riley just stood there drooling over Kael. How he doesn’t notice her is beyond my understanding. I waited for Ellora to explain but I should have known she wouldn’t.

“Adam has a thing for her,” Riley announced. I raised my eyebrows at this, and she was blushing, again. “But she’s not interested,” Riley added, glancing over at me. Why was she looking at me? I looked over at Kael, who was also looking at me. f**k. The only one that wasn’t looking at me was Ellora and that was because she found the hem of her top so interesting.

“So why dinner then?” Kael asked. Oh dude, thank you for asking all the right questions. I thought to myself while trying to hide my smirk.

“We didn’t get to finish our talk and Riley wants to know why I can’t read her mind and so on,” her voice was barely above a whisper. She was obviously embarrassed, and I couldn’t help but think how adorable she looked.

“Why?” I asked without even thinking. s**t. I didn’t actually want them to know I was interested in their conversation.

“I honestly don’t know, we are hoping Adam can shed some light,” she answered, barely looking at me. Riley suddenly excused herself and Kael shifted around, not wanting to be around either. I was just about to stop him from leaving when, poof, he was gone. “Woah,” the single word came out of her soft plump lips.

“What?” I heard myself ask. Damn it, why did I lose control around her? I was in trouble. With a capital T.