I froze, then frowned. I knew Selena too well to mistake this for courtesy. This was calculated.
She must have noticed, as I had, how insecure Evie had been in council. And outside, when we’d met and I’d seen those lips up close. If Selena judged Evie unfit for court work, she would throw her to the wolves to prove it. She never chose seats for tutelage or whatever story she dressed it in. She was placing Evie where she pleased, a lamb before the storm, to watch how she behaved. A lesson for Evie, and a message for me. She could still arrange the Court Wizard like a piece on her board, still tighten the leash she wore like a white-gloved ornament.
I wondered whether she had also felt how the room shifted after the assembly, how Evie had tugged at my composure. With all the empathic power Selena wielded, she might have. And if she had, why seat Evie next to me?
All I wanted now was to keep Evie from her. My instinct flared with the sole wish to protect her. From Selena, and also from me.
I was about to tell Selena to shove her seating chart where the sun didn’t shine, but she turned and drifted down the corridor like a wisp of silk. When I looked back, my gaze caught on Evie. Selena casther a small, knowing smile as they greeted one another, then looked over her shoulder at me before vanishing. My eyes met Evie’s, and in them I saw only how fiercely she wanted to run.
That sight, for my sins, was not merely electric. It was a dark spark under my skin, a pull that made me ache to reach for her even as I knew, for her sake, that I must not.
Her doe eyes were wide, her breath caught somewhere in her chest. Then, slowly, her face softened. She raised her chin and, against all expectation, she curtsied, bending her knees and lowering her head.
It was… adorable.
I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t laugh.
When she looked up, she must have realized what she’d done, because her eyes flared open and shame spilled over her pretty face. Even her olive skin couldn’t hide the flush on her cheeks.
“Gods… I don’t know why I did that,” she blurted, then visibly cursed herself for saying it. She was terrible at hiding what she thought.
I chuckled. “It’s alright, Magister. I’ll allow it.” I stretched my lips into a satisfied smile.
She was still blushing. “I’m looking for Bram. Have you seen him?”
“He was in council with me moments ago. Then he went to the courtyard.”
“Oh…”
Silence settled briefly between us. The conversation had run its course, yet I didn’t move. Under normal circumstances, I would have walked away, but this awkwardness amused me. Even knowing that staying near her would wake the storm inside me, I wanted to play.
A little longer.
I finally had her here. And I loved the way she looked at me.
I stepped closer, close enough to catch the faint scent of roses rising from her. She took a few steps back, which stirred the buried instinct to corner her, to follow until her back touched the walland she had nowhere else to go. Her eyes begged me not to come closer.
Which is exactly what I did.
That look ignited something in me. A dark, hungry flicker that sent images through my mind. Those eyes bright with tears as she begged me to stop but didn’t mean it. Those lips parted, trembling as her breath hitched from what I was doing to her. Those knees bending as she curtsied over my cock.
Gods be damned, being near her like this, wrapped in her scent, made me obsessed.
“W-what’s going on?” she stammered in a little voice.
I drew a deep breath. “Your eyes… Why are you so afraid?”
She swallowed. She was trembling. And the sight of it drove me near madness.
I had to leave. If I didn’t, I’d lose control. And trust me, no one wanted that.
“I’m not afraid,” she lied, voice caught in her throat. “You are… really close…”
Was I?
If I took one more step, my hand would find her skin.
I couldn’t allow that.
