Stop. Control.
Cage the wolf. Keep the storm within.
It stirred in my bones before I even realized. My fists were clenched, my breath harsh. I first heard the crackle in my thoughts, the final warning before the storm would burst. Then lightning sparked inside my palm—painful, restrained, testing my resolve not to move.
She had no idea what brewed within me. All she saw was the Court Wizard standing too close, and she couldn’t move.
I had her trapped. I had her so confused.
She should run. Now.
Because if she didn’t, my next move would be to touch her. And if I touched her, nothing in this world would stop what came next.
“Magister Forloren!”
Loren’s voice cracked through the corridor like a whip.
Time snapped back into place. Reality crashed over me like a receding tide.
I exhaled, forced my fists open, and stepped away. My scribe stood at the end of the hall, oblivious to what he’d just interrupted.
“Magister Hart requested your presence in the audience hall,” Loren said.
What does Selena want again?
I grunted and cast one last stern glance at her before turning away. In a way, I was grateful to Loren for breaking us apart.
I’d toyed with Evie’s reactions twice now, and this time, keeping my composure had been harder than holding the storm at bay. I needed to stop. Gods, I’d told myself that just days ago. But I was a man who liked to live dangerously, and so I’d done it again.
I couldn’t do it again.
It had taken years to learn how to cage the storm, years of discipline and pain, the wolf bound by the lessons and training the academy had forced upon me. Even their most powerful magister hadn’t managed to contain it fully. And he was dead now, taken by the Breath of Death.
All that was left to hold the storm was me.
Evangelina Corvo was dangerous, a spark poised above dry kindling, a flash grenade waiting to detonate. No more teasing, no more testing myself. She was temptation carved into mortal flesh, and she didn’t even know it.
She was supposed to remain at the academy. She was supposed to stay far away from me.
I marched out of the council wing, my thoughts trailing back to her all the same. The scent of roses still clung to me, faint but stubborn.
On my way to the audience hall, I caught a glimpse of the sky outside, thunder murmuring low beyond the walls. The hairs on myarms rose. The storm within me stirred in answer, restless and hungry, her name splitting through it like lightning.
Who was I kidding?
Evie was bound to stay in my orbit for years to come. Of course something would happen again.
And maybe—just maybe—some part of me wanted it to.
Because every day of my life was built on control and restraint.
And the thought of finally letting the storm break loose… felt almost like peace.
Chapter 7
Evie
What just happened?
