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someone who had learned to avoid getting close.

At least after the last time it had all gone wrong.

I closed my eyes and inhaled.

Get it together. Now.

When I opened them again, I shoved the flicker of desire aside—

and replaced it with something far more reliable.

Its closest ally.

Aggression.

I hated it.

But I needed it.

For protection.

Because the best defense—

was attack.

“Are you serious?” I shot him a murderous look.

“What made me nervous?”

My fists clenched on their own.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that I keep almost burning myself alive and trapping myself in a cage of fire?”

I took a small step toward him.

“Or that I suddenly ended up in a place I don’t know, where I’m being told there are multiple worlds—and a possible war?”

I felt a lump rising in my throat, but I kept going.

“Or that every damn day I’m surrounded by people I don’t know, trying to figure out who I can trust—and how quickly they could hurt me?”

The knot in my throat burned.

I barely managed to hold back the tears gathering in my eyes.

I had to look away before I lost it.

It hit me all at once—

I was completely alone here.

No one I knew.

No one I trusted.

The people I was used to having in my life—

didn’t even know where I was.