Chapter 14 #2
But the fact that I hadn’t so much as bent a thin hair on his head didn’t seem to matter. His piggy eyes widened, and he stalked toward me, fists at his side, vibrating. “You dare attack me! I’ll see you expelled!”
I cut my hand across the spell over my leg, removing it, my anger fueling the rune. “You started it.”
Except I didn’t think he was going to give me a chance to be expelled. He had the same energy as Nikita. Unpredictable and hateful. A bad combination in anyone, but in a doyen who was also a senator?
The literal worst.
I kept my eyes on his left hand as he began to weave a rune, slow enough that I could see what he was doing – his grin vile. It would knock me out if I let it hit. And he wanted me to see exactly which rune it was.
I did what any teenage girl would do.
I tipped my head back and screamed, a long, high-pitched shriek that froze his hand weaving the rune.
I’d take any of the other teachers, but I was hoping Liam heard me.
Or Thalienne. Anyone. Because if they didn’t, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stop myself from disemboweling this piece of shit where he stood.
“No, please don’t hurt me! I didn’t know!” I smiled at him, because we were never going to be friends. Grinning, I gave him a sassy wink as I pushed myself along the floor. “Please! Stop! Don’t hurt me!”
He took a breath and then his hand lifted once more. “You little cun—"
“What the fuck is going on here?”
The snarled demand was harsh enough that it would’ve stopped me in my tracks regardless, but in this case, I nearly had a cardiac arrest.
Because I knew that voice as surely as I knew my own – hell, I heard it in my dreams enough.
I turned to see a tall male dressed in all black stalking toward us. And when the dim hall light finally hit his face, it was a good thing I was still on the ground, because my knees would’ve buckled.
Whatever air I’d gathered left me in one fell swoop.
Typhon Moreno stepped up beside me as if born of the shadows themselves, the darkness giving up its king. His eyes were on the senator, ignoring me.
“What is going on here, Mallachtan?”
“Better question: What are you doing here, Moreno?” Mallachtan shot back with a frown, although his previously lifted hands, ready for battle, had lowered and he was clenching them in front of him, a slight tremble that I wasn’t sure he even knew he gave.
Even as a senator he was afraid of Typhon Moreno? Not as dumb as he looked, then.
Typhon didn’t bother to answer Mallachtan but instead turned to me.
“Are you alright? What happened?”
His deep-green eyes threatened to peer into my soul, if I let him. I forced the shock aside and turned my face away. I was delaying the inevitable. There was zero percent chance he’d see me up close in full light and not recognize me. He could be dressed in a gorilla suit, and I would know him.
The way he moved, with the grace of a lion.
The way he smelled.
The way my body reacted when he was close. How could it not be the same for him?
I swallowed hard and forced myself to speak, trying to keep my voice lighter than my usual tone, younger.
“I didn’t know there was a curfew – Sage Thalienne told me there wasn’t one – and I got turned around.
This guy hit me with a rune and threatened to expel me, but I love it here. I can’t leave yet!”
I felt his gaze leave me.
“You struck her . . . with a rune?” The edge in Typhon’s voice sent a shiver through me.
“She ran when I ordered her to –”
Typhon’s voice deepened, his anger a palpable thing. “You don’t give the orders here, Mallachtan.”
The senator spluttered, as if finding words was beyond him.
Typhon took the moment, bent and offered me his hand. “What’s your name?”
“H-Hannah,” I whispered, eyes downcast, looking only at his hand, not his face.
“I’ll take you to your dorm, Hannah.”
I did not want to take his hand. He’d know, how could he not?
“She –”
Again, Typhon cut him off, spinning to face him, his back to me now. “The Sage will not appreciate you making waves like this, Mallachtan. The Senate surely wouldn’t advocate striking a student –”
“The Senate advocates order,” Mallachtan cut in with a snort. “And you aren’t even supposed to be here. Now get this rabble rouser out of my sight before I change my mind and report her to Sage Thalienne after all. Or maybe straight to the Senate on charges of assault.”
“You’d have a witness against you,” Typhon said, his voice getting soft, more deadly than the angry rumble. “One that saw you standing over a young girl, screaming for help.”
Typhon’s rune-casting hand twitched and the senator flinched, his cheeks flushing as he backed away, straightening his jacket indignantly as he went as if he didn’t just get threatened. “I look forward to our first class together, Hannah. Do stay out of trouble until then . . .”
I watched as Mallachtan went, mostly relieved, but a tiny part of me considered begging him to stay. He might be stupid and cruel, threatening to bring charges on me, but Typhon could do more damage with just a word than that old man could ever do.
Typhon’s hand closed gently around my forearm as he helped me to my feet, tingles of awareness rippling through me, even through my jacket.
“He won’t bother you again . . . not tonight, at any rate.”
“Th-that’s alright. I’m good to walk myself. I’d rather be alone after that.” My throat was so tight, I could barely squeeze out the words. Surely, he felt that frisson of electricity between us? Or was it only this bad for me?
Gods, that would be embarrassing. Horrifying.
He cocked his head and stared at me, long enough that my lungs burned with the breath I was holding.
“You have a faint resemblance to . . . someone I know.”
“A friend?” The question was out before I could stop it, and for some reason, nothing in the world mattered more in that moment than his answer.
“No . . . Sort of.”
“What’s she like?”
“She’s . . .”
I waited, wondering what he would say about me.
That I was infuriating. Stubborn. Willful?
“What? She’s what?”
“Dangerous.”
Blood pounded in my ears, and I curled my fingers, letting my nails ding into my palms to keep from touching him.
“Dangerous to who?” I managed.
He shook his head slowly, jaw tense, his eyes seeming to look inward.
“Only to me, Hannah . . . only to me.”