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All traces of arrogance fled from Willow’s face as she turned against my hold, glancing back at her ancestor.

“I didn’t give him consent to feed from me,” she said, pushing against my chest once more.

With the audience watching, I relented and released her.

She turned her back on me, striding toward Susannah and plucking the apple out of her hand. The Covenant couldn’t eat it, but they’d been her favorite in life, and she could often be found with one in her grip, as if it reminded her of life.

She turned an eerie stare toward Willow as the younger witch raised it to her mouth, sinking her teeth into it slowly as she smirked back at me. I dropped both hands to the edge of the desk once more, the wood cracking beneath the force of my grip. It was all that offered me any control, all that stopped me from finding out what those little,viciousteeth felt like at my throat.

Then she strode forward, walking through the doors as Iban followed at her heel. Only when he was through the doors did she raise her free hand, flicking her wrist and sending the doors slamming shut without looking back once.

Her exit was slightly dramatic, but I had to give her points for flair.

“That one is trouble,” Susannah admitted, dropping her arm to her side now that she possessed no apple to look upon.

I nodded, not bothering to argue the point. I’d thought the same more than once.

“All the more reason for you to stay away from her. Keep your teeth to yourself and your dick in your pants where my granddaughter is concerned. Whatever this is between you two ends here,” she snapped, turning her back on me as if that was the end of it.

“And if I don’t agree?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest as I stood from my perch on the edge of the desk.

The Covenant froze, turning to face me as her jaw clenched. “You know the rules.”

“I can wait until the Reaping,” I said, shrugging as the heat of her stare struck me. There was a warning there, one that I chose not to heed.

“You intend to invokedominium?”the Covenant asked, clasping her hands in front of her. “I have plans for Willow. I will not tolerate you getting in my way.”

“Dominiumis my right. You cannot stop me,” I answered, grinning as I approached her. If anything, knowing how vehemently she opposed my claim of ownership over Willow only drove me to enact it more.

“A right which you have not claimed in centuries! Why her? Why now?” she asked, her fury rising. Her magic might have been taken from her in its natural state, but she still possessed raw magic that had been given by all the houses of the Coven to bring her back.

Combined with Charlotte’s magic to reanimate what was already dead, it enabled her to be more than just a shell.

“I like the way she tastes,” I said, shoving my hands into the pockets of my slacks.

“This is a mistake,” the Covenant said, backing away a step. She didn’t try to dissuade me, just moved toward the doors, which she blew open with a burst of air.

“Susannah?” I asked as she stepped over the threshold. “She’s not to know.”

“You don’twanther to know that you’ve invokeddominiumover her?” she asked, her brow furrowing as she tried to work out exactly what game I was playing.

She’d never know, or if she did, she’d already have one foot in a grave she wouldn’t escape a second time.

“I’ll inform her when I’m ready,” I said, waiting until she gave her nod. She couldn’t argue with me, not in this.

Willow was mine.

16

WILLOW

Days passed where I didn’t speak to Gray. Where I didn’t see him outside of his class, and he didn’t send breakfasts to my room. I refused to acknowledge the sting in my center that felt like disappointment, chalking it up to the fact that my duty would be far more difficult than I’d anticipated.

How was I supposed to find out where the Vessels had hidden my aunt’s bones if I couldn’t be in the room with the fucker for two seconds without wanting to tear out his throat?

It felt like a pointless waste of time, and I would have much rather been back in my home with Ash at my side, finding a way to cope with the loss of Mom. At least we would have had each other to lean on. Instead, I was trapped in a school I didn’t want to attend, contemplating all the ways I’d already failed.

I couldn’t push past my father’s teachings, his reminders that men preferred women to be seen and not heard. To seduce the headmaster, I’d need to be quiet and demure instead of brazen. I felt fairly certain I’d fucked that seven ways to Hell and there would be no backtracking now.