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Summer

T he headmaster deposits me at my class, saying goodbye to me at the door with all the emotion of a fucking tree before stiffly turning and striding down the hall. I hold back my eye roll at his barely veiled contempt for me and spend the whole class dreading seeing him again. At least I can occupy my mind with lessons and notetaking while pretending I don’t notice the stares and whispers.

When the class ends, I dread leaving it, knowing he’ll be waiting for me. As the students flood through the classroom door, I see him leaning against the wall. Connor’s eyes meet mine, and he manages to soften his stare a little when our gazes lock. Like before, I feel an instinctual relief when I see him, but then the dread returns when I remember who he actually is.

“Hey, babe,” he says as I approach. I look up at him sadly.

“Hi.” The emotion in my voice isn’t even false after a torturous day where I’ve been stared at and whispered about. I even heard some accusations being passed around.

The headmaster as Connor opens his arm for me, and I cautiously move into them. Had he taken what I’d said to heart?

“Hard day?” he asks into my hair, and I nod, relaxing into Connor’s large body. The hug feels wrong, and I wonder if the illusion is obvious to everyone or just me. Can the killer sense this isn’t real?

“Home?” the headmaster asks, and I can hear the tightness in his voice.

I nod, and he wraps his arm around me, leading me down the long corridor to the door.

When we get outside and are far enough away from wandering gazes, I move away from him. “Okay, you’re good.”

He grabs my arm and tugs me back against his side. “Not until we’re inside,” he hisses.

I try to tug away without being obvious about it, but he tightens his grip on my hip.

“I thought you were good at acting,” he mumbles under his breath, irritation lacing his voice.

I stop in my tracks, unable to hold back my anger. “What is that supposed to mean? I’ve been carrying thi?—”

His steps don’t falter, barely noticing my planted feet. He just slightly lifts me and drags me toward the Morningstar House.

I pull back, trying to yank free of him. “What the fuck is your problem with me?” I ask, the anger finally exploding.

“Get inside, and we can talk freely,” he says, not even slowing.

He doesn’t deny having a problem with me. Shock. I knew it

I yank my arm hard, and it groans in pain as I finally get free of him. I storm past him, stomping into the house. The headmaster slams the door shut behind us, and I whirl on him. “With all due respect, Headmaster ?—”

“Silence,” he demands. A single word, and I’m reminded precisely who this sorcerer is. He drops the glamour, and his height changes, his eyes returning to their normal icy silver as his hair darkens to inky black. “I may look like Mister Morningstar while on campus, but you will treat me with the respect due your headmaster. No matter what face I wear.”

I glare up at him. “You have no reason to dislike me as much as you do. If you don’t want to do this with me, I’ll do it on my own.”

“When I want your opinion, Miss Tuatha De Daanan,” a portal opens at his back, his eyes flashing with frigid fury, “I’ll ask for it.”

He doesn’t spare me another glance before leaving, the portal snapping shut behind him. Anger courses through me, stronger than ever, and a ball of purple light forms in my hand. I look down at it, pulsing with fury, and throw it at one of the couch cushions, obliterating it on contact.

“Babe?” Connor says, coming down the stairs. “Woah, what happened?” he asks, running across the room. He sends a wave of cool mist toward the couch, laying it over the scorch mark on the sofa. I launch myself at him and slam my lips to his, the anger still potent.

Connor pulls back. “Hi.” He chuckles. “I missed you, too.”

I rip his shirt open, the tearing sound echoing through the room. “We’re going to fuck. Now,” I growl.

Connor grabs my hands, stopping me from opening his pants. “Woah, babe. What happened?”

I snarl a little, my body shaking with rage.

Connor holds my wrists with one hand and cups my cheek with the other. “Hi, it’s me, your fiancé. I’d like to talk to my adoring fiancée.”

He strokes my cheek with this thumb soothingly, and I close my eyes, trying to relax. Connor releases my wrists slowly like I’m a wild, rabid animal just captured, and he wraps his arms around me, pulling me into him. The second he envelopes me in his arms, I exhale heavily, my body slumping.

Connor kisses my head.

“Offended you didn’t want to fuck me,” I growl softly into his chest.

Connor chuckles. “Well, I wasn’t sure if you’d rip my dick off in that state.”

“The headmaster is a cunt,” I grumble. “No wonder your dad hates him.”

Connor laughs again and presses another kiss to my head. “Well, you’re not wrong.”

I sigh and pull back to look up at him. “Hi.”

Connor smiles that perfect smile. “Hi, babe. Alice is waiting for you upstairs. She’s set up camp in our bed.”

I pull back and run upstairs, jumping on Alice, who is lounging on Connor’s bed, watching a movie. Alice squeals when I land on top of her and smother her in kisses. “I missed you. I missed you. I missed you.”

Alice swats at me. “Get off!”

I keep kissing and nuzzling into her, and then I pull back, looking down at her. “Have I thanked you for not dying yet?”

Alice rolls her eyes. “I did die. It sucked.”

“Okay, well. Thanks for having multiple lives.”

Alice’s lips twitch. “Thank the gods for my lineage. I suppose. Never thought I’d be saying that.” She shoves me off, and we sit up. “So, back to more important matters. How much mourning was there for me?”

“Everyone seems pretty put out. There’s a shrine for you by the Dracula statue, but I didn’t visit it. Also, there’s a rumor that I’m the one that killed you, so that’s fun.”

“Getting all the glory again, I see,” Alice tuts.

Connor comes in with snacks and slides onto the bed beside me. I crawl into his lap and nuzzle into his neck.

“She had a screaming match with the doom master,” Connor says, rubbing my back.

“Hold up, you what?” Alice asks, staring at me aghast.

“Yeah,” I say, clinging to Connor’s shirt as if trying to hold him to me.

“Though she’s not told me why yet,” Connor adds.

“He’s a dick,” I say nonchalantly.

Alice rolls her eyes. “We all knew that already.”

“He’s a bigger dick than I anticipated.”

Alice grabs a nail polish bottle from Connor’s bedside table, and only now do I understand just how much she’s integrated herself into his room. She starts painting her toenails. “Tell us everything.”

“He told me I was shit at acting when, really, he’s fucking dire. It’s like he’s never seen an emotional reaction before.”

Alice snorts. “Okay, well, are you shit?”

“No!” I exclaim, offended for the fucking second time in the last twenty minutes.

Connor kisses my head, soothing me again. “So why did he say you were?”

I shrug. “I guess he didn’t think I was believable in my role,” I grumble, but then my voice raises. “But I fucking was!”

Alice snorts again, concentrating on painting her nails. “Man, he got under your skin good.”

I feel myself practically vibrating in rage again, and Connor cups my cheek, tilting my head up. “Babe.”

I look at him, his calming blue eyes like a sea of tranquility, nothing dangerous or hard in them.

“You’re here with us,” he says, kissing one corner of my lips and then the other.

I concentrate on his face and relax my muscles.

“No doom master in sight, okay?”

I nod and press my forehead to his cheek.

“He can’t want to keep this charade up much longer.”

“I just don’t know why he hates me so much.”

“Yeah, okay,” Alice says, throwing me an exasperated look.

“What?”

“I mean, you have gotten in a lot of trouble since you got here,” she says with a nonchalant shrug.

I’m about to protest, but the evidence is damning, so I keep my mouth shut and bury my face in Connor’s neck, inhaling his cloud and rain scent.

Connor rubs my back. “Hey, one day down.”

I pull back and grab his face, kissing him deeply. Connor smiles, and I tuck my head beneath his chin. “Let’s watch a movie or something? I need a distraction.” Alice nods, and she closes her laptop before grabbing Connors. She types in the password and loads up Nexus before scrolling through movies.

“Do I want to know how you know my password?” Connor asks.

“No, and give me my wife. It’s my turn.” Alice tugs on my arm until I leave Connor’s lap. She pulls until I am on the other side of her, and then she presses play on the movie.

“Okay, but if I’m sitting here, you have to cuddle me,” I tell her. Alice wraps her arms around me and teasingly sticks her tongue out at Connor.

Connor pouts, sitting on his own, and I blow him a kiss. “Don’t worry, she’ll be bored with cuddling in approximately four minutes.

“Okay, four minutes and counting.” Connor sighs.

I laugh, and Alice squeezes me tight. Trying to prove a point, she holds me until we both fall asleep on Connor’s bed.