Ember

The timing. Ugh.

Since the morning class was the only one I shared with Kane I'd been planning on buying him a box of pizza on the way home as a reconciliatory gift. I was supposed to hand him the box with mature composure before making him sit down and talk to me. Very alpha-like.

Instead he'd caught me squawking like a crow and barely able to walk from laughing. Very idiot-like.

Meanwhile he was the picture of the composure I'd coveted for myself, elegant but imposing in his expensive-looking coat, ripped jeans and black boots. His hair was wind-blown in that irritatingly movie character kind of way, exposing the sharp angles of his face and the startling blue of his eyes. The sight of him was enough to startle anyone, but this time I felt a particular jolt because I suddenly- and inconveniently- remembered how desperately his arms had held me against him, how rough his voice had been at my ear-

Tell me you're mine.

My face heated. Needless to say, my humor was no longer in residence. I stopped leaning on Victor with an awkward cough. "Kane," I said. "Hi."

Kane's gaze went frosty, a look that shouldn't have made me nervous after the day we had yesterday but it felt like our argument had negated any positive progress we made. I couldn't stop myself from pulling a face, which surprisingly thawed the ice in his look...and then he glanced down at our clasped hands and the snowstorm was back in full swing.

Faster than I could say 'It's not what you think', he pushed his way between Victor and I, arm banding around my waist and lifting me into his tall figure. "Shh," he said when I started to talk, breath a whisper of warm air on my lips before his own closed the short distance.

I'd once caught a glimpse of Helen and Kane in the past during their public make-out sessions and although I'd usually turn away, for some reason that time I was stuck in frozen horror. Staring at Helen's lavender painted nails as they fisted on Kane's shirt, her body restlessly trying to get closer, to increase the intensity of the kiss. But Kane's hand circled her wrist, keeping the kiss slow, cool and controlled even during an activity that melted other men. Then his eyes had lifted to meet mine...and I'd hauled my butt out of there.

This kiss was anything but cool.

It stole the breath out of my lungs and the strength out of my legs until I had to cling onto him to stop myself from falling, had to rely on his hand to hold the back of my head while his mouth set the sensory nerves all over my body on fire, melting and malleable until there wasn't anything I wouldn't do for him in that moment.

That's when it hit me: he was trying to dominate me.

In public. Again.

The realization, as well as the residue of the memory of him and Helen together changed the heat he was building up inside me into a darker emotion.

The last time I'd bitten him on the lip he hadn't cared, so this time I went for his tongue.

He grunted, mouth withdrawing.

I planted my feet back on the ground, glaring up at him. "Do you have a problem with me hanging around a new friend, Kane?"

He lowered the hand he'd used to cover his mouth, glaring back. "I do if you ask him to give you what you were screaming for-"

Eyes nearly about to fall from my sockets, I slammed my hand over his mouth. He gave the hand a slow lick, arm pulling me into the possessive jerk of his hips.

Why was I surprised?

I moved my hand away, but his arm was a band of steel, preventing me from extracting myself. Exasperated, I looked to Jett but he was a few ways off, frowning down at his phone. Abandoning me again.

To my chagrin, Victor was still around too. "We have class, you two," he said, hiding a smile.

"You can go to class then." Kane gestured towards the back of the building. "We'll continue our conversation over there."

Victor shook his head before I could. "That's a bad idea."

Kane narrowed his eyes, studying him from head to toe. "You don't like it?"

"I wouldn't mind my friend hanging out with her boyfriend, it's the professor whose class she'll be late for who won't like it."

Kane released me. "I won't have to kill you after all."

A joke? A threat?

There was no telling. No time to ask though, Victor was right about me being in trouble if I was late to another class. My next professor wouldn't be too busy snoozing to notice me sneaking in.

So we each went our own way, Jett trailing stone-faced behind us.

In-between walking and trying to bribe Victor into helping me with the rest of my workload, I managed to pull out my phone and send Kane a quick text. Don't do that again.

I waited for the curt No, the stubbornness audible even on the other side of the phone.

But there was no response.

***

Tyra

"What a beautiful table you have here," Light said, then proceeded to acquaint it with his dirty bare feet. The mud on them stained the clear glass top and I had to clench my fists to stop myself from shoving them off. It was my mom's favorite piece of furniture.

Where was my mom?

"You know kidnappers are supposed to go after the person the bodyguard is protecting and not the other way around, right?" I asked the nightmare who was making all my nightmares come true.

"I could kill you in a hundred different ways," he replied absently, removing his feet as a couple of servants flooded in with platters of food.

Not our servants, these ones were calm (now I understood the reason why our own servants had been so nervous outside) and wore the flaming red uniforms that marked them as castle workers. I ground my teeth, he'd barged into our home with his little posse of intruders and was threatening me. Autumn Lord or not, I would've throttled him...if I only had myself to think of.

"Where are my parents?" I demanded.

"Kidnapped. You're not a very good bodyguard." He poked at a pile of roasted octopus, watching it tumble and soil my mother's table even further. He didn't seem to notice the fact that I'd moved closer. Or was simply pretending to.

"You really shouldn't underestimate me," I said, voice trembling with the strain it was taking to keep myself from yelling. My eyes tracked the fork he was using to poke at a baked potato.

"Do you think Kane Wilder is strong enough to protect you?" he asked. "The boy had to rely on one of our kind to save him and his pack from being overrun by another alpha. He's not enough of a threat to underestimate, only a nuisance I'll soon be getting rid of."

"I never claimed to need any alpha's aide," I said quietly, just before plucking the fork out of his hand. I held it to the pale skin of his neck. "I can make my own blood fountains, want to see?"

He lifted the lid off a covered plate, revealing the head of Prince Thorne with his mouth gaped open in what could've been horror or outrage. I frowned, I hadn't liked the guy but even I felt a twinge of pity for him in that moment.

And apprehension at my own future.

"I killed a fae prince," Light said, bony fingers tracing the antlers of said prince. "What do you think I can do to a halfling?" He swiped his arm out, throwing Thorne's head off the plate. Thud. It went rolling away, but a servant picked it up and set it at Light's feet, moving out of sight again. "What do you think I can do to two former servants who've made a fortune from the profits of that halfling daughter?"

I put the fork down, lowered myself to one knee. "Spare them."

His blue mask receded (had it always been blue?), revealing grinning lips. "That's what I thought."

No, you haven't thought everything through- if you did you wouldn't have messed with me. Because one way or another, I'm going to find a way out of this unscathed but you won't be so lucky.

"What is it you desire, Autumn Lord?" I asked.

He popped a loaf of bread in his mouth. "Information. They've no doubt been gathering some on me, I want to know what they know."

I swallowed. Said nothing.

His foot kicked Thorne's head my way, the dead face beautiful even in death. Encouraging me to make the same mistakes he did so I could join him.

I wet my lips. "They think they can stop you with seaweed. A witch and wizard went looking for it a day ago."

He was silent for a long time, enough so I began to smile despite the situation.

His yellow eyes caught the movement, gaze sharpening. "I suppose the sea will have to lose all of its seaweed then."

I bit my lip. Shit.

He tapped a finger on the table. "Let's hear more. Maybe I'll let you go with your life after all."

You won't have yours when I'm done with you, I vowed.

Then I tried remembering anything of consequence that Jett had told me, burying my guilt with the promise of vengeance.

He'll get his. I always made sure they did one way or another.