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I lick my lips, and he tracks the movement with his icy eyes. “What do you want from me, Cohen? Why am I here? Why couldn’t we have this conversation like civilized people, rather than you attacking me in the woods?”
He reaches out, brushes the tip of his finger over my moist bottom lip. “I told you I want you. I want to start a coven with you. Our very own coven, with no rules about limiting what our members can learn. Merritt can join us. She can be a leader with us. We can give her access to spells that she’s never even dreamed of using because she was told she can’t.”
A hot spike of want blooms in my chest. Sweet baby kittens, I want that for her. I want her to come into her power, to have her see her worth, tofeelit. I’ve already said if I get to be the head of house for Shadow and Veil, I’d let her join, despite the obvious disapproval from the guys.
Cohen’s lips curl into a smile, like he can tell what I’m thinking. “Just imagine it, Ro, we can be powerful, with no one to tell us what we can and can’t do.”
I sigh and shake my head. “It sounds nice, Cohen. It really does, but we need rules. We need people keeping us in check, especially with something like magic. Where we can cast spells that can hurt people.”
He nods slowly. “Fair. That’s totally fair, Ro, but what ifwemake the rules? What if we dole out the punishments for the people that break them? Instead of Morgan Bettencourt still walking around this campus after she tried to kill you, what if she was punished?”
Something in my chest tightens, something that likes that idea far too much. “What would you do to her, Cohen?” God, I sound eager to hear what sort of hell he’d rain down on my
His smile turns sharp, a feral smirk that makes my heart beat harder. “Whatever you want, wildcard. Whatever you think is a fitting punishment, I would do. Whatever you declare, I would follow through.” He leans forward, cupping my cheek, calloused thumb brushing my skin. “But that asshole Verver, who dared to put his hands on you? Who tried to force you? Him, I would take particular delight in ruining, in tearing him apart with my bare hands.”
Dammit. Wet heat floods my panties. I’ve never thought of myself as a vengeful person. Never really considered taking revenge on someone who’s wronged me, but then I guess until I came here the worst thing that had happened to me was perpetrated by my father, a man I still love. Everything else is easily brushed aside.
It’s always bothered me that my guys couldn’t do more to Gabe, couldn’t actually get him kicked out of school, couldn’t tear him limb from limb, because he’s an heir to a sect in their coven. It’s unfair that he’s untouchable because of the powerthey’vegiven him, because of his position.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you, wild card? You want me to hurt him for touching you.”
I almost nod. I almost fall into the allure of what he’s saying, but I just barely catch myself. What kind of person would I be if I just gave in to him after he knocked me out and kidnapped me? The same kind of person who gave Fielder after he told Morgan about my father, probably.
“Why are we here, Cohen?” I ask again.
Disappointed, he sighs and leans back. “We’re here because I needed to talk to you without Fielder Harris listening in on our conversation. I’ve avoided them detecting me so far, and I need to keep it that way.”
Makes sense. I get the impression that witches aren’t cool with other witches outside their coven members. “And the point of this conversation is what?”
“To show you that you have other options. You don’t have to join their coven, you don’t have to stay close to them for protection. You can leave this place. We can leave together. I can teach you what I know, and we can learn all the rest together. And you won’t have to join an organization ruled by a man who wants to kill you.”
Yeah, that all sounds really nice. All of it, except the part of leaving Ezra, Fielder, Gideon and Hardin. I want them to come with me. I want them to choose to leave as well. Maybe we could do what Cohen says and start our own much smaller coven, the six of us—seven with Merritt—and we can just live our lives quietly with our magic. There wouldn’t be any of these bullshit power plays and back stabbing and front stabbing.
That sounds like Heaven.
But something isn’t adding up. I tilt my head, like it will help me add up all the variables that are Cohen Cresswell, and then it hits me. “Why are you here? At Seven Stars? If you want to stay hidden, if you don’t want them to know what you are, then why are you here at the university that they, for all intents and purposes, rule?”
He grins at me, settling back in his chair, his knees bumping against mine. “Smart girl. I’m here because I was looking for a way to bring down the heirs, to cut them off from their power and to make their whole fucking coven crumble. But I found you instead. And you, wildcard, are so much better than revenge.”
I eye him and ignore the way the heat from his legs is warming mine, the way there’s a tingle between my legs. “Why do you want revenge on the coven, Cohen?”
His thumb presses into the corner of his mouth, wiping like he’s trying to control a smile or something, but then he’s shaking my head. “I can’t give you all of my secrets, wildcard, no matter how much I might want to.”
Then he moves so fast that I jerk back, even though I know I’m not going anywhere. He looms over me, one hand braced on the high wooden back of my chair, the other hovers between our bodies. “Relax, Ro, I’m not going to hurt you,” he murmurs. “But your boys are about five minutes away from finding us, and I have a few things I need to do before then.”
His hand descends, caresses my hip. I stiffen. After all that talk about wanting to tear Gabe apart, he’s going to feel me up? “I told you to relax, wildcard,” he murmurs, hand slipping to my ass. No, not my ass, to my phone tucked in my back pocket.
He tugs it free and then takes the thumb of my right hand in his rough fingers, holding it to the button at the bottom to unlock it. “What are you doing?”
He grins at me. “Just adding myself as a contact. I don’t want you to decide right now. I want you to think about it. And when you’ve made your decision, I want you to come to me.”
He says it like it’s a forgone conclusion, like he knows inevitably I’ll send him a text or call him and let him know I’ve decided to follow him. To live a life without rules and bonds holding me back.
When he’s done, he balances the phone on my knee, and then leans down and presses a kiss to my forehead. He lingers there against my skin, his breath puffing against me. I feel a tingling all over my body, a warmth settling against me, and then a sharp burning in my chest. I hiss in a gasp of pain. Cohen draws back, looking down with concern in his face.
“That isn’t supposed to hurt,” he murmurs, big hands sliding up to cup my face. “Its just my own protection spell.”
I exhale a shaking breath as the pain recedes. “The other protection spells hurt when we placed them, too. We don’t know why.”
