Page 68

I’m having very inappropriate thoughts about precisely how I’d make use of that sweat.

She limps out of Peel Academy’s makeshift ballroom, kicking off her heels a minute later. Her feet are red and angry, and I can see several blisters forming.

And the big bad Bargainer had no idea she had aching feet. Smooth.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I scoop Callie up and throw her over my shoulder.

“Des!” she squeals, squirming in my arms as I carry her down her school’s hallway and out the door.

“Don’t act like you weren’t angling for this moment the whole night,” I say, winking at a nearby student who overheard us. The girl blushes and ducks her head.

“I wasn’t!” Callie declares, mortified.

I suppress the urge to press her in closer. The truth is, I’m enjoying having her body cradled so close to mine.

She tugs on my hair. “You can put me down.”

“And what will you give me in return?”

She lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Does everything have to be a bargain with you?”

“Is the night dark?” I respond, marching us across the lawn and back to her dormitory.

My blood is steeped in a evening’s worth of magic. It’s crawling through my veins, turning my thoughts nefarious.

I could simply fly us to the nearest ley line. From there it would take seconds to return to the Otherworld. She could live there with me, far from posturing peers and bad memories.

I could be hers and she could be mine.

My wings begin to manifest, and I have to smother my thoughts.

Get control of yourself, Flynn.

“Are the stars the same where you’re from?” Callie asks.

I peer over my shoulder at her only to see she’s gazing up at the night sky. Most of the time, the Isle of Man is steeped in fog—especially along the coast, which is exactly where Peel Academy is situated. Tonight, however, the sky is clear and the stars twinkle far above us.

I shake my head. “No, they’re different.”

“Why?” she asks languidly.

“Why not?” I respond.

That earns me an amused smile. She turns her head to face me. “One day you’re going to give me straight answers.” She says it with such surety that I should be worried. Magic lives in words just as much as it does in anything else. Believe in something hard enough and you’ll manifest it.

The possibility that I might share my secrets with my mate one day is frightening … frightening and electrifying.

After a few more protests from Callie, I set her down, and the two of us walk back to her dorm room. I disappear only long enough to get past the poor sap manning the girl’s dorm lobby who has to stop anything with a penis from getting past the front desk.

Right now Callie’s dormitory floor might as well be a ghost town. The place is utterly abandoned. The only thing left of its prior occupants is the makeup strewn along the communal bathroom counters and the putrid smell of too many clashing perfumes.

Next to me, it’s clear that Callie doesn’t give two shits about the fact that the people she’s lived alongside for the past year are having fun somewhere without her. No, she looks pretty content just being by my side.

Callie pulls out her key and opens her door, heading inside her room.

I hesitate behind her. I’m saturated in the evening’s worth of magic, my body pulsating with it. I might as well have consumed a gallon of the Otherworld’s strongest spirits; the effect is nearly the same. Selfish, greedy,faethoughts are pressing in on me. If I stay, I’m going to do something regrettable.

Leave her here. Tell her you need to go and flee this place before it’s too late.