Finally seeing Heatherhills College felt like coming home. They had been notified of our arrival and we were welcomed as if we were locals. As if we had always lived here. It looked much like our own college, in the sense that it was in a repurposed castle. But instead of lying next to lakes, it was surrounded by trees. Large curly trees like in the haunted forest, but the growth wasn't as tight. It was much nicer here. Lots of space to practice more explosive magic – something Zeke and Astral were going to do now when we had space and time for it. Meanwhile, I'd get very comfortable with the library.

"Well, I've escorted you to the college," Keefe said as we were getting shown to our rooms. "That was what I promised I'd do."

Astral frowned. "So, you wanna be on your way or?"

Keefe shifted his weight from one foot to another, looking awkwardly large and too aware of his size.

"You don't have to leave our party, Keefe," I said and took Astral's hand in mine. "We won't even be staying at the college for that long. We'd still need protection for the remainder of our journey. So, if you'd do us the honour of staying, I know, I'd be grateful."

"And you're our friend." Astral frowned. "I mean, if you wanna go, then..."

"No!" Keefe exclaimed and furiously shook his head. "I-I wanna stay."

"Good. Now let's go to our rooms, unpack, and find the food court, so we can have a nice dinner together. As a family," I said a bit too sternly and pivoted around, going to the dorms.

"Family, huh?" Astral asked and opened his rucksack.

"Isn't that what we are?"

"So what, we've adopted Keefe and Zeke?" he snickered and crouched down, pulling out a dirty shirt and discarding it on the floor.

"We're good parents, I think." I shrugged and folded my shirt neatly in the chesterdrawer.

Astral came up behind me, wrapping his arms around me. "You've always taken such good care of others, Mars," he murmured softly. "Don't forget yourself in all of this, alright?"

"I won't," I breathed, grabbing his hand, and bringing it up to my mouth, kissing his knuckles.

"Good." He let go of me and returned to his sack.

I looked over the room. It looked much like our old one, but this one had an exceptionally large and beautiful window with a gorgeous view of the forest. Two beds though, not one big one.

"I guess we're back to sleeping in separate beds then," I muttered more to myself than Astral.

He looked up and frowned at me. "We're not sleeping in separate beds. I'm sleeping in yours. With you."

"That'll be rather cramped, won't it?" I asked, fighting hard to not smile, but losing.

"Not really. I like having you close." He went back to his unpacking, shoving his clothes in the chesterdrawer, not folding it nicely.

"So, you like cuddling. You're a cuddle-bunny," I teased and folded a pair of trousers.

"No, I'm just really cold at night and you're like a fireplace. But in my bed. You're super warm."

I chuckled and looked at him over my shoulder. "Sure, that must be what it is."

"It's all it is." He frowned at me, but it was a grimace. He was teasing me too.

"Cuddle-bunny."

He pounced on me and got me down on the bed with him on top of me. "I am not a cuddle-bunny. I'm an ice-pick."

"You like cuddling. You're all soft." I laughed when he started tickling me.

"I'll have you eat those words, you fiend," he exclaimed very dramatically and grabbed my arms, pinning them above my head. "Now what? You've lost."

"Oh, how awful. I'm in bed with the man I've chosen to spend my life with, and he's pinning me to the beforementioned bed. What have I done to deserve this cruel fate?"

Astral laughed and bent over, kissing me. "No stars are smiling upon you when this has become your life."

"Truly, not a single one. I'm having the worst time of my life, right now."

"I am so evil to you."

"Absolutely horrific."

He smiled and I smiled back. And then he kissed me again.

I quickly became acquainted with the library over the next few days. I loved it there already. Theirs was a lot bigger than ours and there were so many books, I wasn't sure we'd be leaving anytime soon, if I had anything to say. I wanted to read them all.

I had found myself a table and built almost a fort out of books around me. I was reading the most interesting takes on The Sight and who got it when I felt eyes on me. I looked up to find three girls looking at me. This college being for all genders would never cease to make me feel... Weird.

"Can I help you?" I asked, hesitantly.

"You're one of the visiting mages, right?" one of the girls asked, stepping forward. She had long orange hair and orange eyes. Almost orange-looking skin too.

"I'm not a mage, but yes, I'm a part of that group."

"So, you know the green-haired mage?"

"Astral, yes," I said and nodded.

"He's very dreamy," the girl sighed and the other two nodded.

"Dreamy?" I arched a brow at them.

"So handsome. He must be so smart too," one of the other girls said. She had short blue hair and very pale skin. Almost as pale as mine.

As if Astral's ears had been burning, he came into the library, barely offering the girls a glance before he smiled at me.

"Already working?"

"I've found a lot of great books for us to use for our thesis."

He bent down and kissed me, his hand cupping my cheek. "You're amazing."

"How did training go with Zeke?" I asked and glanced at the girls. They didn't look too pleased.

"Really well. She's learning fast." He grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to mine. And that's when he finally realised, we had an audience. "Friends of yours?"

"Actually, they were asking for you," I said a little hesitantly and turned back to them. "So, this is Astral. I'm sorry but I never got your names? I'm Mars."

Astral just arched one brow at them, looking bored.

"We... Were just saying hi," the orange-haired girl said and turned on her heel, stomping away, the other girls following her lead.

"Well goodbye then," Astral muttered and rolled his eyes.

"They thought you were dreamy," I snickered.

Astral didn't look too impressed. "Meh," he muttered and leaned closer to me, so he could read my notes. "Oh, this looks like a good theory."

"You have to read this book, Astral." I handed him a smaller leatherbound book. He flicked through it for a couple of minutes, skimming some pages and then smiled.

"Honestly, what would I do without you? This one talks about remedies for lessening the side-effects to The Sight." He leaned in and kissed my cheek.

"I'm sure you would've found it yourself." My cheeks were getting warm fast.

"I couldn't do any of this without you," he murmured so softly.

I turned my head and kissed him, letting my hand slide up in his magnificent hair. His hand was on my knee, giving it a squeeze. He pulled back and looked down.

"Huh, your legs aren't as skinny anymore. Have you noticed?"

"Uh, no, I hadn't."

"Must be all the walking we've done." He ran his hand further up, clenching my thigh. "I like it."

"You're such a flirt," I murmured and leaned my head on his shoulder.

"Honestly, you'd be off if I didn't flirt and compliment you daily."

"Immediately. I like being won over," I said in a 'matter of fact' way.

"See? You have me working for you. Chasing you," he whispered the last bit and moved down, kissing my throat.

"Astral, we're in the library."

"Yeah, it needs initiation."

I laughed and shook my head. "We should be working. Not fooling around."

"But I like fooling around with you." He had this voice. This special voice. In my head I called it his bedroom-voice. It meant he wanted to go back to the room and kiss me all over. When he got in moods like this one, there was no talking to him. He had checked out completely and could only focus on one thing. And honestly it got me riled up.

I took his hand in mine and rose to my feet. "Come on then. I'm sure you've thought out in detail what you wanna do."

He smiled like a little boy getting a present and shot to his feet, pulling me close. "You know me so well." He giggled and pulled me along.