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The situation with Ariana that I couldn’t stand being so up in the air, especially after we’d slept together—and under circumstances that I regretted. Call me sentimental, but it should’ve been special, not amid a whole lot of dirty and degrading talk and sexual acts. No, it wasn’t sentimentality, it was much more than that. I’d been drawn to her for a long while, and doing it that way with her had felt not only anticlimactic, but a betrayal of the bond I’d wanted to form with her, that I still wanted to form with her. It had felt… wrong.

But on the flip side, if Kai hadn’t been there, the animalistic ferocity of it might have taken me over. I’d fucking tasted her blood, and I’d wanted to do even more than that.

I might have gone too far.

And that had been then. Things had severely worsened in that respect ever since I’d performed that primal magic to cure Kai of that Celestial infection. Actually, ever since I’d first touched that white smoke and somehow made it submit to my will.

The animal in me had been so strong since then that I’d been afraid to be alone with Ariana, afraid of what I might do.

And then there was the whole overwhelming issue ofhowI’d been able to perform that submission on Celestial magic like that. What did it mean? For me? For the bigger picture? And, more worryingly than that, for Ariana? She was a Celestial being. If I could do that, have the ability to fight against magic borne of her kind, what did it say about me in relation to her? Were we natural born enemies? Star-crossed lovers? Something worse?

I’d known I’d possessed abilities beyond that of a standard dragon, but this was the first time any of that power had been shown to be directly connected to anything Celestial.

Those issues… the questions… the worries… all of it had just been compounding.

But, here in this moment, as we dealt out this warranted justice and put our enemies in their place, it served to block a lot of that out, to clear a path through.

The violence, the bloodletting, the punishment… it soothed my animal side. It gave it a much-needed outlet. It gave me the feeling of control—or, perhaps, more like theillusionof it right now.

A fresh set of screams drew my attention and I blinked back to the moment to see Kai basically magically-electrocuting the Dark Fae motherfucker, Sorin.

His layered dark-red hair flew wildly from side-to-side as he convulsed in the metal chair we’d strapped him to in a basement of an abandoned house a few miles from Maven Academy grounds. His dark blazer was hanging off either side of him, his turtleneck shredded, both courtesy of me and my deliciously sharp talons. Wounds I’d scored into his chiseled chest were rapidly healing thanks to his powerful Fae blood, blood that was drenching his gray jeans, its scent filling the air and making me draw in gulps of air to savor it as much as possible. I tried to tell myself that it was the sweetest blood that I’d ever scented—definitely much more than mere vampire blood. Butherswas. Nothing outshone that.Stop!

Motherfucking temptation and obsession was driving me out of my mind.

My phone buzzed, but I ignored it, and focused on Sorin’s body shuddering as Kai’s magic tore through him like fucking lightning strikes.

“Sympathizer…” Sorin somehow managed to croak out during it.

Kai stilled and pulled his magic back in an instant.

There were very few sorcerers who could do that with the speed that he did, and even barely feel the slam of it as it re-entered their body. He barely grunted at it.

Hisses came from the two vampires tied to identical metal chairs either side of Sorin.

The one to my left was Drake, the guy with the dark auburn hair that was always wild. His button up was in tatters as well, with him just down to his slim-fit jeans.

On my right, the other side of Sorin, was Jace, the guy who had a whole grunge thing going on. His plaid shirt was still on but shredded across the chest—Kai’s work this time with him generating fire magic, which had been impressive even to me, somebody who wieldedultimatefire. Jace’s white-blond hair fellover his eyes, and he tried to whip it out of the way to no avail as he hissed at Kai and me in turn for daring to harm his leader.

Kai grasped Sorin’s jaw. “What did you mean by that word?”

Sorin smirked nastily. “You already know. That’s why you’re reacting so intensely, and even stopping your torture session.”

“There are none of those here at the Academy.”

Sorin scoffed. “You can’t even say the name, can you?”

“What’s he talking about?” I asked, coming up on Kai’s side.

“They’re recruiting all the time,” Sorin told Kai.

He tried to hide how impacted he was by whatever Sorin was referring to, but I heard his pulse pick up, and saw him swallow hard, before he was able to tell me, “He’s talking aboutPuritas.”

“Never heard of them.”

“They’re a group of fanatics who abhor the existence of hybrid beings, what they believe is the sullying of the bloodlines. Their goal is topurifythe supernatural world again, and rid it of hybrid kind.”

“That’s some extremism right there,” I muttered.