“Nix…” Thierry sipped in a sharp breath. “We are trying tohelpyou.”
“Helping a woman without listening to herisn’thelping. Making choices that affect her without her opinion isn’t helping.Leave me here alone, when I specifically ask you not to, and I will never forgive you.”
“Yes, you will. Because you will realize I did it allforyou, nottoyou.” Reaching between the bars, Thierry stroked his thumb over her calf from where she bunched her legs in front of her.
He added, “When given the choice between keeping you happy or keeping you safe, I will always choose safe. Alive. Because I, more than anyone, knownotliving is worse.”
Because his kind turned into immovable statues if they did not find their mates. Did he think becoming immovable, unbreakable stone was the worst fate one could endure? Nix begged to differ.
Thierry turned on the heel of his expensive leather shoes and waved for Persius to follow him out.
Persius promised her, “We will be back soon, myflóga.”
Cradling herself, Nix shook her head and snorted humorlessly. “Fate gave me mates in this life just to prove to me that having them would make no difference.”
Thierry stiffened but continued walking to the door, his back to her.
“I want you to remember, as you leave me behind, that without me, you will turn to stone,” she told him. “And without you, I will be indifferent.”
“Venomous words and lashing out are all normal under enchantment,” her captor assured them. “Please do find the ingredients and come back quickly.”
When the door closed behind them, Nix lifted her head and met the gaze of her torturer. “So… What are you going to do to me first?”
“Imean, Thierry and Pers can protect her without us, right?” Bael asked Ryker, thinking aloud as the two of them leaned back against the wall of the grand academy ballroom. Arms crossed, they glared at the students enjoying the dance. “She won’t hate us for leaving her to look out for other students?”
Ryker grunted grimly and scanned the room for suspicious activity.
“I have this bad, inexplicable feeling that Stoney is fucking something up for us.”
A random female student bounced up to where they stood. She swished the green skirt of her dress and said demurely, “Um, hi, uh, I was wondering if you’d like to dance—”
“My mate would literally burn your eyebrows off,” Bael shot back and dug into his pocket for a new lollipop. “Run away.”
As the girl hustled away from them, back to the dancing crowd, something in the back of the dimly lit room caught Bael’s attention.
The incubus pushed off the wall, uncrossed his arms, and asked, “Is that…Professor Bowen?Spikingthe punch?”
Within seconds, the two men surrounded the potions professor.
“You are needed to help Nix,” Ryker told him gruffly, grabbing his elbow to drag him away to where they had Nix in a cell at the edge of campus.
“Whoa, wait,” Bael said. “What the hell were you pouring into the punch bowl?” Bael knew a gross predator when he saw one, and Bowen was too straightlaced to do something like—
“It’s a protection potion.”Sounds about right. Bowen glanced around the room and whispered to them, “Dean Felling fired me yesterday after I went to his office to discuss the abhorrent amount of enchantments students have been experiencing lately. Nix called my attention to it, and she was right.”
“Yeah, well, she is enchanted right now and needs that protection potion. Also, the dean is in Hell now, so he can’t fire you. Loophole.” Bael eyed the punch bowl. “You got any more?”
“I made enough batches that I poured it directly into the wells and water systems of the academy.”
Bael grinned. “Damn, Teach, impressive.”
“In the next twelve hours, I think it is safe to assume that anyone in the academy currently bespelled will be cured and have their thoughts back in their own control by tomorrow morning—” Professor Bowen was interrupted by a spiteful blonde sprout of a woman.
Elle Oadess marched up to Bael and Ryker and glared at them. Lifting her pointer finger accusingly, she demanded, “Where are my brother and Nix?”
Bael deadpanned, “Who are you again?”
“I am Elle Oadess,” she huffed indignantly. “Where are they? Tell menow.”
