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“Shh,” she said, stroking my arm. “You didn’t make me do it. I made the choice on my own. And I’ll handle it. It was a very slight mind-wipe with absolutely no damage caused, nor any alteration whatsoever to the choices any of them will make, no threat to their agency. In fact, given the situation, what I did was actually resetting the balance.”

“I… that’s…”

Thatdidmake sense.

“Still, I should just—” My words caught in my throat as I saw Vorzyr standing there in the doorway.

He was glaring out at me. Not angrily, but determinedly. He was in a powerhouse, no-nonsense stance.

I felt a push at my mind from him.

I allowed it and opened carefully.

But he didn’t speak into the mind-link he’d just initiated.

Instead, he fed me a memory.

“Because my headwasn’t clear today, I accidentally infected several students with my allure.”

“There are worse things they could be infected with.”

“It’s not the point.”

“You didn’t take advantage of them in the midst of that, did you?”

“No. Of course not. That would be a major violation of consent.”

“Then no harm, no foul.”

“That’s not exactly—”

“This is a college for supernatural beings learning how to control their abilities and perfect them to an extreme degree. I find it hard to believe that other being’s powers don’t leak out all over the place either. It’s par for the course, part of the learning experience.”

The meaningbehind reminding me of our conversation that day wasn’t lost on me for a moment.

And then his voice in the immediate momentdidsound in my head.

“Stay. You belong as much as any of the rest of them. We’ve been helping Ariana to stop allowing fear to lead the way. Practice what we preach, right?”

I sucked in a breath.

“Get back in there. See you right after class, Luscious.” He winked at me. “Or do you prefer babe? We’ve never really discussed that. I’ve reserved Luscious for your name in our texting interactions. But I can definitely bring it beyond that.”

Despite everything, his flirting had me chuckling.

It was just so inappropriate given the circumstances. Not Kai-type inappropriate filled with extreme dirtiness. No, it was unapologetic, balls-to-the-wall Vorzyr-esque.

“I’m down with it.”

“Excellent. Enjoy your class. Got something time-sensitive to attend to. Catch you later. Sooner than you think.”

He closed the mind-link, then winked at me, gave Kai a chin lift, then blew Ariana a kiss, before disappearing down the corridor and heading off.

Sooner than you think.

What was that about?

Kai wrapped his arm around me. “All right now?”