Page 25 of Love Bites Extra Hard

I shuddered.

Talon growled, “He’s talking to me, not you.”

Sylvester laughed humorlessly. “I like pain with my pleasure. Send her in and we’ll have some real fun.”

Talon had me ripped away from the door and pressed against a nearby wall a moment later. I heard him yank on the cell door—heard the locks slam against the wall as he tried to tear the damn thing open.

A wave of some strange, intense magic cut through the air, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

It felt… good.

Right.

Perfect.

“Stop, Talon.” Stella’s command rolled through the air along with another wave of magic. That one just felt foreign.

Talon snarled, and my eyes widened as I heard a few locks slide open.

Stella snarled back.

I turned around in time to see her shove him against the door. The magic in the air thickened, cutting off the sound of their voices even though I could see them arguing viciously.

When the power finally dissipated, Talon stormed down the hallway with a growl in my direction.

“Stay with Stella.”

He disappeared around the corner, and the guards in the hallway followed him, leaving me alone with his sister.

six

AVERY

Stella ploppeddown in one of the camping chairs as if she and her brother hadn’t been about to kill each other a minute earlier. She grabbed a bag of trail mix I hadn’t noticed off the floor between two of the chairs, and opened it.

“Well, that was fun,” she remarked.

I didn’t agree.

I still wasn’t sure what, exactly, had just happened.

She held the bag of trail mix out toward me, and my stomach growled.

I’d pushed myself way too hard if I was already hungry again.

Reluctantly, I crossed the hallway and took a handful of trail mix. Sitting down in the chair next to hers, I looked at the mixture in my hands.

It was all peanuts, almonds, granola, and small chunks of dried pineapple.

“Where did all the chocolate go?”

Stella made a face. “Redden picks it out when no one’s looking. He eats the raisins too, just so no one threatens to kill him for it.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Why do they even put raisins in trail mix? I’ve never met anyone who likes them.”

“It’s one of the world’s greatest mysteries.”

I bit back a snort.

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