Don’t think about it. Don’t think about things that can’t be and feelings that won’t last. Focus on your task – freeing the Kings of Miskatonic Prep.
I tore my eyes from Ayaz’s sleeping figure, whirling around so I wouldn’t be confronted with more painful memories of what we had and could never be. Only instead, my eyes met Quinn’s again – amber orbs swimming with fear and confusion, torn between the desire to run and the desire to hold me close.
Another memory flashed in my mind. My back against a stone column in the garden, Quinn’s mouth pressed against mine while his cock slammed into me—
I turned my head to the wall so I didn’t have to confront his fear. “You don’t have to be in the same room as me if it freaks you out. You can leave. I’ve got Trey and Ayaz – I don’t need you if you’re not—”
“I want to be here.” Quinn’s voice sounded hard, determined.
I snorted. “No, you don’t. You’re afraid of me, even more so now you know I’m the key to whatever the fuck that pillar is. You think I’m gonna burn this place down at any moment.”
“Okay, yeah.” Quinn’s voice wavered. It took every ounce of self-control not to turn back to him and wrap him in my arms. I longed to kiss away his fears, but I couldn’t do that whenIwas the one who frightened him. “I am afraid. Not of you, Hazy. But of the fire. I just… I can’t go through that again. And I tell myself that you’d never hurt me, that you have control, that you love me. But I used to tell myself the same things about my father, and… and Ayaz is all burned up and the god stuck a giant black phallus in the middle of the school and I justdon’t fucking know what’s real anymore.You don’t know how much I want to—”
His voice cracked.Oh, fuck.My resolve slipped. Heat sliced down my arms. I drummed my fingers against my arm so I didn’t reach for Quinn.
“Shut up.” I needed a distraction, something that would make me stop thinking about how much I needed the Kings, and how much I hated myself and this power that I never asked for and didn’t want. Responding to my ire, the fire flared within me – reminding me that Quinn would get his revenge on his father soon enough. But what would he do to me?
I swung myself down from the bed and padded around to the end, flipping back the covers. I gasped as I saw Ayaz’s legs.
He hadn’t completely healed, but they were better than last night. Fresh skin peeked out from patches of charred and blistered skin. The burns were still horrific, but they no longer looked as fatal.
This is incredible. The god truly has given them a gift.
I’d never witnessed the healing powers of the god’s spirit in person before. Quinn’s eyes had healed quickly after Trey threw the itching powder in them, but I hadn’t been close enough to Quinn back then to notice the change. I touched one of the patches of new skin, astounded at the speed to which Ayaz’s body repaired itself.
Ayaz jumped, curling the blankets to his chin. “It’s still tender,” he muttered.
“Tender like your bruised ego, from getting beat up by a girl,” Quinn said behind me. His words lacked their usual jovial tone, and the joke sailed over Ayaz’s head unacknowledged.
“I’m glad you’re awake. I had a little meeting with the god, and I have the best news.” I threw the infirmary door open, expecting to see Trey standing in the hall. He wasn’t there. I glanced both ways – nothing.
“Where’s Trey?” Quinn shrugged. A noise hit my ears – a commotion. Voices shouting from somewhere in the school.What the fuck is going on now?
“Wait here,” I ordered Quinn, and took off at a run. The noise echoed down the empty corridors. It was coming from the dormitory wing. I crossed the sky bridge, shoved open the doors, and strode into the wide hallway. Students gasped as they saw me, flattening their bodies against the walls to escape my touch. Their fear gave me a clear view of what transpired at the foot of the grand staircase.
Trey stood at the foot of the stairs, holding a pile of his folded clothes in his arms. He faced off against Courtney, Amber, John, Derek, and a couple of others, who’d linked arms human-chain style to block the staircase that led to the second floor.
“You can’t come up here. That’s not your room anymore,” Courtney flipped her hair over her shoulder. “You think just because your little girlfriend summoned fire and a chunk of stone you get your old room back?”
“I don’t think that. I know it.” Trey’s ice-blue eyes sized her up, finding her wanting.
I strode down the hall, inserting myself between Trey and Courtney. “There a problem here?” I cocked an eyebrow.
“Your toy-boy seems to believe he’s entitled to his old room.” Courtney’s voice dripped with saccharine sweetness.
“That’s because he is.” I waved my hand. “Scoot aside. You’re blocking the stairs. That’s a fire risk.”
At the wordfire, an audible gasp rippled through the students. Courtney couldn’t win this game because there was one person they feared more than her now – me.
I gazed down the hall, meeting the eyes of those gathered, taking stock of the terror that lurked there. Yup, they were all afraid. Which felt good but could backfire on my ass in a big way if I wasn’t careful. As much as I wanted to push the Kings away now, before I got even more attached to them and our goodbye was too painful to articulate, I needed them.
I slid closer to Courtney. She blinked but didn’t move. Beside her, Amber and John broke the chain and scooted away. It was just me and her, nose to nose.
“You don’t have power here any longer.” I held up my palm, pointing it to her chest.
A muscle in Courtney’s eye twitched. “You wouldn’t dare, gutter whore.”
“Wouldn’t I?” I grinned, although the smile probably looked more like a wolf baring its teeth. “If I were to burn you to ashes right now, would anyone try to stop me? Would your death matter to anyone?”
