Chapter 14 · Cracks in the Contract

"Control it, or I will." Silas slammed my wrist down on the stone table and the whole slab cracked under my palm.

Heat shot up my arm. Not normal heat. Wild, buzzing, pissed-off heat.

"I'm trying!" I snapped. "Maybe don't grab me like I'm a bomb?"

"You are a bomb," he said. His fingers tightened. His thumb pressed right over the blood-line on my wrist and it pulsed. Hard. "And you're about to blow up my entire hall."

The line was glowing. Again. That thin red thread under my skin that tied me to him, it was lit up like a wire about to snap.

I yanked. He didn't let go.

"Let. Go."

"No." His eyes dropped to my mouth, then back up. Cold and furious. "You drank the cursed wine and lived. That power has to go somewhere, Ivy. Give it to me."

"Give it to you? How?"

"You know how."

I didn't. Or I did and I didn't want to admit it. The contract on my wrist was pulling, hungry. The power in my chest was pushing, wild. And Silas was right there, too close, his chest against the edge of the table, his breath hitting my cheek.