“Quiet.” Logan’s voice is soft, but it carries enough threat that Alessandra goes silent. “Jade. Breathe with me. In.”
The electricity starts to crawl up to my shoulders, and I focus on Logan, trying to do as he’s asking. My lungs catch, but the electricity flickers with the rhythm, stopping its attempted ascent upward.
Alessandra looks back and forth between the two of us, as if she can’t believe what’s happening. “You’re protecting her?” Her whisper is almost a hiss. “After seeing what she is?”
“I said quiet,” he snaps, and the blade presses harder against her throat before he forces himself to ease back and refocus on me. “Good. Now, hold it.” He demonstrates, his chest expanding slowly, the blade at Alessandra’s throat never wavering. “Three seconds. Now, out.”
The sound of our breathing travels through the damp air, the space between us shrinking to firelight from the torches and the ragged beats of our hearts. Every nerve ending screams at the intimacy of it. The rise and fall of his chest, the sound of my name on his lips, and the way his steadiness feels like both anchor and threat. It’s soothing, like being wrapped in a warm blanket, and the arcs of electricity start to calm, pulling back beneath my skin like a tide rolling out.
“Better.” He watches me for another heartbeat, then steps back from Alessandra, lowering the blade.
Before she can bolt, Logan’s hand rises, fire blooming in his palm. The flame reflects orange in his gray eyes. But there’s a black tint writhing along his fire’s edges, like it’s trying to escape, only to be yanked back by invisible chains.
His eyes lock on Alessandra’s. “Stop,” he commands, his voice taking on a layered, musical cadence, and she freezes mid-step. Just… stops. Like someone hit pause. “Look at the flame.”
She stares into the fire in his palm, and her warm brown eyes glaze over, going empty.
Compulsion. He’s using compulsion.
“You came down to use the bathroom,” he says to her, that same layered depth in his tone. “You saw nothing unusual. There was no confrontation. No electricity. Jade wasn’t even here.”
“I came down to use the bathroom.” Alessandra’s voice is flat. “I saw nothing unusual.”
“Go back upstairs to the fourth floor. Dance with your friends. Enjoy the party.”
She blinks, her expression still blank. “I’ll go back upstairs. Dance with my friends and enjoy the party.”
“Good.” Logan nods, the movement small but precise. “Go.”
She walks away like a sleepwalker, her footsteps eerily even, and then she’s gone. Like none of this happened.
Logan turns to face me fully, still holding that black-lined fire.
“What the hell was that?” I point at where Alessandra disappeared, my hand shaking. “You justcompelled her.I know I’m no expert in all of this, since I’m new here and all, but that shouldn’t be possible.” I pause for a second, remembering the discussion in Thad’s class today, studying Logan’s calm expression as I do. “Witches can’t compel other witches. Right?”
He watches me for a long moment, and when he finally speaks, that same strange cadence creeps into his voice. Sweet and heavy, dripping over me like honey meant to stick.
“Look into the fire,” he tells me, his voice like music to my ears. “Forget you saw Alessandra, and forget every interaction you had with her tonight. You went to the bathroom, nothing abnormal happened, and now you’re going back up to spend time with your friends.”
The command brushes through my head, and my memories blur at the edges, softening and slipping.
For one terrifying moment, I almost sink into that warmth, that pull of him. I almost surrender.
Then my magic crackles and pushes back.Hard.
“No.” The word comes out sharp and clear, the compulsion sliding off me, like it’s been shocked out of existence.
His eyes widen with surprise, then narrow again. “Interesting.”
“Interesting?” I step toward him, refusing to look away from the man who just saved me from a girl who was about to attack me with her dagger, then tried to rip my choice away like it meant nothing. “You just mind-controlled another witch. And then you tried to do it to me, too.” Anger rushes through me, magic sparking from my fingertips, even as I try to control it. “Witches can’t compel other witches. So… whatareyou?”
JADE
Logan steps closer,studying me with new intensity. “I could ask you the same question.”
“I asked first,” I shoot back, but the wobble in my voice betrays me. Because what am I, really? A witch that shouldn’t exist? A girl with silver electricity in her veins? Or just a human trapped in a fever dream, seconds away from waking up in her room in Manhattan with nothing to show for it but rejection letters and a headache?
“Jade.” He rakes a hand through his dark hair, the movement restless, like he can’t hold himself together. “Do you have any idea what almost happened? Whatwouldhave happened if you’d lost control?”
