Page 101 of Shadebound
And front and centre like some overgrown gargoyle carved out of rage and ego:Alessandro.
He was bigger than usual. Or maybe just broader. He stood with his arms folded tight across his chest, his shoulders squared like he’d been waiting for this moment. A thick leather patch covered his right eye, strapped diagonally across his face like a makeshift muzzle. The other eye—the one I hadn’t stabbed—was glaring down at me with molten fury, like he hadn’t stopped replaying what I did every second since.
He just stood there like a mountain, one made of fury and salt and some broken thing I couldn’t name.
I didn’t stop walking as the door swung shut behind me.
“Move,” I said, flatly.
He didn’t.
A muscle ticked in his jaw. Tyler exhaled behind him, sharply like he was hoping I’d give him an excuse. Saphira stood off to the side, her eyes bright with amusement, like she’d tuned into a particularly juicy episode of whatever show the dragons watched instead of therapy.
I hovered a breath from Alessandro’s chest. Close enough to smell whatever expensive soap he used and the underlying copper tang of healing magic. My fingers were already twitching. The magic under my skin was boiling for an outlet, clawing at the inside of my ribs like it had teeth.
“Get. Out. Of. My. Way,” I said, slower this time.
He didn’t budge.
“You really want to try me right now?” I added. “Because I swear on every fucker in this godsdamned school, I am five seconds from blowing a hole through this corridor.”
“You stabbed me,” he said, low and cold and far too calm.
I stared up at him. “And?”
He tilted his head slightly. “In the eye.”
“Yeah. That happens when people break my shit.” I snapped. “You thought I wouldn’t hit back? Are you really that foolish, Fiore?”
The air around us thickened. Tyler’s mouth twitched into something mean. Viktor leant just slightly forward, like he was considering whether this was worth jumping into. Veyr didn’t even blink.
“You cost me the selection chance to Mortavia,” Alessandro breathed. “It’ll take a month for my eye to heal fully. A fullmonth. And by then, the selection window’s closed, so I’ll have to wait months for another chance.”
I shrugged, entirely unrepentant as my foot tapped against the ground. Irritated with the delay to rescue plan. “Should’vethought of that before you tried to play the big bad dragon and fucked around with me.”
His nostrils flared. “I tried to play nice.”
“No, you tried to play dominant. Not the same thing.”
“I gave you a warning.” He snarled, smoke curling from his nose.
“And I ignored it. Because I don’t answer to you.”
“You should’ve,” he said.
His voice was razor-sharp now. That tight kind of low that usually came right before someone snapped. His hands were still folded, but I could see the tension building in the way his shoulders flexed. The way the corner of his jaw twitched with every heartbeat.
Behind him, Saphira leant against the wall, her dark braid catching the torchlight. “Maybe we let her go,” she murmured, not sounding at all like she meant it. “She looks like she’s in a rush. Probably has someone else to stab.”
I didn’t look away from Alessandro.
“I am in a rush,” I said, voice flat. “Three people are missing. People who matter, unlike you. So unless you’re planning to chain me to the wall and have another tantrum, I suggest you move.”
His good eye flicked over me as he tilted his head. “Who’s missing?”
“None of your business.” I narrowed my eyes. “Get out of my way.”
A long pause stretched between us. One of those taut, dangerous silences that buzzed with the threat of violence. I thought—for a split second—he might do the smart thing. Let me pass. Walk away.
