Page 19 of Spark of Sorcery

She’s so busy chatting to her friend she doesn’t sense or hear me, and I’m forced to land my hand on her shoulder to gain her fucking attention.

“What the fuck?!” I growl, as she turns to face me, because that face doesn’t look like it did yesterday. No cuts, no scrapes, no bruises. No nothing. Smooth and flawless. “What thefuck?!” I repeat.

My shock descends into annoyance. An emotion that mirrors the one on her face. A face that has been healed by magic.

Someone has healed her face with magic and it wasn’t us.

“Who did that?” I spit, shunting my chin in her direction, not giving a shit about the crowd that’s now turned away from my vehicle and towards us instead.

“Did what?” she says. Her hair’s different too,braided around her head, framing her face, making her eyes even more vivid and bright.

“Healed your face,” I say through gritted teeth.

Here I was worried about someone hurting her again. About Dray and I heading home and leaving only Thorne to guard her.

Seems what I should have been worried about was some fucking scumbag groping his hands all over our thrall.

“Was it you?” I snap at her friend.

“Woah,” he says, lifting both his hands up in defense. “I’m not a shadow weaver.”

I glare back at her. “Then who was it?”

“None of your business.”

My blood boils under my skin.

Every time.

She has to make this difficult every time.

Clutching her arm, I pull her along with me, her friend trotting behind us anxiously. At my vehicle, I open the passenger door and throw her inside, slamming the door shut so she can’t shuffle out. Then I walk around the car, open the other door. Before she can escape through the driver’s side, I sidle into my seat next to her.

“What the hell are you doing?” she yelps. Her friend knocks his knuckles against the glass.

“We’re going for a little drive,” I say, slamming my foot down on the accelerator and letting the car shoot away, her friend left standing gobsmacked.

Briony spins in her seat, looking back through the rear windscreen.

“You’re such an asshole! You could have hurt him!!”

“Always more concerned about that dude than your own protectors.”

“Because he is my friend and you are not.” She rattles the door handle. “Let me out.”

“Not until we’ve finished this little conversation.”

She tugs on the door but finding it hopeless, flops back into the seat and crosses her arms angrily across her chest.

I zoom us through the campus, leaving students to jump out of our path, and then we’re crossing the moorland on the single-tracked lane.

I don’t know where the hell I’m taking her. I can’t take her home. There would be too many questions. Doing this is going to make me late as it is. I should care. I find I don’t.

“You can’t stay angry at me forever,” I tell her, glancing away from the windscreen to peer at her face.

“When you pull stupid stunts like this, I can.”

“It’s the only way I can get you to talk to me.”