I reached out as if to stop him, but he moved too fast. I hadn’t even had a chance to ask about Dad. Logan perplexed me inthe worst kind of ways, and I lost my brain.
Marcus released a low whistle. “Holy shit,” he breathed. “I don’t know if you can feel his power, but it’s scary intense.”
That caught my attention. “You canfeelLogan’s power?”
Marcus scrubbed a hand over his mouth. “In my bones, Pais. Spellcasters can recognize each other, and we know who the biggerpredator is. That guy... you should stay away from him.”
He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know, but what Marcus was unaware of was that I felt Logan in my bones too.Like he was permanently etched in the marrow, and I’d never get him out. My destiny with Logan had been set in mud, all thoseyears ago in the park.
The details of which I still didn’t know for sure, but I knew they were permanent.
At least these classes with Marcus were a distraction. “Water is just like every other element,” he said as I followed himinto the lake. “It’s all about controlling matter, and the particles that connect the energy of the Earth and the moon.”
I drew the water to me, droplets rising from the lake until they danced around me in an arc. “Perfect,” Marcus said with anod. “The element is drawn to you.”
“I can’t do much more than that,” I warned him. “Not without a boost of energy to unlock the full potential of my own.”
He assessed me for a beat, turning his head from where we stood side by side. “How do you get a boost?”
An arm wrapped around my waist, and I barely stopped the gasp leaving my lips. “Like this,” Logan said softly.
His power crashed against mine, merging with ease. We’d been doing this for weeks and had it down to a fine art. My body swelled, and needing an outlet for this power, I clapped my hands together, and then slowly drew them apart in an attempt to part the water of the lake. I’d expected just to pull a few feet around us, but I hadn’t taken into account how intimately Logan was pressed against me.
How connected our powers were.
He’d never touched me like this in our training before, a branding against my skin, and it felt as destructive as any monsterwho’d sliced through flesh and bones.
The entire lake parted, all the way down to sections so deep I couldn’t see the bottom. If we’d have wanted to, we could havewalked our way across that mud and made it to the other side.
“Fuck,” I cried out as shock shook the hold on my power, and I released the water to crash together.
There was a rush of heat across my skin as Logan and Marcus used their magic to prevent a tsunami, and when the lake was onceagain calm, Logan’s hand flexed against my skin. “This is the true potential of your energy,” he murmured.
“Our energy together,” I breathed.
He leaned in, and I turned to find him close. I drowned in that icy gaze and lost coherent thought. This was want and need,and I wanted and needed him to kiss me.
“I think I’ve got all the information the professors will require,” Marcus said, voice distant.
Logan broke our hold, releasing me as suddenly as he’d touched me in the first place.
“She’s a spellcaster,” he told him, looking completely unruffled, while I was a desperate mess. Marcus nodded.
“I agree. I’ll let them know that you still need to figure out the trigger for your release, but when you do, your power isstrong.”
Now that I wasn’t wrapped up in whatever fucking spell Logan cast over me every time we were close, heat infused mycheeks. Embarrassment drove me to explain myself to Marcus, but he was already striding from the water, and I felt the air give him a little boost so he was gone in a flash.
Crossing my arms over myself, I tried to hide the tremble in my hands. “You did that deliberately,” I said to Logan, refusingto look at him. His eyes were bewitching, ironically. “You’re controlling and manipulating my life, and I can’t tell yet ifit’s to help me or make everything much worse.”
His gaze burned into the side of my face, taunting me to look at him, but I held strong. Mostly. “When have I made your lifeworse, best friend?”
Deflection.We were back to deflection.
“Answer me this, Logan. Why have you been helping me when your father made it clear that my family is scum? When your fathergot mine suspended from school and on his way to being fired? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Look at me,” he demanded. Whatever strength I’d been channeling was yanked away in that one command.
My gaze met ice laced in fire, the green all but swirling with power. “Hear me now, Paisley Hallistar. There’s always onlybeen one endgame for us. The journey might vary, but the end will never fucking change. Our endgame was written when you werefour.”
