Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
Rose
Midnight, and I’m trudging through snow to meet the most dangerous man I know.
Considering I’m currently hooking up with a ghost, a vampire, and an incubus, that’s saying something.
I head to our usual clearing, the moon hanging full and heavy overhead like it’s watching everything.
Training with him tonight feels different, urgent.
Two people missing, possibly dead, and a deranged witch with a taste for magical flesh running the academy.
Yeah, learning to defend myself seems like a priority.
Ash is already waiting when I arrive, a dark silhouette against the snow. He’s bareheaded despite the cold, snowflakes catching in his jet black hair before melting away. When he turns to face me, his green eyes catch the moonlight, reflecting it back.
“You’re on time.” He sounds almost disappointed, like he had been looking forward to chastising me.
“Don’t act so surprised.” I stop a few feet away from him. “People are disappearing. I’m taking this seriously.”
His eyes drop to my throat where the locket rests. “I see you’re wearing it.”
I touch the silver pendant reflexively.
Something flickers across his face. “Let’s begin.”
Tonight, Ash focuses on offensive magic. Not just shields and barriers, but attacks with directed bursts of energy, elemental manipulation, the kind of magic that could actually hurt someone. Or kill them.
“Channel it through your core,” he instructs, standing behind me as I try to focus a stream of golden light into something more deadly. His breath is warm, his chest nearly touches my back. “Don’t think of it as separate from you. It’s part of you.”
I close my eyes, feeling for the well of power inside me. With his magic leash loosened, my power flows stronger than ever, and it comes easily now. I extend my hand, visualizing the natural magic gathering and condensing.
A burst of gold light shoots from my hand and hits a dead tree thirty feet away. The trunk splinters with a thunderous crack.
“Better.” Ash’s approval sends an unwelcome thrill through me. “Again.”
We repeat the exercise, and Ash adjusts my stance with touches that linger just a second too long. His hands grab my hips, turning me. His fingers wrap around my wrist, lifting it higher. His body is so close that I can smell his the woodsy scent of his skin.
“You’re holding back,” he says after my fifth attempt. “Why?”
“I’m not.” But I am, and he knows it.
“You are.” He stops in front of me, eyes narrowed. “You’re afraid of your own power.”
“I’m not afraid. I just don’t want to hurt anyone.”
His laugh is short and humorless. “That’s a luxury you can’t afford, not with Jasmine hunting for her next meal.”
The reminder of the danger hanging over us sends a chill down my spine. “Fine. How do I stop holding back?”
Ash considers me for a moment, then says, “Maybe you need me to raise the stakes.”
Before I can ask what he means, he lunges at me. I throw myself sideways, narrowly avoiding his grasp. He pivots smoothly, coming at me again, and this time I’m ready. I throw up a shield, golden light flaring between us.
Ash smiles, the expression changing his face from cold to something almost playful. “Better. But shields won’t save you if you’re cornered.”
He stalks me around the clearing, testing my defenses, looking for weaknesses. Each time he gets close, I push him back with bursts of magic, but he’s relentless. Finally, he feints left, then darts right, catching my arm and spinning me against his chest.
“Got you.” He locks his arm around my waist.
My heart pounds against my ribs. His body pressed against mine feels different from Lucien’s cool strength or Drake’s gentleness or Soren’s heat. Ash is like a wild force of nature.
“You’re dead,” he says. “Jasmine wouldn’t hesitate.”
I struggle against his grip, but he only tightens it. “Let me go.”
“Make me.” His voice drops lower. “Use your magic. Really use it.”
I twist in his hold, breaking free with a quick burst of magic that makes him step back, shaking his hand like I’ve burned him.
“You’re learning.” He flexes his fingers. “But you’re still thinking too much. Magic isn’t something you control with your head. It’s instinctual. Especially yours.”
“So what do you suggest?” I don’t like the way he’s smiling at me.
“Run.”
“What?”
“Run.” He steps closer.
I stare at him, trying to read his intentions. “This seems like a weird training exercise.”
“Scared?” The taunt hangs between us, a clear challenge.
“Of you? Please.” I back away, already planning escape routes in my head. “How long do I get?”
“Two minutes.” His eyes are bright with anticipation. “Starting now.”
I don’t wait for him to change his mind, and I turn and sprint into the woods as fast as I can.
The forest is dark, with the moon’s light filtering through bare branches in dappled patterns that make the shadows look deeper than they are.
I zigzag between the trees, occasionally glancing back to make sure Ash isn’t following yet.
When I’m deep enough in the woods, I stop, catching my breath. I need to hide, but how? I’ve never tried to conceal myself magically before. I close my eyes, focusing on the energy inside me, trying to visualize it forming a cloak around me, something that will mask my presence.
The magic responds, wrapping around me like a second skin. I feel it shimmer across my body, not quite invisibility but something close to it, a way of bending attention away from me. I duck behind a large oak just as I hear Ash enter the woods, his footsteps deliberately loud.
“Ready or not, little witch,” he calls, voice carrying through the trees.
My heart beats faster. This isn’t just training anymore. It’s a game, a hunt, with rules I’m not entirely sure of. But there’s a thrill to it that makes warmth and wetness flood between my legs, something primal awakening in my blood as I hide from the predator stalking me through the dark.
I move silently from tree to tree, keeping low, using my magic to muffle my footsteps in the snow.
Ash is probably scanning the forest floor for tracks, and I hear his footsteps go quiet as he occasionally stops to listen.
I hold my breath when he passes near my hiding spot, his shoulder brushing the tree I’m crouched behind.
For a moment, I think he hasn’t noticed me. Then his hand shoots out, grabbing for me, and I bolt away, abandoning stealth for speed. I hear him laugh behind me, and my heart decides it wants to beat its way out of my chest.
I run faster, ducking under branches, jumping over fallen logs, my lungs burning from the cold air. He’s behind me, gaining ground, and I realize I’m terrified, but I’m also strangely thrilled.
I’ve never felt this with the others. Lucien’s protective instincts make him want to keep me from danger, not push me toward it. Drake’s gentleness means he’d never willingly put me in harm’s way. Soren’s playfulness has an edge, but it’s unserious.
But Ash? Ash treats me like someone who can take whatever he dishes out.
I reach a small clearing and pause, listening. The woods have gone quiet. Too quiet. I turn in a slow circle, reaching out with my senses, trying to locate him.
Nothing.
Then, a twig snaps directly behind me. I whirl, magic gathering at my fingertips, but I’m too slow.
Ash tackles me, his body colliding with mine, sending us both tumbling into the snow.
We roll once, twice, and then he’s on top of me, pinning my wrists above my head, his knees on either side of my hips.
“Found you,” he says, his voice hoarse with exertion.
I’m breathing hard now, and snow in my face and down my neck, my back pressed into the cold ground. Ash looms over me, his face half in shadow, half illuminated by moonlight. His grip on my wrists is unyielding, but his body is a warm weight on top of mine, and not entirely unwelcome.
“Get off me.”
“Make me.” His eyes glitter. “I once made you a promise. About what would happen if I caught you.” He smiles darkly. “Do you remember what I said?”
In answer, I arch up my hips against him, pressing my body into his.