Page 33

O pie stayed with me for almost an hour, and just being in her presence made me feel better ... but her words continued to haunt me after she went back to her room.

I put the pan in the sink and filled it with hot water and soap. Wickersham would not be happy if I left a mess.

Bandit let out a little chuff. “Um, not alone.”

I didn’t look over my shoulder. “Sorry, I’m just cleaning up my mess, Mrs. W.!”

A hand dropped onto my forearm, spinning me around so that I was nose to nose with Typhon.

“What the hell are you doing?”

I smiled up at him, trying to play it off like my heart wasn’t pounding out of my chest. “Baking.”

The answer was not what he was expecting. His eyes shot to the pan in the sink, and the scattered remains of my efforts across the counter.

“What?”

“Opie was still mad at me, I needed to talk to her, make things better.”

I realized my mistake as soon as the words left my lips.

“You ... convinced Opie to leave her dorm in the middle of the night, too? Fuck, Harlow.” His hand tightened and he snapped me close to him so that I was staring up into his face. “We have you in your dorms at night for a reason. Especially now.”

I blinked up at him, his dark-green eyes framed with thick, dark lashes that I couldn’t help but envy.

“But what is the reason you want us all locked in exactly? And how did you know where I was?”

Same question as before. One that he hadn’t answered when he’d found me with Liam in the closet.

His eyes narrowed. “You’re predictable. I followed the food. But you aren’t supposed to be wandering this place without Doyenne Elmwood.”

I shrugged, doing my best to ignore his close proximity. “Here’s the thing, I’m pretty sure Nikita is trying to kill me. So ... I don’t really want to be around her. You know, avoiding getting murdered, it’s high on my list of things to do this week.”

His hand slid up my arm to my neck, fingers wrapping around so that his thumb sat in the hollow of my throat. “Then you give me no choice.”

The heat of his hand was ... too much, I tried to pull back, pressed my hand against his chest, right where his shirt was open.

Warm, his skin shivered under my touch, but he didn’t pull away, if anything, he pressed closer.

He hung onto me, his fingers tensing one by one, not all that different from when he’d put the gag on me.

But I was too addled by his touch to realize he was casting a rune directly into my skin.

I could feel the intent of it, wrapping around me.

A rune of bonding that went far beyond the rule of two.

I gasped as his magic sank hard into me, sliding under my skin and racing through my limbs. Before he could pull away, I mimicked the rune out of some sort of instinct. I wasn’t sure he even noticed what I was doing, hell, I wasn’t sure even I knew what I was doing.

My runes settled into his skin.

“What the fruck?” I meant the words to come out hard, angry, but they were ... barely breathed.

“If you won’t obey Doyenne Elmwood,” Typhon didn’t let me go, just dragged me closer to his face, his eyes dilating as he stared down at me, like he was the hunter and I was the prey, “Then you will obey me .”

Typhon let me go slowly, each of his fingers seemingly dragged from touching me. I withdrew my hand, though it felt like I was still attached to him, with long thin spider silk. It seemed to be far stronger than it looked.

Our magic had bound us together. Him on purpose and me ... me kinda by accident.

With one last look, he turned, his long coat snapping out behind him, and then he was gone.

I swallowed hard, the pulse in my throat pounding from his touch. I fumbled for the pan and scrubbed it fast, keeping my hands busy as I tried to figure out how I felt –

“Was it just me, or was that seriously hot?” Bandit squeaked.

I leaned against the sink and let out a groan. “Please don’t say anything.”

“Yeah, that was definitely steamy.” Bandit leapt up onto the counter next to me, ignoring my plea. “I mean, I don’t know what it’s like with humans, but a good bite on the neck is some serious foreplay in the nocturnal mammal world.”

I closed my eyes and leaned harder against the counter because the image of Typhon biting me on the neck was instant and the physical reaction it drew out of me was ludicrous. I clamped my legs tight, tried to think of anything but his touch.

Baseball.

Mud.

Stock market.

“I’m being stupid.”

“Nope, you’re in the clear, Shortbread. You cleaned up,” Mrs. Wickersham stepped into the kitchen, “which, if you’re going to sneak into my kitchen and bake, is essential.”

I forced a smile to my lips as I struggled to relax my legs from being clamped tight.

I had to get Typhon out of my head. He .

.. he was a teacher, a donkeyhole ...

a fracking hot donkeyhole, but still. And now I was well and truly stuck with him – even now, I could sense him, and the rune I’d sank into his skin meant I could find him, too.

One floor up and moving fast, away from me.

It was both a major annoyance and an inconvenience. I had things to do, and not a lot of time to do them. This bonding spell was going to make that all twice as hard.

“Thanks.” I slipped out of the kitchen and headed straight to the closest bathroom where I slapped some cold water over my face.

The woman in the mirror looking back at me was haggard at best. Horrified at worst. I shook my head, then fashioned my messy hair into a quick ponytail.

As much as I hated the idea of bending to Typhon’s will and rushing to class, I had to admit, the thought of him coming to find me and what might happen was far more terrifying.

Bandit followed me as I hurried to the room where Typhon taught runes.

“I’m going to watch today, in case you need me to run some interference between you two. Assuming that’s what you’d want?”

“Yes,” I bit out. “Exactly.”

When I stepped into the classroom, Fable was already there – it was just the two of us today with Typhon.

She waved to me, and I went and sat down next to her.

She started chattering, but her voice flowed in and around me, and I barely heard her.

I was looking inward. Finding the new little bond that Typhon and I had.

Whether he wanted to or not, the bond went both ways.

He’d be entering the classroom in three, two, one.

The door banged open on cue.

“Basic rune work today, ladies. Pick one you struggle with and show me,” he said, all business as he headed to the front of the room without a glance in my direction.

That didn’t stop my mind from going back to how his hand had felt on my neck, and how frucking hard and warm his chest had been under my fingers.

Fable went first, choosing a rune that would light a fire – one of the most basic in our world.

She made the bursting motion with her fingers, over and over again.

Barely a flicker slid over her fingers. Next, she tried a water rune, again, basic.

One that would fill a glass with water pulled from the air.

Nothing.

“I don’t understand!” She finally broke when she tried a basic earth rune that would soften the ground. “Why is it so hard again now? I mean, maybe I wasn’t amazing, but I could do basic rune work!”

“It’s got to be the pressure.” I leaned back in my chair, fatigue hitting me hard after the long night and the burst of adrenaline with Typhon. I half closed my eyes. A nap would be most welcome right then.

Typhon’s eyes finally slid to me. “Which of the runes are you struggling with most?”

“I can make them all work,” I said with a tight smile. “Just not the way Tarquinius wants me to do them.”

Typhon leaned against the desk and jerked his chin in a curt nod. “Go. Show me the correct rune for propelling.”

I wove the rune for shoving a person back, the one that Tarquinius had us working on. I did it first the way that was proper. I threw it at the chair to my left, and it moved about a half an inch. “It’s better if I do it my way.”

“No!” Typhon said.

But I was already moving. I whipped my hands through the version of the rune that worked for me, and hurled the chair across the room, smashing it against the wall.

“See? It’s not that I can’t.” I folded my arms.

Typhon studied me for a long moment, then he looked to Fable. “Are you good at research?”

Her big amber eyes went wider yet. “One of my best skillsets.”

“Go to the library. See what you can find out about people changing houses, and what putting them in the wrong bracer could do to their ability to cast runes. Is there a precedent for that causing issues with throwing runes or with magic in general? Could it stunt a potential Quirk from manifesting?” He frowned and rubbed a spot in the middle of his forehead, speaking for all the world as if we weren’t there.

“Could be why they all could do better rune casting at home, once the bracer was off ... but it doesn’t explain the issue now.

What has caused this?” He mumbled a last word that I didn’t catch, but it seemed to spark something in him.

He turned and looked at us, a new light in his eyes.

He'd figured something out.

Interesting. I hadn’t even considered it, but if we had all been destined for House Phoenix and wound up being shoved in other houses, that would explain why we all struggled in school the first time around.

And then the switcheroo into Phoenix so late in the process .

.. could be what was causing all sorts of mayhem. Magic was a fickle beast, after all.

Fable was up and moving toward the door in a flash. “I’ll be back as fast as I can!”

He rolled his shoulders.

“I want you to show me some of your other runes. The ones you’ve ... created. No one else from House Phoenix can throw runes like that. I’m trying to figure out why. Just don’t cast them. Show me what they look like.”

I flicked a quick rune in the air without filling it with energy. “That’s one for making the lights go out.”

He nodded and watched me through hooded eyes as I showed him a few more.

I frowned, lowering my hands. “So, you really think the problem we’re having has something to do with us being in other houses previously?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. This is uncharted territory. Tarquinius feels strongly about obeying the rules and using only proper, sanctioned magic, as do I. That’s not going to change. So, whatever is blocking you all, that’s what we need to work on.”

He pushed off the desk and strode toward me. The urge to back up was strong, but I stood my ground, craning my neck to meet his gaze head on.

“Going to try and choke me again, are you?”

Something flickered in his eyes and his voice went low and silky. “Not unless you say please.”

I sucked in a sharp breath as he took my hand, folding my fingers so that I was ready to cast.

“Go again. Cast a rune of fire,” he said.

I tried to move my fingers the way I wanted, and he held them in the correct position. I frowned and the magic stuttered through me, like ...

“It’s like it’s being dragged through mud.”

For the next thirty minutes, I tried to do the runes exactly as he’d shown me. Each was more disappointing than the last.

“I feel like I’m doing exactly what you are,” I muttered, feeling defeated already.

He took my other hand and brought the two together as if I were praying, in position to cast the first rune most children learned.

Extending pressed-together hands outward and then snatching them back in allowed the caster to draw something toward them.

So, pulling cups off counters or pots off of the stove became a real issue for young Dwimmers.

Typhon stared at my hands as he flexed them through the basic rune, over and over, his brows furrowed so hard it pulled at the scar across the one side of his face. “I can’t even feel the magic. Damn it.”

He didn’t ask me to do it my way.

I just did.

I simply crossed my thumbs before I opened my palms. The spell latched onto Typhon and dragged him close enough to me that his chest pressed tight against me, our hands tangled up just below our faces.

“Try to break it,” I said.

His eyes were locked on my fingers. “I can see your magic when you use the rune your way.”

I looked at him. “The bonding spell?”

He nodded, though I saw the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. He was lying to me. About what?

My breath caught. “What does it look like?”

“Beautiful.” His eyes lifted to mine and the air between us charged as if I’d thrown a rune of lightning.

His fingers slid over mine, ever so slightly, and I couldn’t think of anything but how his eyes bored into my own.

Neither of us looking away, but it wasn’t a battle of wills.

At least not in the way it had been when I first arrived.

This was a battle of temptation, one that I knew I shouldn’t ... I couldn’t cross.

His throat bobbed and he drew a breath. “You’re right not to trust Nikita.”

Relief rocked me back on my heels. “You see it too?”

The door banged open, and Fable stumbled back in, short of breath. “I found a book!”

I turned to face her, half glad she was back and half wishing she would leave again.

“Awesome. Do you think it will help?”

Her grin faltered. “Are you okay? You look flushed.”

“Working hard.” I shrugged and cleared my throat.

Typhon brushed past me and crooked a finger for the book, which Fable handed over. “I’ll have a look through this. See what I can find. Good job, both of you. We will pick this up tomorrow.”

He left without another word, and I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if Fable hadn’t arrived.