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“What, the prison cart and flames didn’t scream danger and excitement to you?” She wiggled her fingers between them as if that were how magic was casted.
It wasn’t so much of a dance they partook in but a sloppy, drunken gallop around the square with other shadows. The thundering drums almost felt primal, beating in rhythm with her pulse. It was like shedding a stifling skin. The constricting pressure of everything building within her—she could drown it all in wine and starlight tonight.
On one of their rotations, Gireth dared an invitation for Vesara to join. Clutching a heaping plate of food like a savage beast, Vesara aggressively shot him down.
“I think she likes me.” He chuckled, twirling them past Renton, who’d been watching them like a hawk, which only made her want to rebel more.
“You know,” Gireth started hesitantly, “Ren’s one of the good ones. The best I’ve ever known actually.”
Her hand clenched his tighter.
“I’ll admit, it takes some work to get under that thick skin. I suppose I had an advantage, meeting him before Boedworth. Those were his hell-raising days. But as soon as it came time for us to start camp, Renton always took on the hardest missions. He worked tirelessly to improve his skills, picking up slack for the others in our group, including me. He never let anything touch us out in the Boglands when we ran trial hunts, and he took responsibility when we failed. I envied him. I thought maybe if I stayed close to him, I’d learn to fight like him too. Then Boedworth messed up everything.” He withdrew a hand to brush a stray lock of his dark hair back. “Here I am, talking up another male when I could be putting in a good word for myself.”
Tenah gave his shoulder an endearing pat. “Should we take a break?”
The party had provided an excellent distraction from the thoughts that plagued her, but their romps had churned the wine in her stomach. Wiping perspiration from her temple on the back of her hand, she walked back to the tent they’d claimed. She was determined to steal Gireth’s comfy throne of pillows.
Her attention snagged on a curvy woman striding up to Renton, her dark curls swishing over bare shoulders. Tenah stopped to watch as something dark stirred in her chest.
Renton didn’t give the woman so much as a look. However, that didn’t stop her from resting a hand on his chest. Slowly, she traced a finger down the collar of his shirt, hand slipping under the fabric…
One blink, Tenah was standing beside the tent, and the next she was positioned behind the woman, furious magic tumbling through her channels.
“Back off,” she growled, loud enough to alert other shadows of potential danger.
The woman scowled, appearing pained to have to drag her eyes away from Renton. “Excuse me?”
Tenah knew she should let it go. It didn’t matter who the hunter decided to waste his time with. But didn’t she have a right to ruin his fun after he attempted to stop her from having a good night?
There was a flicker of amusement in his vibrant eyes.
Eager to win back his attention, the woman hooked a finger through his belt as she batted her disgustingly long lashes up at him. “Do you know this girl?”
He considered this with a tilt of his head, unbound hair spilling over his shoulder. “I might, if she’d let me.”
Strings of black lightning snapped around Tenah’s knuckles, aching to crawl under the woman’s flesh and burn up everything inside.
In the span of a breath, Renton transported the woman a safe distance away.
Horror constricted around Tenah as she turned to flee. The world lurched sideways. She stumbled over the uneven street, catching herself on a tent support as visions of dark silhouettes flashed in her blurred vision.
Feingrot, here in the city?
Her heart pounded too hard. It took her a moment of heavy breathing to realize that the feingrot weren’t real. That her father wasn’t here to orchestrate more death.
Renton’s arms ensnared her waist, gently pulling her back against his solid form to ground her when Chaos strived to feed her more fear and despair.
“That’s twice tonight you’ve tried to bail on me.” He nuzzled his head into her neck. “I’m not letting you go until you calm that magic.”
Her pulse throbbed under her skin, and she wriggled in his hold. “Too close.”
“Relax.” His mouth skimmed up the shell of her ear. “I won’t do anything reckless.”
“Oh, but you’ll do reckless things with another woman,” she retorted, though her body had already molded into him, her muscles slack and magic tamed.
How did he manage to mess up everything and still affect her like this?
Electricity zinged from her head to her toes when his mouth brushed along her neck. Goosebumps rose on her heated skin. Surely, he would feel the spike in her body temperature.
