She held her hands up in surrender.
Felix dusted off his knees and his bruised ego as he stood.
The witch took a step back from him and then held out her pinky finger expectantly, a human custom to swear an oath to one another that she must have picked up from some human TVshow. He only looked at the pinky finger and then back up at her, not moving a muscle.
“Truce?”
“For now.”
Sighing, she took her hand away. “Right, no touching, got it.”
Ten
Avery
There wasno known way to break a bond, and no known way to get off the island. She would need a dozen lifetimes to figure out how to do that. But a few weeks alive was better than dead today. She needed to figure out something, and between the shifter and the university, one would be the death of her.
Tiredness racked her body as she slugged herself into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. It had been a fucking day.
She turned on the witch lights, their gentle hum a blessing to her ears. The small bathroom was illuminated under the warmth of the lights, the copper fixtures so shiny they were almost blinding. Her favorite part of the room was the circular window above the bath; it was just high enough so that when she was taking a shower at night, she could watch the stars go by as she lost hours to the water. It was the only place in the academy she felt truly safe.
However, there was no safety tonight. Her bedroom held a shifter, her sister was suspicious—her fault—and her plan was a steaming pile of horse shit.
So not only did she need to find out how to unbind a shifter, she needed to find out a way to get him off the island,andcome to the horrifying acceptance that she would end up never leaving the island. Or dead from treason of bonding a shifter.
Justfuckingfantastic.
Stripping off her robe, she let it drop to the floor and kicked it into the wicker hamper. Stepping into the bath, she turned on the shower, cursing as the cold spray hit her already frigid skin before it finally warmed. Under the stream, everything fell away. If there was a pure form of magic, it had to be water. The source of all life. Even the goddess made them from it. Something powerful enough to drown you, yet gentle enough to cleanse you, that was true magic. The silver moon shone through the window as she looked out through it, losing herself to the stars. Warm water drummed against her skin, almost loud enough to drown out all the noises of the world. Except the single creak of a door still made it past.
She stilled, instinctively folding her arms to cover her breasts from the silent intruder. Yet, when she looked into the darkness beyond the bathroom, there was nothing. She swore she had locked the door, but all she could see was just a sliver of her barely lit dorm. Thinking she was hearing things, she ignored the noise and went back to her shower, letting the water run over her face.
The noise came again, louder this time. The bathroom door creaked open like it had been pushed. Then she saw him, sitting so still she almost missed him. A cat stood at the threshold of the door.
Felix was watching her in the shower.
It took her a moment to realize that in the shock of it all, she had left herself entirely uncovered this time. Her arms dangling by her side like useless limp noodles, leaving her as stark as the day she was born. His eyes raked it all in.
“It’s rude to stare, little witch,” a voice said into her mind. Notavoice. His voice. The feeling of it slithering through her head wouldn’t be something she would get used to quickly. The goddess-honest audacity of this shifter astounded her. Her? She was the one who was staring?
“Get out,” she hissed at the cat.
“Make me.”
He very well fucking knew she couldn’t get out of this shower without giving him a full show.
“Can you not?”
“Not what, witch?”
She’d officially lost her mind. She was arguing with a shifter while butt-naked. Maybe she hit her head and died, and this was some version of hell. Out of all the things that had happened today, this felt like the worst. She moved to cover herself with the shower curtain, the water still drenching her and sticking her body to the thin fabric. Felix’s eyes dropped down for a second before meeting hers again.That little shit.
“Do not—” She gestured wildly with her hands. “Watch me in the shower.” She fumbled for words that didn’t sound ridiculous. A low rumble came through their connection, something that sounded awfully like a laugh.
“You wanted me to be your familiar. I go where you go,”he teased.
That was so wrong on so many levels. This wasn’t what she meant, and he knew that.
“That doesn’t mean you can just watch me while I’m naked.”
