“Maybe not.” I rise onto my toes, bringing my lips close to his. “But I’m asking anyway.”
For a moment, he just stares at me. Then his expression shifts, and his mouth crashes onto mine, claiming and consuming. His hands slide into my hair, tilting my head back so he can deepen the angle, and I melt into him like I was made to fit against his body.
The torchlight flickers around us as he walks me backward until my shoulders hit the stone wall. The cold seeps through my training clothes, but I barely notice, because Logan’s hands are sliding down my sides and gripping my hips, making me archinto him with a gasp. He groans against my throat, his teeth scraping my pulse point, and electricity sparks beneath my skin.
And then?—
He rips himself away.
I stare at him, my lips swollen, my body buzzing.
“Not here.” He drags a hand down his face, his fingers digging into his jaw. “Not when I’m like this.”
“Like what?”
“Running on multiple time jumps and twelve hours of contingency planning.” He stops and presses the heels of his hands against his eyes. “If I don’t burn some of this off in the Circles, I won’t be the version of me that keeps you alive.”
I take a deep breath, calming the buzz racing through my body. Because this isn’t Logan shutting me out. This is him trusting me with the ugly truth that he’s barely holding the pieces together.
So, I take his shaking hands in mine.
His grip tightens immediately. It’s almost too hard, like he’s afraid I’ll disappear.
“Okay.” I squeeze his hands once. “Let’s go burn it off.”
He stares at me for a long moment. Then his jaw unclenches—slowly, like it hurts—and he nods.
“But first,” he starts, not letting go of my hands, “I’ll tell you more about the Council members. You need to know what we’re dealing with.”
“Then tell me.”
He releases my hands, and when he speaks again, it’s with the clipped tone of someone delivering a tactical briefing.
“Michael Aldridge’s temporal recreation magic can replay the last twenty-four hours of magical activity in any location. Any slip outside these passages, and he’ll find it.”
“What about Tobias?” I wrap my arms around myself, suddenly cold as the memories of this morning flash through my mind.
“Tobias is complicated.” Logan’s expression shifts, pity flickering across his features. “Three years ago, he was attacked by a vampire elder during treaty negotiations. The vampire held him down and flooded his mind with eight centuries of memories—hunts, kills, the hunger, the transformations, everything. It nearly broke him. Some say he stillisbroken.”
My chest squeezes. Because Tobias was gentle and empathetic with me this morning. He tried to reassure me, and when the dome shattered, his first instinct was to make sure I was safe.
“That’s horrifying,” I finally say.
“He survived, but the damage was done. He carries those vampire memories with him and can’t always distinguish between his life and centuries of predatory experiences.” Logan pauses. “The fact that the Council sent him at all tells you how seriously they’re taking this.”
“And Helen?” I ask.
The tension in his brow eases.
“Helen lost her parents when she was sixteen.” He looks away. “She investigated my parents’ deaths, ensured the case was handled properly, and made sure I was taken care of afterward.”
Hope rises in my chest. “Then maybe she can help us. If there’s someone on the Council who?—”
“No.”
The word cuts through my hope like a fire snuffed out.
“Listen to me.” Logan returns his gaze to mine. “Helen has affection for me, but that does not extend to you. As far as she’s concerned, you’re just another student. Another potential threat. And the Council doesn’t tolerate threats.”
