Chapter Forty-One
Rey
I instantly relax at the sound of Aric’s voice, which is absurd. My plan hinges on making him relax around me. Not the other way around.
I don’t pull out the knife strapped beneath my shorts, reaching instead for a book.
“Yes, well, just catching up on my reading,” I lie.
Not one of my best, but…I’m committed to it now.
I tuck the book under my arm. “If that’s all?
” I purposefully brush against him as I pass to see if frost appears, if he reacts.
“The book. Now,” he grounds out. “Hand it over.”
When I turn, the moonlight’s sliced across half of his face, bathing it in silver. His brown eyes almost glow. Somewhere in the distance, I hear a clap of thunder.
“Why aren’t you outside playing with your brother? Kinda hard to win from in here—”
“Hand over the book, Rey!” His voice thunders in the room, making the chandelier shake above us. Shit. He’s terrifying when he’s angry. It’s almost like he grows a few inches right before my very eyes.
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 right away 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.
His arms tighten around me, and for one dizzying heartbeat, the world falls away.
He tastes like winter and mint. His lips are soft, much softer than I expected, and the stroke of his tongue is so fucking hot I almost lift off my feet.
My breath catches, and Aric tightens his arms, hauling me flush against his strong body.
Tension pulses like an erratic heartbeat through the room, lights flicker overhead, and the temperature plummets around us. I sure as hell don’t expect myself to react to him so violently that I momentarily forget we have an audience or why I’m kissing him.
I pull back and break the kiss. “We have to go!”
He frowns while I hold up our hands.
Already, ice is forming across his skin.
“Now!” I jerk him toward the door while Professor Higgins is still momentarily stunned and sputtering behind us.
I’ll let Aric deal with her later.
For now, we need to get him hidden before he loses complete control.
He’s shaking, his grip hard like stone as we run down the stairs and out of the building. It was dark in the room, so there’s a chance she didn’t see the ice on his skin or his eyes. With the thunder and lightning of the surprise storm, maybe she’d even chalk it up to a trick of the light.
When we make it outside, a jagged line of ice cracks through the sidewalk, disappearing into the grass and nearby forest. I follow it.
A few people from capture the flag are running, trying to escape the rain, so it doesn’t look strange for us to join in.
Careful to get past the majority of the crowd, I tug Aric into the thicker part of the forest, away from the trails.
The wind howls as the sky splits with lightning.
He jerks his hand away from mine and starts punching the tree in front of us.
Over and over and over again.
Silver blood appears, only to re-heal as more ice forms on his knuckles.
His chest heaves, teeth clench like he’s trying so hard to hold everything in but break free at the same time. With a roar, he falls to his knees, lightning splintering from the sky and streaming directly into Aric, followed by another strike into the tree closest to me.
Holy shit. Is he okay?
But I don’t have the chance to move before his arms are around me. My back hits the ground, his hands moving to protect the back of my head in a gesture that I don’t fully understand but makes heat bloom inside me nonetheless.
We roll across the rocks and pine needles, away from the damaged tree. His clothes are ripped, singed by the lightning, and his body shields me while branches burn beside us.
His glowing eyes lock on my mouth before slowly fading back to their normal brown.
There’s no way he’s still sleeping.
I say nothing.
He’s breathing hard, his eyes wild, body rippling with the remnants of his power.
He’s beautiful.
I blink up at him and wince. “Thanks for the save.”
His chest heaves as he leans over me. “I didn’t want you to die without owing me,” he says in a gravelly voice.
“Wow, how thoughtful.” I lean up on my elbows until our faces are inches apart. “Hey. Are you okay? The lightning—”
“I’m fine,” he says. “That wasn’t what it looked like. It didn’t get me.”
That was exactly what it looked like, and we both know it. But I do owe him, so I let it drop, giving him a small, knowing smile and a nod.
His eyes drop to my mouth.
I smirk. “Sorry about the kiss.”
“I might have nightmares about that.” He says it jokingly, but it feels off, like his head is still back in that office. Still going over the horrible things Professor Higgins said.
He turns away and rakes a hand through his hair, giving me a clear view of his back through the shredded remains of his shirt.
My breath catches.
Runes.
And this time, there are most definitely two. In the caves, the second looked faded, or like it hadn’t taken shape yet, but they’re clear as day now, faintly glowing down his spine.
Raido and Dagaz in all their splendor.
They look angry.
They look new.