“It’s… it’s not the first time that’s happened to me. It happened to me with Andrew Radcliffe that… that day. When he touched me and tried to—” I shake my head, swallowing around the rising bile in my throat. “When he touched me, I linked with him somehow. I caught… glimpses, I guess you could say, and I have ever since.”
Ian lets out a low growl, but nods tightly for me to continue.
“I catch heightened emotions. His anger, his satisfaction. His… his appetites. He was there tonight. All that pain and chaos and destruction, he reveled in it.”
“And you could feel it.”
“Like I was reading his mind. And I got these… flashes. I saw Alyssa in an omega trap before one had even been cast. I saw fire before the Soldiers broke onto the quad.”
Ian’s dark brows crash together as he frowns.
“I know what you’re going to say,” I continue quickly, “because all of my research says the same: reading minds, seeing the glimpses I do… it’s impossible. Magic no mage possesses.”
I shrug. “I don’t know what’s happening to me. I can’t control it, not when it happens or who it happens with. Maybe it has to do with how my magic was locked. Like whatever happened to Rad when he attacked me was some kind of defense mechanism.”
“He said he felt like your magic was stabbing him behind the eyes.”
“A fate far too kind for him,” I sigh. “He tried to press charges against me. For using illegal magic. But my magic was locked then, something that was well documented. I suppose I have you to thank for that,” I say, a faint teasing note in my voice. “Regardless, whatever I did isn’t something mages can do. There’s only Rad’s word that I hurt him.”
“Have you seen Doc about the things you see? About what’s happening to you?”
I shake my head. “Not since before you unlocked my magic. You have to understand… I thought I was losing my mind. Part of me still does. What’s she going to tell me, anyway? That I have unresolved trauma and impossible magic?”
“Or an affinity.”
“An affinity?” My breath sears inside my lungs, the word a brand against my tender flesh. An affinity. The very thing I’ve been scouring the internet and Fairhaven’s library for all term.
“I thought they were fairy stories, myths,” Ian sighs. “But Sienna believes in them—Mai as well.”
“And my father. I… I heard him talking to my brothers and sisters about affinities over break. More and more omegas are showing them in his labs. He was asking Hawthorn if I’d shown any indication that—”
He stands abruptly and yanks his coat on. “I need to talk to Sienna and Mai. Tonight.”
“Tonight? Surely my magic isn’t cause for concern when so many are injured.”
Ian wakes a sleeping Bridget with a barked order, putting my triage in her care.
“I’m fine. I’m wide awake still. I can handle everyone here for the night.”
“I need you back in your cottage, preferably under Haley’s care.”
“He’s on first watch.”
“I’ll find someone to take it. Your safety is infinitely more important.” There’s an edge to his voice, an anxious hardness, a snap of worry.
I nod. “I’ll go back to my cottage.”
“I need to know you’re safe. Come with me.”
I follow him from the omega lodge, my boots crunching gravel as dawn slowly spills over the far horizon. Ian gives a shout for Marcus, who comes sprinting toward us. When my honor guard sees me unharmed, he sweeps me into a hug that leaves me breathless.
“Don’t scare me like that,” Marcus grouses.
Ian studies him for a moment as the three of us walk back to my cottage. “It wasn’t my intention. Juniper, I’m afraid I have to agree with Cassian. Two alphas you trust, with you at all times.”
I start, my temper flaring at the audacity of the alpha who broke my heart. How dare he talk to my professors about me outside his role as my peer advisor?
But no. Cassian, who wouldn’t meet me at the bell tower, who swore he loved me and wanted to talk, who asked for my father’s blessing and then practically destroyed me, is going to do what he wants.
