Maybe he'd just take a quick peek to see if it was worth taking the chance.

Finding a small desk shoved beneath a light, Farren sat down and cracked open the book. It made a sound associated with breaking in a new spine. Huh. Farren checked the *

52.

copyright date. Apparently the volume had been languishing the past fifty years without anyone peeking to see what was inside. Strange, he would've thought at least the librarian would have rifled through the book.

Farren flipped the pages, his fingers tingling with excitement. Wait. Tingling? For the first time, he used his other magic to focus on the book. Everything else went to shades of grey, but the book flared bright orange, glowing with magic. No wonder his fingers tingled.

They should've burned from that amount of power pouring off the document. Maybe if it burnt everyone else that could explain why the book remained pristine. No one else with djinn blood had probably wandered into the library before.

That thought chilled some of his thrill of discovery. He licked his suddenly dry lips as he slowly turned to the first chapter. Columns of symbols covered the page, but none of them made any sense. The snake slid around his arm, adjusting to a different position so its head lay on top of Farren's wrist. It peered up at him with emerald green eyes.

After flipping through a few chapters, the text began to make a bit of sense. The book was written in Old Persian, a dialect Farren only had a brief knowledge of from family diaries. He'd need to take the book back with him to decipher the text. Sighing, he closed it back up, grabbed his bag and turned to leave. A bright blonde head caught his attention. His heart hammered in his chest before he realised he must've been mistaken. Betina didn't go here, his cousin was still miles away at home. After he convinced his suddenly wobbly knees of his mistake, he headed over to the circulation desk.

"Student card?" the librarian requested. Her grey hair was pulled tight in a bun, giving her brows a surprised lift. From the scowl on her face, Farren suspected she was harbouring a monster headache.

He mutely handed over his card.

She glanced at the book in surprise. "It looks like this book has never been outside our library before. Congratulations, young man, you are the first."

Farren gave her a weak smile. "Research project."

She tapped his ID against the scanner then handed it over. "Good luck."

"Thanks."

He didn't take another solid breath until he stepped outside the library doors. That had gone better than he'd dared to hope.

53.

Maddox was there when Farren returned to his room. The snake slithered off Farren's wrist and onto the small blanket he'd set on his desk to give the snake a cosy home.

"What's up with the snake? You know there's a no pet policy."

Farren scowled at Maddox. "It's not a pet. It's an avatar, and I figure it will vanish to wherever fire snakes go when I don't call it."

Maddox scratched his head. "Well, usually, but that one doesn't look like it's eager to go anywhere."

Farren refused to agree that Maddox made a good point.

Dan entered his dorm room. Exhaustion beat at him. As much as he enjoyed his time with Farren, he'd had to work hard to catch up with all the homework he'd neglected.

"Hey, Dan, how's your boy?" Dean asked from his spot on the couch. Dean was sprawled sideways reading the latest ghost story. A thriller based on a murder at the school fifty years ago. Dan had skimmed the book, but it had given him the creeps so he'd passed it on to his brother.

"I guess he's good. I haven't seen him the past few days. We've both been busy. Did I tell you he got a tattoo?" Thoughts of Farren fractured his brain. Smooth, warm skin, soft touches and the aching need to be next to his lover at all times swamped Dan like a wave of lust and longing.

Dean tore his attention away from the pages. "Is it hot?"

"I have a picture of it." Dan grabbed his phone and pulled up the photo he'd taken. "I think it means something special to him but he didn't want to talk about it. He said it has to do with his grandfather."

There were a lot of things Farren never wished to discuss, especially about his family.

Dan wondered if they'd shunned him when he'd come out as gay. For now he respected Farren's wishes, but he hoped with time his lover would come to trust him enough to share his secrets.

Dean tossed the novel to the side and eagerly grabbed the phone.

54.

"Hey, where's Devin?" Dan knew his brothers' schedule and Devin had free time right now.

"He's studying with his lab partner."

The way Dean said 'studying' made Dan think not much book learning was going on.

Dean tilted the phone right then left. "Huh, odd. Did he say what language it's in?"

"No, he didn't say much about it at all." Like most things with Farren. He wasn't very forthcoming.

Dean started pushing buttons on Dan's phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Sending it to Jay, he'll be able to decipher it or know someone who can."

Finding information out behind Farren's back zinged him with sharp arrows of guilt. "I don't know if that's such a good idea."

"It absolutely is. What if your lover is demon possessed, but you didn't check because you didn't want to hurt his feelings? No, Dan, we need to find out what it means. It doesn't look normal to me."

Dan wished he could argue, but he couldn't. He'd found Farren's behaviour strange, even for him. If it had turned out Farren had needed help and Dan hadn't known better, he'd never forgive himself. "Okay, but only because I don't want him hurt."

"I'm glad you agree because I already messaged him."

"Jay's pretty busy right now, he might not have time to get back to us," Dan argued.

Dean made a scoffing sound in the back of his throat. "You know it will only take him a second or two. He knows fucking everything."

"True." Dan sat down opposite his brother.

"How much of Farren have you seen? Does he have tattoos anywhere else?" Dean waggled his eyebrows at Dan.

"I thought you didn't want the image of your brother having gay sex embedded in your brain," Dan teased.

"I see you're avoiding the question."

"I examined him pretty closely, I'm going to say he only has the one." Heat flushed through him as he remembered the long night he kissed and licked each and every inch of Farren's body.

55.

"Stop it!" Dean threw a pillow at him.

"What?" Dan batted the cushion away.

"Stop thinking of your guy naked, it freaks me out." The empathy between brothers had them sometimes reading each other's minds.

Dan rolled his eyes. "Well don't ask if I've examined him then. I'd think of a girl naked, but it would freak me out."

Dean snorted. "You're coming to the party this weekend, right? The wolves always throw a good bash."

Dan allowed the abrupt change of subject without comment. "Yeah, I haven't been to the pack house in forever. I'm hoping I can get Farren to join me."

They settled down for the night, chatting about their classes, their future and if Devin would ever notice the red-headed boy in his History of Spell Casting who stared at him like he hung the moon. It was a good night. Maybe tomorrow would be nice and calm. Dan could use a quiet day.

Sirens screamed past the window. Dan snapped out of a confusing dream where fire serpents swirled around Farren's body and the school went up in flames. Shaking his head to try to clear it, Dan rushed to the window in the common room only to find Devin and Dean had beaten him there. They all watched as the firefighters pulled up to the dorm across the way.

Oh fuck. I know that dorm.

"Farren!" He turned to rush out the door.

"No!" Devin grabbed Dan's arm. "You can't just run in there and save him."

"Well, I'm not going to just stand here and watch him burn." Dan yanked away from his brother's hold and raced to his bedroom. Luckily he only slept in his underwear, so he didn't need to strip down before dressing. Hopping on one foot than the next, he jerked on a pair of denim pants, the closest T-shirt then shoved his feet into a battered pair of loafers.

Finding socks would've taken too long.

Ignoring his brothers' shouts, Dan raced out the door and down the stairs. The only thought in his head was to get to Farren. He hoped with his entire being that Farren had used his fire magic to control the flames and keep himself safe.

56.

The fire trucks were pulling up outside the dorm when Dan arrived. Flames shot from the roof and students were pouring out like a flood of rats fleeing a sinking ship. Dan frantically searched the students running from group to group, but so far none of them had seen Farren.

"Yeah, I saw him. He held back the flames and got us out of there," a girl in yellow ducky pyjamas said. She bit her lip and stared anxiously at the flames. "I hope he's okay."

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Dan managed to force the words out of his suddenly dry throat.

If Farren could control the flames he'd be safe. Unless the floor collapsed beneath him or the roof caved in.

"He'll be fine." Dean gripped Dan's shoulders and shook him. "He'll get out of there safely. He wants to come back to you."

The sight of Maddox walking out of the building snapped Dan's last thread of control.

Knocking away his brother's hands, Dan ran up to Maddox and grabbed his arm.

"Where's Farren?"

Maddox's face was streaked with soot and a wild look filled his eyes. "He's still inside.

He told me to leave. He told me to leave." Maddox began sobbing.

One of the firefighters, a big brawny guy with a red helmet, stepped forward. "Let's get him to the truck so I can check him for smoke inhalation.

Dan shoved Maddox towards the firefighter. "Fucker left Farren inside," he growled.

"Hey, if a fire wizard told me to get out, I'd get the fuck out of there too," Devin said.

"Just be patient, Dan. It'll be fine."

Each of his arms was gripped tightly by his brothers. Dean and Devin knew him too well. They knew he wanted to run in there and save his lover. If he had a smidgen of fire control, he would've gone into the burning building. As it was he had to resist the urge now.

"There!" Dean pointed to an arch in the flames.

A soot covered figure walked calmly out of the building. The fire arced and spat over him, but not one flicker of flame came near. Fire swirled around Farren as if it wanted to play with him instead of burning down the campus. Farren turned, waved his hand and the flames went out like a giant had blown out a birthday candle. Confused and worried, Dan ran to Farren's side.

"Are you okay?"