Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
ARA
“What did I say about wandering about alone?” Tate drops down in front of me like an avenging angel or Otero himself. The night, the shadows around him fit his dangerous tone as he stalks toward me. Every delicious part of him radiates anger.
Since Daeva blends with the darkness around us, it seems like she isn’t even here, making it seem like the sky spat him out right in front of me.
“Should have expected it,” I mutter and start walking again, determined to brush past him, but Tate has other plans. I find myself caged between him and the house next to me. My heart skips a beat, but I only arch an eyebrow.
“This seems awfully familiar,” I tell him dryly.
“Stop fucking disobeying my orders,” he seethes, and a thrill runs down my spine. He is well and truly pissed, and I probably shouldn’t enjoy it so much, or provoke him—but I can’t help it.
“Or what?” I lean back against the wall behind me, grinning up at him. I love that, for once, he doesn’t look all calm and collected.
Tate slams his palm against the wall right next to my head. I don’t even blink. How can he feel so safe and dangerous at the same time?
I watch him. He looks skyward like he is praying for something, his chest heaving with the anger rolling off him in waves, charging the air between us. He takes a deep breath, releases it, before facing me, leaning even closer.
I swallow, and tingles shoot over my skin.
His eyes burn into me, setting me on fire, my body not getting the message that kissing him is not an option … shouldn’t be an option. It’s like I’m fighting a wildfire with a bucket of water.
My eyes drop to his mouth, but I jerk them back up again.
“Or what?” I repeat, my voice husky.
“What are you doing? Riling up your centurion is everything but smart,” Solaris admonishes, and he is right. My centurion, that is all Tate is now to me. Centurion Kyronos.
“You are on coop duties for two weeks, report there right after formation tomorrow morning. And never disobey my orders again, are we clear?” He leans in, his stare piercing, and I involuntarily hold my breath. “I mean it, Ara. One day, it will get you killed.”
“And that would screw up your plans,” I say.
“Exactly,” he replies, then pushes off the wall and gives me one last long look before starting down the sidewalk.
“Use your feet, rider,” he snaps. My breath rushes out, and I gasp in a new one.
Why, oh why, does he still affect me like this? And why, oh why, do I want to do that again?
We start our way back to the academy in silence. It’s easy to be quiet with him, and somehow, that is worse than any awkward silence could be. We snap more at each other than talk, and still, I crave his company. What does that say about me?
Tate starts cursing next to me, and I look up. We just entered a small alley, and two men are walking toward us, blocking our way. They are both dressed solely in black.
“Don’t argue, and don’t disagree. Go along with whatever I say or do. Got it?” Tate commands.
I huff out a breath at his clipped words. I probably would have argued or at least asked questions, but the men have already reached us.
“Get lost,” Tate says, his voice low and threatening.
“And who might this be?” one of the men drawls, looking me up and down.
“Step back and take your eyes off her before we have a fucking problem,” Tate barks, his stance menacing.
“Easy, man. I’m only admiring the view,” the man replies and steps closer, reaching for a strand of my hair that has fallen in my face. I freeze, unsure how to react after Tate’s warning. Who are they, and what do they want? No one has drawn weapons yet, but…
The man closest to me is slammed into the next wall. My eyes widen, but I don’t make a peep.
“You don’t get to touch her,” Tate growls while stepping next to me. Did I think he was angry before?
I was wrong. The air is charged by his magic, pulsing with it. Power radiates off him in waves, prickling my skin.
He’s the embodiment of the deadly quiet right before a storm. A storm you won’t escape, no matter what you do.
“Walk away,” the second stranger says, while his friend’s face slowly turns purple. “We are only here for her.”
“Then I’m here for you,” Tate says, his voice a warning rumble, like thunder in the distance.
The storm has arrived.
Gale-force gusts lash around us, tangling my hair and caressing my hot cheeks. Tate’s gift saturates the air until it throbs with it and pulls me in stronger than ever before. The need to reach for it to open myself to it becomes stronger and stronger until I can no longer resist.
Warmth floods me, so familiar and still different from his healing gift. A laugh escapes my lips while I bask in the raw power around me and become one with it, with him.
The second man lunges for me, but never reaches me. I knew he wouldn’t. I felt the power shifting, reaching for him. He ends up next to the first, both now struggling against the invisible hold Tate has on them. But his attention is on me, his face unreadable.
The men start screaming, and he whips around, shutting them up. And my attention is drawn back to the magic around me. It feels accelerating, freeing, amazing. I feel amazing.
I spin in circles, the sky above me a glittering blanket of beauty, until I’m stopped by Tate’s arms coming around me, and I melt into him.
“Dance with me,” I hum, while I rest my head on his shoulder.
“We have to go,” he says softly, guiding me out of the alley, but I spin away with another laugh, taking up my dance again.
“Look how beautiful everything is.” I grin back at him, but the smile on his face is tinged with sadness. I spin back to him, gripping his face. “Don’t you see it?”
“Oh, I see the beauty, sunshine.” He picks me up. “But now we really have to go.” He carries me down the street, and I snuggle into him.
“Hmm, you smell good,” I tell him.
“And you are an adorable drunk.”
“I didn’t drink anything,” I protest.
“You opened up to my magic, didn’t you?”
“Hmm.” I shudder in his arms. “It felt so good.” I sigh.
“You seem drunk,” he states. “I’ve only read about it, but… You’re probably power drunk.” He looks down at me. “Looks good on you, though.” There’s a smile on his face, and I like it.
“Sorry for tonight,” I tell him. His smile widens.
“Are you always this agreeable when you’re drunk?”
I scrunch up my face. “I was only drunk once. Ben stole a whole variety of bottles from the vine cellar and dared me to try every one of them. I was so sick that I’ve stuck to one glass only since then.”
Tate chuckles and shakes his head. “Seems like your brother is a handful, too.”
“He is my twin.” I shrug.
“That explains it all,” he teases, and I close my eyes, content and happy.
I wake up in my bed the following morning.
“You’ve got some explaining to do,” Mariel greets me as soon as I open my eyes.
I blink at her.
Images of an angry Tate pinning me to a wall flash in front of my eyes, then the encounter with the strangers, Tate’s power saturating the air. Then it gets a bit hazy. I scrub my hands over my face.
“What do you mean?”
She gives me a stern look.
“Our delicious and slightly scary centurion rushed from the common room like a demon last night, then he gets back and deposits your drunken ass in your bed and tells me we are excused from training and you should rest…” She raises her eyebrows.
“And you want to know what I mean? What the fuck happened last night?”
“I was at dinner at my cousin’s and drank a bit more than was good for me.” I jump out of bed, and the world spins slowly and unsteadily. My stomach rebels.
I rush into the bathing chamber and fall to my knees in front of the toilet.
“Yeah, that part is obvious,” Mariel comments dryly, pulling my hair out of my face before I spill the meager contents of my stomach into the bowl. “Better?”
I nod weakly.
“Nice try, but that doesn’t get you out of answering me,” she teases as I rinse my mouth and splash water on my face.
I roll my eyes, making her smile.
“I decided to walk home and ran into Kyronos on the way. That’s all.” I shrug and try to shake off the guilt about lying to her.
She doesn't look convinced, but leaves the room while I jump in the shower.
My thoughts drift back to last night as hot water cascades over my body.
Who were those men cornering us, and … what the hell was that with Tate’s gift? A shiver runs down my spine when I remember how good his magic felt as it seeped into me. How good it felt when he held me.
He called it power drunk. But how is that even possible? I got drunk on Tate’s gift? Even in my head, that sounds … dirty.
Wait, what happened to those men?
I get ready as quickly as possible, and we arrive just in time for the last part of training.
“Look who got done with their beauty sleep,” Miller comments. “But it worked, ladies.” He grins at us.
“You want to tell us we looked ugly yesterday?” I ask and chuckle when he blushes and backpedals. “I’m just fucking with you.” I grin.
“I hope not,” a calm voice says behind me, and I close my eyes. Shit.
His gift is like a physical caress on my skin, and a pleasant shiver runs up my spine. “Feeling better?” he asks, and I nod, not trusting my voice.
I clear my throat and make sure everyone is out of earshot. “What was that yesterday? Who were those men?”
“A power play, nothing more.”
“If you think you will get rid of me with just that tidbit, think again.” I cross my arms, stepping right in his way.
He huffs out a breath. “Alright.” He grabs my shoulder, sending sparks through my body and steers me farther away from the others.
“We had a no-touching agreement,” I grumble, hating how much I want to lean into him.
“You mean the one you broke last night, when you snuggled into me and asked me to dance?”
“I did not…” Shit, I totally did. “That doesn’t count.”
“Of course it doesn’t.” I’m unsure if he’s agreeing or mocking me. My getting drunk on his power hangs between us, unspoken but tangible.
“What happened to the men?” I ask.