more. Far more than this place ever could.” He pushed off from the windowpane, holding her gaze firmly. “Come back home. Let me show you.”
His voice wrapped around her; his promise, an outstretched hand that beckoned her back to the shadows. Into the night he alone ruled, that would never let her go if she ever returned.
She refused to go back into that dark.
“Leave.” She raised her empty hand to stop his next step. An oath, burning between her fingers. “Now.”
Jack vanished in one breath.
The room went cold and quiet. Kallia looked everywhere, heart pounding as her gaze fell to her hand. Her fingertips were on fire, palm searing.
A sudden breeze raked over her arms. A presence came up close behind her, gathering like a wind, into a hard wall of muscle, before the lightest fingertips trailed along her jawline.
“Your pulse is racing,” Jack whispered, the sound of it everywhere. In the room, in her mind. Right at her ear, as he palmed the side of her neck. “It’s not wise to try banishing me when you’re running on so little.”
He was trying to unnerve her. Distract her. “You came here as nothing more than a ghost,” she scoffed, tolerating the pressure and warmth of his touch, assured by the cool shadows brushing by her legs. “I’d say you’re running on less.”
The presence behind her dissolved, and Jack reemerged by the window. Her head creaked from the suddenness of the movement, and his amused smile hardened into steel. “Do you really want to put that to the test?”
He stalked slowly toward her. He could’ve simply appeared before her, but steps were far more menacing. Easy and certain, slow and confident. The walk of a beast closing in on its meal.
Chin raised, Kallia backed away. She would bring this entire room down on him if she could, if her powers were up to full strength. Her pulse thundered as she flicked her left wrist. The nearest objects obeyed her and shot across his path rapid as bullets.
A vase.
A pair of horned candlesticks.
A fire poker, which speared straight through him, dropping with a heavy thud.
“Come on, firecrown,” he drawled, continuing his pursuit. “I know you can do better than that.”
Heat clawed at her calves. The fireplace. With a slight flicker of fear, Kallia thought he might run her into the flames, and she wouldn’t be strong enough to hold them off. She fisted both hands at her sides, hissing at the prick of thorns against her palm. The rose, clenched tight in her fist. Jack’s gaze wandered down her wrist, frowning. “Who gave that to you?”
A pounding fist came at the door.
“Kallia?”
They turned toward the exit at the rough, muffled voice from the other side. Jack’s eyes darkened, Kallia’s widened.
Demarco?
Another round of knocks against the door, unanswered.
Panic. Sharp as glass, rising like bile. But she could hardly move, paralyzed the instant Jack turned toward the interruption.
“You don’t want to be rude, firecrown. Open the door.” A moment later, he was behind her. His hands traveled down her arms until he captured her wrists, guiding her forward. “Who is he?”
Kallia’s ears rang with the persistent knocking. “I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.” Jack squeezed her right hand until the rose stem snapped. “Did he give this to you?”
The words seized in her throat as Demarco’s fist kept pounding, pounding, pounding against the door. “Kallia, what’s happening? I heard crashes,” he called hoarsely from the other side. “Please, open up.”
“Go on, let him see what Glorian’s rising star is tangled in now.” Her pulse spiked under Jack’s laugh by her ear. “Let him see us, or make him leave.”
Leave now, she screamed silently at the door. She needed him gone.
Away from her, away from Jack.
“Let go of me.” Kallia ripped her wrists from his hold. The manner in which he stood back like a spectator filled her with dread, her heart thrashing in cold, stabbing strikes. She was more than ready to cut this show short. Approaching the door, she could no longer feel anything. Only ice. “Mister Demarco, what’s the matter with you? No need to break down my door, I’m fine.”
The knocking stopped. “Are you really?” There was a strange surge of relief in his tone. Mixed with a trickle of doubt, and disbelief. “I heard a scream.”
Swallowing, Kallia looked over her shoulder to find Jack lounging on the couch. Hands behind his neck, he grinned at her to go on.
“You were imagining things.” She scowled at the door. “I was asleep.”