Page 38 of Fang Fiction

“Really? That doesn’t sound like Callum.”

“Why not?” Tess was puzzled. “Is he usually super friendly or something?”

“No,” the man said bluntly. “I don’t know—I just don’t like the idea of you being with such a dangerous clan after all that time alone. Would you like to stay with my clan instead? We have plenty of room in our palace, and you’d be very welcome.”

“Live with you?” Tess laughed. “I don’t even know your name.”

He shook his head and laughed too. “Of course, you’re right. I’m Felix Hawthorn.”

Tess dug her nails into her palms under the water—so that’s why she’d recognized this man, she’d spent hours of her life looking at blurry old photos of his face on fucking Tumblr! Oh god, she was naked in a foaming hot spring not ten feet away from her number one literary crush of all time?! She started to feel lightheaded, and she didn’t think it had anything to do with the temperature of the pools.

“I’m Tess Rosenbloom,” she replied.

“Pleasure to meet you, Tess.” He bowed his head politely. “So, that’s enough acquaintance, right? You’re ready to move in with me?”

She laughed, and he seemed delighted by the sound.

“You’d love living with my clan,” he went on. “Everyone looks after one another, and we throw a ball every full moon. It’s a Venetian masque this month, you must join us.”

“It’s a very nice offer.” Tess smiled. “I’ll think about it, okay? Where can I find you?”

“Our palace is on the eastern edge of the forest, just alongside the great lake—I’ll give the guards your name, come visit anytime. It’s beautiful on that side of the forest. Have you been?”

Tess shook her head. “I haven’t really seen anything. I’ve only been down here a few weeks.”

“Then we must explore together!” Felix suggested. “You have to see the crystal bridge—and the moonflower meadow! It’s exquisitely beautiful, of course, but it’s also one of the most powerfully magical places on the Isle.”

“How do you mean?” Tess frowned—she’d never read anything in Blood Feud about some parts of the Isle being more powerful than others.

“Some places on the Isle just have more magic.” Felix shrugged. “A great deal of the Isle’s power emanates from this forest—that’s why the clans built our homes so close to it. If you were to get farther away—say, very far to the north—you’d have a harder time enacting your glamours. That’s why so few vampires live up there. Excepting you, of course.”

“I didn’t know that.” Tess shook her head in wonder. “So this forest has a lot of magic?”

Felix nodded. “Did you see the graveyard just on the other side of those trees?”

“Yes, I was just there.”

“That’s the epicenter of the forest’s power. It’s one of the reasons these pools are so…”

“Intense?” Tess offered.

“Yes,” he agreed. “That’s exactly the word for it.”

She gazed into his eyes—were they such a vivid shade of blue because he was a vampire, or had they been like that in life as well?

“Wait,” she said, a realization dawning. “Is the graveyard the most powerfully magical place on the entire island?”

“Actually, the moonflower meadow is even more acute—because its power isn’t diffused over a forest, it’s concentrated in a much smaller space.”

“Wow.” Tess breathed. “I’d love to see it.”

An idea was starting to form in Tess’s mind—if the graveyard was a center of magical power, could that be the reason Octavia was able to cross back to New York from there? And if the moonflower meadow held an even stronger power, was it possible that could be harnessed to create another portal?

“I could take you there now, if you’d like?”

He was standing next to the natural stone barrier that separated his pool from hers—as close as he could get to her without crossing it. She knew she shouldn’t move toward him, but her body seemed to be drifting of its own volition, the current pushing her nearer…

“I can’t,” she said quietly. “I should be getting back.”