LOGINValentin’s POVWith tidings as ill as they were, Victoria and Valentin couldn’t talk about things openly, so they went to Valentin’s office, which he had left warded and protected. There, they would not be overheard.There, Valentin told Victoria all that occurred, with some exception for privacy’s
Max’s POVMax hadn’t made it far from his initial starting point before he had to stop and try to grab hold of the mating bond again. Closing his eyes, with his hand over his heart, he meditated, trying to manifest the bond in his mind’s eye as a rope, a tether, guiding his heart to Zora.With progr
“I’m not doing that. I’m going to follow the bond.”“You can still feel it?” Thorne asked him. “Enough to follow it?”Max pressed his hand to his chest. “I think so.”“She’s nowhere close to us,” Valentin said. “If you go blindly, it could take you days if not weeks to find her.”“Then I had better
Valentin’s POVValentin tried to remain calm as Max, Kairos, and Thorne engaged in varying levels of panic, but it was difficult. His resolve was being tested by the moment.One minute Zora had been here with them, and in the next she had simply vanished. What should have only been a small exercise
“Neo…” I whispered.He just kept staring back. His gaze was probing, like he could see down inside of me, straight to the soul he might have held a piece of. Could he feel this too?I opened my mouth, about to ask –The sky opened first, and suddenly rain fell. The tree branches and leaves blocked s
Zora’s POVBeyond the now obliterated doors of the tomb was a stone staircase that led directly up out of the dark and to the outdoors. And it really was the outdoors. As we ascended the stairs, Neo and I found ourselves in the middle of a field.Rocks were scattered here and there among the tall gr
“It was the only thing clean,” she snapped. “And it’s fucking cold so deal with it.” Max knew that was a lie. She had more than enough little training sets in various colors and cuts. She chose to come that way and he couldn’t help but think he knew why. “Can we make this quick?” Zora added. “I’
By Friday, Stephen Jackell had been officially expelled from Alpha Academy. It sparked a new slew of whispers towards me in the cafeteria. However, as soon as Maximus resumed his seat at mine and Loren’s table, a silence fell over the cafeteria. Maximus ate in silence again and then told me to mee
I couldn’t lie still in my bed that night. My mind kept replaying the encounter with Maximus. How had it gotten to that? How had I let my guard down so much? I’d never felt something like that before. The blooming of desire deep within my core. And his hands, oh his hands. The way they roamed my
Saturday night, Maximus and I met again. I could hear the roar of a party at Kairos’s house on the other side of campus. It immediately made me anxious. It’d only been two weeks since my incident and the prospect that it could happen again set me on edge. Maximus clearly noticed it as we sparred







