“What did Mr. Dead Serious want this morning?” Enzo asks me.
“He came back at some point last night and saw me dancing on the table,” I tell him, and he laughs, making several people turn to look at us. Miss Tinder slams the door shut after she walks into the room, and everyone goes quiet. I glance behind me when I hear someone cough and see Stella sitting with her feet on the table at the back of class and glaring at me. Just great, why is she here?
“So, class, now that the disruptions are out of the way, we shall begin. We have been studying how to control your fire mark. It’s very easy to make a large fire and much harder to make only a small amount, like lighting a candle without melting the entire thing,” Miss Tinder says after clapping her hands. I look down at the three candles in holders on the table in front of me, and it makes sense what we are going to be doing now.
“Please spend the next hour lighting the candles. There are spares at the front if you melt yours. Once you are done, you may leave and have a study period,” she tells the class. That’s all the encouragement they need as some start trying to light the candles straight away, and I watch them melt them, the clumsy rush doing them no good. I look over as Enzo wipes a hand across the tips of the candles in front of him, lighting them all perfectly before leaning back in his seat and shrugging.
“Come on, you can do this. Then we can go and get food,” he says, waiting for me, and it’s kind of sweet from the bad boy who pretends to be asshole-like. I call my fire mark and concentrate on lighting just the candles. I open my eyes to see nothing has happened. Maybe I was thinking too small?
“Mackenzie, focus on the tips of the candles and just lighting those. The idea isn’t to just think fire, it’s to focus on what you want the fire to do. Fire can be controlled with your mind before you let it out with your mark,” Enzo whispers gently, and I give him a thankful look. I hover my hand over the first candle and imagine the wick catching fire as I call my mark. When I open my eyes, the candle is lit, and I quickly do the others.
“Thank you,” I say as Enzo stands up and smirks down at me.
“It was nothing, I just want food and not to be sitting here all day, or to have to stop you from setting the room on fire, again,” he says and walks out. I laugh and follow him out, seeing Miss Tinder nod at me as she looks at my candles.
“Impressive, Miss Crowe,” she comments and then looks back at the paperwork in front of her. When I walk out of the classroom, I see Stella talking to Enzo. They are standing closely together, and I watch in disgust when she places both her perfectly manicured hands on his chest. I want to snap the purple-tipped nails straight off her. Enzo steps back, but unfortunately for him, there’s a wall behind his back, and she boxes him in as she moves closer again. They are arguing, and I don’t think as I walk over, stepping next to Enzo and reaching a hand to the side of his head and pulling him to look at me.
“Hey, baby,” I say and then kiss him.
“What the hell?” I hear Stella say, but everything else is a blur as Enzo’s hand slides into my hair as he twists us around and presses me into the wall with his body as he kisses me harder. His lips devour my own as I slide my hands into his hair, and he groans.
“Miss Crowe?” I hear my name being shouted from down the corridor.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Enzo mutters against my lips. He pulls away, and we turn to face Mr. Daniels.
“Seeing as you’ve finished so early, we can squeeze in another training session. Training room, fifteen minutes,” he says, and then turns to head back down the corridor. My stomach growls as if in protest. Fuck’s sake.
“Come on, let’s quickly grab you a sandwich or something before he throws you on your ass,” Enzo offers, tugging me along the corridor in the opposite direction, without waiting for my answer. I turn back and see a calculating look on Stella’s face as she looks between Mr. Daniels, Enzo, and me. I shudder, feeling a chill roll through my body. I turn back and walk with Enzo. Time to eat as much food as humanly possible in ten minutes, I suppose.
Chapter 33
Kenzie
The dim lighting in the room does nothing to hide the predatory look on his face as he stalks around me, moving in a circle. I keep trying to move with him, to keep my eyes on him and my back away, but he’s just too quick. He shoots flames to my left, and I jump to my right, narrowly avoiding the hit.
I try to counter with air, calling on my mark. I aim low, hoping to strike him off balance. He blocks my attack with a simple swipe of his hand. A cool jet of water flows from his right hand, he doesn’t aim it at me, but at the floor. I stare at him in confusion, when suddenly the water begins to cool and freeze over. I struggle not to slide across it. I lift my left hand and command fire, using fire’s heat to melt the ice. The steam creates a wall between us. I try to use it as a screen to attack, but he simply uses his air ability to clear his vision again. I back up a few steps to keep out of reach, but he pounces, crossing the space between us. Within seconds I’m pinned down onto the blue mat by his weight. I struggle to get loose, completely forgetting to use my magic in order to assist me.
“Miss Crowe,” he whispers in my ear softly, his deep voice sending shivers right through me.
“Kenzie,” I mumble.
“What?” he asks.
“Please call me Kenzie,” I whisper.
“Miss Kenzie Crowe,” he utters softly, his cool breath against my neck making me shiver.
“Yes?” I whisper, looking up, I catch the heated look in his green eyes.
“You would be dead six times over if I was really trying.”
I laugh, but it’s a somewhat strangled sound. I look away from his heated stare, cutting off the temptation, at least, as much as possible while he’s all over me. My thoughts about Mr. Daniels are going to kill me.
I wriggle slightly, trying to see if there is any chance of getting him off me without the use of magic. No dice. I think about his advice. Don’t use magic the way they expect you to. Surprising them is half the battle, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, that’s pretty exact I’m sure. The ‘blah blahs’ is definitely how his speech ended.
A stroke of genius hits me, and a smile takes over my face.
“What are you thinking, Miss Crowe?” he asks softly.
“Nothing,” the word flies out of my mouth, and I’m sure I look guilty. I concentrate, while attempting to look like I am not concentrating, which is apparently ridiculously hard to pull off, as I feel his body vibrating with laughter above me. I call on my technomancy mark.
The lights start to flicker above us.
“Flickering lights, really?” he questions, the amusement thick in his voice.