15

I ’m the last one in the changing room. The twins tell me they’ll see me later. I’ve just put my uniform on when the door swings open. A gust of wind hits me, and the flames in the candelabras flicker until they snuff out.

I sigh as I’m drenched in darkness.

If I had power, and said power was fire, I’d burn him to a crisp. Instead, I huff and say, “I already said I don’t want to speak with you, Valin.”

“And it’ll stay that way, mortal.”

I freeze. Heavy steps echo, and a wave of excitement comes over me at the sound of his deep, threatening voice.

My skin tingles at the tone. The possessiveness of it. I swallow the tension down and pull my bag up my shoulder. “What’s with the dramatic entrance?”

Footsteps, and the air around me chills. I should shiver or rub my arms, but I stare blankly at the outline of Dane in the void of the room.

His head tilts. “I want to know who you are.”

I groan. “Someone who wants off this island. Are you going to stop acting like an idiot now?”

“Stop trying to insult me with your immature vocabulary.”

Dane comes into view in the form of a black mass. A true shadow in the darkness. Where he belongs. Where he thrives and rules and is the most powerful. He reaches out to touch my cheek, but something changes in the atmosphere—the excitement drains, replaced with an unsure, violent feeling.

He grabs my throat, pushing me into the wall instead. “Who are you?”

My satchel falls to the ground. Stuck between two immovable objects, I’m not sure which one I want to press myself into. Away from Dane and into the brick wall, or into Dane, somewhere I feel drawn to, like we’re two magnets fighting an unbearable force, and the only way I’ll ever feel happy again is to be joined to him.

I dismiss that thought. It must be the assignments. The professor must’ve put some sort of magic in them to make it easier for us to stomach each other’s presence.

I’ll tell myself that, because there is no chance in hell Dane is holding me by the throat and I’m liking it. It’s a firm hold, but not anywhere near enough to cut off the air supply to my lungs or to mark me. He’s keeping me in place.

For what reason, I don’t know.

I never know with him.

“Tell me the fucking truth,” he says lowly when I don’t respond. “Who are you?”

The need to rub my thighs together is sudden, and I almost do. A heat claws at me, building at the base of my spine. It’s as if my soul is getting excited by his closeness.

Stupid soul.

“Speak,” he orders, his eyes flashing silver. “Think. Think about who and what you are.”

“I’m Seraphine,” I say, breathing the two words out. I pull my bottom lip between my teeth, and his gaze drops to my mouth before moving slowly back up to my eyes. “Regardless of who I am, it makes no difference to you. We’re paired up for classes. That’s all.”

He ignores everything I just said. “You’re branded.” His fingers curl around my nape, where the tattoo sits. “You shouldn’t have this. Tell me, or I’ll force the answer out of you.”

My clit pulses. “You can try, but you’ll get nothing out of me.” The tone I normally use with him is gone. Breathlessly, I manage, “Relax. I’ll get laser removal treatment.”

His hand slides to the front of my neck, and his thumb presses into my pounding pulse. “My father was the fucking king of our world before he died and knew everything. So why is it, mortal, that he has no answers about you? Why is it that a human walks into our academy and ends up branded by a realm that no longer exists?”

Don’t kiss her. She’s not real.

His voice is in my head, and I play dumb.

I shrug. “Let me know when you find out.”

His jaw tenses as he glares. The harsh lines of his facial structure are sharp and symmetrical, and I want to feel the arch of his cheekbone under my fingertips. But, instead, I glare back at him. “Or go ask your mother. I’m sure she’ll have more than enough answers. She is, after all, the one responsible for me being here.”

“I’m not speaking to anyone about this until I find out the truth.” He slides his hand up and captures my jaw. “We have sixteen hours left before our assignment is due and class is done for the day.”

“I told you the truth, now are you going to let me go? You’re boring me.”

His eye twitches. “I do not bore you.”

I raise a brow in response. This shadow prince is holding me by the jaw and against a wall, in a room on our own, and I’m giving him an attitude. I must have a death wish.

“Do you forget I can read you so easily? I can hear your pulse racing. It’s like a fucking drum in my ears.” Dane steps into me, chest to chest, and I have to crane my neck back to look at him. “I don’t bore you. I awaken something in you that you can’t control. I can see your eyes dilating.” He inhales deeply, and his eyes close momentarily. “Fuck, the smell of your arousal drives me insane.” He brings my mouth to his and slips his tongue past my lips as I gasp. Something explodes in my head, and he pulls his face away. “I can taste it too.”

I swallow, my toes curling into the soles of my heels. “You’re just rhyming off the senses.”

He hums, placing his free hand on the wall beside my head, still keeping my jaw in his grip. “Then there’s just one more.”

A presence appears behind my knees, and I flinch at the contact of his power wrapping around my legs. I don’t want to look down because breaking eye contact with him seems to be the last thing I want to do. What I can only assume are his shadows slowly crawl up my legs, stopping at the apex of my thighs. They coil tight, and I bite my bottom lip at the sensation.

“So warm and soft, little mortal. If I touch you here…” I let out a whimper as something strokes between my legs, and everything throbs. “Will you be wet?”

“No,” I lie, desperate for him to do it again, but instead, the shadows disappear from around my thighs, wrapping around my wrists and pinning me to the wall.

Dane crashes his mouth down on mine in a punishing kiss, slipping his hand into my hair and tugging. His tongue pushes through my lips, and I’m crushed against the wall by his body. His fingers dig into my scalp, his teeth grazing my bottom lip before sucking on it.

It lasts forty-five seconds before he pulls his mouth away and starts kissing my neck. He nips the area beneath my ear, and I hiss, needing more. He licks and sucks, branding me like the tattoo etched into my skin.

“Dane…” I gasp as his hand leaves the wall beside my face and pulls my shirt open in one movement, the buttons flying across the floor.

My head drops back as he keeps trailing his lips down to my collarbone, stopping just above my bra.

The shadows unravel from my wrists. My hands find their place in his unruly hair, and I’m unsure if I want to drag his mouth back to mine or tighten my grip and wait for him to pull my bra down. My nipples harden, and I want his tongue to swirl around them, to suck each one into his mouth.

“This doesn’t count,” I manage to say. “The kisses need to be sixty seconds each for the—”

His tongue glides over the top of my breast, and my thighs slam together, a moan on my lips.

Dane comes back up and kisses me again, and I melt into it. A rush of desire so thick I can’t breathe infiltrates every part of me. I want him. I want him to lift me up and press every inch of himself against me.

As if hearing my inner thoughts—which he probably has—he captures the back of my thighs and lifts me into him, giving me enough stability to wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him harder. Another kiss done. Two left.

My back presses to the wall, and Dane rips his mouth away. “Tell me who you are.”

“I’m Seraph—”

His mouth shuts me up. His tongue slips into my mouth once more, both of our heads tilting to deepen the kiss.

I can feel his heart racing against my chest, and as his hands roam my body, I arch into him, needing so much more.

A minute passes, and he pulls away again. “That’s four. One more, mortal.”

I gasp as he thrusts forward, his solid cock rubbing against my wet pussy. He bites my jaw, nipping down the side and sucking my throat so hard, I pulse between my legs and tighten them around him.

“Come to my room tonight,” he says as he lets me go, and I nearly tumble to the floor. I catch myself, breathless, my lips raw. “We’ll get it over with.”

I lean against the wall and close my shirt, my obvious arousal vanishing like his shadows. “We aren’t allowed on your side of the castle, dickhead. It’s prohibited.”

Dane steps into me again, and I’ve never suffered so much whiplash in my life. He digs his thumb under my chin and tilts my head back. “Come to my fucking room. Understand?”

I smack his hand away. “Just kiss me one last time now.”

There’s a challenge in my tone, annoyance, and for some reason, I hate how much a part of me wants him to kiss me again. It’s like a visceral need to feel his lips on mine, to suck on his tongue and have his hands roam my body.

Dane’s eyes darken. “You have to try to control your thoughts around me. I might get the wrong idea. Desperate for task four? Desperate to have my fingers inside you?”

I stare at him, unable to look away. My skirt is bunched up at my hips, my underwear on display. I’m panting, and all I can think about is having him all over me.

“I might think you actually want me to finger-fuck you.”

I attempt to keep every image in my mind at bay.

Without waiting for me to say anything, he leans forward. His harsh breaths are on my lips, his pupils dilated so much I can barely see the silver wanting to light up the entire changing room.

“Tell me I’m wrong, human.”

I shake my head. “This will be done if you just kiss me again. It’s not a big deal. People kiss all the time. You’re honestly so dramatic.”

Apparently, Dane doesn’t like what I just said. His jaw strains, and his eyes flash with annoyance.

I stay silent. Waiting. Needy and wet and unable to concentrate on anything but his mouth, his cock straining in his pants, his hands. I want his hands on my naked body.

If I kiss her again, it will be done , I hear his thoughts, but I don’t make it obvious. I’m not ready for this to be done.

He keeps staring at my mouth. “I can feel how much you want me.” As he runs his thumb across my swollen lips, bringing the bottom one down until it snaps back into place, he smirks. “My room at midnight.”

Stepping away from me, he waves his hand, and my shirt repairs, my skirt lowering to its proper position on my thighs. “And stay away from Valin. He’s looking to claim you, and I don’t share.”