“Even if she needs therapy, I’d follow her into the hole,” Slater muttered.
“Heneeds therapy,” Pops confirmed.
I didn’t care, though. The entrance loomed before me, a daunting challenge that I’d never encountered before, and a wave of anticipation came over me.
“Make it until year-four,” Pops whispered as the doors to Apex Nexus opened in front of us.
“Let’s go,” Dad ushered us in.
Tearing my gaze off the entrance to the penitentiary, I walked in beside Slater. Inside, polished white marble floors reflected the light from floating orbs that glowed above us. The scent of old paper, ancient magic, and polished stone clung to the air.
We followed the domed hallway deeper, past windows that looked out over the campus, until the corridor widened into the main atrium. It was a huge, circular space filled with whispers, footsteps, and magic.
And at the far end, looming behind a set of wide enchanted doors, was what had to be the auditorium. It was where we would take the exams.
“We need to go in first.” Mom placed a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll do great.”
“Of course she will.” Pops planted a kiss on the top of my head.
“Be careful,” Dad murmured, hugging me quickly before the three of them entered and closed the doors behind them.
I was left with the chaos demon, who didn’t stop looking at me as he smiled. “Whatever will we do with the time we have together, venom baby?”
“Wait for our exams, Havoc baby.” Flicking my gaze away from him, my gaze caught on another man that held my attention in a different but no less magnetizing way than the other two men I’d seen today had.
He stood leaning casually against the stone wall, radiating heat in every direction.
Tibby had learned to control that side effect of being a phoenix already, but not many phoenixes could.
Sunlight had kissed this man’s skin, deep bronze and golden, like the fire inside him hadn’t fully dimmed since his birth…or rebirth, for that matter.
Just because Tibby hadn’t died and came back didn’t mean other phoenixes were the same. My Pops had died twice during Kalista’s Second War, according to Mom. I’d always been interested in phoenixes since that was the other species I could’ve been born as. Mom and Dad were basilisks, and I took after them. Pops, though, was a phoenix. Tibby took after him.
Though, my family matters were far from my mind as I took this man in. Wavy dark brown hair brushed his ears and temple, tousled in a way that made it impossible not to imagine my fingers running through it. But it was his eyes that made my breath hitch. They were a deep, warm, and soft brown but threaded through the irises were flecks of red embers. Notmetaphorical embers, either. Real, tiny, glowing embers danced within the brown color.
His lips curled into a smile the second we locked eyes. It was the kind of smile that told me that he’d noticed me before I noticed him and that he liked what he saw; that feeling was clearly mutual.
He started walking toward me.
And,Fates, help me because he was wearing a thin golden chain that disappeared under his shirt. It was just enough to make my thoughts stutter.
That slutty little golden chain suited him, and I wanted it between my fangs now.
He was tall. He had to be around 6’3”, and he had beautiful broad shoulders and a bulk of muscles that I couldn’t take my eyes off of.
A tattoo of a flaming feather must’ve curled over his left pec because it was slightly visible beneath his loose collar. On his right wrist, the word “trust” was crowned with a tiny star.
My heart stuttered as I saw the faint round scar near his inner arm. It was a tourmalyke injection, something Dad had shown me on his own arm from when he was ambushed by humans in Kalista’s Second War as an attempt to throw Mom off her game. It was one of the times Pops had died. But how did this man have that scar? I found myself needing to know what happened to him.
He stopped a few feet from me, hands tucked into the pockets of his joggers. His firewood scent settled over me as Slater took a step closer, washing his daisies and jasmine scent over me as well.
Fates, those two smells were so good together.
“Hi.” He held out a hand to me. “Koa.”
“Rune.” I took his hand in mine, and warmth flooded me. “Nice to meet you.”
“You as well.” He smiled before Slater knocked his hand against mine and took Koa’s hand.
