Chapter 14
Evie
They had altered the gallery. Arches that opened onto the garden were strung with soft, magical fairy lights, and portraits of old academy deans looked down from the wall. Henrich Eisenberg, garbed in teal and gold, stood beneath the crystal chandelier.
I paused to drink in the colours and the delicate fading the artist had coaxed from paint.
Gold had been laid in thin sparks around Henrich, and seeing his face made me ache for the years before the plague, when everything still revolved around books and practice and the slow, patient work of magic.
I had graduated during the Breath of Death, a hollow, lonely ceremony, then taught at the academy, and then I became a magister. That was my story.
The other lavatorium sat at the gallery’s far corner. I slowed my pace, relishing the cool night air that slipped through the arches. The gardens spread out into shadow. If I narrowed my eyes, I could just make out the outline of the necropolis.
“She’s there!” a man called from behind me. He sounded drunk.
I quickened my steps so I could slip into the lavatorium and avoid him.
“Hey! Not so fast, little mouse.” Another voice. Closer this time.
I glanced over my shoulder. The two students from the dance floor trailed me.
They caught up and boxed me in. My back hit the stone, and the two men reeking of mousseux stood before me, cutting off any escape.
One had filthy black hair and skin too pale, even for Hauvia. The other was blond, freckled, with blue, lizard-bright eyes. Drunk, they laughed like goats.
“Well, hello there,” the pale one said, trying for seduction and landing on a bleat.
“Running from us, are we?” the blond asked. “We had a good thing going. Why did you leave?”
“We know every girl from fourth year, but we don’t know you. Where have you been hiding?” the pale one pressed.
“You better watch that tone,” I warned. I hated to pull rank, but, “You are speaking to Magister Evangelina Corvo. You do not want your record to show you harassed a member of the Court, do you?”
“That accent…” the pale one murmured, ignoring the rest. “Sounds very… sexy.”
“Magister…” the blond paused, as if the title had only just landed. “Isn’t dancing like that a bit… inappropriate for a court wizard?” He smiled, vile.
Every muscle in me tightened. I wanted to slap them both, to kick them where it would hurt and make them understand I danced as I pleased.
“And that gown you wear is an invitation,” the blond said, still smiling.
That was his undoing. He had just signed his own expulsion in red ink and sealed it with black wax.
He leaned in, ready to carry out whatever filthy plan crawled in his mind, and I readied my fist.
I punched him in the nose.
My knuckles burned instantly like fire from the ninth hell.
“That bitch!” the blond roared. He cradled his nose, blood seeping through his fingers.
Suddenly, the pale one had me pinned against the wall. I realized I was too short; they were too tall, too strong. Held like that, I could not shape a single spell.
Screaming might have been an option. But here, no one would have heard me.
I felt a hand travel across my body, and bile rose in my throat.
“You might want to stop that,” a deep voice said.
Time folded in on itself.
We all turned toward the voice. It came from impossibly near.
Kael stood there, beside us.
“The Court Wizard…” the blond muttered, still cradling his nose.
I was released. I sucked in air as if I had been drowning. Tears blurred my vision. Never in my life had this happened. I never wanted it to happen again.
Kael spoke no more. He simply stepped closer. The drunken leers and dull desire that had warped their faces fell away as if a blade had cut them.
They fled, stumbling over apologies.
I let out the breath I had been holding.
“Are you all right?” Kael asked, concern hardening his features.
“Yeah,” I breathed. “Thank you.”
I hated that I had done nothing, that fear had frozen me. I hated that only Kael’s presence had chased them off. Not my words, not my title, especially not my powers.
“Do you need anything?” he asked.
For a moment he was unexpectedly gentle. I hated that too, because he probably saw me as a useless mage who could not fend for herself.
“I could have handled this myself,” I spat, too sharp and not thinking.
He chuckled once without a smile. “Oh really? Tell me how.”
I forced myself to steady. I resorted to the only shield I had when I felt exposed. I turned my nerves into a joke.
I lifted my hand as if to cast, chin high, smile broad in the most theatrical way I could muster. “I could have blasted them to pieces.”
That earned me a smile. “With the power of dance?”
What had he said? Was someone else mocking my dancing again? I shot him a look striking like an arrow. His smile did not fade. It remained—infuriating and even more so beautiful.
I had enough for the night. I wanted to go home more than anything.
But not before I gave my savior a piece of my mind.
“What’s your problem with me?” I demanded, sharper than I meant to.
His smile vanished. His brows drew together, but he said nothing.
“All you do is look at me as though I’ve done something unforgivable. Ever since the assembly. Then you assaulted me. By the stairs, remember? The next day, you asked Lo to spy on me. What is this?”
Still no answer. I wasn’t finished.
“At the market today, you just stormed into my booth, and it was like…”
Like you wanted to kiss me.
I couldn’t say it. The words trembled behind my teeth. To speak them would be to cross a line I couldn’t return from.
“What’s your problem with me?” I whispered again, the plea breaking through my anger. Tears stung my eyes, thick in my throat.
He moved toward me until my back met the wall once more. Kael towered over me, shadow and storm in equal measure.
And finally, he spoke. “My problem is you.”
The words cut cold and clean. A tear slipped down my cheek. I couldn’t trust my voice not to shatter. His eyes darkened, thunder gathering behind them, and for a single breath he only stared at me.
“My problem is that look in your doe eyes,” he finally said, voice low, dark, threaded with something perilous.
“The way your lips part when you look at me. The way your heartbeat stumbles when I’m close, too close.
” His breath, warm and sharp with mint, brushed my skin.
“I see every small betrayal your body makes in my presence, and it drives me insane. You drive me insane, Evangelina. One look at you, and—”
I caught him by surprise, wrapping my arms around his neck. Whatever had seized me could only be called a leap of faith. I rose to my toes and pulled him in.
Instinct. Nothing more, nothing less.
He did not resist. I closed my eyes, and my lips were on his.
The shock of the kiss ran through me like lightning, setting every nerve alight. His lips were warm, impossibly so, like sunlight breaking through after centuries of darkness.
He drew a deep breath against me, as if he’d been starved of air, then leaned into the wall and into me, his presence swallowing every thought.
One of his hands found the small of my back, drawing me sharply against him. He traced the length of my spine, rising to the nape of my neck, fingers threading through my hair before he tugged, hard, to open me up to him.
His tongue, too soft and sweet for a man like him, pushed through my lips to find mine, a touch that stole the breath from my chest. Kael kissed like someone who’d mastered the language of love—measured, consuming, and dangerously precise.
The rhythm deepened until it felt like the pull and crash of tides, and I was no longer steering it.
He commanded the moment, and I could only yield, surrender to the hands that explored parts of my body that hadn’t been touched like that in years.
He squeezed my breast in one hand, his grip tightening until pleasure blurred with pain. The kiss turned fierce, the tenderness burned away to something raw and primal. His teeth caught my lip, and the sharp sting drew a gasp from me. The faint taste of copper mingled with the cool trace of mint.
The world tilted as he lifted me with one arm, and my fingers clung to him, holding on for dear life.
My legs wound around his waist. He marked my skin with tongue and teeth, tracing down my neck, across my collarbone, then upward again over the curves of my breasts, each brand carrying me further from reason.
His free hand pushed the lavatorium door open in a rush, and he carried me inside, pressing me against the cold, polished stone before releasing me. The door closed behind us with a final click.
I found my footing again, still caught in his embrace, his chest heaving against me like a violent tide about to break.
I could feel him, his hardness and the size, pressing against my stomach.
Desire pooled between my thighs. I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anyone. His scent—cedars and morning dew—wrapped around me as I lost my grip on reason beneath his kiss.
His teeth grazed the skin of my neck, tracing downward before sinking into my flesh again, harder this time, as though confessing his own undoing. And I liked it. Gods help me, I liked it, and that confirmed all my suspicions that something wasn’t quite right with me.
Or maybe it was exactly right.
He leaned forward, his hand sliding through the slit of my gown, my skin burning beneath his touch. The fabric whispered apart under his fingers, tracing the length of my thighs with a hunger barely contained.
He no longer held me; he possessed me, one strong arm anchoring me against him while the other drew fire along my skin.
And I let him. I surrendered completely, parting my legs as a sinful invitation.
A low sound rumbled from his chest, rough and primal, vibrating through me until I trembled. The world narrowed to heat and shadow as he tore my undergarments with a single flick of his hand and touched me where it burned the most.