“
Darius grunted irritably. “You let me in last time,” he reminded me in a low voice. “Why did you trust me then and not now?”
I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “I didn’t trust you then either. I just had to push past my natural inclination to protect myself from sociopaths. You’ll have to give me a moment before I can easily do so again.”
I bit my lip as his grip on my hands tightened and he tugged me closer again, our chests almost brushing as I looked up at him.
“Stop power fucking her and start working on what Pyro wants,” Caleb called and I flinched, yanking my magic back again as I looked around at him and Darcy.
“Are you afraid I’m going to steal her attention from you, Cal?” Darius asked Caleb with the hint of a smile playing around his lips.
“Not likely,” Caleb replied dismissively but his eyes narrowed.
“I’m still here,” I reminded them irritably. “And neither of you are interesting enough to keep my attention for long so there’s no point in you getting your panties in a twist over it. Maybe we should just get on with this class?”
Darius smirked at Caleb tauntingly and I rolled my eyes at him.
“Well I’m happy enough to practice without help if you wanna leave me to it?” Darcy suggested, not-so-subtly trying to tug her hand out of Caleb’s grip.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I promise to be gentle with you,” he said, ignoring her attempts to break free.
My sister obviously had reservations about this activity and I couldn’t really blame her. She shot me a look which basically said she’d rather be pretty much anywhere else than holding Caleb’s hand and I glanced at Darius before raising an eyebrow at her as if to say ‘who’s got it worse?’. Darcy snorted a laugh and the two Heirs looked between us like they were trying to figure out what we’d just communicated to each other.
“Come on, Roxy, let’s see what you’ve got,” Darius said, releasing one of my hands so that I could cast with it.
He didn’t need any further encouragement and stepped forward to grip my waist like he had before. This time I didn’t press my body to his though and instead focused on harnessing my magic in the way I wanted.
My frustration meant I threw more power at the task than I’d intended and I yanked on Darius’s magic too.
A full sized motorbike materialised in the flames before me and with a surge of triumph, I sent it tearing across the arena.
Pyro stopped what she was doing and actually applauded me and I grinned to myself as more than a few of my classmates joined in.
I started making the bike weave between the students as it did a circuit of the arena and Darius leaned close to my ear as he maintained his grip on me.
“Congratulations, Roxy. Looks like we’ve got a date Wednesday night then.”
I ignored the flutter in my chest as he called it a date because it absolutely didn’t take place. “Maybe I’ve already got plans Wednesday,” I said.
“Yeah, you do. With me.”
He released his grip on my waist and my control over the magic faltered as the bike burst apart into a thousand flaming tendrils which burnt out quickly without anything to maintain them.
(tory)
”
”