Page 19 of Revenant

I let my lower lip graze his, a brief contact that sends a sharp tremor through my body, and the change in his expression is immediate. His focus sharpens, his posture shifts, and there is a new tension in the air that pulls at something deep in my chest. He holds me with a steadiness that borders restraint, almost predatory, as if the moment is on the edge of tipping into something neither of us can undo.

Before he can speak, a scream breaks through the haze around us. The sound pulls us apart, the warmth between us replaced by a sudden, cold awareness that something is wrong.

Pryce doesn’t miss a beat. His attention snaps toward the trees, the shift so immediate it leaves the space between us strangely hollow. His hands fall away from me in a quick, decisive motion that creates distance I wasn’t prepared to accept.

He turns toward the others. Koen and Elias are already watching him, their expressions too focused for the mood we were in mere seconds ago. Pryce’s shoulders slump slightly, and I can’t tell whether he’s frustrated that our moment was ruined or relieved to have an excuse to step away.

Pryce claps his hands once, loud enough to cut through the music and chatter of the people around us. “Alright, that’s a wrap. Thank you everyone for another amazing first day, for keeping old traditions and creating new ones. Everyone back to the dorms, and forget the last two hours.”

I’m not sure if it’s the alcohol—okay, it’s definitely the alcohol—but it’s like some kind of spell takes over the crowd. Everyone just…stops. Even Moriah freezes mid-sentence, blinks a few times, then drifts after a group of girls like a zombie, mumbling about this being “the best night ever” in a voice that doesn’t match her face.

Another scream rises from the trees, higher and far more frantic than the last, and the sound tears straight through the fog in my brain, leaving my body tense and braced from something I can’t see.

A girl bumps into me hard enough to knock me off balance, and that’s all it takes for my body to decide we’re doing this. I slip into line behind her, keeping my expression empty while my heartbeat tries to punch its way out of my chest.

Pryce pulls me away from the group and into step beside him. I don’t react, keeping my features calm and collected. “You’re coming back with me,” he says, completely unfazed.

I glance up at him, still slightly buzzing from the alcohol and whatever else is happening in my bloodstream. He doesn’t repeat himself.

My judgment is clearly off, because the second he gives me that look, any sense of self-preservation disappears. I stop caring that everyone else is acting strange, or that someone clearly screamed bloody murder in the woods, and obey.

The walk back to the dorms passes without incident, broken only by the distant sounds of other students drifting toward their rooms. When we reach my door, Pryce stops short.

“You good?” he asks, eyes tracking me as I fumble with my keys.

I flash him a crooked grin and finally get the door open, swaying just enough that I end up a little too close. He doesn’t move away—just tilts his head, that calm, assessing stare doing dangerous things to my pulse.

“You’re drunk,” he says flatly.

“Maybe a little,” I admit, the words slipping out with a soft laugh.

His hand comes up, fingers firm against my jaw as he tips my face toward his. I go still. He leans in, brushes his mouth over mine—barely, but enough to steal my breath away.

“You’re not thinking clearly,” he murmurs, pulling back just far enough to make it ache. “I should go.”

I bite my lip, disappointment curling, even as a smirk lingers. “You’re no fun,” I say, leaning into his touch anyway, soaking up the heat he’s clearly trying to deny me.

He exhales, shaking his head, a hint of a smile breaking through. “Attento, tesoro.” He drops his hand and steps back. “When you’re sober, we’ll see if you’re really as fearless as you think.”

As he walks away, I can’t decide whether I want to curse his self-control—or chase after him and make him lose it.

7: Pryce

I’m back at the bonfire in minutes, the decision to leave Alicent already sitting wrong in my chest. The arguing reaches me before the sight of the fire does—familiar, exactly as I left them.

Under different circumstances, the noise would have been reckless. A beacon, if you will. Tonight, it was contained.

The barrier sealed around the clearing smothers sound before it can reach the school grounds. We’re secure. Not that it necessarily matters, but it keeps the others’ minds at ease.

Unsurprisingly, this is when Eryx decides to show up. Not when the fire is warm, when laughter drifts lazily and drinks move from hand to hand without thought. Not when he could simply sit back and be part of it. No—he chooses to arrive once the damage is done, once someone’s misstep has again become a liability, as though it’s his sole responsibility to fix the situation.

To be fair, it kind of is. But hindsight is twenty-twenty, and had he been here earlier, the stick up his ass would’ve made sure this didn’t happen.

“What’s the verdict?” I ask, none of them pulling their attention from the guilty.

“Bas let the bird run off,” Elias says, irritation grating on his tone.

“Couldn’t exactly go after her, now could I?” Bastian retorts, as if he’s enjoying this more than he should. I watch him closely, waiting to see if he’ll keep running his mouth, or if he’ll finally catch that silence suits him better. It’s always chaos with him and me; every disagreement a spark ready to ignite. Koen and Eryx might be the logical ones, but the rest of us? We settle things with our fists and deal with the fallout later. And tonight, I’m running hotter than I have any right to be. “How the fuck could you let this happen?”