“I am NOT going to pass out!”
“You’re flushed,” he says, eyes dragging over my face. “Your breathing is uneven. Your magic is—”
“Stop analyzing me like I’m a blood pressurereading!”
He steps closer again, stealing the distance between us. “Yousummonedme, Piper.”
“FOR THE LAST TIME… IACCIDENTALLY… summoned you.”
He laughs, soft and deadly. “There’s no such thing as accidental magic when it comes to a bond.”
My stomach drops. “Stop sayingbondlike it means something.”
“It does,” he murmurs.
I cross my arms, trying to hide the tremble in my hands. “Look. I’m going to get water. You are going to sit on the couch. Quietly. Like a… demonic houseplant.”
“I don’t sit.”
“Well, you’re going to tonight.”
“I don’t take orders.”
“You do now,” I shoot back, trying on confidence I absolutely don’t feel. “Because you’re in my apartment, demon man.”
He steps forward until his chest brushes my shoulder. “So brave,” he murmurs. My heart slams painfully.
As I reach the kitchen counter, the pendant lights flicker. My magic swells unexpectedly, reacting to something in the air — something from him. “Why is the entire apartment suddenly acting like we’re in a haunted Hallmark special?” I mutter.
Slade breathes in — slow and deep, like he’s tasting the energy. “The curse,” he says. “It’s responding to me.”
“Responding how?”
He leans close enough that his breath grazes my ear. “It recognizes the bond.”
I whip around. “Stop. STOP saying bond. There isnobond. There isnotether. There isnocosmic matchmaking conspiracy.”
He laughs again. Dark. Knowing. “I can feel your magic,” he says softly. “And you feel mine. You’re trembling from it.”
“I’m trembling because you’re terrifying!”
His gaze drops to my lips, a sinful smile slowly spreading across his face. “You’re trembling because you want me.”
My jaw drops. Heat floods my cheeks. “You—! Arrogant—! Lantern-jawed—!Hell…REJECT!”
His grin widens. “Adorableeee.”
“Get out of my space,” I whisper.
He doesn’t. Slade catches my wrist — gently, maddeningly gentle — and guides my hand to rest on his chest. His heartbeat thunders against my palm, strong and wrong and intimate. “Feel that?” He whispers.
I swallow hard. “What… what is that?”
“A demon recognizing what’s his.”
My breath leaves me in a rush. Before I can form a coherent response, Newt leaps between us onto the counter, screeching like a tiny warlord defending his queen.
Slade snarls. “I swear to every infernal god, I’m going to banish him.”
