Page 34 of Wicked Bonds
Her eyes drop to my mouth for just a fraction of a second, then back up. The energy between us shifts, and suddenly I’m thinking of something that has nothing to do with contracts or covens. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this pull, this dangerous gravity.
“What would you do, if you were me?” Her question is barely above a whisper.
Before I can answer, Rose gasps, her back arching as her face contorts in pain, her fingers clawing at the table.
“Oh no,” she chokes out, and then the magic surges.
The ground beneath us trembles. Books rattle on their shelves, then begin to topple, one after another. I move instinctually, vampire speed launching me around the table just as a massive encyclopedia tears free from the top shelf, hurtling toward her head. My body collides with hers, one arm wrapping around herwaist, the other raised to shield us both as books rain down around us. I cover her with my body as heavy volumes crash to the floor.
The surge lasts only seconds, but it feels like time stands still. When it finally subsides, we’re surrounded by fallen books, papers scattered like snow across the library floor. Rose is breathing hard, her heart hammering against my chest.
I should move away. I should put distance between us. Instead, I remain, feeling the warmth of her skin, the rapid rise and fall of her chest, the faint tremors that run through her as the magic recedes.
“Are you alright?”
She nods.
Neither of us moves.
I find myself inches from Rose’s face, one hand braced on the bookshelf beside her head, the other still around her. I should step back. I don’t.
This is wildly inappropriate. She is assigned to me, a ward of the academy, someone I’m meant to observe and report on.
And yet.
Wickersly’s warnings repeat in my mind. The Coven would view this as a betrayal, a complication, a weakness they could exploit. I’ve survived this long by being useful, reliable, detached. By never allowing myself to want anything they could take away.
Her lips part slightly, an invitation I have no right to accept. My own hunger rises, not just for blood but for connection, for the energy that seems to radiate from her very being.
God help me, I want to kiss her.
My hand slides from her wrist to her palm, our fingers intertwining. Her eyes hold a question in them I’m about to answer.
A shadow slips between the bookshelves, followed by the soft padding of paws, as Galanthis materializes from the stacks, his yellow eyes fixed on us with eerie intelligence. He sits, tail curled neatly around his paws, and stares with the judgment only a cat can have.
I jerk back as if burned, dropping Rose’s hand and putting three feet of distance between us in an instant. Galanthis is no ordinary cat. Whatever he sees, the Coven will know.
My face resumes its careful mask as I straighten my clothing, smooth my hair. “Professor Winn might be able to recommend stabilizing techniques for those surges.” I take a step back.
Rose blinks at the sudden shift, confusion giving way to understanding, then a flash of hurt quickly buried beneath her own protective armor. “Right,” she says flatly. “Wouldn’t want to damage any academy property.”
Galanthis watches us, unblinking, his tail twitching once.
“I have matters to attend to,” I say, already backing away.
“Of course you do.” Her voice is back to its usual sullen tone now, the vulnerability of moments ago lost.
I nod once, lingering a moment too long, my gaze betraying the reluctance my words cannot express. Then I turn and walk away, leaving her among the fallen books, feeling Galanthis’s yellow eyes following me long after I’ve left the library behind.
Seventeen
Drake
I don’t go to her room right away.
I stand at the far end of the hallway, and I make up a hundred good reasons not to go. It’s late, and she’s probably asleep. She doesn’t want me there. She made that abundantly clear last time, when she used her newfound powers to blast me halfway to hell.
But that’s not what stops me. What stops me is the need to apologize, which feels almost as distant a memory as having a physical body.
