These Bitter Blooms

by Emma Hamm

One moment the pale man had her pinned to the wall; the next, he had been thrown in the opposite direction. He hit the adjacent wall with a hard thud that made his breath wheeze out of his lungs. Sliding down the wallpaper, the man didn’t even try to protect himself as Alistair grabbed a fist full of his shirt and hauled him upright. “What did I tell you about her?” Alistair hissed into his face. “Say it. I want to know if you heard me.” “Stay away from her.” “That’s right. And you didn’t listen, did you?” Alistair’s magic billowed around him. Shadows crawled along the floor to join in on the magic that had been gifted to him by his father. “Remember what my father said to you all those years ago? After days of hearing you scream in the basement?” The pale man didn’t shake in Alistair’s hands as Thea might have expected. Instead, he tilted his head back and laughed. “Oh, I remember, Alistair. But you are not your father.” A darkness shifted inside Alistair. He leaned closer to the other man and snarled, “I can be, if I wish.”