“Yeah…” Wariness crept into my tone; I was certain his smile was about to disappear now he knew who I was.
I was mistaken, however; instead of hostility, he offered me another smile and stuck out his hand. “Dante—pleased to meet you.”
“Sera—but I guess you already know that.”
He nodded. “My brother told me about you.”
“Who’s your brother?”
“Aidan.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “Wait—you’re a prince as well?”
A faint blush stained his cheeks as he bobbed his head in a slight nod.
Now that it had been pointed out, I could see the resemblance to the queen: he had the same full lips, and the same heart-shaped face.
“Come with me, I can show you some books that might be helpful for your training.”
I offered him a grateful smile and followed along as he led me through the maze of shelves.
“Are you really from the human world?” he asked in a hushed tone as we wandered through the library. “I’ve always wanted to go there. When I was younger Aidan would tell me stories about it—he told me about the giant metal birds that carry people around in the sky.”
I couldn’t help smiling at his oblivious description of a plane.
“They’re called planes,” I told him. “And yes, I really am from the human world.”
“Fascinating.”
I got the impression Dante was a lot younger than Aidan or Fenix; of course, it was impossible to tell with how salamanders aged.
We finally stopped at a section far away from the library’s entrance and Dante began to pull random books from the shelves.
“What are you looking for exactly?” He asked.
“Well, I’m pretty behind the other fledglings, magically speaking. They all grew up here so they’re familiar with this stuff but I’m only just learning it now,” I explained. “My friend Ember suggested I do some research to learn the theory behind the magic to help me catch up.”
Dante nodded. “That’s a good idea. These books should be useful, and I can help if you’d like—I did pretty well in my training last year,” he added with a furious blush.
Last year? So he was young.
“That would be great! But don’t you have other stuff you need to be doing? I don’t want to be an inconvenience…”
Dante shrugged. “It’s fine. I’m in the library most of my time anyway because I’m training to be an archivist.”
Huh. It was weird but also kind of cool how the princes had normal jobs and didn’t just sit around with people waiting on them hand and foot.
“Okay, great! Let’s get started.”
Between my extra sessions with Aidan and my research with Dante, I was actually starting to improve in my training. I was still nowhere near the level of magic ability as the other fledglings, but things were beginning to come easier for me and I no longer felt like I was climbing a mountain every single day—more like walking up a gently sloping hill.
The fact I wasn’t struggling as much meant I was no longer a total grumpy-ass, a fact Aidan was eager to point out.
“And here I didn’t think you knew how to smile,” he teased after I celebrated successfully defending against a basic attack spell.
“Shut up,” I said, sticking out my tongue.
He grinned. “Looks like the time you’ve been spending with Dante’s been useful.”
Was that a hint of jealousy I detected?
I nodded, smiling. “Yeah, he’s been really helpful. It’s really great of him to give up so much of his time for me. He’s really sweet.”
Aidan raised an eyebrow. “You know I give up my time to help you as well—aren’t I sweet?”
“I’m not inflating your ego any further by answering that.”
Aidan laughed. “Well I guess I can’t blame you for thinking he’s sweet—that’s Dante. It’s been like that since he was a little kid—everyone’s favourite prince.”
My mouth curved into a smile. “Jealous?”
Aidan shook his head. “Nope. It’d take waayyy too much energy to be nice to everyone all the time. I’ll let the people pleasing up to someone who’s actually good at it.”
It was no wonder we got along so well, I thought.
“So—what did you do in training today?”
My face screwed up as I remembered that day’s training. “Disabling. I’m not sure I’ve really got the hang of it, though.”
“You want to try it now?”
I shrugged. “Sure, why not.”
The next thing I knew, ropes of fire were coming out of Aidan’s hands and wrapping themselves around me.
“Argh! Aidan! What the hell?”
He pulled on the ropes and I was dragged toward him until I was being held in his arms. He smirked. “Okay, no free yourself by disabling my magic.”
I glared at him. “You are so annoying sometimes!”
I had to touch his skin to attempt to disable his magic, but with my arms bound that didn’t leave me many options, so I awkwardly pushed up the hem of his shirt and lay my palm over his abdomen. Wow, those are some hard muscles…
It was a while before anything happened—thank god this was a training situation and not life or death because I would have been screwed—but finally, I felt something give, and the flames around me died.
“Good.”
“That took forever,” I groaned.
“You’ll get better with practice,” he assured me. “Remember you can disable someone before they actually attack you—that’s less work than if they’re already using magic. And it won’t just disable their magical abilities, it’ll sap their energy as well, so it’s a good tool if you’re facing a physically stronger opponent.”
I nodded. “Okay, good to know.”
“Just make sure you remember that if you’re close enough to someone to disable them, they’re close enough to disable you.”
“Right.” I nodded and lifted my hand, freeing his magic. I felt it the moment his power came back to him; the flames hadn’t returned, but I could feel the heat of his hands through my shirt as they rested on my hips.
I glanced up, finding his dark gaze directed at my lips. My hand was still hovering over his abs; I placed it back against his skin, brushing my fingers gently over the grooves of hard muscles. As though that was the signal he’d needed, Aidan tightened his grip on my hips, tugging me closer toward me and dipping his head to crush his mouth against mine.
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about what it would be like to kiss Aidan, but this? This was so much better than anything I could have dreamed up in my head. It was the kind of kiss that I just never wanted to stop; even the brief break to relieve Aidan of his shirt had me all kinds of needy—although I did appreciate the new freedom to run my hands over all those muscly muscles.
“I have a feeling our training sessions are about to get a lot more interesting and a lot less productive,” he murmured between kisses. “You okay with that?”
“Oh, I can definitely get on board with that.”
Chapter 6
The private section of the hot springs had become my sanctuary—the place I’d go most nights to soothe my aching muscles and escape the judgemental eyes of the other salamanders, if only for an hour.
I lay back in the soothing water, letting my head fall back so my hair was completely submerged. This is heaven, I thought, as I let the disaster that had been today’s training session drain away.
I heard the approach of footsteps and assumed it must have been Aidan, but it wasn’t; the smile slipped from my face the moment Fenix rounded the corner, the expression on his face making it clear he’d expected to find me here.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded, repositioning myself to ensure the water covered me from the neck down.
“You took quite a beating in training today—I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
My eyes fell closed, heat flooding my face as I was reminded of the ho
rrible training session that day. It had been one of the rare occasions I’d been partnered with someone other than Ember for a drill, and it hadn’t gone well. To say Char didn’t like me was an understatement—she was clearly on a mission to prove I wasn’t good enough, that I didn’t belong, and she’d made a pretty strong case today. I was so annoyed with myself, because it didn’t have to go as badly as it did; I’d been so focused on the prospect of facing Char in hand to hand, of not having to worry about looking like an idiot facing a magically-stronger opponent, that I’d completely forgotten what Aidan had said about disabling someone’s power—that it didn’t just sap their magical strength, but their physical strength as well. By the time I’d realized what she was doing, it was far too late.
“I’m fine,” I gritted out. “I don’t need any special treatment just ‘cause I got my ass whooped.”
“This isn’t special treatment,” he said gently. “I’m responsible for the fledglings—I need to make sure you’re okay after what happened today.”
I opened my eyes and met his gaze. “I’m fine.”
He nodded. “Good.”
“I know you don’t think I should be here.”
“Actually, I think you’re doing well…considering.”
I arched a brow. “Considering I’m half human?”
“Well, that, and the fact you had no idea about your salamander blood until a month ago, unlike all the other fledglings in the class.”
I frowned. “I always knew something was wrong with me. But I guess with my father gone there was no way of knowing the truth.”
Fenix glanced away for a moment, the mention of my father clearly making him uncomfortable.
“Aidan told me a salamander killed him,” I said. Well, he hadn’t technically used those exact words but he’d dropped enough breadcrumbs for me to follow the trail.
Fenix looked at me for a long moment, his dark eyes penetrating, before he finally spoke in a soft but all to clear voice, “Yes. It was me.”
“What?” The shock had me jumping to my feet, fixing Fenix with a hard glare. There was a long moment, stretched thin with silence, before I realized I was standing there half-naked before my father’s killer. I sank back into the water, my cheeks burning with embarrassment, although I tried to pretend the last thirty seconds hadn’t actually happened.
“You killed my father?” I growled.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“You already know why. He broke our laws. I was an enforcer at the time—it was my job. I took no pleasure in it, I can assure you. And if it hadn’t been me, it would have been someone else.”
I glanced away, my jaw tight. It was hardly an apology, but at least I knew now there’d been nothing malicious in my father’s death.
In the week following my conversation with Fenix in the hot springs, I couldn’t help noticing he made a distinct effort to keep me away from Char. He set us on complete opposite sides of the arena, ensured I was partnered with Ember for the majority of our drills, and on the two occasions we had to switch things up he had me partnering off with Brand, a mousy boy who was unusually small for a salamander. It annoyed me because I’d meant it when I said I didn’t want any special treatment, but at the same time I couldn’t help but be glad not to be on the receiving end of any more ass-kickings; I was still bruised all over from my last go-round with Char.
“So, there’s a party tonight—you want to come?” Ember asked me after we’d finished up our final drills for the day and were making our way back to our rooms.
I arched an eyebrow. “You sure I’m invited?”
She smiled brightly, her long golden ponytail swishing around as she nodded. “Of course! Don’t worry it’ll be fun. And I’m sure Aidan will be there,” she added with a waggle of her eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes. I hadn’t actually told Ember that Aidan and I had kissed, but she’d picked up on our signals, which were pretty obvious apparently.
Parties had never really been my scene even back in the human world; in case it wasn’t blaringly obvious already, I hadn’t been the most popular of girls in my former life. The idea of standing around a too-crowded room while a bunch of people cast me derisive glances and whispered in a way that made it clear they were talking about me wasn’t even remotely appealing. But Ember was a hard person to say no to, so with a reluctant sigh, I gave in and agreed to accompany Ember to the party. I just hoped she was right about Aidan being there—at least he’d make the whole thing bearable.
“Who’s that?” I asked Ember after we’d been standing around for about half an hour; I’d been glancing around, taking in the scene and my eyes had landed on a guy who’d taken up court on the other side of the party, a cluster of female salamanders hanging around him like seagulls around a beach picnic. He was good looking—like all of them—but I couldn’t shake the weird feeling I got about him; I’d developed a pretty good asshole detector over the years and right now it was going off like crazy.
“Oh…that’s Flint—he’s one of the princes.”
“Another one? How many are there?”
“Nine.”
“Nine?” For a split second I actually felt sympathy for the queen—nine pregnancies—but then I remembered the look on her face when I’d been introduced to her and my soft feelings vanished.
“So who’s the oldest, then?” I asked. “Who’s going to be the next king?” Considering they all looked about the same age it was impossible to tell just by looking at them.
“Oh, it doesn’t work like that here. The people will decide which of the princes they want for their king.”
“Really? How very…forward…”
Ember nodded. “Actually, we’ll be deciding on the next one soon—so don’t be surprised if a few of the princes suddenly have ‘accidents’,” she said using air quotes.
My eyes widened in shock. “Excuse me?”
She shrugged. “It’s just how it’s done here—thins the herd.”
“I take back what I said about it being forward,” I mumbled.
She placed a hand on my shoulder and gave it a rub. “Don’t worry—I doubt anything would happen to Aidan. He’s too smart and too good at what he does to be led into any kind of trap. And he has all the other guardians watching his back.”
I nodded, only mildly reassured.
“Do you think Aidan will be voted king?” I asked, not sure if I liked the idea of that happening or not.
Ember’s mouth twisted in a thoughtful frown. “Possibly. He’s very popular, especially with the guardians. But, honestly, I think it will be Fenix—he has all the nobility, and he’s already began forging diplomatic ties with the other elemental courts…”
Urgh. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I knew theoretically that Fenix had been doing his job, and following the law of his people, when he killed my father, but that wasn’t enough to make it okay. Still, I knew by now he wasn’t actually a bad person, so if he were to become king I didn’t think it would be a total disaster…
“What about Dante?” I asked. “Everyone loves him.”
Ember nodded. “True. But he’s way too young—he only did his Testing last year. There’s no way they’ll elect someone with so little experience.”
“But it won’t be that guy, right?” I asked with a nod towards Flint.
“Eh, probably not. He has a lot of fans—mainly of the female variety—but really he has about as much substance as a piece of cardboard.”
I felt oddly relieved about that, but couldn’t really put my finger on why. I didn’t even know the guy, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that he was bad news.
“Ladies.”
I turned at the sound of the familiar voice to find Aidan smiling in greeting.
“I think I need another drink,” Ember said before giving me a way-too-obvious wink and sauntering away.
Aidan chuckled. “That was unnecessary. I was just going to ask you if you wanted to dance?”
My eyes
widened before darting toward the dance floor in the middle of the party; it was not the kind of dance floor you’d read about in a Jane Austen book, that was for damn sure. “You want to dance? With me? Here? In front of all these people?”
He flashed a wry smirk. “Yes.”
“Okaayy…”
He led me to the dance floor and pulled me in close; the song was some pulsing beat that I’d of course never heard before, but it didn’t really matter—we seemed to just move naturally together. The music, the crowd, everything just seemed to disappear as we moved, our bodies flush against each other, his breath hot on my neck.
And then I did something even more stupid—I let him kiss me. Right there on the dance floor for everyone to see.
Chapter 7
Kissing Aidan had been amazing, but it had also been a big, fat mistake—well, at least, the part where we’d done it at a party in front of practically the entire court had been. If I’d been a pariah before, it was nothing compared to now. At least before the kiss the other fledglings had been happy to pretty much just ignore my existence, throwing in the odd derisive look or titter of laughter if I screwed up in training. But now? Nope—now that I’d dared to lock lips with one of their princes in front of everybody the gloves were officially off.
“Well, at least now we know why he brought her here…and why they have all those private training sessions,” I overheard one of the fledglings—a guy named Tyson—say as I arrived at training the day after the party.
The group he was talking to all nodded in agreement. There were about eight or nine of them all huddled together; one of them was Char, the girl who’d handed me my ass a week earlier. Her lip curled into a cruel smirk as she saw me approach and made no attempt to lower her voice as she said, “It must run in the family. Her mother was a total slut too—that’s the only reason she even exists, after all.”
I tried not to react, I really did; I hadn’t even known my mother so what the hell should I care what some salamander bitch said about her? But it had always been a sore spot for me; the guilt I felt about how she’d died, combined with how crappy my childhood had been without her had led me to put her on a bit of a pedestal. The recent knowledge that my father had actually turned his back on his people for love of her, knowing he’d die for it just made it even worse. Also, I just really wanted to wipe the sneer off Char’s face, which is why, against all of my better judgement, I found myself reaching for one of the advanced attack spells Dante had helped me master—one of the ones we weren’t supposed to be learning until well after fledgling training—and directed it at Char.
Playing With Fire Page 97
