13

B y the time I reach my dorm, students are crowding the halls to go down for breakfast. No one looks at me, or the mess of my hair from Dane running his hands through it, or my swollen lips from being kissed by one of the most powerful creatures on the island.

The twins spot me rushing into my room, and I already know what they’re going to ask me. If my disheveled appearance doesn’t tell them, my eyes will. Poppy seems to think she can always read someone through their eyes, and so far, she’s been right.

“Where were you last night? I came to your room, and you weren’t there.”

Poppy smiles at me as her sister waits for a reply she isn’t going to get. “Did you find more information on Dane Dalton?” She looks at Mel. “I was helping her last night. I suggested she get to know the person she’s partnered with, so she’ll be more comfortable. Right, Sera?”

I don’t deserve her as a friend. “Right.”

“Orsen said he couldn’t find Dane either.” Mel pops out her hip, eyes dancing with judgment and a little bit of excitement. “Any idea where he could’ve been?”

We all agreed to no secrets, yet the last thing I want to do is tell them where I’ve been—or that I had to go inside a diamond to another world to collect a scroll. I also don’t want to tell them that I was straddling Dane Dalton on a chair in a cult studies classroom and fantasizing about having him inside me.

Instead, I shrug, ushering them into my room and closing the door.

“No more talk about Dane,” I say, pulling off my academy blazer and loosening my tie. It’s already a mess from Dane yanking on it, but neither of them notices. I’m usually well put together with my appearance, even down to my socks staying above my knees at the same height. “He was likely screwing someone.”

Poppy’s nose scrunches. “It’s forbidden to have any intimacy outside of your human relations assignment.”

I sit down on my bed, exhaustion setting in. “Said who?”

“Did you not read the back of the list of tasks?”

I shake my head, get to my feet, and look for the scroll. Once I find it, I see the small printed words at the bottom of the back of the list. “So we can’t kiss or sleep with anyone else?”

Valin nearly messed up my entire year. What is his problem?

“Nope,” Mel says, lying back on my bed. Her brows narrow as I unbutton my shirt and toss it into the pile of dirty washing in the corner of my room, fully intent on showering. “What happened to your neck?”

“What do you mean?”

Poppy comes over to me and turns my body so my back is to them. Sliding my hair away from my neck, she gasps. “When did you get a tattoo?”

“What? Never. I don’t have any tattoos,” I reply, trying to look over my shoulder. “I’d know if I had one.”

The twins drag me into the bathroom and turn on the light, facing me away from the mirror. “Look.”

I glance over my shoulder, seeing my reflection. It’s a struggle to focus from my angle, but from what I can see, it’s a black circle with a design inside, sitting at the nape of my neck. The skin around it is swollen and raw, as if I just got it done.

I frown. “What the hell?”

“I’ve seen this before,” Poppy says, following the ink with her eyes. “I looked through the book you had in the library this morning.”

Mel comes closer to get a better view. “It’s a symbol, isn’t it? What does it mean?”

Poppy looks worried as her eyes collide with mine in the mirror. “It means revenge.” She bites her lip, peeking at her sister. “But I don’t understand the two smaller symbols inside the circle. I’m not sure. To be honest, it looks like the marking of a ritual or a prophecy. It’s far too small and compact to really know.”

I stay silent, although I’m trying not to panic because why the hell do I have a tattoo?

Mel pulls out her phone and snaps a picture. I’m momentarily surprised that she knows how to do that, then remember she and Orsen send disturbing images regularly.

When my friends eventually leave, I sit on the side of my bathtub, towel tight around my naked body. I can feel it, now that I know it’s there. It doesn’t hurt or feel uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it or that I’m not overthinking. The only explanation is that it has something to do with Dane.

Me : Can you come over? I need to ask you something.

I hit send, hoping he has some answers.

Before I can even stand up straight, the oxygen is ripped from my lungs as Dane appears in front of me. The closeness of him materializing in front of me nearly knocks me off my feet.

He doesn’t speak or ask me anything; he doesn’t even give me a chance to jump in fright. I’m lifted from the ground by the waist, back smacking into the bathroom door as his lips crush into mine.

Without hesitation, a whimper slips from my mouth and into his, and I part my lips to feel the softness of his tongue on mine.

My towel is dangerously close to opening completely and dropping to the ground, but Dane doesn’t pay any attention to it as he kisses me for a full minute. The sixty seconds come and go, yet we keep kissing.

His hands are firmly on the backs of my thighs as he wraps my legs around his waist.

With my pussy bare and Dane’s pants rubbing against me, I fight not to roll my hips on him. He’s hard and big enough that no matter what I do, I’m pressing against the length of him. This might just be his way of eliminating another part of the task, but me complicating it by dry-humping him is not going to work.

Then again, he did do the same to me while we were lying in bed, so it’s fair, right?

I grasp at the material at my breasts, the other hand gripping his shoulder as I kiss him back. His tongue runs against mine, both of us groaning deeply and in unison as the candles flicker and the energy alters to something dark and satanic.

Fucking perfect.

His voice is in my head as he swallows a moan from me, breaking the kiss to trail his lips down my throat and nipping at my collarbone.

Letting go of my thigh, Dane snatches my jaw, pushing my face to the side.

Then he presses a word in a different language against my ear. Deep, low, and husky. It sends bursts of flames and pleasure all over—which only amplify as he sucks on my neck and captures my lips again. Absently, I rock my hips, grinding once and having to fist his hair from the rush of pure adrenaline injected into my veins.

The candles flicker again, and the shadows start to gather around the ceiling, slowly twisting, flashing, and growing more excited as I rock into him once more.

Fuck.

Fucking fuck.

She’s perfect.

I try not to blush from the words I can hear in his mind. To refrain from mentioning I heard him, I keep a grip on my towel and bury my fingers into the hair at the back of his head.

I gasp as he grinds into me.

This is not what I had planned when I sent him that message, but as his hands find my bare hips, holding me against the door, I forget about the ink and the possible meaning behind it.

Dane draws my bottom lip into his mouth, sucks it, and then does the same with the top. “What did you want to talk to me about, mortal?” he asks breathlessly before his tongue slips into my mouth again. Easing back, he keeps his face close to mine, waiting for a response.

I tighten my grip on his hair, one white lock hanging over his forehead. With dilated pupils surrounded by bright lights, Dane pants, holding me.

“I forgot.”

His gaze drops to the material I’m gripping solidly in my fist, and he swallows. “You forgot…” He releases one of my thighs, rubbing his hand down his mouth when he realizes I’m not dressed. “Fuck. You’re naked?”

“I’m in a towel, asshole. Do you have any idea what privacy is?”

Dane looks at me. “We were just…” He flattens his lips. “What’s going on? You sent me a message to come and see you about something.”

“And you distracted me,” I say, pushing against his chest until he sets me on my feet. “I asked you to come here, not to burst in while I’m just out of a shower and maul me against the door.”

“Maul? I was merely covering part of task three.”

“I think you’re looking for extra credit then,” I counter, and he smirks, wiping the taste of me from his lips with his thumb.

I watch his mouth, warmth still at the base of my spine.

I have the sudden urge to drop my towel and order him to kneel, press my pussy to his mouth, and suck on my clit. I’d fist his hair and rock my hips against his tongue. But I shake the thought away and throw the bathroom door open.

I feel his gaze on the back of my neck.

“Where did you get that?” he asks me before I can bring it up. He captures my wrist to stop me from going through one of my drawers for clothes, placing both my hands on the dresser as he moves strands of brown hair from the back of my neck.

Dane is standing behind me, so close I can feel his presence everywhere. I shiver involuntarily, his touch and breath on the nape of my neck, on the tattoo that’s staining my skin.

“The twins noticed it earlier,” I say. “It wasn’t there yesterday.”

He steps back, and I turn to face him. I’m a little dumbfounded as to why he’s unfastening his shirt buttons, but I watch anyway.

I’ve witnessed a few emotions from him, but concern isn’t one of them. He furrows his brows as he throws his tie across my room.

I hold my towel to my chest. It barely reaches mid-thigh, but it’s fine—he’s more interested in taking his clothes off with no explanation.

It’s a fascinating sight, and a tingling sensation reminds me that we have three more kisses and seven assignments left before this is over. I don’t mind that it’ll be done, but having a hot guy stripping in my room has been the highlight of my stay here on the island, despite it being Dane.

I mean, we have our other classes and assignments, but most involve classroom-only work, so any time we spend together outside those hours would be voluntary, and I highly doubt that will happen. He’s here because he wants to pass. He’s as desperate to get off this island as I am, but I think it’s for entirely different reasons.

I want to get back to my life. But I think he wants to burn my world to the ground.

The reason is still unknown.

He’ll be in jail before the end of his first day.

Muscles upon muscles bunch as he throws his shirt on my bed, but it isn’t his impressive physique that’s caught my attention.

I step forward, and Dane flinches as my fingertip traces thick black lines on his tanned skin. On the large symbol that starts from his neck and shoulder blades and travels all the way down the expanse of his powerful back. Snakes weave around the outline, writing I can’t understand, with a set of piercing dark eyes staring back at me directly in the middle.

It’s a lot larger than mine.

And it clicks. My chest caves as I stare. I want to panic. I can feel it building within me, but I swallow down the anxiety and use my words.

“Why do we have the same tattoo?”

Dane turns, eyes blazing. “Who the fuck are you?”

I step back, my heart accelerating at what this could possibly mean at the same time as understanding nothing. “What? Why do I have the same tattoo as you, Dane?”

He grabs his clothes, cornering me with rage. “Are you trying to fuck with me and everyone in the academy? Are you even a human?”

Speechless, I struggle for words, unsure of the absurdity he’s speaking. “Yes. You know I am. What’s going on?”

“Think, mortal. Why would you have that tattoo?”

“I… I don’t know.”

And just like that, he shakes his head and disappears.