The mark on my wrist glows in the sunlight streaming in from the windows. There’s a hint of pain that’s quickly fading and an overall feeling like I’m slightly dazed. I glare at Matthis, waiting his explanation of what the hell he just did to me.

“I bound us together, luv. It’s the only way to ensure you don’t go back on your word.” He places his hand on the small of my back, leading me out of the cafeteria.

“Are you serious?” My voice rises, echoing down the hallway.

The janitor gives us a second look, and I lower my voice.

“Get this off me right now,” I hiss. What happens if I don’t fulfill my part of the contract, will I be stuck with him forever? My heart soars into my throat. I can’t have a demon as a familiar. It would just be a matter of time before someone found out and we’re both burned at the stake.

Matthis looks at me with a smug expression. “I will after we fulfilled our bargain. Do you have any beer at your place?”

“No, I’m only eighteen.”

“I would’ve pegged you for almost nineteen.”

“Stop changing the subject and remove this branding off me.”

“What would be the fun in that?” He drifts down the hallway, and I rush to keep pace with him. “This way I am ensured of your loyalty and that you won’t turn me into your savior the second you can.”

I skid to a stop in the middle of the hallway when he veers off to the library. “What are you doing?” I ask in a hoarse voice, loud enough to be heard but not shouting.

“Checking on my late book fees.” He winks and disappears inside.

One thing I’m quickly learning about demons is that they are insane. I push open the door to the library and a cool breeze washes over me. Why do they always keep it freezing in here? Guess it has something to do with humidity, but it makes me wish I had brought my sweater.

“May I help you?” the librarian asks, and I jump. She has her blond hair down rather than in a bun like usual. She’s wearing a Christmas sweater with a reindeer with a blinking red nose.

“Um…” I glance around for Matthis, but he’s nowhere around. Where did he go? “Nah, I’m just browsing.”

She gives me a partial smile. “Well, the library will be closing in twenty minutes. If you need access during the break, you’ll have to send in a request to the automated system, and one of the professors on-duty will have to let you in and lock up behind you.”

“Understood.” I nod. “Thanks.” Hurriedly, I move away from her desk to go up and down the aisles of books, but I find no sign of Matthis. Has he bailed on me? Or staging a revolt to overthrow our protector? My stomach heaves and I swallow down the bitter acid burning the back of my throat.

This is so stupid to trust a demon. Never mind that he is as sexy as sin.

I do a double-take down a row of bookshelves. Matthis is sitting on the floor with a pile of books around him. He pulls one off the shelf and flips through it like he’s looking for a lost bookmark, then tosses it onto the growing pile around him.

“There are no descent spellbooks in this whole library.”

“Sure, there are.” I squat beside him. “You haven’t even checked the whole library yet.”

“This is the magical working section.” He arches a dark eyebrow as though daring me to contradict him.

“How do you know since you’ve only glimpsed at all of these?” If that.

His grin makes butterflies take flight in my chest. “I’m a speed reader.”

“Do you retain the information?” That would be cool never to have to study and re-read textbooks, just flip through and memorize.

“None of these books can help you.” He tosses another book into the pile without even bothering to open it.

My throat constricts. Is he saying I’m hopeless? I don’t need his mocking. It’s bad enough that I have the whole school thinking I’m a magical mistake. A demon thinking the same is too much.

As though sensing my dismay, he says, “Your magic worked when you weren’t obeying all these rules. It instinct, survival. We need to tap into that.”

“I need to pass my finals, and I seriously doubt they’re going to throw a snarling wolf at me.” I pick up the nearest book next to my calf—a book on casting circles. “Show me the basics, everything you know so I can get through my classes.”

“You have powerful magic, luv. You don’t need all this stuff.”

“Yes, I do.” I lift my trembling chin. “You promised to teach me. Don’t go back on your word.”

The muscle ticks in his jaw, but I’m not backing down. My hopes for the ski trip are crushed, I know that. The least I can do is pass all my finals and get them out of the way and build a good foundation for the spring semester. After that, it should be easy making my way up through the necessary beginner classes until I get into the master weavers’ level.

I hand him the book. “How do I cast a proper circle?”

His grumble has me smiling. “There are two types of circles. One to keep things in and one to keep things out.”

“Okay.” I glance around for a notebook and pen.

“Are you listening?”

“Yes.” I snap my attention back to him. “I was looking for something to write all this down.”

“No, no, no. That’s not how real magic works. You have to feel it. In your skin, in your bones, in your heart.” He waves a hand over the books piled around him. “Let’s try something simple. Put all these books back on the shelves with your power.”

“I can’t do that.” Even moving a feather in class hadn’t worked.

“Yes, you can.” He gives me an encouraging smile, resting his elbows on his knees. “You blasted a wolf off you; surely, you can move books onto the shelves.”

Heaving a breath that gets stuck in my chest, I shift my weight until I’m kneeling rather than sitting with my legs crossed like Matthis. I raise my hands over the books and imagine them slipping into place. Except they don’t budge, even the one with its pages open doesn’t even rustle.

“Why can’t I do this?” I huff.

“Try again,” he encourages.

I don’t know why I even bother. Everything I do seems to backfire in my face.

I focus again and nothing happens. Big surprise.

Matthis opens his mouth like he’s going to say something, but then he leans forward and wraps his hand around the back of my neck. I’m too shocked to fight back as he hauls me closer, kissing me. This isn’t like the kiss before when he put a silent spell on me.

This kiss sends me to another place. One where Matthis isn’t a demon, but just a normal handsome guy who is making my toes curl. He tastes like spicy candy, and I can’t get enough. I shouldn’t want this, but lord help me, I do, and I climb onto his lap.

He smells like a campfire on a brisk winter day and I moan, wanting so much more than mere kisses. It’s like he’s set me on fire and he’s the only cure.

His erection pushes against my panties under my skirt as he grips my hair tighter, holding me in place as a possessive growl vibrates in his chest.

He teases my tongue with his own, lightly sucking, and I’m burning up inside.

All my common sense has vanished because I’m kissing a demon, and I like it. We’re two magnets so attracted to each other that pulling away isn’t an option. It’s impossible not to be this close to him, yet we’re still too far away.

Need intensifies in my core, and I grind against his erection straining in his pants. Each time I rock back and forth, jolts of pleasure rocket up my spine.

I’ve had sex before, but not like this. Not like we’re going to die if we don’t touch each other.

The feel of his silk shirt is too rough under my fingers. I ache to feel his skin and my breath quickens. I yank against the fabric, ripping the buttons open. My hands glide along his warm flesh.

“Amber,” he groans my name against my lips, and I feel light-headed.

His hand stays rooted in my hair like he’s showing me he’s in charge or that he’s on the verge of losing control and something about that makes my heart race.

There’s a breeze around us that sounds like the flapping of birds’ wings.

“It’s not wor—” I open my eyes to see the books whirling in a cyclone around us. “What the h—”

He nuzzles my neck. “This is what I can do with you. The power inside you only releases with strong emotion… when you lose yourself.”

I push away and stand. “Are you trying to trick me?” A way for him to confuse me and get me to trust him so I have sex with him? Not going to happen. Doing so would enable him to take my soul and even though there’s a fluttering in my stomach, it doesn’t mean anything other than a warning. That I’ve come too close to nearly forgetting who, no… what I am dealing with.

His eyes darken. “Your magic is locked up behind rules and propriety. See for yourself what you can do when you give into passion like when your magic freed me, calling me to you.”

I certainly didn’t conjure him for a booty call. At my thought, the books drop around us like sinking stones.

Matthis grins like all the times I’ve pictured demons fixing to devour a witch. I falter back a step. My lips feel swollen from his kisses and my chest is heaving from our make-out session. He wants me to give myself to him fully. That’s how he’s going to possess me and take everything from me.

“I did not free or call you.”

He stands, grasping my wrist and tracing a circle on my thumb, and I’m mesmerized by the shudder of desire tracing up my hand to my core. “Your love spell, sweetened with honey… and with a drop of your blood.”

The thorn from the rose. I gasp, a sinking sensation hits my stomach and I jerk my hand from his. “N-no, that’s not possible.”

“Even if you can’t admit it, your heart knew what you needed and sent me.”

He’s wrong, he has to be. The spell was for Mia, not me. Why the hell would my subconscious or magic or whatever send me a demon? It’s not possible. I run out of the library because I have to know if it's true. Have to see for myself that he’s lying. He’s a demon, after all—telling half-truths and faking everything is in their nature.

My footsteps echo in the hallways and I don’t care if Matthis is chasing after me or not. I can’t believe I gave him a lap dance and kissed him. I rub at the mark on my wrist, surely it has something to do with my growing lust for an evil monster.

I push open the door to my dorm room and Mia whirls around from packing her suitcase.

“Hey,” she says, and her eyes widen when she sees me. “You look like hell. What happened?”

Everything from the day comes crashing in on me at once. I choke out a sob. “I-I failed. All my classes, everything.” I wrap my hand around my wrist, keeping my arms down. I don’t want her to see the demon mark. Don’t want her to know how much of an idiot I am.

“Amber,” she says softly and drops the sweater she holds to the bed beside her open suitcase. “What can I do?”

“Nothing.” The word scratches my raw throat. “I-I have the break to study and try one more time.”

She hugs me. “Oh no, you’ll miss the trip.”

I hug her briefly and move back. “It’s okay, though.” I force out the words past the lump of emotions tangling in my throat. “I’ll be able to study and try again.” Not that working harder at my magic has ever worked for me so far.

Images of the books flying around me and Matthis flash in my mind. I’ve only been around him for less than a day and already, I’ve accessed my magic twice. But taking a final while dry-humping a demon isn’t an option. Though my whole body heats at the thought.

Part of me wants to confess to her, to tell her everything that has happened in the last few hours, but I can’t. For one, she looked so happy packing for this trip. Second, there’s not much she can do for me without getting the dean and professors involved—which they’d have no choice but to expel me. I can’t have that on my record, because if I do, then no one will hire me for any magical working and no other university will touch me.

There’s no way I want to involve my roommate into helping me. Knowing Mia, she would cancel her vacation. Then there’s also the issue of why she has a drawer of dark magic spells and a clump of my hair.

“Hey, are you sure you don’t need—”

“I’ll be fine. Finish packing before your ride leaves you behind.” I pick up the sweater she dropped and fold it, placing it in her suitcase. “Besides, I need a spy on the trip to help keep Vivienne’s claws out of Darren.”

Mia’s eyebrows arch and she takes the sweater, refolding it into a small bundle before placing it in her suitcase. “Surely he doesn’t like her?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “She got into his Jeep after she practically rubbed herself all over him.”

“She probably invited herself as his passenger.” Mia lays out her underwear, folding them into perfect little triangles before placing them in the suitcase next to her socks. “He’ll get sick of her, even if he has the slightest interest in her. But yeah, I’ll keep a lookout. Never know when a little poison ivy might bloom late in the year.”

I shudder and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Does she know I went through her drawer? My hands itch to cover the thatch of hair inside my skirt pocket.

“You sure you can’t come? Maybe join us in a few days?” Mia closes her suitcase.

“I wish.” I wrap my arms around my middle. If I hadn’t sold myself out to a demon in order to pass… My gaze snaps to our open door, expecting to see Matthis there in either his human form or the wolf one, but the hallway is empty. “Have a great trip.”

“Thanks.” She frowns, looking over my shoulder at the door, then the coffee table. “I don’t know what spell you were trying to do, but I didn’t have time to clean it up.”

My chest tightens. “No worries.”

“Love spells are dangerous, Amber. You can’t interfere with free will.” Her brow furrows. “Fooling around with a positive force can bite you in the ass for many reasons.”

“Tell me about it.” I roll my eyes at the absurdity of her comment, both from her doing forbidden spells and my own mishap of Matthis.

“Don’t do anything dangerous while I’m gone, okay?” Her voice is full of concern and twists a knife in my chest.

Too late. “Sure. I’m just going to be working on my magic for the finals.”

With another hug, she’s gone, and I kneel in front of the crush spell I had attempted. Maybe everyone is right and I’m not good with magic. I know love spells are taboo, but I convinced myself that one little puppy-love spell would be innocent. Something to build her confidence around guys and prove I could work magic. Now, it was a disaster.

I reach out to swipe up the rose petals off the table and into the small trashcan when I see something odd and my hand freezes over the cauldron. Exactly four rose petals are glued in with the honey and there’s a dark red hair in the center.

It’s mine.

I hadn’t had time to put Mia’s hairs into the spell before Matthis showed up.

Coldness envelops me and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Somehow, I got one of my hairs into the spell. This is what summoned Matthis. But then, what about the other three rose petals?