^“Mr. Daniels, I’m sure Miss Crowe will be here any moment,” I hear Miss Tinder say as I walk into fire class. The whole class is sitting, talking or playing on their phones, when I walk in. They all stop to look at me with surprise. Hey, it’s not like I don’t turn up to my classes, I’m just usually late. I glance at the clock on the wall. Maybe not this late though.

“Miss Crowe, this is completely unacceptable. You are forty-five minutes late, and I don’t know why I’m not surprised when I should be. Honestly, it’s like you believe your twelve marks make you impervious to the rules of this academy,” she turns to me as she speaks, but my eyes are locked on Mr. Daniels who shakes his head as he looks me over. He looks stressed, today, with his brown hair messy and looks like he has run his fingers through it a few times and his clothes are wrinkled which is unlike him. He’s also missing his glasses, which are normally only off during our training.

“Sorry I’m late,” Enzo says walking into the room after me and not even looking at Mr. Daniels or Miss Tinder as he takes his seat. Miss Tinder doesn’t even look his way, or care that he is late. Just me.

“Outside, now, Miss Crowe,” Mr. Daniels says, just as I go to sit down.

I turn to see him walking out of the classroom and look over at Miss Tinder.

“Go, and don’t be long,” she tells me. I nod and walk out of the classroom, pulling the door closed behind me. I turn to see Mr. Daniels standing in the middle of the empty corridor with his arms crossed and an expression that makes me want to hide. Shit.

“So . . .,” I ask, wondering why he dragged me out here and is giving me this look.

“Miss Crowe . . . I just don’t even know where to start with you,” he says and runs a hand through his hair as he watches me.

“Erm quietly? My head is banging,” I sigh, placing my hand against my head and knowing I should have grabbed some food or something earlier. I didn’t stop when I jumped into the shower and then ran to class. I haven’t had time to even think about everything that happened with Kelly and Ryan. I try to nip that thought in the bud. I can’t even think about it at the moment, as all I want to do is find Kelly and talk to her.

As I watch Mr. Daniels walking over to me, I get what Kelly was talking about when she said you don’t choose who you fall for. You really don’t. Mr. Daniels stops in front of me, placing his hand on my head, and I feel him healing me before stepping away.

“Why did you heal me?” I ask him, relief spreading over me now that my head doesn’t hurt anymore.

“So that I can shout at you for getting drunk with your friends last night in my house,” he says, and I mentally cringe. Shit, he must have come back at some point. When I don’t say anything, he continues. “I came back from the meeting I told you about, to find you dancing on the coffee table,” he tells me. A flashback of last night runs through my mind.

“At least, I had my clothes on, or from what I can remember,” I say, making him groan and look at me closely as I smile at him. We both start laughing after an awkward silence, and he shakes his head.

“What am I going to do with you, Miss Crowe?” he asks, stepping closer to me and placing his hand on my arm.

“What do you want to do, Mr. Daniels?” I ask, not able to stop the tempting words leaving my lips.

“You don’t want to know,” he whispers, his face inches away from mine. I can smell the body wash he uses, the same stuff I used quickly in the shower this morning.

“What’s your first name?” I ask him, not moving as we stand close to each other, our lips inches apart, and my hand moves to rest on his chest without me thinking about it. It just feels natural.

“It’s—” he starts to say, and then he suddenly jumps away when the door is opened behind me.

“I need to start my lesson, Mr. Daniels,” Miss Tinder’s voice says behind me, her voice chipped and annoyed as I turn to see her looking between us.

“We will finish speaking about this later, Miss Crowe,” he says, his tone back to the cold and emotionless tone that I’m used to. I nod, walking back into the classroom and taking the empty seat next to Enzo as he smirks at me.

“What did Mr. Dead Serious want this morning?” Enzo asks me.

“He came back at some point last night and saw me dancing on the table,” I tell him, and he laughs, making several people turn to look at us. Miss Tinder slams the door shut after she walks into the room, and everyone goes quiet. I glance behind me when I hear someone cough and see Stella sitting with her feet on the table at the back of class and glaring at me. Just great, why is she here?

“So, class, now that the disruptions are out of the way, we shall begin. We have been studying how to control your fire mark. It’s very easy to make a large fire and much harder to make only a small amount, like lighting a candle without melting the entire thing,” Miss Tinder says after clapping her hands. I look down at the three candles in holders on the table in front of me, and it makes sense what we are going to be doing now.

“Please spend the next hour lighting the candles. There are spares at the front if you melt yours. Once you are done, you may leave and have a study period,” she tells the class. That’s all the encouragement they need as some start trying to light the candles straight away, and I watch them melt them, the clumsy rush doing them no good. I look over as Enzo wipes a hand across the tips of the candles in front of him, lighting them all perfectly before leaning back in his seat and shrugging.

“Come on, you can do this. Then we can go and get food,” he says, waiting for me, and it’s kind of sweet from the bad boy who pretends to be asshole-like. I call my fire mark and concentrate on lighting just the candles. I open my eyes to see nothing has happened. Maybe I was thinking too small?

“Mackenzie, focus on the tips of the candles and just lighting those. The idea isn’t to just think fire, it’s to focus on what you want the fire to do. Fire can be controlled with your mind before you let it out with your mark,” Enzo whispers gently, and I give him a thankful look. I hover my hand over the first candle and imagine the wick catching fire as I call my mark. When I open my eyes, the candle is lit, and I quickly do the others.

“Thank you,” I say as Enzo stands up and smirks down at me.

“It was nothing, I just want food and not to be sitting here all day, or to have to stop you from setting the room on fire, again,” he says and walks out. I laugh and follow him out, seeing Miss Tinder nod at me as she looks at my candles.

“Impressive, Miss Crowe,” she comments and then looks back at the paperwork in front of her. When I walk out of the classroom, I see Stella talking to Enzo. They are standing closely together, and I watch in disgust when she places both her perfectly manicured hands on his chest. I want to snap the purple-tipped nails straight off her. Enzo steps back, but unfortunately for him, there’s a wall behind his back, and she boxes him in as she moves closer again. They are arguing, and I don’t think as I walk over, stepping next to Enzo and reaching a hand to the side of his head and pulling him to look at me.

“Hey, baby,” I say and then kiss him.

“What the hell?” I hear Stella say, but everything else is a blur as Enzo’s hand slides into my hair as he twists us around and presses me into the wall with his body as he kisses me harder. His lips devour my own as I slide my hands into his hair, and he groans.

“Miss Crowe?” I hear my name being shouted from down the corridor.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Enzo mutters against my lips. He pulls away, and we turn to face Mr. Daniels.

“Seeing as you’ve finished so early, we can squeeze in another training session. Training room, fifteen minutes,” he says, and then turns to head back down the corridor. My stomach growls as if in protest. Fuck’s sake.

“Come on, let’s quickly grab you a sandwich or something before he throws you on your ass,” Enzo offers, tugging me along the corridor in the opposite direction, without waiting for my answer. I turn back and see a calculating look on Stella’s face as she looks between Mr. Daniels, Enzo, and me. I shudder, feeling a chill roll through my body. I turn back and walk with Enzo. Time to eat as much food as humanly possible in ten minutes, I suppose.