Page 21 of Brutal Birthright

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Shame flooded through her.

Of course, he didn’t view her in the same way. All Rowan of Nocturne saw when he looked at her was a defenceless, immature girl who had no brains or ability.

And she didn’t know what stung a sharper blow to her ego. Was it that he considered her incompetent? Or that he wasn’t attracted to her?

Either way, that shit hurt like a double sucker punch to the kidneys.

Chapter 7

“I swear I’ll behave.” Ri slathered on every inch of sarcasm she could muster.

But Rowan remained a sealed fortress. Shut down and glaring at nothing in particular when they rematerialised outside the herbarium.

The asshole refused to give her back the one item that would allow her to leave the fae dominion whenever she pleased. Still intent on being an outright controlling prick.

With her ego now thoroughly bruised, to add insult to injury, she’d had to be portaled back to the academy by her tattooed minder. Whereas, if he’d only allowed her to keep the damn key, she could have returned by herself.

No need to be grabbed roughly by the elbow and dragged back as though she required supervision.

Her humiliation was palpable.

And the sick fuck probably devoured every moment of her discomfort.

She pacified herself with vivid imaginings of the vast array of locations where she could drive a knife into his body. Mind you, the fucker probably wouldn’t even feel a thing. Ri wasn’t entirely sure he was capable of emotions.

It was an entirely lost cause trying to convince him to give her back the magical key she’d been gifted—for all of a split second—and to make matters worse, her own bloody sister had rolled over and listened to his command without question.

As if she implicitly trusted his blackened, shrivelled-up heart to make all the decisions around this place.

Wrenching her arm out of his grip, it took a willpower forged of steel to maintain her composure. There was no fucking way she’d let this witch know how much he’d gotten under her skin.

She’d officially reached her capacity for tolerating his heat and scent and ability to consume every one of her brain cells, and desperately needed to put some distance between herself and the overwhelming proximity of his body. Having his fingers wrapped tight and pressing into her arm as he portaled them back to the academy had her imagination running riot.

Leading to an onslaught of images and lurid details of the exact locations on her body she’d prefer to feel his powerful fingers wrapped around.

Not only that, but she still had to survive an afternoon of training with him and all his big dick energy in the arena later that day.

To her immediate relief, she spotted a group of familiar faces seated together on the grassed area amongst the network of pathways and manicured garden beds. She scuttled away from the herbarium in a direct line across the lawn towards them, not giving Rowan so much as a backwards glance.

Ri hurled herself to the ground, flopping straight into Brynne’s lap, sinking into her pastel-coloured flowy skirt with all the grace of a trout on dry land.

“Have fun being summoned by the queen?” The sprite peered down at her—pink hair haloed by the dappled sunlight in the trees overhead.

“Ugh. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Here.” Atticus reached over and nudged something cool against her arm. To her delight, he held a bowl of chocolates in his outstretched hand. Ri scrambled to take it from his silver-ringed fingers, pushing herself upright and shoving one in her mouth.

The burst of ambrosia and honey and richly spiced flavours melted on her tongue.

Thank fuck. At least one witch around here could make himself useful. As she grabbed another with a tiny hum of satisfaction and handed back the bowl, the conversation picked back up and carried on around her.

“Are we dressing to match, or are we each wearing a different costume?” Brynne popped a grape into her mouth.

Oh, the solstice ball.

“It doesn’t really matter what you wear. The night’s almost guaranteed to turn into an orgy.” Etienne grinned, all fangs and sharp features. “Just imagine how wild it might get, the first time everyone here will have a chance to cut loose since classes began.”

Ri had no doubt the vampire was right. Astracadia was swarming with impossibly attractive supernaturals who’d have their first opportunity to get dressed up and spend an evening soaked in magic and fae wine.

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