Chapter 8 #2
"Your cloak. Remove it." He demands.
"Why?" I ask.
"The fabric is charmed. It may interfere with visible reactions." Thorne says.
I hesitate. The cloak is not armor. Not really, but it feels like the only barrier between me and being studied too closely. Without it, I am smaller. Paler. More obviously breakable beside Valerius's dark strength.
"Miss Starling," Thorne says.
I unclasp the cloak before I can talk myself into refusing.
The chamber feels colder the moment the fabric leaves my shoulders.
I fold it carefully and set it on the nearby bench.
My black uniform dress feels suddenly too fitted, too thin, too revealing of the tension in my shoulders and the quick rise and fall of my chest.
I wish no one would see me like this, this vulnerable, especially him.
Valerius looks away. The movement is sharp. Almost violent. I freeze, heat climbs my neck. He isn't looking at me, he's looking at the wall as if looking at me disgust him.
"Problem?" I ask before I can stop myself.
His jaw tightens. "No."
"Then why are you staring at the wall?" I ask
"Because you asked me to stop staring." He says. My mouth parts.
Professor Thorne sighs deeply. "The maturity in this room is staggering."
I snap my mouth shut. Valerius's eyes cut back to mine. For a single second, something passes between us that is not hatred. It's too quick to name but too electric to ignore.
Then Thorne steps into the circle and places two small stones on the floor between us. One red. One clear. "Focus stones," he says. "The red will measure Mr. Draven's output. The clear will measure bond response." I stare at the clear stone. It looks ordinary. "Begin," Thorne says.
Valerius lifts his hand. This time, the Shadowflame arrives faster.
Black fire curls into his palm, smooth and controlled, red light glowing beneath the darkness.
The chamber warms instantly. Shadows along the walls lean toward him, stretching thin and long.
The red stone lights. The clear stone stays dark.
Professor Thorne watches. "Level one," he says.
Valerius's flame expands slightly. The red stone brightens. The clear stone flickers. My wrist warms but I make sure to hold still. Valerius's eyes stay locked on the stones.
"Level two." Thorne says louder.
The flame grows. Heat pushes against my skin. The bond mark flares beneath my sleeve, gold light seeping faintly through the fabric. The clear stone glows pale.
"Describe," Thorne orders.
"Warm," I say.
"Where?" He asks.
"My wrist." I swallow. Valerius's eyes flick up. "And my chest." The clear stone brightens.
Professor Thorne's face remains unreadable. "Continue."
Valerius's Shadowflame twists suddenly, stretching across his fingers. He forces it back, but not before a thin black tendril curls outward. Toward me. The clear stone flashes gold. My breath catches. The flame stops halfway between us. Valerius's hand trembles from restraint.
His eyes meet mine through the black fire. "Don't move," he says.
I wasn't going to but I don't tell him that.
The tendril of Shadowflame hangs in the air, reaching toward me without touching.
I should be terrified. It's dark, beautiful and deadly, a thread of living fire from a boy who has never pretended to be safe but terror isn't the only thing I feel.
That's the problem, the heat beneath my skin answers it.
Not loudly, not visibly, but inside me, something lifts its head.
My lips part. The clear stone glows brighter.
Valerius's eyes sharpen. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing." I answer honestly.
"Valentina." The way he says my name sends another pulse through me.
The Shadowflame flickers. The clear stone turns gold-white.
Professor Thorne moves closer to the circle. "Miss Starling," he says carefully. "Step back."
I try. I truly do but my body doesn't obey fast enough because the moment I think of stepping back, the mark around my wrist burns bright, and the thin tendril of Shadowflame snaps the rest of the distance between us.
It wraps around my wrist. Seren would scream, most students would scream of the pain of the flame... I should be screaming but the fire doesn't burn me. It circles the bond mark, black flame around gold light, heat around heat, darkness around something inside me that suddenly doesn't feel empty.
The chamber goes silent. Valerius's face drains of color. He looks horrified and that frightens me more than the flame.
"Release," Professor Thorne commands.
Valerius's hand closes into a fist. The Shadowflame should vanish but it doesn't. The fire stays wrapped around my wrist. My pulse slams. Valerius tries again, jaw tight, sigils along his forearm darkening. The flame tightens. Not painfully. Possessively.
Professor Thorne swears under his breath.
Valerius steps toward me. "Don't fight it."
My eyes snap to his. "Are you serious?"
"Yes." He nods.
"Your magic is wrapped around my wrist." I panic.
"And if you panic, it may react." He informs me.
"Comforting." I say.
"I'm not comforting you." He corrects me. He takes another step. The Shadowflame pulses.
My breath shakes.
The black fire doesn't hurt, but it's too intimate. It moves with my heartbeat, curling against the golden circle beneath my skin like it belongs there. Like it has been waiting.
Valerius stops directly in front of me. The chamber disappears. There's only him. His height. His heat. His eyes. His control cracking in tiny, dangerous lines. He reaches for my wrist.
"Don't touch me," I whisper.
His hand stops midair. The words hang between us, sharp and breathless. Something flashes in his eyes.
"I have to," he says quietly.
"No." I snap.
"Valentina." His eyes widen.
"I said no." The Shadowflame flickers in response to my fear, darkening around my wrist.
Valerius notices instantly. His voice changes. Lowers. Softens, barely. "Look at me."
I hate the command, I hate that I obey. His hazel eyes hold mine, fierce and focused and no longer cruel. For this one moment, he isn't looking at me like the powerless girl who ruined his term. He's looking at me like something fragile is standing too close to a blade.
"I won't hurt you," he says.
The words do something terrible to my chest because I want to believe them. "You already have," I say.
The words are quiet. They land harder than if I had shouted.
His face stills. The bond mark burns. For one second, all the sharpness drains from him, not enough for anyone else to see, maybe, but I'm close enough to notice the way his eyes change, the way his hand lowers slightly, the way his throat moves when he swallows.
Then his mask returns. "I know," he says.
My breath stops. I know. No defense, no insult, no denial. The Shadowflame loosens. Professor Thorne watches from the edge of the circle, silent now, as if speaking might break something important.
Valerius raises his hand again, slower this time. "May I?"
The question shakes me more than the flame.
I stare at him. Valerius Draven doesn't ask permission.
He takes space. He gives orders. He moves through the academy like a threat wrapped in beauty but now he waits.
The Shadowflame circles my wrist, warm and dark.
The gold mark pulses beneath it. The air between us trembles.
I nod once.
His fingers close around my wrist. The world goes white. A flash behind my eyes, fierce and blinding, like a door opening somewhere deep beneath my ribs. I gasp, my free hand flying to his chest without thought, palm striking solid warmth.
Valerius inhales sharply. His heart is beating hard.
I feel it beneath my hand. The Shadowflame vanishes but neither of us moves.
My hand remains pressed to him. His fingers remain around my wrist.
The white light fades from inside me, leaving only breath, heat, and the impossible silence.
His chest rises under my palm. Once. Twice.
His gaze drops to my hand, then to my face.
The bond between us hums. Like a string pulled tight enough to sing.
I should step away, he should let go but neither of us do.
Professor Thorne clears his throat. The sound cuts through me. I snatch my hand back. Valerius releases my wrist at the same time and turns away so sharply his shoulder nearly clips mine. Heat floods my face. My wrist feels bare without the flame.
Professor Thorne steps into the circle. His eyes are on my wrist.
I look down. The gold mark is brighter now and around it, for one breath, I see a shadow.
Not on top of my skin but beneath it. A dark ring circling the gold, fading even as I stare.
Valerius sees it too. His expression turns lethal. Not toward me... Toward the mark.
Professor Thorne says nothing for a long moment, after what feels like eternity he finally speaks, "Both of you will tell me exactly what you felt."
"No," Valerius says.
Professor Thorne's eyes cut to him. "Excuse me?"
Valerius steps between us so subtly I almost miss it until I realize Thorne can no longer see my wrist.
My heart stutters. "What happened here stays here," Valerius says.
Thorne goes very still. "Do not presume to command me in my own ward chamber."
"I'm not commanding you." He says.
"You are." Thorne corrects him.
"It's not a command, it's a warning." He says in a dangerous tone.
The air turns cold. I stare at Valerius's back. His shoulders are tense. His hands loose at his sides. His body placed between me and the professor with such quiet, instinctive precision that my thoughts stumble over the shape of it. Protection... No. Not protection, it can't be, not from him.
Professor Thorne's voice drops. "You are not the only one who understands danger, Mr. Draven."
"Then understand this one." His words cut through the air.
Silence follows. My wrist tingles. I pull my sleeve down quickly, hiding the mark. Professor Thorne sees the movement. So does Valerius, though he doesn't turn.
At last, Thorne steps back. "Assessment complete."
Valerius doesn't move.
"Both of you are dismissed," Thorne says. "But you will return tomorrow at dawn."