Page 71 of Interion

“Priorities like ‘your safety’! You were reckless letting yourself drink and become vulnerable outside the inner walls. I thought you were smarter than that.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him with every ounce of indignation I felt.

“Wait! Are you seriously lecturing me for being a normal person for one single day of my life?”

I was so furious with him I couldn’t even stand still.

“No. I’m lecturing you for deliberately putting yourself at risk. No one’s judging you for going to a party or leaving the wall—but for drinking, losing control, grinding on people you don’t even know. You couldn’t even defend yourself in a fight because you couldn’t stay on your feet.”

“And isn’t that the same thing? You’re judging me for being normal—normal like every other student.”

“You’re not a normal student and you know it,” he snapped, crossing his arms.

“Really? By the gods, how come no one ever told me? Without you I never would have discovered that my hair and eyes are the wrong color,” I shot back with a mocking laugh. To hell with manners—I was tired of that holier-than-thou expression. I remembered the question that had been hammering at my mind. “And speaking of no one telling me anything, why didn’t you tell me you’re also a descendant?”

He seemed to falter. For the first time in my life, Zion Voluz faltered right before my eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re a half-breed. Just like me.” The words came out easily, as if my brain had already accepted them as absolute truth.

“I think you really did drink too much.”

“Oh! Are you going to play dumb now? I heard you, Zion! You said that if they wanted to have fun with a descendant, they should have fun with you.”

“I didn’t…”

“Are you really going to lie to me? Seriously? You’re going to contradict yourself right after claiming you don’t lie? Maybe I’ll start thinking you actually are a liar—even when you tell me you’re not.”

He didn’t respond, just stared at me. I studied his eyes, the blue with hints of green. Today they were bluer, masking the greenish spots. But they were there—they had always been there.

“You definitely don’t know what you’re talking about.” His posture went rigid again.

I huffed, disgusted with the man.

“Don’t you ever get tired of being a pain in the ass?”

“Only when I have to run for hours to save a drunk and ungrateful girl, and then discover she’s marked with someone else’s scent—not just one person, but two, just for variety.”

Although his eyes seemed cold and controlled, there was something simmering around him. As if the mask he wore sat over hot lava, and now the heat was starting to drip down the sides, bubbling with a bitter edge. I looked at his furious face—it was so different from anything I’d known until now that I simply burst out laughing.

“Are you bothered that I had fun with other people?”

The shadows coiled and crackled around his body as a wicked aura of power licked my skin.

“Were you really having fun? Do you swear you actually enjoyed grinding on other people?”

Zion looked like he wanted to kill someone. If I were sober, I would have shut up immediately, but alcohol was running through my veins and common sense was nowhere to be found.

“It was pretty nice until the damn bond started going crazy.”

His face turned red. I was certain he wanted to strangle me.

I didn’t care.

“You can’t be serious.”

“I’ve never been more serious in my entire life.”