Page 159 of Feathers of Ash and Hope

“I shouldn’t have left you.”Calix shakes his head, looking guilty. Mariel nods.

“That is absurd, don’t you dare feel guilty about that.” I glare at both of them. I used dinner to quiz them about whathappened during Picking, but neither knows anything about an attack.

“The way you looked, when Kyronos rushed you out of there…” Calix shakes his head again.

“We were so worried. Cassius was pacing the common room like a madman while you were in the healing quarters.” Mariel raises her eyebrows. “Anything you want to tell us there?” she teases.

I groan. “He is my twin’s best friend, and we grew up together, nothing more.” I shake my head at her.

“Wait, you have a twin brother?” Mariel perks up. “Do you look alike? Why do I only now hear about that?”

I laugh. “Oh, you would love Ben. But I told you I had four brothers.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t answer my question. Does he look like you?”

“Ben is me in taller, broader, and male,” I smirk, and Mariel’s grin widens.

Calix groans. “Now you’ve done it. Mariel, he is infantry. You wouldn’t go for an infantry guy, right?”

I laugh at my friends while they start bickering. I feel the lightest I have in a long time. I don’t have to pretend to be Grayson anymore, my family knows where I am, and I’m still here, I’m alive and bonded, and then there is Tate. Life is pretty damn good right now.

I’m still joking with Mariel and Calix, and we are on our way out of the refectory when Tate strides over to us. A thrill shoots through my body when our eyes meet. His gaze falls to my shoulder, and I’m suddenly aware of the arm Calix has thrown over Mariel and me. Tate’s face is stoic, but his eyes narrow the slightest bit. I can’t even blame him. If a girl had her hands on him, I would go ballistic.

I shrug Calix's arm off and take a step toward Tate, unsure how to approach him. Despite sleeping in his bed last night, we haven’t talked about this.

“Summer, follow me.” Tate’s voice is cool and clipped, but there is fire in his eyes.

“Sure.” I smile at him while my gut twists in a mix of need and nerves. I tell my friends I’ll see them later while Tate turns around and strides down the hallway without looking back.

Okay then.

I hurry after him, but my steps falter when his voice suddenly caresses my ear.

“You better hurry up, sunshine, because otherwise, I can’t guarantee anything.”

My eyes fly up and meet his where he stands at the end of the hallway, cool as the Ice Coast, watching me with a nearly imperceptible smile on his lips.

Heat explodes in my core, and his eyes glint with a mix of humor and male satisfaction, when my steps quicken. He knows exactly what he’s doing to me.

“I’ll be gone for the next…hours,”I tell Solaris while I’m hurrying down the corridor next to Tate. The Phoenix makes a sound resembling a snort.

“I’ll leave you alone,”he tells me, and the veil between us thickens until it’s a smooth wall. He shut me out. Perfect.

Tate opens a door to our right, pulling me into it, and I barely have time to register that we are in the same storage room Joel pulled me into all those weeks ago before the door locks behind me.

Then all I notice is Tate.

His body presses into mine, pushing me back against the door. His hand cradles my head before it can collide with the wooden surface. His lips are on mine, before the surprised “umpf” fully left my mouth, and holy mists, his mouth. Hiskiss is demanding, possessive, and so unbelievably sexual I’m igniting like a Phoenix.

I drown in sensations: the hard planes of his body pressing into me, his lips on mine, his hand in my hair, the soft rasp of his calloused fingers on my skin, his scent, his taste, his magic curling all around us. My senses are flooded by him, and I want more.

“Sunshine,” he groans when we both come up for air, panting. “You are driving me fucking insane. Do you have any idea how hard it was to keep my fingers to myself today? Whenever you are in the room, I can’t look away, and just thinking of being close to you has me instantly hard.” He lets his brow rest against mine. “Watching you walk around in this uniform and, even worse, your hair trailing over Ilario’s skin instead of mine…I…Fuck, I need you.”

Sparks of heat shoot through me at his words and stoke the pounding fire in my core, fanning the embers he started by kissing me awake in his bed this morning. The gaze he sent me before formation fueled those flames, and the soft caress of his magic during the strategy meeting poked them. Then there is the way he marched over to me after dinner, his whispered demand, and the way he drank in my reaction.

I’m on fucking fire and his stormy golden eyes watch me burn. I pull his mouth back down to mine, linking my arms around his neck. His arms tighten, pulling me impossibly closer, anchoring me in this inferno of desire.

He acts like I’m his first breath after a deep dive, like he needs me for survival, like I’m essential to his soul. I slide a hand into his hair and draw a low, rumbling groan from his throat by scraping my nails over the base of his neck and up his scalp.

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