“Lex!” she shouted. “He stole your necklace back and nailed it to our door! What did you do?”
She was obviously still in shock. I slumped down on my bed. She came and sat down beside me. “I didn’t do anything!” I told her what had happened.
“Who is he?”
She rubbed at her face. “I don’t know much about it. He’s the most infamous of the Nightblood students. And he’s got some kind of grudge against Kai.”
“Can I stash the necklace in your ingredient chest?” I asked Sophie. She made a spectacle of removing the spells around it.
“I’ll put it in,” she said.
“Jeez, Soph. I’m not going to break anything.” I pretended to trip near her prized bottle of dragon’s breath. The grip she had on my arm was only slightly less tight than her fake smile. “Okay, okay. No physical comedy around the ingredients.”
She was going to be a hoot and a half in her Magical Ingredients class. I was about to tell her so when Kai’s angelfire brushed up against my circle. “Blue!”
“I was wondering what was taking him so long,” Sophie asked.
“I have half a mind not to let him in,” I said. She pressed a finger to her lips hurriedly. I kept forgetting about the supernatural hearing.
“Either open the door or I’ll take it off,” Kai said. Right. I stomped to the door. Sophie just managed to retract her spell before I flung it open.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” I spat at him. “You don’t just get to –”
He pressed me against the wall, his palms either side of my shoulders. “Don’t stay out too late,” Sophie called before she shut the door on us.
Kai stood there without blinking, his body a cage around me. The green glow of his angelfire reflected in the depths of his eyes. His gaze feathered over me, doing that intense thing where he checked if I was injured.
“You okay?” he asked.
I nodded. His palms shaped my hips as he leaned down and kissed me. We heard other doors opening. Kai’s top lip curled. “I won’t let anything take you,” he said. I found myself squeezed against his chest as he teleported us. The pleasure and pain sensation felt dulled as we hung in limbo. It was for the barest second. On a whim, I allowed myself to drop into the Ley dimension. The line of my magic had expanded even further.
I was apprehensive as we landed in the Grove.
Kai sensed my unease and didn’t let go. All I could hear was my heartbeat thudding against my chest. He ran has palms along the underside of my arms. I hadn’t realised I was shaking until he gripped me tight.
“It’s okay,” he said. “You’re still here.”
I couldn’t tell if he reassuring me or himself. Before I could open my mouth, he tilted my chin up. His eyes darkened. “Your door.”
“Who told you?” Max was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a snitch. He wouldn’t have said something. I tried to wrestle out of his hold. “It was her, wasn’t it?”
“Blue.”
I let out a frustrated grumble. “I can’t move two steps with another guy without you going cave man. But you let her get away with murder. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?”
“Blue...I…”
“Don’t bother. I’ve had enough of the both of you.” I wish I had the stupid necklace with me so I could throw it in his face. “If she wants it so badly, she can have it.”
He caught me as I tried to turn around. I had every intention of walking back to the dorms. “Wait,” he said.
“I’ve heard it all before, Kai. So you weren’t very nice to her before. So what? She doesn’t sound like she’s Mother Theresa either.”
“Who?”
I stomped on his foot. Now was not the time for supernatural obtuseness. “She’s a raging bitch, and instead of putting her in her place, you keep making excuses or her. It’s no wonder she thinks she’s queen of the Nephilim.” My voice was growing louder. Dozens of coloured fairy lights winked into existence around the Arcana tree. “I might just be a low-magic, demon-spawned human, but you can go to hell if you think I’m going to stick around for this.”
The branches of the trees began to shake. Autumnal leaves that had managed to cling onto the last of the season rained down on us.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. In the shadow of the moonlight, I thought I could see steam coming out of his nostrils. “You said you didn’t want it back.”
True. I had said that. But so what? That didn’t change the fact she still thought it was okay to go crying to him.
“Blue.”
If he said my name like that one more time, I was going to deck him for real.
Inside me, the magic was turbulent. A nymph piped up with warning. I knew I was close to losing control too. I couldn’t have a repeat of what happened on the beach at Terran. I breathed out through my nose.
Kai grabbed me by the shoulders. “Why does it matter who told me?”
I tried to pry him off. He only held on tighter. I pretended to wince, but he knew exactly how much pressure he was exerting. It only pissed me off more that he remained calm enough to be thoughtful while I was raging inside.
“Why does it matter who nailed the necklace to my door?” I threw back.
“Taking a necklace because she’s spoiled and selfish is miles away from nailing said necklace to your door because he’s a psychopath!”
“I would take crazy over bitchy any day of the week.”
He clamped his jaw shut. I saw his nostrils flare. He just stood there breathing heavily. “What are you doing?” I kicked his shin.
“Durin says imagining killing something helps when Yolanda tries to use him as a scratching post if she’s frustrated.”
“Excuse me?”
“Right now, I’m thinking about slicing Andrei’s neck half off and ripping the sinew out of his
