Page 42 of Strength of Desire

Sean laughed. “Yeah, sure.”

“I’m serious. If you’re hunting, so am I.”

“You don’t have the balls.”

“I’ve got what I need,” I said, refusing to back down now that I’d committed myself.

Sean’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t even know what to look for.”

“According to Felix, neither do you. So it’s an even match.”

I was starting to shake, ever so slightly, with tension and nerves and the anxiety I always got from confronting people. I wasn’t very good at it, but I’d be damned if I let Sean beat me at this.

“Um, Cory,” Felix said softly. I felt his hand on my shoulder, but I shook it off.

I didn’t need him or anyone else to tell me I was being stupid. IknewI was being stupid, but I also knew I was sick of Sean’s little digs and comments, sick of the way he leered at me, and I was going to prove to him, once and for all, that I wasn’t the weakling he thought.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Sean said, cocking his head to the side.

“Completely.”

He laughed again. “Easy for you to say now. But in another week, when you have to break the rules? Leave the manor and head out alone? That’s when it really counts.”

I made myself smile. “I’ll see you then.”

As last words went, those were pretty dumb. I’d see Sean tomorrow at breakfast. But it was the best I could do on short notice.

Sean looked at me for a long moment, then glanced over his shoulder at Rekha and Tim. “Come on. We got what we needed.”

Ash and Felix stood to one side of the aisle, with me on the other, as the three of them passed between us. Sean made sure his shoulder brushed against me anyway. Rekha glared at everyone, Sean and Tim included. Tim just lumbered through, looking at no one.

The three of us watched them in silence as they made their way down the aisle, then turned a corner on their way to the door.

As soon as they were out of sight, Ash turned to me. “Seriously?”

“What?” I said.

“Are you seriously planning on hunting for this spring, just because you let Sean goad you?”

“It’s not just because of that,” I protested.

“Oh, really.” Ash folded his arms and looked at me. “Is this the part where you tell us you’ve been dreaming of finding the Spring of Irylis since you were a child?”

“No.” I rolled my eyes. “Of course not. But I just—” I broke off, trying to figure out how to word it. “I’m just sick of everyone here thinking I’m incompetent.”

“Who thinks that?” Ash said. “We don’t think that. Min and Erika and Keelan don’t think that.”

“Maybe. But Sean and his friends? Everyone else in our class, who sees how useless I am with magic? How much I suck at combat? Even our professors think I’m clueless.”

“They’re supposed to think you’re clueless,” Felix objected. “They think all of us are. That’s why we’re students.”

“No one thinks you’re clueless,” I told him, a little bit of heat in my voice. Felix frowned, but he didn’t contradict me, which only annoyed me more.

“Romero doesn’t think you’re useless,” Ash said. “He wouldn’t be giving you private lessons if he thought that.”

I let that slide. I still hadn’t told them I was an incubus, and if Ihad, it would have only underscored my point, because I was terrible at being an incubus too.

“I just want to do something on my own,” I said, frustration building. “Something to prove that I’m not a pathetic goody-two-shoes who’s completely unequipped for this world.”

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