A smile graces Revyn’s lips. “I love it when you’re angry, baby.”
I’m not just angry. I’m pissed off, and he knows it.
Callum leans close, his scent mixing with mine in a heady concoction that makes my heart pound. “I recommend caution, Wildflower. Even among our kind, Aesir is considered...” He inhales as he toys with the ends of my hair. “Unreasonable.”
“Who is he?” I ask, leaning closer to Callum. My gaze lingers on his rosy lips far longer than necessary, and the tiniest smirk appears. Damn him for tricking me into drinking his blood. Butfuckwas it a rush. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. My mind has been a constant loop of anger, adrenaline, and pent-up sexual frustration.
I feel like I’m about to explode.
“Are you feeling alright?” Callum whispers, sweeping strands of hair from my eyes and feeling my forehead. “Your temperature is elevated.”
I’m definitely not alright, but just like how Revyn knows how pissed off I am, Callumdefinitelyknows that his blood is still in my system. There’s no mistaking the mischievous ruby glimmer in his eyes or the pillow of hisverykissable lips or the hum of magic pulsing beneath my skin wherever he touches.
If I wasn’t paying attention to the predatory allure of vampires before, I definitely am now.
I breathe in his scent and feel unmistakable desire blossom between my thighs. Revyn’s hand clenches around mine as he scents me, but Callum’s the one whose voice wraps around me in a velvet caress. “Careful, Wildflower, or I may lose my restraint.”
Entranced, I linger where I shouldn’t—close enough for him to bite wherever he chooses. My guard is down and my libido is up. “I haven’t done anything.”
“Your heartbeat,” he murmurs, sliding his fingertips along the delicate skin of my inner wrist, “is the sweetest song I’ve ever heard.”
A low growl rumbles nearby, and I’m lifted from my seat. Warmth envelops me as Revyn plants me in his lap and holds mein place, trapping me beneath his muscled arms. “You arenotdoing this here,” he rasps, the stubble on his cheek scratching the curve of my neck. I shiver as heat races down my spine, and he exhales harshly in my ear. “Calm down, Sienna. We’re—” His throat clicks on a swallow. “—gathering too much attention.”
Reaching behind me, I thread my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. “You’ve never minded an audience.”
He buries his face in my neck and curses under his breath, readjusting my position in his lap so that I can feel every rigid inch of him. “Baby...” His teeth scrape my neck. “Say when.”
The room falls silent as a shadow falls over us. I force myself to focus on the present andnotthe massive bulge pressing into my ass—and hold back a scream.
Graham’s dismembered head is hovering in front of my face.
Caradoesscream, the sound echoing off the walls as she falls out of her seat. “No!Graham!” A sob wracks her body, and she collapses in a heap on the floor. “I’m so sorry, baby.” But her mood shifts instantly, and she turns a fiery glare on me. “You!” Pushing herself to her feet, she launches at me. “This is your fault, you fucking wild bitch! You killed him!”
The room tilts as shadows wrap around us, pulling Clara and me apart and separating us from the rest of our groups. We’re held in the air to watch the holo-view of our encounter at the shrine in the woods play for the entire class. Clara’s tears are silent, but her body won’t stop shaking. The lust in my system quickly turns into fuel for my rage, and I shake harder than she does. My brawl with Graham is glossed over to highlight his death, thecrackof his frozen body echoing in the concave lecture hall.
Murmurs erupt as students witness the same horrors we did, with the bears from Graham’s pack vibrating in rage. I grab the shadows holding me in the air, but they turn to smokethe moment I gain any traction, reforming the second my body passes through and gripping me even tighter.
Revyn and the others aren’t faring much better; every single one of them has been bound to their seats, including poor Marick who can’t seem to catch a break. The boy has frozen solid, ice magic slowly spreading from his body and creating ice crystals in the air. A witch sitting behind him holds her hand out and blasts hot air to counteract the effects, her face pulled into a grimace as the ice begins to melt.
I feel dozens of eyes locked onto me, however, and clench my jaw. Graham’s death shouldn’t be a spectacle. “What are we supposed to learn from this?” I call out, glaring daggers at our dear professor. “That violence begets violence? That our professor is a cruel fucking bastard who can’t be bothered to properly warn his students of the dangers—” A shadow bands around my mouth, but it’s the one curling around my throat that worries me. It constricts my airway just enough to make me dizzy and my throat burn.
FuckProfessor Aesir.
With a dramatic wave of his hand, Aesir dismisses the holo-feed and drags his gaze along the student body. “Tell me, what was Graham’s first error?”
Someone in the front row readily answers. “Approaching the shrine without caution.”
Aesir nods. “Those of you who made it to the shrine should have noticed the temperature difference in the clearing as well as the state of the artifacts lining the stairs. They were especially fragile due to the nature of their environment and broke easily, as a few of you noticed upon collecting them. What else?”
One by one, students begin dissecting Graham’s final moments—and my contribution to his death—with microscopic precision, their various backgrounds and fluencies translating into a colorful array of feedback that does nothing to quell myanger. We’re being used as instruments of instruction, and it feels wrong to diminish Graham’s death into little more than a play-by-play.
Cara trembles as she listens, her tears drying up but her gaze turning glossy. She won’t last the night if she’s thrown into another training session, especially after a day full of lectures...or reminders of Graham. His voice will be an echo in her head wherever she goes.
Despite how little I know about Cara, I feel for her. Losing someone you care about is never easy.
Losing a potential mate is even harder.
My heart goes out to her.
