“How dare you use magic on me!” August shouted, anger throbbing behind his eyes.
Felix blinked, and coldness settled over his features. “I did what needed to be done.”
Not an ounce of guilt.
Felix didn’t care. He’d broken his promise—brokeneverything—and couldn’t even pretend to be torn up about it.
August moved in close, chin raised to meet Felix’s eyes. “I won’t tolerate being used. You think you can do whatever you want, but you can’t. There are consequences.”
“Are there now?” Felix asked. “And what consequences will Ashcroft and your mother face? Who’s going to hold them accountable?”
August knew the answer. There would be no consequences, and no one would ever hold them accountable. Nobodycould. But he couldn’t bring himself to say that.
So he said, “I don’t know.”
“I do,” said Felix. His lips twisted into a dangerous smile. “Me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t go after them.”
“Are you going to stop me, Aesling?” Gold glinted in his blue eyes, an unspoken threat.
August didn’t recognize the boy in front of him. The one he thought he knew, thought he might have loved, was gone. Or perhaps he never existed in the first place and August had just been so desperate for something real that he missed all the signs.
“I swear to Baellas, Felix. If youeveruse your magic on me again, I’ll have you arrested.”
Felix’s eyebrows pinched, hurt flashing briefly on his face. And then it was gone, like a window slamming shut.
“That so?” he asked.
Footsteps approached, bringing with them the purposeful voices of the City Watch.
“Felix,” Marlow said warily. “We need to go.”
“Not yet!”
August shook his head. “Well,I’mleaving. Good luck with all this.”
“You’re a damned coward, you know that? Since the moment you found out what I am, you’ve been searching for a reason to hate me.”
August’s lip curled. “And you were clearly eager togiveme one!” Everything in him was screaming to walk away, but instead, he asked, “Are you even sorry?”
Would it even matter if Felix was sorry? The damage was done. Was August really so desperate to hold onto this?
“Sorry for what?” asked Felix. “Being more powerful than you?”
August bristled, his pride drawing out a response before he thought better of it. “You have magic,notpower. There’s a difference.Ihave both.”
It was a stupid, arrogant thing to say, but he was feeling particularly stupidandarrogant at the moment. He knew it was a blow that would cut deep. And he wanted Felix to hurt.
Clearly it worked.
His irises lit gold, and the air hummed with his magic.
Fear shot through August like a lightning bolt, the jolt sending him back a step, and when he called out to the Watch, it was a knee-jerk reaction born of self-preservation.
A shadow darkened Felix’s face. “I see you’ve chosen your side.”
“You did this,” August snapped back. “Iwarnedyou.”
