She wasn’t afraid. She was furious. Her eyes —wide, bright, wounded—met mine like drawn blades.
Then I saw it. Beneath the collar of her tunic, faint against her skin, the branching scar of lightning. The shape of my magic.
Not from the vines.
From me.
My breath caught.
It was my fault.
I frowned. “Please know that I didn’t intend for it to happen.” She had no idea how easily she could make me lose control.
“Excuse me? How do younotintend for that to happen?”
She didn’t understand. I had to make her.
I kneeled in front of her, hands open in surrender, showing no threat. She didn’t move away. The air between us tightened until it hummed, the faint crackle of lightning whispering through my thoughts. How was I this close again? Every muscle in my body twitched with restraint.
“Your presence,” I said quietly, “is enough to draw power from me I can barely contain.” The light in my eyes brightened, and the world glazed white.
Her eyelids lowered, lips parting. She looked at me as if I were the only thing she desired in this world, and that was precisely what would call forth the storm.
Then she frowned and shook her head rapidly, as if to drive out a thought. She pushed to her feet, and I followed.
She paced away from me, unsteady once, a hand pressed to her temple.
“Evie, you need to stay still,” I said.
“Don’t tell me what to do!” she shot back.
I moved after her in a heartbeat, catching her arm to stop her retreat. My strength slipped its leash. She stumbled, and I steadied her against my chest before she could fall.
Fool that I was to think distance would quiet the animalistic urge in me, that twelve days apart would dull the instinct to seize her and make her my prey.
Her eyes lifted, shining with tears and fury both. “Kael, please…” Her voice broke. “Just—leave me alone, all right?” I couldn’t. “Go back to Selena.”
Selena?
What did Selena have to do with this?
She must have seen the look on my face, because she went on, “Yeah, I saw you two together. And I want to claw those images out of my mind, but I can’t. Not for lack of trying. Why in all the gods’ names would you do that, Kael?”
The storm inside me froze. Everything stilled.Fuck.
That was what she was so angry about.
My thoughts fractured. The pinch in my gut tightened until it burned.
My features twisted in uncomfortable ways. “You weren’t meant to see that.”
The worst of me. The uncaged wolf. The monster within.
“She seemed to enjoy it!” she spat, her voice sharp with disgust.
I went still. My reply came low. “Trust me, she didn’t.”
“It doesn’t matter!” she threw back, spinning on her heel. “And where in the ninth hell is my satchel?”
