Page 271 of Sigils & Spells

I foundmyself in my bedroom, reliving the last time I saw Onyx. Why? I asked my subconscious. Why? Why do I have to do this twice when I didn’t like it the first time? But my subconscious didn’t answer. She’s like that.

Onyx, looking as handsome as ever, stood a foot from me. The golden specks in his obsidian eyes blazed with anger. His predator presence would make any sane mortal shiver even without his rage, but I was far beyond reacting that way to him regardless of his mood. As far as I was concerned, he was a bad houseguest who’d outstayed his visit.

“Just tell them,” he said in his deep, gravelly voice.

“I can’t.” The knot I held so firmly in my stomach twisted. “I can’t. Don’t you understand how blackmail works? Alessandro controls me. My secret cannot be revealed. Not now. Not ever. And he knows it.”

Onyx let my words hang. The air around us smelled deliciously male. Why couldn’t I have an ugly night stalker for Fangster’s head of security, instead of a hot one with deadly charm, enough sex appeal to melt a glacier, and a razor-sharp mind?

He had dark-chocolate-brown eyes that drew me in with a mere glance, a square chin covered with just the right amount of scruff to make my female parts whimper, and chiseled cheekbones a runway model would die for. And that was just his face. He also had broad shoulders, a thin waist, and long legs. The guy belonged on the cover of a romance novel.

While Onyx’s was a man most would drool over, his good looks and vampiric charm didn’t work so well on me. His personality drove me crazy. Even if I learned to ignore his biting sarcasm, horrible taste in music, and peculiar habits he picked up from living in the shadows, I had to work and live with him under the same roof, twenty-four-seven. So I didn’t like-like him.

And yet … and yet, Onyx cared enough to ask me about my problem. That meant something, didn’t it? I thought he disliked me as much as I did him, but maybe, just maybe, he wanted to be my … friend.

Onyx inhaled a sharp breath and spoke in the same exasperated, dismissive voice he used on our students when they didn’t get what he was saying. “This is what I know. A blackmailer controls you only as long as you have a secret. If you reveal it, he loses his power over you. So, the solution is simple. Kick your damned skeleton out of the closet.”

“I. Can’t.”

His eyes softened.

My knees wobbled.

He shook his head. “Think about it. You hold the power to control how your secret is revealed. You can determine who you tell, and how much you reveal. If you take charge of the situation, you can manage how much damage will be done.”

“No. Just, no! You don’t understand. If my secret is revealed, my whole life will be ruined.”

He shook his head. “You’re impossible.”

“You don’t know my secret.”

His mouth hitched on one side. “I know this … What matters most to you is your family. The secret must involve them. I also know they all love you, unconditionally. They will get over whatever transgression you’ve made.” He tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear.

My breath hitched at his touch, and my lips trembled. “You just don’t understand.”

“Then tell me. Make me understand. This control Alessandro has over you is not healthy.”

I blinked back a tear. “Being controlled by a powerful vampire is not something I planned on. I hate it. But … the academy is …” I hesitated, wanting to say good, or maybe professionally challenging, or at least okay, but instead I said, “Interesting.”

Onyx scoffed. “You can’t tell me you would choose to work here.”

“Well …”

“Or choose to be awoken and given orders in the middle of the night by one of the deadliest vampires in all the realms.”

He had me there. Alessandro’s night visits made my skin crawl. “Look, Onyx, I’m enjoying our truce.” Though the word enjoying fell short of addressing the emotional attachment that kept growing between the two of us—or the soul-searing heat neither of us admitted to feeling. “And I respect your advice.” Some of the time. “But I cannot tell the world my secret. Ever!”

“Then Alessandro will command you, forever. It’s your choice.”

“No!” I screamed because I couldn’t let that happen. But I also couldn’t tell Onyx that I had a plan to deal with Alessandro in a witch way. “No,” I said more calmly. “Once I have the school running smoothly, I am confident he will let me move on.”

Onyx’s brows rose. “And I thought you were—” His body froze with his words hanging in the air.

Previously I remembered him saying, “Smart,” but in this dream, he did not. In this dream, he stopped and stared at me with wonder. As if … As if …

“Onyx, what do you want to tell me?”

His body reanimated. “Help,” he said. “I need help.” His image disappeared.

---