“How’d you know I needed to come outside?” I whispered.
His head leaned down fractionally, getting closer. “You feel things. You respond. React. You’re not a planner or a plodder. I figured if you were exposed to it, your body would remember how to do it. But you have to control it. It was dangerous what you just did. You know what happens when you draw too much.”
“I don’t…” I shook my head. “I don’t know how to control it.”
“That’s why you’re in school,” he whispered, his pupils dilating. His eyes roamed my face, touching my eyes, my nose, glancing across my cheek, then to my mouth. He sucked in a deep breath, his eyelids drooping. His fingers tightened on my arms, drawing my body closer.
My hands landed on his lateral muscles, bumpy and delicious. I breathed in his smell, musk and masculine. Safety and protection.
“Boss, Bert is nearly here. This the way you want him to see you? Damn it, she smells good when she’s turned on!”
Stefan jerked me away from him, his eyes blinking quickly as they refocused. He let me go and stepped back.
I could have kicked Charles!
Master Bert hustled up, his eyes catching me and relaxing. A second later, they hit Charles with a scowl, then hit Stefan. “Oh my gosh! Boss! What are—hello! Did you detain them? Maw, I feared something had happened to them, the tricky little monkeys.”
“Something did.” Stefan gently pushed me toward Charles. Before he took his hand away, I could have sworn his thumb brushed my collarbone. “Sasha tried to draw too much. Charles let her do it, staring at her like a googly-eyed teenager. She needs to be watched. She’s above the other students in power level—dangerously so.”
“Well, hmm.” Master Bert put his hand to his chest in thought. “I confess, I didn’t know if she could even reach her power. What an excellent suggestion, then, coming out here. Maw, yes. Hmm. Should I separate them? Move them up a level?”
Stefan blew out a breath. “We’ll have to divide her time. Put her in more classes; speed up her education. Learn elements from you, push her to James for weapons, then to Darla for incantations.”
“Not Darla,” I blurted.
Stefan speared me with his Boss stare. My back and lower cheeks tingled, a warning that danger headed my way. I shut the hell up before he did something awful.
To Master Bert he said, “This starts tomorrow. Get her working. We don’t have a lot of time—she’s in danger every time she uses her magic without control.” His bearing still filled with command, expecting to be obeyed at any cost, his next words were for me. “And no more reckless car rides. You’re putting yourself in needless danger. They stop immediately.”
My argument died on my lips as his powerful gaze shocked into my system. Didn’t mean I agreed, though. Easier to ask forgiveness than permission…
“Maw, yes!” Master Bert nodded at Charles and I, still thinking about my education. “Absolutely, Boss! Your pet is safe with me.”
As the words sank in, the world slowed down. My gaze swiveled to Master Bert, incredulous.
“Yes, well.” Stefan turned, a flash of irritation smearing his face before he stalked off.
“Pet?” I asked Charles in a disbelieving whisper as Master Bert led the way. “Is that what he said?”
My mind flashed back to Jonas on the first night we met them. When he and Charles had called me little pet. They’d thought Jared and I would break down and do as they said in mindless agreement. We were only as good as our willingness to drop our pants. Dimwitted humans. Lesser species.
Anger filled me. Shaking my head and blinking, I realized that I was being led by an oblivious Charles. His thoughts weren’t bent on how wrong that term was, how immoral. Quite the opposite. It was a given.
What the hell was wrong with these people?
I sucked that thought in. I tucked it away. I didn’t know how to handle it yet, the pain of it—so I would stuff it in a new secret box. I’d thought that if I learned this stuff, earned my reputation, I’d fit in. Nowhere in that equation was stooping to being a pet human.
My chin rose as my heart fell, refusing to let that term diminish my accomplishment of sucking in elements. I’d show them I wasn’t just a stupid human. I’d learn this stuff and rock their world.
Somehow.
Chapter 2
Charles was in stitches for the rest of the class. It seemed that pulling in elements once was enough for Sasha to thoroughly figure out how to do it repeatedly. Other students, even the best, would need a few seconds of concentration before they had some magic flowing. Not Sasha. Not anymore. She couldn’t pay attention for crap, she couldn’t remember even a sentence of knowledge if she heard it, but let her work with her hands once, and she got it. Not only that, but she pulled in way too much, freaked out, and then puffed a red fog that had the ability to singe off eyebrows.