Jade
I walk through the hidden door at Phoenix Hall into the secret passages, and as always, Logan’s already there, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, waiting for me. He looks tired tonight—more tired than usual—with shadows under his eyes that make me wonder if he’s been sleeping.
“The Forge Party means the Scorched Circles are out tonight. I wasn’t sure you’d come,” he says, although the relief that crosses his face suggests otherwise.
“I’ll always come.” The words slip out before I can stop them, and I immediately want to take them back because wow, that sounded way more suggestive than I intended. “To training, I mean. I’ll always come to training. That’s what I meant.”
His eyes take on that intense look they get whenever I swear he’s about to kiss me, and I stand perfectly still, holding my breath like a complete idiot because maybe if I don’t move, don’t breathe, don’t do anything to break this moment, he’ll finally—
“With the Scorched Circles out, I have somewhere else in mind,” he interrupts my thoughts, turning away and leading me deeper into the tunnels.
I follow, trying not to feel disappointed as we eventually branch off and climb endless spiral stairs, my thighs burning with each step.
“How much further?” I ask, my voice echoing off stone walls.
“Almost there.”
Finally, we reach a heavy door marked with constellations. Logan presses his palm against it, and it shimmers open.
“After you.” He motions for me to enter first, and I step through into the observatory.
The transformation from cramped passages to a soaring space makes me dizzy.
Or maybe that’s just the way starlight pours through the glass dome overhead, turning everything silver.
The constellation maps in the floor pulse brighter than they did when I was here with Margot, and everything feels more intense and overwhelming than it did then, like the universe turned up the volume on all my senses.
When Logan enters, it’s like someone adjusted the lens through which I see him, bringing everything into sharp focus.
The way starlight catches in his dark hair, highlighting angles that belong in a museum.
The careful way he moves, always in control, always holding himself back.
The slight tension in his shoulders that never quite leaves.
The way his hands flex at his sides when he looks at me, like he’s physically restraining himself from reaching out.
“Jade?” Logan moves closer, and I have to remember how to breathe. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just...” I turn in a slow circle, buying time so I don’t say something I’ll regret. “This place is different at night.”
“Everything’s different at night.” His voice carries that low rumble that usually makes me want to do very inappropriate things, but now it just makes me want to... hold him? Talk to him about everything and nothing? Wake up next to him each morning?
“Look up.” He cuts through my emotional spiral by pointing to a group of stars that pulses brighter than the rest. “The Perseus Double Cluster.”
Somehow, I force myself to focus on the stars instead of how perfect his profile looks in this light. Professional. Controlled. Beautiful. Completely unaware that I’m having an emotional crisis three feet away from him.
“Does it mean something?” I manage to ask. “Besides being shiny?”
“I’ve been researching.” He returns his focus to me, and the intense look in his eyes makes my stomach flip. “The Double Cluster creates what ancient texts call an emotional echo chamber. Whatever emotion you’re feeling gets reflected and amplified between the two star clusters.”
“Sounds great.” I roll my eyes. “Because my emotions definitely need amplifying. They’re so subtle and well-controlled as it is.”
He continues like I haven’t spoken. “It’ll help you practice control.”
Disappointment rushes through my body. “So, you brought me here to train.”
Of course he did. Why else would Logan Ashford bring me to a romantic starlit observatory? Certainly not to make out under the cosmos like normal people do.
“Yes.” He nods. “If you can keep your electricity contained when the stars are making you feel everything twice as intensely, the Fury Loop will be manageable.”
Right. The Fury Loop.
The circle we’ve been avoiding having me fight in until now, due to its emotional amplification magic. I’ll basically be a live wire trapped in the wind, about to fry itself and everything around it in a single deadly second.
I need to focus on that. Not on how Logan’s eyes look silver in this light. Not on how I want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until he admits he feels this too, or how he’s the only thing in this world keeping me steady.
“Jade?” Logan’s voice breaks through my thoughts. “What are you thinking about?”
Oh, you know, just the usual. Training. Combat. Definitely not about how you’re driving me insane simply by existing in the same space as me.
“The last time I was here,” I lie, since it’s the first thing that pops into my mind that doesn’t have to do with wanting to confess my most intimate feelings to him. “With Margot.”
His brow furrows. “Why were you here with Margot?”
“She brought me here after Miles died.” The memory feels sharper under the starlight, details I’d overlooked suddenly significant.
“She said that as stand-in proctor, she wanted to connect with students, but she kept asking about what Miles and I discussed in the library. It was weird. Like, aggressively friendly weird.”
Logan goes still. Not his usual controlled stillness, but the kind that makes me think I stepped on a landmine.
“She chose the observatory specifically.” I start pacing, needing to move while I think. “What if she was trying to... I don’t know, use the stars to manipulate my emotions? Make me spill secrets I didn’t know I had?”
“Jade—”
“Gods, I sound paranoid.” I run both hands through my hair. “But she was so interested in what Miles and I talked about. Like she thought I might know something, or maybe she even suspected—”
Fire erupts from Logan’s hands, and holy shit, I’ve never seen him lose control like this. The flames are orange bleeding into red, darkening to that eerie black at the edges. It’s terrifying and mesmerizing, like watching someone’s soul catch fire.
The temperature in the room spikes, and I stumble back as heat rolls off him in waves.
“I’m sorry,” I say, the words tumbling out. “I shouldn’t have brought up Miles. Not here. I’m an idiot, I didn’t think—“
His fire snuffs out like someone dumped water on it, and for a heartbeat, neither of us moves.
“Well, that was dramatic,” I say weakly, because apparently, I deal with tension by making stupid jokes. “Should we talk about—”
“Your arms, Jade,” he says simply.
I look down and freeze. Because silver electricity is dancing along my skin in visible arcs, crackling between my fingers like tiny storms. The magic is crawling along my arms, and the way Logan’s looking at me is making it travel more and more, until I swear my entire body’s lit up with it.
“Breathe.” He moves closer, the air crackling between us. “Identify your emotion, then contain it in the sphere.”
What I’m feeling? Where do I even start?
Fear about Margot’s suspicions? Paranoia about what happened to Miles?
Frustration at all these secrets? Or this overwhelming need to be closer to Logan—a need that has nothing to do with how good he makes me physically feel, and everything to do with the emotions that have been simmering inside me for gods know how long and are about to explode to the surface?
“I can’t.” The words come out strained. “There’s too much. It’s all tangled up inside me, and I can’t—“
“Yes, you can. Just think of the sphere.” His hand hovers near my cheek, not quite touching, and slowly, painfully, I pull my magic back and force it inside myself again.
It’s not gone. It’s just... controlled. Contained in that mental glass sphere where it can buzz around without hurting anyone.
His thumb finally brushes across my cheekbone, the touch so gentle it makes my chest ache. “I brought you here because this place makes everything too much.” His other hand frames my face, tilting it up toward his. “But you controlled it anyway.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you.” The words come out more honest than I intended.
“Without you, I’d be long gone from this place, being studied or experimented on or whatever the hell the Council would do to me if they knew the truth.
You saved me, you keep saving me, and I owe you my life. I owe you everything.”
The look in his eyes shifts to something so raw and unguarded it makes me forget how to breathe again. And as his hands tremble against my face, time seems to slow as I gaze into those beautiful gray eyes I’ve seen every night while we train together.
Something deeper swirls in them now—something darker. Something that makes me feel like I’m seeing into Logan’s soul.
“Fuck it,” he mutters, and suddenly he’s lifting me, and my legs are wrapping around his waist as he pins me between his body and the cold stone wall.