Cassie tried to walk faster but Trik didn’t let her pull him. He wanted every male to know that she was his and to pursue her would be their demise. Was he overreacting? Probably. Did he care? Nope.

Once they were outside Cassie folded her arms across her chest trying to fight off the crisp, cool, fall air.

“I put the dress in your car,” Trik told her as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him.

Cassie looked around to see if anyone was watching. She was pretty sure that guys that weren’t students weren’t supposed to be hanging out at the high school. She had been so caught up in him being there that she hadn’t thought of it in the lunchroom.

“Nervous?” he asked her.

“I just don’t want to get caught standing out here in the arms of an older guy who isn’t a student.”

“You’d rather get caught standing out here in the arms of an older guy who is a student?” Trik teased, but she saw the underlying tension in the narrowing of his eyes.

“Why were you flipping out in the lunchroom?”

He looked down at her, taking in her beauty that wasn’t only skin deep. Cassie was beautiful from the inside out. She was the furthest person from vai n that he had ever come across and she was oblivious to her effect on the opposite sex.

“Cassie, every guy in that cafeteria was drooling on themselves as you walked past. I don’t go to school here so they don’t see me with you. For all they know you are available. I wanted them to know that you were the complete opposite of available.”

Cassie laughed. “You , tough guy assassin are insecure?”

Trik frowned, “I’m not insecure. You don’t realize how possessive the males in my race are of their Chosen. Cassie, I have waited over a thousand years for you. You are beyond precious to me and so yes, I’m possessive and overprotective. But I’m not insecure. The males in that room,” he motioned towards the lunchroom, “could never give you what I can, care for you the way I do, make you feel the way I do. You would always feel empty with another male.”

“What about you?” Cassie leaned back so she could see his face clearly. “Am I the only girl who can give you what you want, what you need? Do you think that no other could care for you the way I do?”

“There are no others. There is only you. No other could be what I need and want. No other could love me as you will. No other will ever make me feel the way you do. My soul would cry out in betrayal if I tried to be with another, just as your soul would cry out.”

Cassie didn’t realize that she had been holding her breath. She had been waiting for him to bust out the L word but he had yet to tell her that he loved her. She couldn’t decide if it was because he wasn’t there yet or if maybe he couldn’t love her. Maybe his dark nature would keep him from ever loving her. Her heart broke at the thought and she quickly pushed it away not wanting him to see it.

“I’ll see you tonight,” Trik told her as he released her and stepped back. She smiled at him and blew him a kiss as he walked backward towards the parking lot.

“I’ll take that as a promise,” he called out to her with his wicked grin.

Cassie laughed and gestured for him to go. She turned and went back inside the school. Lunch had just ended and students filled the hall, making their way to their next class. Cassie stood watching as they went about their normal, daily activities. She realized then that this normal life would never be enough again, not since Trik. She had tasted what it would be like to be with him in his world and it was decadent. Going back to her life would be like trading the finest chocolate for the generic brand at the Dollar General.

“Earth to lover girl,” Elora snapped her fingers in front of Cassie’s face.

Cassie blinked several times clearing her mind. She looked at Elora, who was frowning at her and said, “Hey!”

Elora raised a single brow at her friend’s perky demeanor. She had decided that as soon as she and Trik had left the lunchroom that she would not be asking Cassie about her midday interlude with the dark one. “You ready?”

Cassie nodded and a slow smile crept across her face. “Definitely.”

~

“Is everything ready for tonight?” Lorsan asked Ilyrana.

She smiled and nodded. “It’s going to be perfect.”

“I agree,” he said with a wicked smile.

“What plan do you have up your sleeve King of mine?”

Lorsan’s eyes narrowed as he spoke. “Tonight, my love, I will find out if Triktapic really is as loyal to me as he says.”

“How?”

“Simple, I’m going to have a chat with his Chosen, and see how much he has told her; if he really has been as honest with her as he claims to be.”

“You think she will be honest?” She asked.

“If she’s as good and pure as Trik makes her out to be, then yes, she will be honest.”

Ilyrana let out a deep sigh. “I hope, for Trik’s sake, that he really is still your warrior in heart and action.”

~

Tamsin sifted through page after page of archives and letters of centuries long past. He was searching. The Forest Lords had told him that a great change was coming and that one that was lost would be restored. Was it Trik they were talking about? If he is the King of the Elven race and he has been lost, in a manner of speaking, would he not be who they were talking about being restored? If so, Tamsin knew that something would need to take place to be the catalyst for that change. Something in Tamsin told him that he needed to find out what that catalyst would be.