Kols’s fury pierced my heart, his anger a brand lashing at my heart with each step.
I could feel his ire, his anger, his blame.
But I hadn’t meant for this to happen, didn’t understand how it was even possible. He’s not an Elemental Fae, I thought for the thousandth time. I can’t bond with him. Yet I felt the unmistakable connection tying us together. We’d skipped levels one and two and blasted straight to the third, our link resolute.
Breaking it would be impossible outside of death.
As if the fae required another reason to kill me.
I need to get out of here, I thought, spinning in a circle somewhere outside of the Academy walls. I’d gone through the open gate, uncertain of my destination, and now I had no clue where I was. A stupid move born of emotional turmoil.
How could a beautiful moment go so wrong?
Kols’s essence still warmed my thighs, his seed dampening my core.
Mother Earth, that man could move. He’d taken me to a state of incomprehension. Only to be destroyed by fate showing her ugly head.
It left me mated to two Midnight Fae.
I screamed an incoherent word into the void of darkness around me. There wasn’t a curse alive that could express my frustration. Nor one that could help. Not even an enchantment. Unless something existed that could undo time, but I doubted it.
“What the fuck are you doing out here?” a deep voice demanded, sending me in a spin toward a shadow lurking near a tree.
I could hardly see, the moon hidden above the thick branches of the forest I’d entered. “Zeph,” I said, my heart in my throat.
Clove had followed me outside, only to take flight when I started to run, and I had no idea where she went. Probably somewhere with Kols’s crow, as both birds had followed me on my mad dash outside. At least they were safe from Zeph’s vile snake.
He moved forward, his steps silent over the earth. “Are you all right?”
I startled, his tone holding a note of concern, but I knew better. Besides, it was such an absurd thing to ask because ob
viously I wasn’t all right.
Just the notion of it had me laughing out loud, the urge to cry hitting me square in the gut.
Answering him would be futile, so I ignored him instead, spun around again, and picked up my path again through the trees.
Only, he caught my arm and yanked me back toward him.
I reacted instinctually, my leg sweeping low to knock him off-balance and my fist cutting upward to strike his jaw.
Both were hits that would have made me proud in defense class. His resulting grunt and growl, however, had me instantly regretting my immediate reaction.
I took off at a sprint, needing to escape him.
But his arms ensnared my waist merely two steps later.
“What the actual fuck, Aflora?” he demanded, his lips against my ear. “Is this about Raph?”
“Raph?” I repeated, lost. “Who’s Raph?”
“My tripod snake,” he replied softly, his grip tightening as he pressed his nose to my neck. “Why do you smell like Kols?” A soft question, one I couldn’t stand to answer.
I hadn’t meant for the bond to snap into place.
Hadn’t meant to lose myself in the moment.
Get out.