Chapter 15 #2
“I don’t know what the big deal is,” I said, slamming my half-empty bottle on the counter.
“I can access my magick and am learning how to control it. I can spin water, even raise it up in little balls. I can push half the pool in one direction while keeping the other half still. Which is fucking hard, by the way. And, hello, did anyone see what I just did out there? The whole turning air into ice thing? I think I’m doing just fine. ”
Cova scoffed, but Ezra lifted a hand and stopped whatever he was about to say.
I felt his gaze as he took me in; his stare missed nothing.
Not the way my chest rose and fell as I caught my breath, or the way my hand still trembled slightly.
I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for him to tell me to be a good girl and listen to my teacher.
“You have taken to wrangling your magick with a strong-willed focus that I admire.” That was more like it.
I stuck my tongue out at Cova and crossed my eyes to be extra petulant.
“However, no matter how sexy it was to watch you play with ice, I already told you how dangerous that loss of control was.”
“But—”
Ezra shook his head. “No buts, babe. You still have a long way to go.”
Now it was Cova’s turn to smirk, and it only deepened with Ezra’s next question.
“And how about your siren call?”
Ugh. My damn zombie bell, I forgot about that thing.
“I was told it would be a while before I could be sure it wouldn’t break free in times of high emotion,” I grumbled. “But I know how to rein it in if it slips now! Everything will be fine.”
The boys exchanged a look, and I didn’t miss the current of anxiety that passed between them. I was sure I could have it under complete control by the time the next semester started. Before then, probably. I was doing such a damn good job of everything else.
“My control is only going to get better,” I insisted. “And once you take care of the djinn, my life will go back to normal. I don’t need all this extra training to be some kind of warrior, okay?”
Another sidelong glance. I was getting real annoyed at this silent conversation they didn’t want to let me in on.
There was obvious tension; Cova hadn’t dropped his shoulders since they walked in.
In fact, they were almost near his ears now.
Even Ezra, his mouth locked in a tight line, was acting strange. What didn’t I know?
He looked at Cova. “What if I can guarantee she will start… attempting some of your suggestions?”
My mouth dropped open at his blatant audacity. The motherfucker. Cova didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he looked to the ceiling, like he’d find an extra set of patience up there.
“You were going to work on communicating with aquatics next, right?” Ezra continued.
“Yes,” Cova sighed. “But I need her actually near a fish to do that.”
“I’ll get her a goldfish.”
“They are quite literally the least intelligent lifeform anywhere in the water.”
Were they kidding me? They were once again planning out my life without even asking me.
And Ezra. I thought we had an understanding.
I thought he was on my side. Was it all just an act?
Their conversation continued as if I wasn’t standing right there.
My fury was about to be a whole extra person in this room.
“You have to get her in there before they come.” Cova’s face was set in that stern mask. “Her life depends on it.”
“She will. I swear it.”
“Hey!” I shouted, pushing between them until I was staring up into the deep green eyes of one soon-to-be-dead witch. I didn’t care that he helped me through one of my lowest moments. Or that he saved my life. I was tired of being overlooked. “You. Don’t. Speak. For. Me.”
My finger jammed into his chest repeatedly.
His very hard chest. It was an effort to hold back my wince when pain radiated through my first knuckle, and the slight twitch in the corner of Ezra’s mouth told me he noticed.
I dug my finger in deeper, despite the pain, to keep from doing something worse, like claw his eyes out.
“Actually,” he drawled, with a little conceited smile. “I do.”
Could a fingernail puncture a lung? We were about to fucking find out. Cova’s ill-timed, or maybe intentional, interruption was the only thing that halted my bloodthirsty inclinations.
“As a member of my faction, I am the one that has say over her.”
Never mind. I was about to test if sirens got supernatural strength along with glowing powers.
Shoving my hand through two chests might just make them finally shut up.
Ezra looked down at me in challenge, like he knew what I was feeling and was excited for me to try.
But Cova continued, oblivious to the very real danger he was in, “Until the bond is complete—”
I froze. All thoughts fled from my head, leaving only one word behind. It circled around my mind like a trapped bird in a dome. Bond. The entire world froze at the term while inside, some new, instinctive part of me awoke and started paying attention.
He said bond.
It was perhaps the only part of not being human that I already knew about, and that was only because I was practically obsessed when Eryn explained to me what it was.
She and Kai were bonds. Two halves of the same soul, she said.
It was why Kai was always around last semester and why they were drawn together like opposite sides of a magnet, no matter how much she claimed she wasn’t interested.
I thought it was the most romantic thing I’d ever heard. But now… Now I was going to be sick to my stomach.
“What did you just say?” My words were strained. There was a ringing in my ears, so I might not have heard him correctly. Please say I heard him wrong.
“I was going to wait until you were ready to tell you,” Ezra started, hands coming to rest on my arms.
I shook them off and stepped out of reach. “I thought you brought him here to help with my magick, but it was all just a setup?”
True panic grew in my gut. This was another surprise attack.
It felt like the universe once again hit me over the head with the shit stick.
Why me? The oxygen coming into my lungs felt thinner somehow, less potent.
I held on with all I had left in me, refusing to give in or pass out.
There was something important I was forgetting. Something about bonds.
What was— I could say no.
“I can say no!” The shout left me on my last deep breath, but with the words out, I was able to take in another. And another. “I can say no to the bond!” I said more firmly.
Refusing to be a coward, I looked right at Cova. His eyes were wide, and even his mouth had dropped a little, like he was surprised I knew my rights. Or maybe it was that he was surprised I’d deny him. Either way, it made it easier to say it again, “I’m not interested in bonding with you.”
Cova’s eyes flicked from me to Ezra and then back again. His mouth opened and closed multiple times before releasing a laugh of disbelief.
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” he finally said. He then glanced at Ezra and smiled the first real grin I’d ever seen from him. It was full and wide, showing all his pearly white teeth. “Good luck.”
He left the room with a pep in his stride.
Not even one glance back. Left alone with Ezra, the room somehow felt smaller despite there being one less person in it.
Maybe it was because of the way he was watching me, like he could pick apart each of my emotions from just the expressions on my face. It was a very intense stare.
Goosebumps rose on my arms at the intensity of it, and I found myself talking just to distract from the feeling.
“Huh. That was easy,” I said with a slight chuckle. “Eryn made it seem like my bond would be more determined to stick around.”
“Oh, he is,” Ezra replied.
Was he closer somehow? I hadn’t seen him move, then again, I wasn’t exactly paying attention to my surroundings all that well. My brain was too focused on the newest supernatural bomb dropped at my feet. I moved back a step, closer to the kitchen.
“What else did Eryn say about bonds?”
My cheeks heated at the immediate facts that came to mind, and I glanced down at the tiles to hide my blush. I quickly pushed past the more embarrassing details Eryn told me and focused on the less indecent ones.
“She said that Kai was super demanding, overprotective, and always around.” And apparently, all of that was an understatement. Even I noticed the guy seemed to pop up wherever we were. Ezra usually right along with him.
“Was that all?” he asked.
I shook my head. “There was plenty more. She said he made up excuses to be around her and that she always knew he was nearby because of a feeling in her chest.”
I paused, and my head snapped up. Ezra was once again close enough to touch, one hand resting casually against the counter.
Heat radiated off him in a faint pulse that I felt within my own body.
Specifically in my—no, I was just overheated from all the arguing.
I moved away, sure that I was blocking him from getting to the fridge, but he followed, turning around the island just as I did.
“She, um,” I coughed, my throat suddenly dry. “She also said he looked at her like…”
Oh God. The drawers were digging into my back, but that didn’t distract me from the steady hum in my chest. Because there was no ignoring it now.
No brushing it off. It wanted to be acknowledged.
That wild tether between us came to life like an electric livewire that wound through my ribs and sparked each time my heart thumped.
“Like what?” Ezra purred, stalking closer.
His eyes seemed to glow with the same fire, and they never left my face. They dipped down to my mouth, to where my lip sat trapped between my teeth, then flicked back up to ensnare me again. Each step he took was an echoing throb in my chest. Lower. This wasn’t possible.
“No,” I whispered. “Absolutely not.”
He cocked his head, moving that final step until I was trapped in the corner with both his arms caging me in on either side. “What’s wrong, little siren?”
“I-it’s you?” I stuttered. “You’re my bond? How?”
I felt faint. Between the absolute firestorm raging in my chest and the tingling, hyper-awareness of him being so near, I was sure I was about to pass out.
My mind was moving faster than my body. It cycled through every memory of us together, isolating every minute detail of how we interacted to try and find any clues that might have led to me figuring this out sooner.
The results: I was an idiot. A blind, foolish idiot.
My skin tingled where we touched. I was swaying, and each time I fell forward, I met his hard body.
To his credit, he didn’t reach out and grab me or even comment on my obvious inability to function.
The veins in his arms stood out as he locked all his muscles, as his body warred against his demand to stand down.
What the hell was wrong with me that I found that attractive?
The absolute control he had over his impulses and the knowledge that I was the one making him strain against them.
It was the hottest thing, and my own hormones reacted accordingly.
My nipples hardened under my sports bra and nearly brushed against him with each breath.
My tongue darted out to wet my lips, and my thighs trembled from clenching them so tightly. I really needed to stop. I had to focus. Eryn said I would be drawn to him, that my body would betray me and basically become enemy number one in the battle for control. She also said— fuck .
I glanced up to see Ezra’s chin slightly tucked.
Just enough for him to be able to look down and watch me.
His nostrils flared slightly and faint movement out of the corner of my eye told me he was gripping the granite and having to repeatedly adjust his hold.
His breathing was just as heavy as mine, like the thoughts running through my head were on repeat in his as well.
Or because he could feel my emotions. Double fuck. Eryn said that was part of the bond and if he felt even a smidgen of what I was right now…
“I reject it.” The words were out of me so fast, there was no time to think about the consequences.
My heart pounded. One beat. Two. Nothing happened. I frowned, worried that I’d done it wrong. I waited another few seconds but nothing changed and when I looked at Ezra, he hadn’t moved.
“Why are you still here?” I tried to glare, but the words came out too breathless to be convincing.
His lips split into a slow, smug smile. “You have to mean it,” he rasped, and his hand left the counter to hover over my chest. Only one finger made contact with my skin, and it felt like a jolt when it landed, right between my breasts. “In here.”
He shifted forward just enough for our hips to align.
For a very large, very solid part of him to graze against the one tell I couldn’t conceal.
If he pressed any harder, the evidence would soak through my shorts, and there would be no more hiding.
He rolled against me, a slow, controlled motion that had me answering in kind before I could lock myself down.
“By the way you're gasping, I think rejecting the bond is the very last thing on your mind.”