“No reason.” Tate shook his head, tugging on his lip ring with his tongue. “So, what class do you have now? History of Vampirism, right? Isn’t that a bit redundant for you? You live with vampires.”
“Yeah.” I laughed and sipped from my cup. “But we wanted easy classes so I wouldn’t get distracted from...”
“The mission, right?”
“Yeah,” I said quietly. We were moving into the herd of students now and couldn’t talk as freely. “But it’s not been all bad. At least, I don’t have to study much.”
The air grew tense between us again. I wanted to fix things between us, but I didn’t know how. This power wasn’t something I ever expected, and the fact that I could have killed Tate made me hesitant. I couldn’t trust myself not to use the power on him again.
“Come here.” Tate grabbed my arm, not waiting for me to answer.
He dragged me through the crowd before pulling us into an empty classroom. He took my bag and cup, setting them to the side before taking my hands in his as he kneeled.
“What?” I blinked down at him rapidly, my mind going to all kinds of places. “What are you doing?”
“I want to make something clear to you, princess.” Tate’s gaze grew serious, his eyes locked on mine. “I love you. You could ask me to crawl through glass for you, and I would do it, no questions asked or powers needed.”
“Tate...” I began my voice soft.
“No, you need to get this.” He placed my hands around his neck and wrapped his arms around my waist. “You could beat me, curse at me, make me even watch you be with that hunter, and I would do it. Because there is nothing you could do to me that would make me not want you, not love you. I’m yours.”
He pressed his face to my stomach. “Please don’t push me away anymore.”
“Oh, Tate.” I bent over him, hands threading through his braids. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Hurt me.” Tate’s head lifted suddenly, his face fierce.
“Tate, I—I can’t.” my heart raced at his words, the kind of power he was giving me over him, the devotion. I didn’t know how to handle it. No one had given me such a thing.
He shook his head. “As long as it’s you, I’d take the pain ten times over.”
“Even if I wanted to, I don’t think Kyren would be very happy with me,” I murmured, peering down at him.
“Princess,” Tate grinned sadly up at me, “if it hadn’t been for your family, Kyren would have held the stake while you shoved it into his chest, if you asked him to.”
I snort-laughed, my eyes misting up. “You’re being absurd.”
“Please,” Tate quietly said, those big brown eyes of his staring up at me. “Don’t push me away.”
I cupped his face and leaned down, our lips brushing each other.
“It looks like you’re not giving me much of a choice. I couldn’t get rid of you if I wanted to.”
“Damn straight,” Tate cried out.
I yelped as he gathered me up in his arms and stood, swinging me around.
“Tate, put me down.” I laughed, clinging to him.
Tate paused, breathing heavily as he held me in his arms. “Hey, your command didn’t work.”
My brows furrowed.
He was right. It hadn’t. If this was the kind of power that every command would be obeyed no matter what, then that should have worked on him. Clearly, there were conditions to be met, and there was only one person who could answer what those were.
My dad, Antoine.
“Now, seriously, I have to get to class,” I told him, pushing at his arms slightly to ask him to put me down.
