Logan wants all of me. This impossibly controlled man who keeps everyone at arm’s length wants messy, chaotic, electricity-throwing me.
And that’s exactly what I want to give him.
So, I focus on his voice and the warmth of his hands against my skin as I imagine that beautiful glass sphere, picturing myself pouring all this excess energy into it like the world’s weirdest snow globe. And slowly, miraculously, the storm around us fades.
When I open my eyes, Logan’s skin looks paler than usual, and there are shadows under his eyes that I swear weren’t there minutes ago. It’s the same exhausted look he had after the Drowned Tower, the death trial, and during the sigil ceremony, to name a few. Like something about being near me when I lose control drains him all the way down to his soul.
“Are you okay?” I reach up to touch his face, and he leans into the contact for just a second, his eyes fluttering closed.
“I’m fine,” he says, but the words come out rough, and when he opens his eyes, they’re darker than before. Not with desire, but with exhaustion.
“You’re not fine,” I say, since I know him well enough by now that he can’t hide certain things from me.
Emotions war across his face—words, feelings, or maybe truths that the Perseus Double Cluster is trying to drag from him. He opens his mouth like he might tell me something real but then?—
The door bursts open.
“There you are!”
Margot’s voice fills the observatory, her gaze sweeping between me and Logan.
Cold realization slaps me in the face. Because if she’d walked in thirty seconds earlier, she would have seen the electricity buzzing across my skin and the storm I created in the observatory. She would have seen me and Logan pressed against each other, lost in that kiss that felt like drowning and coming up for air at the same time.
“Callie’s been looking everywhere for you.” She closes the door behind her with a soft click that somehow sounds ominous and turns to look at Logan. “You weren’t in your room. You weren’t at the party. She was upset, so Alessandra’s with her right now, and they sent me to look for you.”
Logan’s jaw tightens. “You’re not Callie’s personal messenger, and my whereabouts aren’t your concern, Margot.”
“Oh, but they are.” She walks deeper into the room, her fingers trailing along the telescope’s brass fittings. “As assistant proctor, I have to be aware of what’s going on with the students. It would be irresponsible for me to do otherwise.”
“There’s no such thing as an ‘assistant proctor.’” Logan’s eyes narrow, and I’m surprised Margot isn’t backing up from the venom in his gaze.
“There is now.” She swallows and glances up at the stars. “The Perseus Double Cluster is fascinating, isn’t it? Some say it reveals hidden truths. Others say it amplifies what’s already there.” She turns to face us fully, and any pretense of her usual bouncing enthusiasm is gone. “I’ve been doing my own investigation into Miles’s death. Certain things don’t add up, and I have reason to believe that the killer was someone with an unusual magical signature.”
Electricity hums beneath my skin, but I reinforce the sphere and contain the magic.
Logan remains focused on Margot, his gaze sharp enough to cut through steel. “Leave. Now.” His voice carries that same weight it had in the Drowned Tower, that same commandingpresence that makes reality bend a little. Compulsion. “Check on the students at the Forge Party and forget you saw us here.”
Then compliance washes over Margot’s features. “I should go check on the other students at the Forge Party.” Her voice sounds robotic, and she moves toward the door, which closes behind her with a final click.
The silence that follows is heavy and dangerous. I can’t bring myself to look at Logan, fearing his walls will be up again, and that whatever magic happened between us in this place will be gone.
“We’re done for tonight.” His voice is strained, and there are new lines of exhaustion around his eyes. “You’ll take tomorrow off and get some rest.”
“Tomorrow off?” I repeat, unsure I heard him right.
Logan Ashford doesn’t believe indays off.
“The Fury Loop is intense.” He heads toward the nearly invisible lines at the side of the observatory that lead into the passages, clenching his sigil hand so tightly his knuckles turn white. “You’ll need rest before we practice in it.”
“Logan.” I reach for his arm, needing him to look at me again. “What just happened between us…”
He turns, steps closer, then leans down and kisses me. His lips move against mine with a tenderness that makes my chest ache, but when he pulls back, he’s already rebuilding every wall I thought we’d torn down tonight.
Tears well in my eyes as that familiar hardness returns to his.
“Come on.” He takes my hand. “Let’s get you back before someone else comes looking.”
We descend the spiral stairs in silence, and with each step, the distance grows between us. It’s like watching something beautiful slip through my fingers, and no matter how badly I want to stop it, I don’t know how, and I wish I did. I so, so wish I did.
