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“Really? Is it something you can see?”
“No, it’s more like an electrical hum. The louder it is, the more you can feel it down to your bones.”
“So you didn’t like me because I’m powerful?” Pretty dickish, if you asked me.
“The last pretty girl who walked in here with a strong aura like yours ended up being a total bitch who likes to lord that strength over others.” Something about how he said that answered my next question before I even had a chance to form it.
“Illyria.”
He nodded. “I gave her the benefit of the doubt, had no real reason to be anything but welcoming. If I’d known what kind of person she was going to turn out to be, the way she’d use her power?” His head shook as his gaze turned inward. I knew what all that wench had done to me, but what had she done to others? I couldn’t be the sole focus of her evil, could I?
“But you dated her despite that?”
“She wasn’t so bad at first. A little stuck-up, but she was different when we were alone. I didn’t know she was putting on a front with me. I thought she was trying to seem more confident in front of others by talking a big game.”
“What happened? Did you dump her, or did she drop you?”
“I ended it. She lied to me, probably more than I ever realized. She has a unique way of spinning things so they’re technically true, and I get so tired of trying to find the lies in everything people say, so I just accepted it.” A shrug of those massive shoulders showed off the cut muscle beneath his t-shirt. “After it was over, she clung harder than ever. At first I thought it was because she couldn’t believe I’d broken it off.”
He went silent, and my mind raced for what he believed her reason was now. Honestly, anything he told me about Illyria was to my benefit. Know thy enemy and all that. The better I understood her, the better I could defend myself against her. Every single cell in my body wanted to retaliate for the shit she’d pulled since my arrival, but with my possible expulsion hanging over my head the next time I made a mistake, that wasn’t an option.
Still, I had to know. “And what do you think now?”
“I think she really loved me. Or at least she convinced herself she did. We were only together for a short time, and when we broke up last year, she wasn’t nearly this bad.” He looked back over at me, a quirk of his lips showing off a deep dimple that was utterly drool-worthy. “It wasn’t until you got here that she became an actual crazy person.”
“What do you mean?”
“From what I understand, she had the vision last year but didn’t think anything of it because she’d never seen you before. Her ability is impressive, but it can be hazy at times, so she may not have even believed it was definite. When you turned out to be real, she lost it.”
“Because she thinks you’re going to… you know.” I couldn’t say it. Putting that out into the universe was a weird combination of tempting fate and voicing a secret desire I had yet to really acknowledge.
“That I’m going to fall in love with you.”
Apparently, he had no such compunction.
“Yeah, that.”
His grin was devastatingly gorgeous, and my hand itched like the world’s worst case of poison ivy with the desperate need to smack it off his face.
“Wouldn’t you like to be so lucky? But I’ll love who I love, vision be damned. Illyria and her gift will never determine my life for me.”
“No, that wouldn’t be lucky. It’d be the quickest way to get the death penalty, because I’m certain at some point I’d be forced to kill you. Then again, maybe gods can plead justifiable homicide, too.”
“Don’t know, you’d have to ask your boyfriend about that.”
The words “which one” were on the tip of my tongue, but since they didn’t technically make sense, I held my silence on the topic. Instead, I returned to my earlier question.
“So, because of her, you decided I was persona non grata as soon as I crossed the threshold of Divinity. Doesn’t that make you a bigger dick than I ever was?”
“Maybe. But when Illyria was first here, everyone was so enamored with her she could get away with acting however she wanted. I figured if you knew there were people who weren’t going to put up with that shit, you wouldn’t even start down that road.”
“Or you could have given me a chance to show you what kind of person I am, then made a decision. You know, like normal people do.”
“What’s done is done. You haven’t turned out to be as bad as I thought so far, but your first year isn’t even over. Who knows what you’ll be like when you fully understand what you’re capable of? What happens when you realize you’re already more powerful than half the teachers here and learn to wield your abilities with precision?”
“Nothing happens. I’m me, regardless of abilities, Varon. I have my vengeful streak like I’m sure many of us do, but since both Illyria and Heath are still alive, I think it’s safe to say I have pretty stellar control.”
“If I hadn’t watched you kill Heath your first night here, I might believe that.”
