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“Dragon balls!” Morgana hissed.
“What do we do?” Oleander all but whimpered. “If we’re caught—”
“We won’t be caught,” Rook hissed back. “There’s a supply closet ahead. If we can reach it before they turn the corner, we can hide.”
As if they wouldn’t think to look there, eventually. Vivian and the professor knew there was someone lurking nearby. But a plan was better than no plan, right? The light was coming closer, and I doubted we could make it inside the supply closet without being seen. So, how would we explain all four of us being out past curfew, in a portion of the castle that was never meant to be seen by regular students?
A plan began to coalesce in my head, but we’d have to reach the closet for it to work. I needed some place where Oleander and Morgana could lurk unseen, and the closet was our only option. If the professor and Vivian saw all four of us, we were done for. If I could make sure only Rook and I were caught, there was a chance I could make it work. I tightened my grip on my fellow schemers, willing myself to move toward the closet so swiftly and silently that we’d go unnoticed.
Fresh stars burst behind my eyes, leaving me blinking red and gold sparks from my vision a moment later. I tasted apples and honeyed mead, felt cold tickle the edge of my nose, and felt fresh leaves crunching under my boots. I tried to move and gasped in fright when something hit me upside the head. I batted it away and felt the familiar contours of a broom handle. When I held a hand out, feeling through the room, I found shelves. When I inhaled deeply, I smelled heavy-duty cleaner.
There was a moment of stunned silence as we got our bearings, but it was Oleander who said aloud what we were all thinking.
“Oh, Gods,” he said. He was breathing hard and fast. “Oh, Gods, we’re in the closet! Astrid, you’re...”
“It doesn’t matter what I am,” I whispered. “You and Morgana find a dark corner and hide in it. Rook and I will distract them.”
“We will?” Rook asked, and I could almost picture the arrogant quirk of his eyebrow. Jerk. Hot, stupid, undead jerk. “I don’t think there’s anything we can say or do that will stop them from poking their nose into this further.”
“Oh, yes, there is,” I said, splaying my hands on his chest, pushing him backward until he hit a wall. He let out a hiss of surprise when I pressed myself flush against him. I reached down and took his hands, guiding them to rest very firmly on my waist. He seemed to get it a moment later.
“Astrid... you don’t have to...”
“Shut up,” I muttered. “And don’t bite me.”
Then I wound my arms around his neck, pulling him down for a kiss.
Chapter Fourteen
Rook’s lips were warmer than I expected.
He must have fed earlier in the evening. It might have been the reason he was late to our meeting. I imagined it was a hassle to get someone into his room long enough to feed with witches watching his every move. I couldn’t tell if his lips were warmer than the last time I’d felt them. Our first kiss had been over too quickly, and I’d been preoccupied by the slide of his tongue over my bottom lip.
To his credit, Rook recovered in seconds. One of his hands released my waist, trailing up my side, copping a feel before he reached my hair. He seemed a little disappointed to find it was pulled into a braid, instead of loose around my shoulders. He made do though, fisting the braid in one hand, pulling my head up to angle the kiss in his favor. That rankled a bit. Witches didn’t give up control. But when he pulled my hair, sending prickles of mixed pain and pleasure across my scalp, I couldn’t help a small moan.
His other hand disappeared under my sweater, trailing his fingers lightly over my sensitized skin. A pang of self-consciousness almost pulled me out of the moment. I’d grown up entrenched in witch culture, which glorified the softness that came from childbearing. Curves, fuller figures, and the marks that came with them were lauded. Spending my junior and senior year in a mundane high school had scrubbed away some of my confidence in the ideal I’d grown up with. I wasn’t as fulsome as Wanda, but not as slender and ethereal as Taliyah. I had the awful feeling that maybe Rook would find my body repulsive and drop his hands the moment the ruse wasn’t necessary.
Almost in response, his hand mapped my stomach, traced my ribs, then caressed the underside of one bra-covered breast. I shivered, sucking in a shocked breath, and he pressed his advantage. He touched me. Tasted me. And I tasted him. There wasn’t the aftertaste of blood as I’d feared and expected. Instead, he tasted like... well, he tasted like the green apple bubble gum I used to buy in bulk at Sweeter Haunts around Halloween.
The flavor was so nostalgic that my eyes pricked with tears. He tasted like home. Home in Haven Hollow. My home, in autumn, when the leaves were everywhere and the cold bit at my skin. A season of warm embraces and days under the blankets with someone you loved. I didn’t love Rook, but with my eyes closed, I could pretend this was more than a diversion. With his hands on me, tongue tangling eagerly with mine, I could pretend for just a second that he wanted me. That maybe, just maybe, I haunted his nights with fantasies just like this one. It made me forget myself and allowed me to shove my hands under his shirt without shame to explore his lean frame.
“Astrid,” he whispered into my ear. “I…”
But he never was able to finish his sentence because the door flew open and two figures filled the doorway, illuminated by the wavering flame in their gas lantern. I almost forgot where we were and what we were doing and why we were doing it. I withdrew my hands hastily and didn’t have to fake the blush that spread up my neck and spilled over my cheeks.
I could feel their shocked stares boring into me for a protracted second as they fought to understand what they were seeing. When I risked a glance up, I found Professor Hecate mouthing like a land-bound fish, trying and failing to produce sound.
Vivian’s shock faded quickly, replaced with an utterly punchable look of glee. In her mind, I’d just confirmed everything she’d ever suspected about me. I was a blood whore, one of those pathetic women who pimped themselves out to vampires for the pleasure of their bite or the taboo thrill of sleeping with the undead. The entire west wing would soon know about my ‘perversion’. It wasn’t anything she or the headmistress could have me expelled for, but it was going to make my life hell from this point on—well, more hell than it already was. Before, they’d only suspected. Now they had proof.
“Depraysie!” Professor Hecate finally managed. “What in Tituba’s name are you doing?”
Rook pulled me close again, wrapping what felt like a protective arm around me as he nuzzled my hair. The heat in my cheeks intensified because it felt cozy, familiar, and so good. I didn’t want Vivian to see how much I liked having a vampire this close to me, even if that was the point of this whole farce.
“What does it look like, Hecate?” Rook murmured, feathering kisses over the line of my jaw. I gasped when he pulled my earlobe between his teeth. It was sharp, unexpected, and (though I hated to admit it,) really, really hot. “Mind closing the door? I’d like to get back to what we were doing.”
My stomach did an elated somersault. And, tucked in so tight against him, I could feel that my fears had been unfounded. He hadn’t found me repulsive at all! Or at the very least, parts of him found me unobjectionable. If we hadn’t had an audience in the back of the closet and two witches to scandalize outside it, I had a feeling he’d have done more. A lot more. And a traitorous part of me was excited by the idea.
“That’s ‘Professor Hecate’ to you, Mr. Thorne. And your girlfriend,” Professor Hecate spat the word like it was a curse. “Is out past curfew. You may be a night student, but for now she is still among the living. That means she must abide by day class rules. That’s a demerit, Depraysie. Go back to your room this instant, or I’ll add another.” Then she faced Rook again. “And you’re not supposed to be down here either. If you aren’t in the West Wing in the next ten minutes, it’ll be a demerit for you as well.”
