by Alex Lidell
My foot snags on a root, and I stumble, momentarily pulled back into the now. Back to some common sense. You can’t just blindly run through the darkness, Lera. Even if I’m right that the magic I share with Coal is guiding my direction now, rushing into an assault vicious enough to endanger Coal’s life is more likely to make me a victim than rescuer.
With a curse, I realize my common sense returned too late for me to have grabbed any weapons. All I have on me is a boot knife Coal once gave me, and that just because it was sheathed in my shoe to begin with. A knife. That’s all I brought.
I am considering returning for a sword when another wave of darkness slams into me, this one heralding a searing pain along my ribs. Leaning one hand on an oak, I force air into my lungs, breathing through the pain. You aren’t the one wounded, Lera. You are supposed to be the one doing the thinking.
Right. Shoving down the panic, I force myself to survey the sounds, my thought finally coming to rest on the Academy wall. Not a surreptitious route by any means, but it does offer both a good view and an easy path around the Academy. With my immortal sight, I’ll have a fighting chance of seeing something.
After a month of using the underground escape passage to get outside the Academy, it takes me a moment to locate a climbable approach. Hips flattened against the cold stone, I climb as quickly as I can find the scant grips and footholds. Rock scrapes my abdomen, my short top providing no protection against the stone. But even that is an advantage. A reminder of where my body is as Coal’s darkness swirls dizzyingly in my mind. Of which body is mine.
Clearing the top of the wall, I straighten to my full height. The cool air billows my silk pants, the fabric crackling in the night. Below me, miles of wilderness and sheep farm and Academy grounds stretch in all directions, faintly silver in the moonlight. Nothing breaks the night’s silence but wind and an owl’s lonesome hooting. Where are you, Coal? Where in stars’ name are you?
I turn to the Academy first. It is busier than usual for this time of night, the Ostera break relaxing the rules. A pair of cadets holding hands are sneaking into the reflection garden. A few more scurry across the courtyard. At the front gate, the guards argue about something among themselves. Nothing to suggest the death dance going on in the flashes of darkness in my mind.
Twisting around, I face the woods instead—quite aware that the last time I went out there, I nearly got myself dead. Could that be what’s happening to Coal now? Did he run himself afoul of the Night Guard, not knowing what it is?
Even as I think it, I know that isn’t true. Coal isn’t battling for his life—he…he doesn’t care. The bastard doesn’t care one damn bit whether he lives or dies. That is why my heart pounds my ribs so hard, it’s a miracle I’ve not cracked the bone.
I race along the top of the wide stone wall, letting the dread inside me act as a guiding light while my eyes seek any sign of disturbance.
Nothing.
Nothing.
There. My immortal sight catches on a small clearing along a side trail, two shapes moving too swiftly to be mortals circling each other in the darkness. My stomach clenches. Scrambling to the ground, I’m momentarily blinded by the trees around me, the bird’s-eye view from the wall giving way to dense, rustling forest. But I know these woods by now, know how to get to the center of the darkness that pulls me like a leash. Wiping my sweaty palms on my pants, I break into a run.
I hear the fight before I see it, the soft grunts of males mixing with the snaps of dried branches cracking underfoot. Coal’s metallic scent wraps around me, together with the sharp cayenne I’d smelled back in the room. And in the dungeon.
Han.
For some unfathomable reason, Coal is fighting with Han—and from what I saw on that wall, whatever the hell Han is, he isn’t human. Can’t be. I reach the edge of the clearing just as Han throws Coal in a great arc, my male landing hard on his back before rolling over his shoulder to escape the next blow. Coal’s movements are as crisp as always, a blur of black leather against the tree branches, but I know him well enough to mark the slight hesitations. As if Coal battles his own mind as much as Han’s limbs.
Which he very likely is. My hands tighten against the tree trunk I’ve stopped behind. Coal spent last night in a dungeon cell, the hours filled with terrors and ripped-open wounds. How many nights has it been since the male slept soundly, if the nightmares inside him roar fiercely enough to jump to me in the middle of a choke-hold demonstration with the whole class watching? With Coal keeping his distance from me, I’ve not realized how desperately the male’s darkness was suffocating him. How deeply he’s been spiraling down.
No wonder Coal welcomed a brawl—he needed the humans’ greater numbers to create enough of an opponent to siphon off the violence inside him. Well, Coal is certainly getting a worthy enough foe with Han. Too much of one for Coal’s present state, with his body, his mind, and his will to win all worn down to bare threads.
Crouching low, Coal sweeps Han’s legs.
Han jumps over the sweep, closing the distance to Coal. The male’s blue-gray eyes dim to obsidian, his smell spiking as he grabs Coal’s wrist. A grapefruit-size stone that I missed seeing Han pick up off the ground now flashes in his free hand. Then he brings it down onto Coal’s forearm.
The crack of bone as Coal’s arm fractures seems louder than a crack of thunder. Coal screams, the arm dropping to his side like a piece of heavy rope. In all the time since I’ve met my males, it’s the first time I’ve seen the warrior overpowered by a single foe. The first time I’ve seen him injured with no magic to mend the break. Coal takes a step forward, and stumbles. Falls to one knee.
Han grins, his muscles already coiling for the final blow, his eyes glazed with the feral gleam of a predator savoring the kill to come.
My thoughts stop. The world slows around me, each sight and smell reporting in full force. Tangs of pain and excitement scent the air, all wrapped in musky sweat. The too slowly moving leaves tremble in the breeze. Han’s boot takes aim at Coal’s head. One more heartbeat and Han will destroy my quint, shattering not just Coal but all five of our bonded souls.
Terror races through me. My magic bucks, throwing itself fiercely against its shackles with every ounce of my will. Once. Twice. On the third heave, one cord’s tip breaks through the hold, slicing through the cracking defenses of the mortal world’s wards. Like an invisible whip, the roaring orange fire cord—still pulsing with the recent strength of Tye’s mating magic—flails uncontrollably before slamming into the ground.
The ground bucks, the power reverberating wildly through every stone and tree root. I grunt as I land hard on my knees, the world’s speed returning to normal as the others lose balance as well. As Han sets his foot down to the ground, his gaze skids around the woods. Finding me.
“What—” Han starts to say.
But Coal is already up on his feet. Despite his limp arm, the male moves with more power than I’d yet seen tonight, placing his body between Han and me. “Osprey.” Fear fills his voice. “Run. Now.”
As if. Even as Coal moves toward me, my hand is already on my boot knife, my fingers gripping the blade. The males may just have realized my presence, but I’ve known theirs all along. And I feel no hesitation as my eyes mark the broad target of Han’s chest. See it expand with drawn breath, the deadly muscles shaping the cloth. Imagine a painted target and take aim.
The lub-dub lub-dub of my heart is like music, setting the stage for the cry of a startled hawk circling the sky.
Han’s dark brows narrow at what seems a snail’s speed, his handsome face confused. Then a smile tugs the corner of the bastard’s mouth.
My arm whips forward, the knife soaring through the air.
Han’s amusement shifts to wide-eyed surprise, my knife flying with the speed of an immortal’s powerful muscles. The amulet heating around my neck might convince the bastard that he’d overestimated the knife’s speed, but if I end him, it would save my veil the trouble.
&n
bsp; With no time to move out of the blade’s path, Han lifts his hand and…and snatches the dagger from the air. Blood pools around his palm, its coppery scent filling the clearing.
Stars. My eyes widen, my chest heaves, my muscles burning with energy. I grab desperately for the magic inside me, only to find the mortal shackles have recaptured the rogue cord of Tye’s power. I tug at the binds anyway, beads of perspiration slipping down my temples.
“I seem to have underestimated the allure of your cock, Master Coal.” Han takes my throwing knife into his good hand. “How fortunate you are to have comely young cadets throwing away their lives for you.”
Despite his useless arm, Coal crouches into a fighting stance with a growl, blocking Han’s path to me. Ready to fight for me in a way he hadn’t for himself.
But we can’t fight Han tonight. Not if we want to live. I swallow, my mind racing, groping for the experiences of the other males. River. What would River do now?
“You think you can kill both of us, Han?” I ask, pitching my voice across the battleground before either male can attack.
“Yes. Easily.”
Coal growls. I grab his shoulder, a silent order to stay put that he, by the star’s own miracle, heeds.
“I think you might be right,” I tell Han, raising my chin. “But you won’t. You came to the Academy for a reason, and you aren’t going to throw it all away to scratch a midnight itch.” I draw breath, the confidence I’m putting into my voice now seeping into my blood. Filling the very air around me. “The way I see it, Coal’s body alone could be explained away. But the pair of us together? After you’ve already shackled me to a dungeon wall? You’ll be answering so many questions, you’ll have no time for anything else. Plus, you’ve no idea who else knows I’m out here.”
Deep within the forest, a wolf’s howl shatters the night.
Han looks between us, thought rushing behind his blue-gray gaze.
Beneath my grip, Coal’s body is coiled and ready. If he is to leave this world, he will go out fighting for life. Which is already a victory, though not the one I’m going for.
Heartbeats pass in the night’s darkness. One. Two. Five. Then, Han twists the knife in his hand and tucks it inside his coat.
“As satisfying as cleaning out the Academy’s rubbish would be tonight,” Han says, “it seems I’ll need to wait a bit. Do me a boon and don’t kill yourself before I can have the pleasure.”
The relief washing over me is so fierce that I lean into my grip on Coal to keep from swaying.
Han’s eerie moonlit gaze jerks to me, a gleam in his eyes saying he’d seen my near stumble just fine. “I will see you back at the Academy, Leralynn of Osprey.” A smile that doesn’t touch his eyes breaks the handsome lines of his face. “I would try not to get yourself stopped on the way back. I hear the headmaster is unkind to wayward students. If that sort of thing bothers you.” Without waiting for my reply, he saunters off into the night.
14
Lera
I don’t dare take my attention off Han until the sound of his retreating footsteps fades from my immortal hearing, the forest’s creatures who went quiet during the quarrel reclaiming their domain.
In the distance, Shade’s wolf howls again, his frustrated song soul-shatteringly familiar. An owl hoots. Beside me, Coal maintains his fighter’s crouch, statue still but for the rapid rise and fall of his broad chest, his broken arm now tight against his ribs. Finally, seeming to mark the same change in sound I had, the male rises and has the audacity to glare at me.
“What the bloody hell do you think you are doing out here, Osprey?”
Blazing heat rushes along my spine. “Saving your life, you bastard. Since plainly, you can’t be bothered with such minutia.”
“What I do is none—”
I slap Coal’s cheek as hard as I can. My nostrils flare, the fury and fear that have simmered too long erupting from my heart. “You think your damn life belongs to you alone? That no other soul would be shredded if you died?”
Coal flinches, rocking back from the strike. “Dying is a natural byproduct of battle. If you—”
I slap him again. “You weren’t battling, you bastard. Battling is when you care whether you bloody win or lose.” I go to strike Coal a third time, but the male catches my hand in an iron grip.
Blue eyes flashing, he straightens to his full height before me, his metallic scent filling my lungs. The lines of his beautiful face are etched with a soul-deep ache, his mouth but a step away. Stars, I can taste Coal from memory alone. My fingers long to run over his strong cheekbones and jaw, the hint of stubble there, to feel his warm skin beneath my touch.
The magic inside me rouses again, sensing its twin in Coal, making every sensation sharp enough to slice through flesh.
The terror of nearly losing him grips my throat again. I twist free of Coal’s grip and spit on the ground. “Go ahead. Lie. Tell me I’m wrong, say there is no connection between us, that I’ve no way of knowing what you were doing.” My teeth grind together, my eyes stinging. “Tell me to shut my mouth. Say I’m imagining things and you’ve no idea where I might have gotten my silly notions. Say that I’m just a cadet you rutted with once and that’s all there was to it.”
Coal swallows, his blue eyes turning so vulnerable for a moment that my anger hiccups.
“That is not all there was to it,” he says, his voice quiet but clear. Covering the distance between us in one powerful step, the male grips the back of my head and presses his mouth over mine.
Heat flares through me as Coal’s tongue brushes between my lips, parting them roughly. His metallic scent flares with a tang of desperation and need that stokes the blaze inside my soul, my magic, my sex.
Wrapping the strong fingers of his good hand in my hair, Coal pushes farther into my mouth. The deep leisurely strokes of his tongue make one turn before morphing to primal possessiveness. My scalp tingles where he grips my hair, the tiny twitches of pain waking my nerves to the full bouquet of his presence. When I try to move, to check whether his fractured arm might be caught in the press of our bodies, Coal only holds me tighter. Deepens his rough, claiming kiss. Gives himself over to it.
A wave of desperate relief rushes through me as I finally trust that Coal is not letting go. Not pretending he kisses me with anything less than the full force of his soul. I open myself to him, allowing him in more deeply.
Coal groans at my invitation, his tongue roaming my mouth, staking a claim while his hardness presses into me. He makes no move to conceal that either, pressing his hips into mine, holding me against him until my body yields to the strength and comfort of his.
When we finally separate, our rough breathing the only sound in the still forest, Coal stares at me, dazed. He puts the palm of his good hand on my cheek, the calluses scraping my skin.
“I felt you in my cell,” he says, never taking his gaze off my widening eyes. “That is how I knew you were still being held. I saw…images from your past. A stable. And I feared you might be seeing mine as well. Knowing my terrors might be hurting you was worse than feeling them myself. I tried to keep them controlled, but I couldn’t make them stop.” Coal touches the red marks on my wrist where I fought the shackle, the streaks a silent, undeniable proof of the truth.
I bite my lip, his words still ringing in my ears, stripping me naked.
Coal’s jaw tightens, but he nods. “It’s plainly a bit late to pretend otherwise. Or to pretend that staying away from you for a month didn’t drive me insane, until the last shards of my control shattered.” Shaking his head, he runs a finger down my cheek, across my lower lip.
I inhale, letting the words soak through me, a tight band around my chest releasing. He wanted me. This whole month that I thought Coal a stranger, he wanted me all along. I let my hands roam over his broad chest, the feel of the hard muscle beneath my palms slicking my thighs. Clearing my throat, I press my legs together tightly. Not to conceal my desire from Coal, but because we are too vulnerable
out here already, without adding mating into the mix.
Except Coal is too damn Coal-like not to notice. His nostrils flare as he takes in my scent, and he presses closer to me, burying his face in my neck. Inhaling deeply.
It takes all my will to pull away from him. “We’re not safe here.” These forests are Night Guard hunting grounds now. And Han’s. “What do you make of Han?”
Coal frowns. “Something about his movements… It makes me think he isn’t human.”
“I think he’s as human as you and I,” I mutter, the amulet around my neck turning scalding hot in warning to go no further in discussing our identities. Though Coal doesn’t know it, he actually has a good point. If Han was like us—a veil-wearing fae—his amulet’s magic would bend over backwards to convince Coal and me that his actions were normal and any oddness only imagined. Plus, when Autumn handed over the amulets, she said the set was unique—how would Han, whatever he is, have gotten hold of the rare relic to begin with? Marking the thoughts to discuss with Arisha later, I nod at Coal’s arm. “How is it?”
“Broken in several places,” he says flatly. Finding the open collar of his black shirt, the male tugs at the laces until I reach up to help, quickly realizing that taking it off the normal way would do more harm than good.
The well-worn fabric splits obediently when I rip it, the sound echoing eerily through the trees. My breath catches as I slide Coal’s shirt off his chest, the squares of his abdomen plain even in moonlight. The male tenses in pain but lets me work as I guide his injured arm across his body, binding it in place until Shade can set the bone later. I try not to think about that procedure, but the realization of other things likely to still happen tonight triggers a whole new wave of anxiety.
Coal’s nostrils flare delicately, his eyes sharpening. “What’s wrong?”
I clear my throat, my face heating. After the violence we just escaped, the new problem seems miniscule. Except it isn’t. Not to me. “What are you planning to tell River? I don’t mean about us, but about what happened out here. With Han.”
