VictoriaThere’s something to be said for being underestimated.I used to hate it. Used to let it dig into my bones and whisper that I wasn’t enough. That I’d never be the one Erik looks at first. Never the one chosen.But now… now I let it simmer. I let it stew beneath my skin where the magic runs hotter every day. Scarlett doesn’t know what to do with me. That much is obvious.She tries to pretend I’m harmless, just another jealous girl in her shadow, but her eyes give her away. The way her jaw locks when I’m near Erik. The way she clutches him tighter when she thinks I might actually lure him away from her.I matter now. I know I do. The power isn’t just inside me, it wants me. It sings when I use it, when I stop trying to be the nice girl and start being honest about what I want. And what I want is Erik.It’s always been him. From the first day we climbed the roof of his family’s house and watched storms roll in. From the first time he smiled at me like I was important to him. We
ScarlettVictoria has her hand on Erik’s arm again.I spot them through the open window of Häxa as I round the corner, the sun at my back and a bag of fresh bread swinging at my side.She’s laughing, leaning in too close, her fingertips tracing something on the inside of his wrist like she has any business touching him at all.Erik says something I can’t hear, and she throws her head back like he just told the funniest damn joke in the world. He doesn’t pull away.My jaw clenches and the bag of bread nearly tears in my fist. I step through the door and the little bell chimes above me.Victoria straightens instantly. Erik glances over, and his expression shifts to something sheepish. Guilt, maybe. Not because he’s done anything wrong, I know he hasn’t, but because he knows how she gets under my skin.“Morning,” I say, sweet and sharp as peppermint. “Am I interrupting a sacred bonding ritual, or is there still room for someone who actually lives with him?”Victoria doesn’t miss a beat.
ArloThere are too many scents in the city. It’s like chewing glass to get to the truth underneath. But I’ve hunted in worse conditions than this.Raventon might be a sprawl of alleys and corners and smog, but blood still runs through it. And where there’s blood, there’s always a trail.I sniff the air again. Not for the smell of the city, though it’s thick as ever, but for something colder. Stranger. The kind of magic that doesn’t belongs here.Something left a body two nights ago. Signe told me the woman was found behind the library, curled up like she’d fallen asleep and frozen to death. These things happen in the city and there were no visible wounds. But no lingering trace of life either.Cerelia made her way over before the city guard removed the corpse and she said the soul had been unraveled.I call that murder.Chris trails behind me, trying to look like he belongs here, hoodie up, hands shoved in his pockets. He keeps glancing around like someone might catch him breaking cur
ErikVictoria meets me at the edge of the square, dressed in tight black pants and a deep green blouse that clings in a way that’s probably intentional.“Nice of you to show,” she says, smiling at me like we’re in on a private joke.I gesture toward the warded clearing behind the building. “You wanted help with control. Let’s get to it.” Her smile dims just a little. I don’t want to hurt her, but she needs to know that I’m not falling for her tricks.The wards are basic, but solid. I reinforced them yesterday, so if anything goes sideways, it will stay contained.Victoria steps into the circle. “I’ve been practicing,” she tells me with a flirtatious smile. I suspect she’s undone one of the buttons on her blouse since I turned my back and the lace of her bra is peeking out.“Great. Show me what you can do.” I ignore the other theatrics. She closes her eyes and lifts her hands.The power hums through the clearing, slow and tentative. It gathers at her fingertips in a haze of gold that f
ScarlettI wake up soaked in sweat. Not the kind that comes from nightmares, all sharp teeth and screaming. This is much worse.This is the kind that clings to skin after a dream you didn’t want to end. One that leaves your heart hammering and your thighs pressed together like you’re still chasing the ghost of a feeling that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.I sit up in bed, the sheets twisted around my legs. Erik’s next to me, fast asleep, his hand still resting over where my hip was a second ago. There’s a soft frown between his brows, like he’s sensing something even in his sleep.I press a kiss to his forehead, slide out of bed, and pad into the bathroom. I need air. Space. Maybe a cold shower.This isn’t the first night I’ve woken wet and needy, with Loki’s voice stroking my mind to a fever pitch. I feel hot and dirty all at the same time. I can’t help what I dream, but it still feels like I’m being unfaithful.The mirror over the sink is fogged slightly from my panti
LokiMortals are deliciously messy creatures.I watch her from the shadows, perched atop a crooked ironwork balcony that nobody ever looks up at.Scarlett. Golden veins lit like dawn beneath her skin, and that delicious edge of defiance in every movement. She reminds me of fire on the verge of becoming a storm.She has no idea yet of the violence she’s capable of. The ferocity passed down to her from her mother and father. Warriors worthy of their rank.Victoria was a temporary spark. A useful pawn. Pretty, yes. Hungry, yes. But the wrong kind of hungry. A grabby, short-sighted kind of hunger that would never be sated and never really accomplish anything.Scarlett, though? Scarlett is starved. And she doesn’t even know it yet. She’s magnificent. Perfect. Everything I could want and then some.I let the dream settle first. Just a hint. A whisper. A suggestion curled into silk and smoke. Her magic is already opening like a flower after frost, ready to drink up the sun. The fact that I’m