Page 86 of Fallen Gods

Slowly, I pull the book out.

He tosses it aside and braces his arms on the wall on either side of me, pinning me in. I swear a bit of frost coats his bottom lip where he’s just licked it.

He might still be sleeping, but his power definitely isn’t.

“Hello? Is someone here?”

A voice picks up from the hallway, and his eyes widen. We both look around, but there’s nowhere to hide a six-foot-six man in this tiny space.

An older woman walks into the office. I recognize her rightaway as Professor Higgins, one of the speakers from Sigurd’s welcome ceremony. Her speech then was clipped, rigid, no-nonsense, and she’s giving off that same energy now.

Great.

Her sharp eyes find me instantly.

“I—I was with Aric,” I blurt, scrambling. Shit, this doesn’t look good.

“The president’s office is not open to students, even for you, Aric.” Professor Higgins crosses her arms.

Aric tenses next to me, and I can feel the anger rolling off him in waves. I wrap an arm around his waist. He’s freezing and so tense it’s like hugging steel.

He pulls me to his side, steady, his voice even, eyes still wild. “It’s true. We were talking and just needed a little privacy.”

I grip his shirt, clinging to him. I’m not sure why he’s helping me, but the last thing I need is for Sigurd to know I was snooping around.

Professor Higgins’s frown deepens. “I knew something was off about you visiting your grandfather earlier, Aric. You never visit. And now this—” She launches into a tirade about the Erikson boys’ lack of discipline, the disrespect of desecrating President Sigurd’s office, her voice sharp and cutting. Every word grates against Aric’s patience. I feel him tense, his anger coiling tighter, the air growing colder. Rain starts pelting the office window.

I grip his hand like it’s the only thread tethering him to this reality. To the present. To me.

“Calm down,” I whisper.

“Can’t,” he growls.

It’s not just a word. It feels like a dark warning.

His voice carries weight, full of a rage that’s just waiting to be unleashed. I don’t like it. I don’t like the way he’s suddenly losing it.

I shove my Aethercall toward him—fast, desperate, forceful.

But it does nothing. It’s almost a palpable sensation, like it bounces off him.

Shit.

I yank the Aethercall back and throw it toward Professor Higgins, and she stumbles back like she’s been hit. Whoops, maybe I did too much?

I glance over at Aric, and his eyes slam into mine, worried, volatile, and slowly turning whiter by the second. Frost starts to faintly glow on his lips.

“If your parents could see you now,” Professor Higgins continues. What the hell is wrong with this woman? “After everything they sacrificed for you, and here you are sneaking around and—”

Nope. Absolutely not. Aric is going to explode.

I grab him by the back of the neck and crush our mouths together. Maybe passion and surprise will take away the anger, at least enough for us to get out of here.

I expect him to freeze.

I do not anticipate his warm tongue.

Or the way his lips mold against mine.