Page 79 of Shattered Stars

“It’s not a love charm, Summer.”

“I can feel it’s magic, Pig Girl. I know it is. I’m going to show it to him. Tell him what you’ve been doing.” She stares at the locket and I see the very moment a thought occurs to her, something glints in her eyes.

“It’s a cloaker,” I say. “And it belonged to my mom. Give it back.”

“No, I’m keeping it.” She grins at me and hooks the chain around her neck and I see instantly she’s changed her mind. She has no intention of telling Tristan her theory about this love charm. No, she’s going to try and use it for herself.

I’d be laughing. Or perhaps letting her trot off with her new toy while sniggering behind her back. But that locket is mine. Apart from Pip, it’s the only connection I have to my aunt, to my home, to my family, to my mom. I want it back.

“Give it back,” I growl, feeling that dark magic curling inside me.

“No,” she says simply, staring at me with defiance.

“God help me, Summer, if you don’t–” I lift my hand, the sinister magic sizzles at my fingertips, making me dark, dark promises.

“You’ll what? Blast me? Come on then, Pig Girl. You’re always threatening to do it and I’ve been waiting all this time for you to try.”

And I can’t take any more of this, any more of her. The sight of my aunt’s necklace around her neck is too much. She can call me names, spread rumors about me, even push me around, but I have so little and she has everything she’s ever wanted. And yet, she has to take the one thing that’s precious to me. And then something occurs to me. This isn’t the first time she’s taken something precious of mine. I growl right in the back of my throat, convinced more than ever it was her.

“Did you take my pig?”

“Your pig?” Her eyes dance with amusement and she laughs. “Take it? I was trying to get rid of it. This school is no place for a smelly pig. I told you that the very day we met. I told you then to get rid of it.”

“You bitch!” I cry and I’m flinging that dark magic at her before I even realize what I’m doing.

Summer ducks, the magic shooting over her head and crashing into the trunk of a tree behind her. Immediately the tree is enveloped in a darkness that crawls across its bark, hissing like it’s burning it alive, and the tree shrivels before our eyes.

I stand staring at it in shock, too stunned to attempt blasting Summer a second time.

“What the fuck?” Summer says, her head snapping back to me. “Oh, you are so dead, Pig Girl, so dead.”

She sprints away, my necklace still around her neck, but my eyes are locked to the tree and I’m too shocked to care.

I watch as my magic envelops more and more of the tree, streaking up the trunk and branches, turning everything rotten like some all-consuming disease. The tree groans, sways and I step back as it crashes in on itself, dissolving and shriveling until all that remains is a pile of ash.

I peer down at my fingertips. No longer sizzling, stone cold now. A frigid fear spreads up my hand and through my body.

Did I do that?

28

Stone

“Blackwaters!”I snap as she comes strolling into my classroom like nothing out of the ordinary is going on. “A word! The rest of you, open your books and start reading.”

I march towards my office at the back of the classroom as all the other students watch us, open-mouthed. Yeah, this probably wasn’t one of my best ideas. But shit …

Somehow I’ve managed to keep my hands off her for this past week (during the daytime anyway – the little minx has been sneaking to my cabin most evenings). But goddamn it, it hasn’t been easy. I’ve been half hard most lessons, my bond shimmering so violently, there have been several occasions I’ve been this close to ordering all the other students out of the classroom just so I can bend her over my desk and fuck her.

And now this …

I wait for her to follow me into the office, her hips swaying and her ass jiggling in that way that has me almost falling to my knees. Then I slam shut the door, and wave my arms, sealing the office with an impregnable spell.

“Is this wise?” she asks, folding her arms over her chest and drawing my gaze straight to the neck of her blouse. Stars! “There are already several rumors circulating about my sexual reputation and inviting me into your office alone may trigger a whole load more. A whole load more that would be far nearer to the truth,” she adds, her mouth twitching.

“What the hell is going on? Why are people saying this crap about you?”

“So you don’t believe them, then?” Her arms loosen. “I was expecting an interrogation here about my sex life.”