Extraits

"A Titus and Exos sandwich would be, well, amazing. Two powerful bodies thrusting, tongues dancing, hands roaming…

And, oh my God, I needed to stop that line of thought.

Wow.

No.

Not happening.

Ever.

And, Jesus Christ, what was wrong with me to even begin to imagine that? Very clearly losing—

“Claire?” Titus asked, his brow furrowed. He’d stood with me and seemed to be waiting for me to lead.

“Right.” I turned and started toward the stairs. To lead him to my room. Which, after that last thought, probably wasn’t the brightest of ideas, but it wasn’t like Exos would be joining us. Although, I wouldn’t exactly complain if he did.

No, wait, yes, I would.

I didn’t like Exos.

He was a dick. A dick who just happened to be one of the sexiest men I’d ever seen. As well as Titus, but in entirely different ways.

I groaned, frustrated by the onslaught of images abrading my mind, each of them more graphic than the next.

“Are you okay, Claire?” Titus asked, sounding concerned.

No. “Yes. Just, uh, confused.” Not exactly a lie."

"“Help me how?”

“By teaching you.” His fingers slid into my hair, threading through my tangling blonde strands and drawing them down to my shoulder. “Control is the only way to live with all that power inside of you. I realize you have no reason to trust me, or any of us, but I’m speaking from experience. If you don’t allow anyone to train you, those gifts will consume you beyond reason.”

I’d always been one to listen to my instincts, and they told me now that he was speaking the truth. Still, something nagged at me. Not about him, or Exos, or even the other boy, but about this place. This realm.

It felt as if I didn’t belong. Which was likely related to having been brought here without my permission.

But it went beyond that.

Something about this place seemed dangerous.

“What are you thinking?” he asked, his tone genuine and curious. “What caused this frown to form?” He pressed his thumb to the edge of my mouth, his comfort with touching me a little unsettling even while feeling right.

We don’t know each other.

But I sort of want to know him.

I shook the thoughts from my head, confused by all the sensations and sounds and sparks. “This is all, uh, overwhelming.” Not a lie. I just left out the sense-of-danger part. How could I confide that in an essential stranger? In this strange land?

“How about dinner,” he suggested."

" don’t know him.

I don’t belong here.

“I can’t,” I breathed, staring at the window, watching as the glass blew out with a breath from my lips. “I’m sorry.” I followed the breeze on instinct, letting it carry me down to the grass below, not pausing to think about the how or the why, just needing to run.

There had to be a way home. A way back to the bar. A way back to Rick. To my friends. My family.

I couldn’t stay here. This wasn’t my place. This foreign land of endless trees and flowers and vines. Oh God, where am I even going? It doesn’t matter. Just run. And I did, sprinting through the fields and beneath the canopy of leaves, then across and more fields, past lakes, and continuing into unending nature.

The sun moved overhead, illuminating my journey, aiding my attempt to escape.

But nothing new crossed my path. Only more and more trees, denser with every step.

I whirled around, mystified, tears rolling down my cheeks.

“Where am I?” I breathed, falling to my knees in the thick underbrush. “Where the fuck am I?”

I collapsed to my side, my exhaustion finally overcoming me. My legs were bleeding, my feet aching, my heart… broken."

"Okay, he’s not kidding about the mutual attraction thing. Because wow.

A totally inappropriate and inexplicable reaction.

Just like I had to that guy at the bar.

My gaze darted across the clearing to the leather-clad bad boy, the one Titus had called Exos. He observed us with no expression, his arms crossed as he leaned against a tree along the edge of the field. Another boy stood beside him, his gaze wide with curiosity.

“Why are they watching us?” I asked, my insides tingling with nerves.

“They’re watching you,” Titus whispered, his fingers lightly tracing mine. “Your power is a marvel, Claire. It’s considered a miracle that Spirit Fae—like Exos—can access two elements.”

“Okay.” I swallowed, refocusing on his alluring features. “I have fire and air?” A guess because I couldn’t remember everything Exos had told me, our time together an emotionally laden blur of moments.

“No.” Titus drew a line of fire across my skin, the heat causing me to flinch and gape at the same time.

“That… It doesn’t hurt.”

He chuckled. “Because your fire responds to mine.”

“But you just said I don’t have Fire.”

“Oh, you have Fire.” His irises lifted to mine. “An incredible amount of it, too.” He shifted even closer, leaving maybe a foot between our prone forms. He continued his path up my arm, the flame dancing upward, heating me in the most amazing way."

"“You okay, man?” River asked, wiping both the sweat and conjured water from his face with a towel.

As a Water Fae, he was the only guy who’d dare approach me in an enclosed locker room. That was predominantly why the shy fae and I had become friends over the past year. In some ways, I seemed to be even more isolated than him. A side effect of being the Powerless Champion—winner of the ring where fighting to the death was common and the use of powers meant execution in the most fantastical manner.

One rule: no powers—hence the title the “Powerless Champion.”

It took a certain kind of mental state for me to win in that kind of fighting ring, but that had been me for quite a few years. That was before the accident. Before the Academy. Before a friend like River.

Another spasm rushed through my body that left me feeling nauseous. I felt as if I were being pulled somewhere off campus, like my whole body wanted to run. I never ran from my problems, no matter how big or irritating they were.

Rubbing the back of my neck, I suppressed a groan. Everything hurt as if I’d been back in the fighting ring for weeks, but the days of bashing skulls were behind me. I was trying to turn over a new leaf and control my powers instead of pretending they didn’t exist—which had gotten half of my family killed when they finally demanded acknowledgment.

Fuck if that was going as planned."

“Stop talking to me,” she demanded, hurling another blast of wind at me with her fingertips.

My jaw snapped to the left from the localized blast, reminding me of a punch to the fucking face. “Ow.”

“Oh, fuck! I’m… Shit!” She scrambled toward me, then backward, then froze with her hands beneath her. As if that would stop her.

A knock on the door had her petrified gaze flying sideways as Vape’s deep tenor floated through the wood. “Everyone all right in there?”

“Just getting acquainted,” I replied through my teeth.

“Sounds like she’s kicking your ass, son” was his reply.

I snorted. “Because I’m fighting with both hands tied behind my back.”