He’d heard me. That single, brief word had been enough to catch his sensitive ears. And to say he looked pissed was putting it lightly.

I shouldn’t have been there. It was too risky. I was at the tippy-top of the Senate’s shit list. The danger to my life was huge, the danger to my mission—to Heru’s cause—astronomical. Nik had every right to be pissed. I knew it.

Which was why I ran away. Or, rather, walked quickly. I mean, I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, after all.

I rounded the corner of the block and headed west. After a sneaky glance over my shoulder, I sidestepped into the alleyway behind the shops lining the block and broke into a dead sprint, making my backpack bounce against my back. I was about a quarter of the way down the alley when a metal door banged open farther down.

Nik burst into the alleyway, a thundercloud in jeans and a black hoodie. A vine of At shot out of his hand, coiling around my neck before I could even consider turning around and running the other way. He closed in on me, pushing me back against the brick wall of the building he’d emerged from. He didn’t retract the vine of At until my back was pressed against the wall and his hands were planted on either side of my head. The straps of my backpack had slipped over my shoulders. I let the bag fall to the ground so I could melt back against the wall, putting a few more inches between us.

I knew better than to try to run from him again. He’d just snag me again, and we’d be right back here, him glowering down at me and me glaring right back simply because it was the only way I knew how to respond.

He stepped closer, leaning in. His inhumanly pale blue eyes were livid, his jaw clenched. And when he spoke, his voice was so low and quiet it sent a cascade of goosebumps trickling over my skin. “What the fuck are you doing here? I told you I’d look after things, and I am. Don’t you trust me?”

I swallowed roughly. I couldn’t help it, not when he was so close and so angry and so him. My heart was racing so fast it was a stumbling, bumbling mess. I was having flashbacks of the last time I’d been pressed against a brick wall. By the bartender, the Senate spy. By the last Nejeret I killed. I lifted my chin. Served him right for calling me a whore.

Nik lowered his face to within an inch of mine. “Well?” I could smell the remnants of his discarded cigarette on his breath, and beneath that a hint of mint and coffee.

I looked at his lips, just for a fraction of a second, then squeezed my eyes shut, hoping he hadn’t noticed. I couldn’t handle him so close, so intense. So in my bubble. Not without wanting him to invade my space further.