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Alarik laughed bitterly.

“Never,” he growled in a now much deeper voice.

I felt my fear take on a life of its own.

Closing my eyes, I tried to calm down, to keep a cool head.

These women would lock me up, maybe even torture me...

I had never felt so overwhelmed by my emotions. Or… had I…?

That familiar itching sensation returned to my wrists, growing stronger and stronger, and panic threatened to take hold of me.

“Gloria...” I heard a woman with long black curls whisper the moment I opened my eyes.

Warm light flashed around us.

I stared at the Victorian streetlights on our side of the road.

They had started to flicker and... one of the cars on the street... was hovering in the air at an angle.

Alarik took advantage of the moment of distraction, grabbed me by the back of my knees and supported my back, lifted me up as if I were a featherweight, and then rushed through the crowd of women, who inevitably moved aside with loud gasps.

He ran – holding me tightly to his chest – a hundred feet down the snow-covered street, and I clung to his jacket, holding my breath.

When we reached his car, he let me down on the passenger side.

“Get in!”

I yanked open the door.

In the car, I frantically tried to buckle my seatbelt but missed twice.

Alarik cursed as he put the key in the ignition, when suddenly I felt our car rise into the air.

I heard Harlow's angry voice. “Director Copeland!”

“She belongs to us!” Gloria shouted, and I felt the car shake in the air, throwing me toward the dashboard.

“She will never belong to you!” Alarik growled quietly and started the engine.

With a loud crash, the Jeep fell to the ground, rattling, and Alarik stepped on the gas so hard that I was pressed back into my seat.

I looked around in alarm for the Quatura and eventually turned to Alarik.

Was this really my literature professor?

He didn't seem overwhelmed in the slightest, even though he looked tense, his eyes glowing yellow and veins bulging in his neck.

Reflexively, I glanced in the side mirror, where I saw my eyes glowing yellow as well.

Out of nowhere, a strange woman appeared in front of us on the road, and I screamed, but Alarik dodged her like he was slaloming, and I nearly slammed against the window, clawing at the seatbelt.

The reflexes of Senseque were something else.

“Those crazy women, for fuck’s sake!” he cursed loudly, and I turned around again, watching through the rear window as Gloria and her followers grew smaller and smaller until they finally disappeared from view as Alarik turned toward the center of town.

Stunned, I turned back around.