I rolled my eyes. “If you both pass, maybe we can see what we’ll all look like in the suits then.”
Jesper’s fingers flicked across the panel woven into the air before pausing and turning toward our squad.
“Mission brief.” Jesper ran a quick hand through his white hair. “A magical disturbance has been located in the Bizarre, where a quarantined phantom-populated village was sealed off two decades ago after a failed dark ritual by a warlock. Reports indicate erratic magical signatures, missing wildlife, and reserve interference affecting locals in the neighboring village. Your team must locate, contain, or banish the threat and prevent exposure to the Bizarre’s population.”
He turned to the panel and swiped. An illusion formed around us of warped buildings half-swallowed by overgrowth, glowing runes, and a war monument of the firedrake representative cracked in half.
“Damn,” Slater whispered. “It’s abandoned.”
“It is,” Jesper agreed.
“Spooky.” Slater shivered.
“Yeah, no good vibes there,” Koa muttered.
“I actually think it’s kind of romantic,” Zuko murmured from behind me, his voice sliding over my skin like honey. He stood a little too close. Close enough that I felt the heat of his chest at my back and a light brush against the swell of my ass. “Don’t you think, pretty little poison? Freaky magic. Cursed village. Perfect place for a first kiss.”
I turned around slowly, our noses brushing since he was so close. “Do you flirt like this with every woman you’re into?”
“Who said I was flirting?” Zuko grinned, flashing his fangs.
“Then stop breathing down my neck like you’re about to bite it,” I said, though my voice betrayed me, shaking slightly. Heat pooled in my lower abdomen as his burnt sugar scent overwhelmed me.
He tilted his head, his pretty sunset-colored hair shifting. “What if I asked yourealnice? Would you let me bite you then?”
I let out a soft giggle and bent to retrieve the dagger from the sheath strapped around my ankle. I pointed it at him. “What do you think?”
Zuko leaned in again, his cheek barely touching the blade. “Are you always this pretty when you’re threatening someone?”
My magic surged beneath my skin, building in my veins as I excreted a venom meant to hurt. It wasn’t enough to kill. It would only hurt enough to make him remember not to fuck with me.
“Iamalways this pretty.” I looked up through my lashes and licked the blade slowly and deliberately, letting my venom coat the steel.
His pupils dilated. “Oh,fuck,” he whispered.
I reared my arm back and drove the dagger into his thigh. The sickening thud on impact echoed through the chamber.
He sucked in a breath through his teeth. It wasn’t pain-filled. It was pleasure-filled.
Zuko barely even flinched. Instead, he shot me a feral grin. With infuriating ease, he wrapped his fingers around the hilt and pulled the dagger out. Blood rushed out in hot pulses, splashing on the polished simulator floor in three perfect crimson arcs before healing.
He brought the dagger up and held it to his nose, inhaling deeply. “Fates,” he breathed in.“Midnight orchid.”His sparkling orange eyes met mine. “Your venom smells like you.”
Slater let out a bark of laughter and draped an arm around Zuko’s shoulders. “She smells delightful, doesn’t she? Though, I’ve yet to be stabbed. I’m starting to feel left out.”
I stared, stunned. Zuko wasn’t writhing. The basilisk wasn’t eventwitching. The pain venom I’d honed since I was seven wasn’t doing anything to him.
“You should be screaming,” I snapped, more to myself than anyone. “That dose should’ve set your nerve endings on fire.”
Zuko hummed. “Maybe I’m into it.”
“Or maybe you’re broken,” I suggested sweetly.
“Or maybe,” he said, slipping my dagger into his belt with a possessive smirk. “Slater was right. You could be my mate.”
“She isourmate,” Slater added smoothly. “And I’ve always been right.”
Before I could argue or stab him again, Jesper’s voice cracked through the room.
