“If you’d like full marks in the class, yes. I need to know that you’re proficient in ceremonial magic. If you refuse, I’ll assume you don’t understand it.” He smiled casually, but there was a warning in his gaze. “Do you not understand the importance of creating an offensive protection ward with ceremonial magic, Gravesend?”
“I understand the need for it.” With an exhale, I rose from my seat, trying to ignore the way Skel and Bram tensed. I knew they didn’t want me around him either.
The moment I reached the front, Ironwood’s banana berry scent became suffocating.
Wrinkling my nose, I grabbed the crystal anyway and centered my magical essence. Before I could perform the ceremony, Ironwood stepped too close.
His breath fanned over my shoulder as he murmured instructions. “Relax your stance,” he murmured, hands suddenly coming around me from the back and resting on my wrists, adjusting the way I held the crystal in my palms.
My whole body went rigid. I could hear Skel’s knuckles cracking, and when I glanced back, Bram looked about ready to launch himself over the desk.
“The Fates do you think you’re doing?” Skel’s voice cut through the air, lethal and raw.
Bram shot to his feet beside him. “Get your hands off her. She knows how to hold a fucking crystal.”
Ironwood didn’t flinch. If anything, his tone was condescending. “Gentlemen, control your tempers. This is a classroom, not a battlefield. She isn’t holding the crystal correctly, otherwise I wouldn’t be adjusting her.”
Nausea swirled in my gut as I shrugged his hold off me and stepped forward.
Dex appeared before I could fully turn around, blocking my view of Ironwood.
“Why the fuck are you holding her wrists from behind?” he growled. “Your fucking chest was against her backside.”
“Stop making this into something inappropriate,” Ironwood replied smoothly, but his smug expression grated on my nerves. “I’m just doing my job.”
He was trying to make my mates look unreasonable for being upset—possessive andviolent. But I could sense the raw desire and amusement from his soul. Hewasbeing inappropriate, and I wasn’t about to let him manipulate the situation in front of the class.
Though, I was pretty sure he slept with a lot of students, so they were probably already aware.
“You didn’t need to adjust my hold on the crystal from behind,” I said flatly, placing a hand on Dex’s back as I set the crystal on Ironwood’s desk. “It made me uncomfortable.”
Dex snarled, “Don’t try to reason with him. He knows what he was doing. We’re done here.”
“If you leave, Pandora’s going to fail?—”
“She’s not failing anything,” Bram growled dangerously as he and Skel came up beside me.
“You’re acting fucking predatory,” Skel insulted Ironwood before launching his fear magic at him. “Threatening my mate about her grade?”
“Not happening.” Dex shadow-traveled us out of the class before Ironwood could react.
The next thing I knew, we were standing in Hunter’s office.
Fester was there, sitting stiffly on the sofa across from Hunter’s desk, mid-session for his counseling.
“What happened?” Hunter asked, his voice dangerously low. His white gaze slicked over me as if looking for any sort of injury.
“Not that I’m arguing, but predatory? What did you see?” Bram asked Skel.
“His fear is teaching naked and soft in front of a class of hot reform students. So, predatory was so fucking right,” Skel muttered angrily, grabbing my wrist and tugging me close before peppering kisses all over the skin Ironwood touched.
“Disgusting asshole,” Bram muttered as he slid behind me, rubbing his chest over my back where Ironwood had stood.
Dex flicked his tail back and forth. “IronwoodtouchedPandora. Got in her space toadjusther hands on a fucking crystal. Then, he tried to make us look bad when we called him out.”
“Ironwood?” Fester gasped.
Hunter’s expression darkened. The temperature in the room dropped as a wave of vengeance magic rippled off him. “He didwhat?”
