Page 28 of We Hunt the Night

His massive wings and the force, the sheer power of them, sends us shooting right up into the sky. Into the storm. My stomach fills with butterflies, and sickness rolls in my throat when I stop screaming as he shoots up through the clouds,through the pouring rain and right above them into the bright sunlight. Light pours into my chest from the sun, and Maz’s dragon flies up, spiraling around us, a roar echoing in the clear sky. The sunlight makes their scales look like diamonds, and it’s beautiful to see. Unforgettable. The bond in my chest, the one to them, feels like it burns to life, and it is filled with joy. I grin as we fly and straighten up, knowing he isn’t going to drop me.

Eventually Maz turns and flies back, but Black shoots down, straight into the forest. I nearly fall off, my thighs clinging to him for dear life. I barely see the clearing before he stops, landing on the bloodstone. The same place that we first bonded by the looks of it. The rain is relentless even now, even hours after we took off, and the gray skies do not look so pretty down here. I very ungracefully fall off the side of him, rolling across the bloodstone before he shifts back. His clothes are still there.

“I don’t understand how you have clothing when you shift back,” I mutter.

“Would you prefer I didn’t?” He watches me for my reaction.

Yes. “No, I was just curious about how your magic works.” My words falter as he comes closer. And closer. Black doesn’t stop until he is right in front of me, our bodies pressed together, our breaths mixing. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t care about the rules. I don’t care that it’s forbidden. All I care about is that there hasn’t been a single moment in the day that I haven’t thought about you. I’m telling you, I’ve never wanted anything for myself. I never thought that there was even a single chance I could have anything or anyone for myself. Then I met you and I was glad when we bonded. I didn’t feel what the others did, and I’m so fucking glad I got to get close to you, the most beautiful girl that I’ve ever seen.” He touches my arms. “I want you. Forbidden or not, I don’t care. I want you.”

He wants me. I want him too. I don’t stop him as he slides his hands into my hair, and he finally kisses me. I feel the passionthat burns me through each kiss, through each move of his lips against mine. He kisses me in a way I imagine only a dragon can. All-consuming, from his tongue in my mouth to the heat I feel down my body and between my legs. This kiss feels familiar almost, like I’ve kissed him before, like I know how he tastes. I almost climb him, my legs wrapping around his waist, as he groans at the contact. I can feel him hard and pressed against me, and I purposefully move my hips. “Fuck, you’re killing me, Juni.”

“I feel like it’s a good way to die,” I mutter, but I want more. Now that we have crossed this line, I don’t want to stop.

Black stops, and he freezes. He turns his head to look behind him, and I follow his gaze to see a man running away. Lock. “What the fuck is he doing out here?” He puts me down. “Wait here. I’ll kill him.”

“No, wait, don’t.” I grab his arm. “You know who his mother is, and she will make us all suffer. You can’t kill him. I don’t think he wants me dead, so he might not say anything anyway.”

“Do you love him?” Black demands. “Is that why you don’t want me to hunt him?”

“No.” I touch his chest. “No, okay? We were a thing once, but that was a long time ago, and it is not now.” I smile softly at him. “I like you. I want to know you more, Black.”

He kisses my forehead. “He is still dead if he speaks. Not even you can stop me.”

I don’t bother to defend my ex anymore. He isn’t worth it. I’m exhausted by the time I come back to our room hours later. Black leaves me at the academy door to go get us dinner and bring it up to the room, even when I tell him I’m just going to get into bed and fall asleep. Thunder rattles across the sky as I open my door, and my wet clothes are stuck to me. I’m too tired to whisper a spell to dry me.

I go over to my bed and stop. My father’s shirt is on my bed, every stain there that was there before, and there’s a note on it.

“This shirt is now indestructible from fire, magic, or anything else. I made it with the square you had left.”

It’s not signed by anyone, just left blank. I don’t know who did it, but they must be smart and good at spells. There isn’t a spell to fix things like this and remake them, let alone make them indestructible.

I’m staring at the note as the door opens and all four of them come in together, Black carrying a tray of food and drinks.

“Which one of you made the top?” I demand, turning around.

“What top?” Black questions, coming over to put the tray on my bed.

Vale just frowns at me, and Kane shrugs. Not those two.

I look at Maz last and he clearly doesn’t know; I can tell by his face. They still all come over to read the note and look at the shirt. “Well, one of you must have done it, and thank you. I really mean it.”

I can’t help the massive smile on my face.

I pick the top up, finding some shorts in my wardrobe before getting changed in my bathroom. For the first time when I get into bed, I sleep peacefully with dreams of all four of them that feel real.

Chapter 17

VALE

Ishouldn’t have fixed the top and spelled it to never be destroyed. She keeps smiling. And what’s worse? I like that smile.

There’s something very wrong with me. First of all, I let her win in class. I really shouldn’t be doing that. Class has always come easy to me, from potions to history, because my memories are endless. I never forget things—they just stay and linger. They don’t go from my mind and sometimes I wish I could forget things. When you’ve had a hard life, you don’t want to remember every fucking detail of how hard that life was. I’d prefer to forget it all.

I’m glad that she likes the top. I told myself I fixed it because I don’t like girls crying, and particularly I don’t like her crying. But the truth behind it, the annoying truth that irritates me, is that I want her to be happy, and that’s wrong. I shouldn’t care this much. I should hate her. She forced me to bond with her and she has no idea how to fight. Juniper is a walking death sentence, and the situation is only going to be worse when we go to war. I know she hates me and it’s best that she does. She will never know that I spent a week on one of the most complicatedspells I’ve ever made up to make that thing fireproof, destruction proof. I didn’t sleep for two nights to perfect the spell. Juniper could put that top in the middle of a war, have a million shifters go at it, and it would still survive. The truth was there was magic in the fibers of the cloth that was left. Powerful magic. It was hard to tap into that magic, to make something new and old at the same time. Why would anyone leave magic in a top if not to make it in indestructible?

I watch as she goes into the bathroom before I decide to leave the room. I need to get away from her and the smiling.

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