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T he door to our dorm room slams open with enough force to rattle the panes, admitting a furious whirlwind of motion as I barge inside. My laptop bag gets flung unceremoniously onto the nearest available surface—a side table already groaning beneath the weight of discarded textbooks.

“Arius!” I bellow, eyes flashing with an uncharacteristic display of temper as I scan the dimly-lit common area. “Get your arse out here, you reckless bastard!”

No immediate response greets my demand, predictably. Of course the pretentious wanker would choose this precise moment to bugger off somewhere. Grinding my teeth until the muscles cord beneath my jaw, I stomp towards the closed bedroom door and smack it open with my shoulder.

“Don’t make me come in there and—oh, for fuck’s sake!”

The unmistakable hiss of the shower cuts off my frustrated tirade, accompanied by the telltale squeak of tile underfoot and Briar’s breathless giggle. Rolling my eyes heavenward, I pivot to stalk across the dishevelled space and yank the bathroom door wide. Scalding tendrils of steam instantly billow outwards, fogging my vision until twin silhouettes materialise behind the opaque glass of the stall.

“Having a laugh, are we?” I growl, bracing one hand against the condensation-slicked wall to avoid slipping on the treacherous tile. “What the bloody fuck do you think you’re playing at, mate?”

Before I can continue that scathing lecture, an indolent snort echoes over the pounding spray. “Relax, mate,” Arius’ rumbling baritone drawls, thick with amusement at my apparent fit of pique. “Just helping Briar clean up so she doesn’t get her bandages sogged.”

I snort in mordant disbelief, leaning my forehead against the clammy surface long enough to gather my patience. When that reserves little success, I simply settle for snapping back with renewed venom coating every syllable.

“You’re a fucking idiot, Arius. A prat of the highest order!”

Silence greets my barbed tirade for several beats, only the drumming patter of water against tile and low murmurs of Briar’s inaudible reply meeting my ears. Then, with a low screech of metal grating along its track, one fogged panel slides open. Arius looms in the opening, broad shoulders glistening with rivulets of water, every chiselled line of his musculature standing in stark relief.

The expanse of his chest obscures my view of anything too indecent. I meet his narrowed stare head on, undeterred by the silent challenge simmering in those icy depths.

“Care to repeat that last bit?” he rumbles, voice lowered to a gruff rasp of warning brimming with latent threat.

“You heard me, Whitlocke,” I snarl without missing a beat, ignoring the tension winding tighter in the steamy space. “You’re a fucking idiot—an imbecile too stupid to even dog’s arsehole, apparently. You had one bloody job, one simple directive, and you fucked everything sideways as usual!”

His brows descend into a fierce scowl at my continued tirade, mouth opening to protest—

“Do you have any idea how close I was?” I cut him off with a scoff of disgust, lips peeling back to reveal gritted teeth. “No, I suppose not, considering you’re too busy shagging the poor bitch you’re meant to fucking kill! Ignoring that entire mandate simply because you can’t control your libido for more than ten bleeding minutes!”

The muscles in his jaw flex as Arius grinds his molars audibly, but I’m too far gone in my bitter rant to care about the potential consequences right now. “I was this close to cracking the Order’s databases wide open, wanker! If I’d hacked into their servers, we would’ve had everything we needed to stop Hansley from retaliating after I get you and Briar free of this shiteshow!”

Shoving away from the wall, I stalk forward until my face is mere inches from his impassive mask. Arius simply watches me with those eerily calm depths, seeming completely unperturbed by my vehement diatribe. That only feeds my mounting temper higher, the urge to lash out physically growing more and more appealing by the second.

“But nah, I can’t fucking do that now! Because somebody can’t keep his cock under control and his mouth shut for even a few weeks!” I spit, ignoring the way Briar flinches at my coarse language. “Too busy indulging his every base urge, satiating his lust like the deviant he is to give a single toss about the rest of us risking our necks on this clusterfuck!”

“Arius, what is he talking about?”

The tension in the steamy bathroom is thick enough to choke on, Briar’s bewildered inquiry hanging in the air like a lead weight. Arius clenches his jaw so tightly the muscles cord beneath the stubbled hinge, those icy depths flickering with an array of emotions too fleeting to decipher. For several protracted beats, he remains utterly motionless—a sculptural study in coiled menace radiating an almost palpable aura of danger.

I watch him warily, fingers twitching with the urge to reach for the knives sheathed at my lower back out of sheer habit. Not that they’d grant me any advantage against this particular predator, of course. If Arius truly wished me harm, I’d be a lifeless heap on the tiles before I could so much as blink.

“ appears to have let certain… sensitive information slip, love,” Arius eventually rumbles, the low rasp of his voice doing precisely fuck-all to diffuse the electric charge sparking between us. His hooded stare slides sideways to pin me with a look of pure, unvarnished disgust. “Details better discussed in private, I think.”

Briar snorts indelicately from her perch on the built-in bench, arms folding across her chest as she regards us both with naked scepticism. “Oh, like hell,” she retorts, levelling Arius with a scathing look. “Pretty sure it’s time you started explaining yourself. Now. What was that about killing me?”

If I expected the muscle-bound prat’s shoulders to ease at the open invitation to explain himself, I’m sorely mistaken. If anything, that powerful torso tenses even further—every sinew standing in sharp relief like steel cables primed to snap. I’m half convinced I actually hear the creak of bone as Arius grits his teeth again, shifting that scorching glower from my face to Briar’s expectant features.

No one speaks for what feels like an eternity, the roar of the shower spray echoing off the tiled walls in the ensuing silence. Slowly, with unmistakable reluctance, Arius reaches out to crank the taps and cut off the water entirely. The absence of that white noise only amplifies the weighted quiet until it’s downright suffocating.

“I’m curious to hear this as well, Ari,” I remark with a casualness I’m far from feeling, forcing every muscle to remain loose and nonthreatening. The last bloody thing we need is for this colossal jackass to feel cornered right now. “Since we’re airing every dirty secret, apparently.”

Those pewter depths narrow to icy slits as Arius pins me with a look that could flay flesh from bone. I can practically see the gears grinding behind that impenetrable facade, weighing every potential reaction against the fallout. To his credit, the monumental bellend doesn’t immediately fly off the handle as I half-expected.

“I fail to see how this latest… development hinders whatever plan you’ve been secretly stewing on for weeks now,” Arius grits out at last, apparently opting for outright ignoring Briar’s demands. “Since we’re being hypocritical by airing grievances over secrecy, .”

I snarl at the barbed accusation, bristling with a swell of indignation. “If I’d told you every little detail of my efforts, you egotistical prick, you would have relied on them too heavily as a backup!” I shoot back without missing a beat, fists clenching at my sides. “Kept treating everything like some bloody game, rather than the life-or-death stakes we’re all facing.”

“And keeping me completely in the dark was the best solution?” Arius counters with a derisive snort. “Brilliant strategy there, Sherlock. No chance that could’ve blown up spectacularly in all our faces or anything.”

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I force an even breath past my gritted teeth in a bid to regain some semblance of composure. Getting riled and trading insults won’t solve a bloody thing—just leave us all circling the same unproductive rabbit hole indefinitely.

“Look, none of this shite matters if we can’t get off this fucking campus and away from Hansley before she decides we’re all expendable liabilities,” I rasp out, dropping my hand to level Arius with my most imploring stare. “She’ll sic the Order’s hunting hounds on us without a second thought, mate. We need to get ahead of this shite before—”

“Oi, you two nuggets can bicker like an old married couple later,” Briar suddenly interjects, rising from the bench with a look of sheer exasperation. “Right now, I think we need to backtrack to the minor little detail where Arius is apparently supposed to off me at some point?” She arches one perfectly sculpted brow, glancing between us both with a pointed look. “Or was just chatting shite to get a rise?”

Arius deflates almost imperceptibly at her blunt reminder, the fight seeming to drain from his shoulders as a weary sigh ghosts past those chiselled lips. Shooting me one final glower, he turns to properly face Briar—though his expression remains as inscrutable as ever.

“It was never going to happen, srdie?ko,” he admits in a tone of forced calm, the endearment slipping free in an unconscious habit. “Not after…” Trailing off, Arius simply shakes his head as if chasing away the entire notion. “It’s a moot point now.”

“Like hell it is,” Briar instantly counters, eyeing him with naked disbelief. She takes a measured step closer to stand toe-to-toe with the towering bloke, craning her neck to maintain eye contact. “That’s not your bloody decision to make, Arius. I want fucking answers, and I want them now.”