you figured out all the puzzle pieces, did you?” Dmitri shoots back. “You figured out what everyone else couldn’t because you’re that special, is that what I’m understanding?”
“What? No, that’s—”
He steps up close to me, almost but not quite in my face. “You need to learn to mind your own damn business, Princess. First Raul and then the Trials and now this. You never leave well enough alone—you always have to get involved. Can’t you just cut it out and leave it alone? For two fucking seconds? Stop trying to save everyone!”
Before I can defend myself, or even fully process what he’s said, Dmitri turns on his heel and storms out.
Chapter 22
What. The. Fuck?
No way am I letting Dmitri just storm off like that.
We might be on the outs, but I’m not gonna let him fucking yell at me and stalk off like he’s got the high ground or something. I know dragging the guys up to the tower wasn’t the smartest thing, but I noticed something nobody else had, and I wanted to find out if it meant anything—and without any evidence of shady activity, what was I supposed to tell the Circuit anyway? Oh, hey, I saw a bird?
They’d have laughed their asses off.
And what right does Dmitri have to yell at me? It’s not like he offered to help me, the fuckhead. He doesn’t get to judge me, not him of all people, not after he’s spent half the semester pushing me away. Asking me to stop trying to save everyone? What does he care? What right does he have to act like he actually worries about my well-being when he’s made it perfectly clear he doesn’t want anything to do with me?
“Hey, Dmitri, wait!” I yell.
He doesn’t respond, though the angry line of his back speaks volumes.
I hurry after him and catch up with him pretty damn quickly, grabbing his forearm. “Oh, no, you fucking don’t.”
The dark-haired mage whirls around, whipping his arm away from me. “Leave me alone.”
“No, I won’t! Not until you explain to me what the fuck your problem is.” I spy a door and grab him by the wrist, yanking him through it.
It’s only once I get us inside that I realize this isn’t the exam room or office I assumed it was—it’s a storage closet.
Oops?
It’s cramped in here, the walls lined with shelves and boxes. Not exactly ideal for a confrontation—but who cares? I’m not about to go searching around in a rage, dragging Dmitri behind me, until I find the perfect room to yell at him in.
“God, I swear I’m going to strangle you someday,” I snap. “What the hell is your problem, huh? Would it kill you to just pick one program and stick with it?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about you, you stuck-up moron!” I wave my hands in the air wildly, nearly knocking a stack of small boxes off a shelf. “Or is the stick so far up your ass it’s reached your head and is scrambling your brains? One minute you kiss me like you can’t live without me, the next you’re telling me to stay away. You fight with me, then you ignore me, then you yell at me about putting myself and the others in danger. You try to act like you blame me for what happened to Cam, but then you tell me to stop trying to save everyone like I’m the one you’re worried about.”
Dmitri’s lips are a thin line, his body tense and stiff. I have a feeling he’s trying to hold himself back from his own rant, but he’s gonna have to wait his damn turn, because I’m not done yet.
“You tell me your parents promised your hand in marriage when you were a baby like we’re in Fiddler on the Roof, but you don’t give me any clue what I’m supposed to do with this information—and I’m pretty damn sure I’m the only one who knows about it! You didn’t even tell Cam and Asher, so why tell me?”
I suck in another huge breath of air, chest heaving. “I’m sick of you playing hot and cold! You can’t just cry over someone’s sickbed and kiss them like that and then shove them away the next chance you get. That’s not how this works! If you don’t want anything to do with me, then fine, just tell me.”
I’ve really worked myself up into a lather now, practically yelling in Dmitri’s face. He’s trying to maintain this stone-like