by Alex Lidell
Nothing.
A shiver runs through me, but I didn’t come here to turn away now. With a quick mental thank-you to Tye—who spent many evenings in Lunos trying to impart to me whatever skills River was least likely to approve of—I pull the pins out of my hair and get to work on the lock.
I will resolve something tonight, if it’s the last thing I do—and it very well may be.
Against the silence of my held breath, the soft click of the lock’s metal teeth is wonderfully crisp to my immortal hearing. Pin one of four gives obediently. Pin two. Pin—
The door swings open, Coal’s knife pressing into my throat before I even register his presence.
12
Lera
I don’t dare move, not even to rise from the crouch I was in to work the lock.
Pulling the knife back, Coal jerks me into his room with a hot brush of metallic-scented air. His face is a storm as he closes the door behind me, and I stumble to reclaim my balance.
Beyond his half-dressed body, the room is an odd mix of heavy Academy splendor and the male’s personal attempt to turn every chamber he occupies into a makeshift armory. The carved mahogany four-poster bed has nothing but a rumpled blue sheet on it, the down cover and pillows having fallen—or been tossed—to the stone floor. A lit lantern in the corner wards off the worst of the dark, though Coal’s immortal eyes don’t require the extra light to see by. The top of the clothing chest is lined with sharpening stones and leather cleaner—and a bucket with hoof pick and curry comb, which still smell of the stable.
The strangest part—or perhaps not, given the room’s occupant—is the furniture arrangement. Everything, from the bed to the washstand, has been shifted over to create a patch of empty space. The rack of weaponry standing beside it offers all the explanation needed.
I rub my throat, my chest still too tight around my lungs. “You couldn’t hear me knocking, but you heard the lock being picked?”
“I heard you knocking,” says Coal. With his feet bare and a loose pair of cotton trousers hanging on his hips, the male looks deadly and beautiful enough to make any female damp—sling or no sling. His sculpted chest and torso gleam in the lantern light, his blond hair hanging loose around his shoulders. “I chose to ignore it.”
“Good to know you are a bastard at all hours of the day.”
Coal braces his good hand on the wall and looms over me, his chiseled face harshly beautiful. “If you are still upset because I opposed your suicide mission, whine to someone else. Shade is good for soothing whimpering. Tye may give you some sport for distraction as well.”
The last hits my chest and ripples outward. It takes me a few breaths to regain my equilibrium—to remember that I came here to call Coal out on his demons, not let him conjure up any of my own. “Your bloody nightmares are keeping me awake.”
Coal blinks.
Seizing the advantage of having the male off-balance, I step into his space, so close that the loose rabbit ears of his sling brush up against my tunic. “Chains, shackles, an evil being coming up behind you to do bad things. Those nightmares. I’m tired of them keeping me awake half the night while you do nothing about them but brood in your room and get into fights.”
The flash of lightning in Coal’s blue eyes is at utter odds with the ice in his voice. “You want to talk about facing nightmares, Osprey? I’d be very careful what you wish for.”
The reasonable part of me hollers to heed Coal’s warning and get the hell away. Unfortunately, I’m too tired and upset and bloody overwhelmed to mind better reason. “Your threats and marching about like a feisty cock are getting old, Coal.” The truth, coiled and festering inside my chest, spills in an unfiltered torrent. Jabbing my finger into Coal’s injured arm, I snort when he gasps in pain. “If your head was where it belongs, Han would never have been able to break your arm. He’s good. But you are better. At least when your damn head is not so far up your ass that it would take three healers to extract it. And now, because of your stupidity, you can’t so much as have my back on patrols.”
I know I should stop, but I can’t. My breath quickens with every word, heat simmering in my blood. Even Coal’s metallic scent, tinged with a dangerous ire, isn’t enough to stop my words. “Everybody else might tiptoe around you, let you work through your past in your own damn time—but everybody else isn’t having to see the images of your torment night after night. I am. And I’m done with it. Done with the memories, done with the panic of knowing—knowing—you are ready to throw your life away. So you are going to talk, or meditate, or stare at a pair of shackles—I don’t care what you do, so long as you keep doing it until something works.”
I don’t see Coal move until his hand is already gripping the back of my neck, twisting me into the wall. I gasp, my cheek pressing against the hard plaster. Jabbing a knee into the back of my thighs, Coal efficiently pins me to the wall while he reaches for something on top of his clothing chest.
A moment later, the snap of a leather weapons belt in the air stops my heart.
“Remember this dream, Osprey?” Coal breathes the words against the back of my neck, his breath tickling my skin. “You think walking into my nightmares was a one-way passage? Let’s talk about facing this one first, shall we?”
13
Coal
Coal’s heart pounded against his ribs so hard that his bound arm throbbed with the beats, his muscles tight with a mix of fury and determination. Leaning into Lera, he brought his lips close to her soft neck, letting her feel his breath along her skin as he loomed over her. Larger and stronger and fully aware of the very thing that scared her spitless.
The fear leaking from her spiked as vividly as it had when Coal had cracked the belt in the air moments earlier, shamelessly recruiting her own terrors to his cause. Good. She needed to be terrified—needed to stop thinking of Coal as a friend and remember he was a too-experienced warrior who knew exactly how bad a routine patrol could turn. He’d kept his word to keep from disclosing Lera’s Protector’s Guild machinations to River, but that sure as hell didn’t mean Coal had any intention of standing by while Lera toyed with the suicide she was too brave and stubborn and inexperienced to see.
Worse, Coal had been making her more vulnerable these past weeks. In letting the strange misguided connection between them thrive unchecked, he’d opened the girl further to the assaults of his mind, cost her sleep and focus, and roused her own inner demons. That connection needed to end. Now. Tonight.
Still pressed against the wall, Lera flinched as a tremor ran the length of her spine. Her intoxicating scent filled Coal’s lungs as surely as the heat rolling off her body wrapped around his soul. Her silky auburn hair had started coming loose from its pins, loose tendrils falling against her neck, and he wanted to wrap them around his fingers, to bury his hands in her hair and release more of that heady lilac. Yes, damn the stars. He wanted her. Despite knowing the damage he was causing, Coal wanted the beautiful cadet anyway, and not just with his cock. The more time he spent in her presence, the richer the world around him felt. Around her, colors and tastes and sounds vibrated so vividly that sometimes Coal felt as though he stood on the edge of a greater world. One where he was whole.
The thought of something happening to Lera was so unbearable, Coal swore he felt it like spikes set against his soul.
Unfortunately for him, it all coalesced to one conclusion—Coal could protect Lera’s budding friendship or protect her life. Not both. Put that way, the course was clear. The best thing Coal could do was build up the cadet’s skills while slamming a healthy dose of reality into her. He’d already started on it the morning after she threw all caution and advice to the wind and went patrolling alone. And he would continue. Would wring her in training for every ounce of energy she had, lest that one unpracticed parry let through a foe’s sword.
Except that wasn’t enough, was it? Coal had been so busy demanding Lera respect the foes in the Academy’s forest, he’d overlooked the danger lurking rig
ht before her nose. Himself.
But he knew it now. Just as he knew that he could not stay away from Lera if she kept injecting herself into his life.
Which meant the girl had to stay away from him. Whatever pain Coal caused her now was nothing compared to what might happen if she continued the connection. If the darkness encroaching on Coal infected her any deeper.
“I’m not who you think I am, Leralynn,” Coal said into her ear, his voice a low rumble. “I’m not kind. Or nice. I’m a damaged unpredictable bastard you want to steer clear from.” Angling his body, Coal left an open path to the door, as clear an invite to get the hell out of his chamber as he could conjure. “Now would be a good time to start.”
Lera didn’t move. Too brave and stubborn for her own good, damn her.
Coal’s hand tightened on the leather, then he slapped it against his thigh hard enough to make the horrid sound of leather striking flesh, straight from Lera’s nightmares. Knowing what the bastard in Lera’s past had done to her, Coal wasn’t certain he could bring himself to hit the girl even once, which was the problem with peddling in threats and fear. He begged the stars he wouldn’t need to go further.
“Go,” Coal growled at her through clenched teeth and slapped his thigh again, each whap whap whap sounding through the room making Lera gasp. “I won’t give you another warning.”
Nothing.
“Go!”
Stars-damned nothing.
Fine. Coal swung, watching the belt sail through the air, the arc wide and slow enough that Lera could easily escape the blow with a single step.
Except she didn’t—she didn’t move at all.
Ice gripped Coal’s throat, his nostrils flaring to take in her scent—and the acrid, paralyzing terror spilling into it. It wasn’t just fear—Leralynn had a deadly chink in her armor the size of the Academy’s keep, a chink that sounded exactly like a cracking whip. The girl trembling against the wall wasn’t being stubborn and brave, wasn’t choosing to take a blow to make her point. She was…stars damn it, Leralynn was surrendering. Giving up.
The world slowed, reality slamming into Coal, wrapping everything that came before this point in cotton irrelevance.
He pulled the blow so hard, the leather flew across the room and wrapped around one of the bed’s four pillars. Grabbing Lera’s shoulder, he spun her around to face him, his broken arm screaming.
“You don’t stop fighting, Leralynn,” Coal hissed into her face, her glazed chocolate eyes and racing breaths spurring his own bounding pulse. Panic surged through Coal’s veins, bubbling from the same primal place inside him that drove him to stop Lera’s lone patrols and push her so hard in the ring. “You took on sixteen trained cadets and me back to back. You are not going to let one crack of the belt turn you into a frozen rabbit. Do something. Anything. Just not this. Do you understand me?”
The trembling nod she gave Coal did nothing to convince him. Lera was a horrible liar.
He cursed. “This can get you killed, Lera. Dead.”
The glazed look in Lera’s eyes said she no longer heard him. And that frightened Coal as much as anything.
Running his hand along her face, he gripped her chin, the gesture feeling more intimate than he was prepared for. “You are at Great Falls Academy. In my bloody room. And I am much more of a threat than that fat lord doling out lashings. You don’t back down from me, and you sure as hell don’t bend the knee for him. You fight. And I will keep you here until you do.”
Twisting Leralynn back to face the wall, Coal put his forearm across her back. “Escape, Leralynn. Duck, hit me, use the wall. Do something.”
A weak, ineffectual elbow came his way, as if she were afraid of retaliation. Of course she was.
Coal poked Lera’s ribs. “I have a broken arm.” He growled into her ear. “Use it to your advantage. Use everything.” He poked her again and again until the girl finally, finally was fed up with him enough to twist and take a swing at his jaw.
Coal let it land for both their sakes, the impact echoing through him with welcome relief. She was fighting again. Badly, but making an effort. He could work with that. He could work with anything but surrender.
Reaching for Lera’s shoulder to put her in another bind, Coal paused when the girl grabbed his wrist instead. The feel of her small strong hand on his bare skin sent a rush of energy through him, the jolts echoing through his chest and thighs and cock. Lera’s large brown eyes, no longer glassy, flashed, her skin blanched with fear and anger.
“Are you back with me?” Coal asked.
“No. I’m back without you,” Lera answered. “Play your games with someone else, Coal. I’m done.” Throwing down the wrist she’d captured as if it were a diseased rodent, Lera held Coal’s gaze long enough to ensure he knew the message was genuine. Her words hung in the air with a finality that silenced the world. Then, shoving past him, she finally did what Coal had been after all along—she stalked for the door.
Except things had changed since he’d told her to go. Everything had changed. Coal had thought he needed to stay away to keep Lera safe, but it seemed he needed to get into her soul instead. Get in and stay in, until he pried open the jaws of the paralyzing terror that could hold her life hostage. If an enemy triggered Lera to freeze as she had with him, it would cost her her life. Coal couldn’t let that happen, no matter what it cost either of them.
Snatching Lera’s waist, Coal swung her right back to the wall. “No, you’re not done,” he told her, inhaling her scent of fury. Fury, stars be thanked, not fear. “Do it again.”
14
Lera
A blaze of fury explodes through me, filling my muscles with uncontainable force. My vision narrows, my face so hot, I can feel the beads of steaming sweat. I’m done. Done with Coal and his games. I was insane to think I could come here and reason with him, get him to address his memories once and for all so I could get a good night’s sleep—it sounds laughable now. I’m done being in this room, with having the terror of Zake’s beating used as a plaything.
But the only way out is through him.
Bracing both my hands against the wall, I shove away from the hard surface and slam the back of my head into Coal’s chin. The impact feels as distant as the sound it makes. Twisting around, I hook Coal’s ankle with my leg and shove him backward onto the hard floor, angling the fall toward his broken arm.
Coal tucks as he takes the fall, shifting fluidly to absorb the impact on his good side and avoid the bed’s footboard. Even with that, a grunt of pain escapes as he lands. With his hair loose for once, it falls around him in a wild blond mane, his lithe muscles contracting just enough to control every fiber of his beautifully dangerous body.
The metallic scent coming off him mixes with an intoxicating tang of violence that turns his stormy eyes into clear blazing flames. My pulse spurs into a gallop as the magic inside me wakens, strikes the mortal shackles and finds them wanting.
Heart pounding, I follow Coal down to the floor and straddle his bare chest. His heat rises through my pants, up my thighs, and straight into my sex. I feel the rise and fall of his powerful body trapped between my muscled thighs, the hot velvet of his skin under my hands. Magic flares inside me, rousing more desperately to the call of battle—just as the primal predator in me does. Thoughts narrow. Simplify. The drive to hunt, to fight, to mate filling my world.
My breaths come quick and hard, Coal’s solid muscle beneath me focusing all my sensation on the here and now, our two bodies connected. Cocking my fist as far as it will go, I slam it down toward the bastard’s perfectly chiseled face.
Coal takes the blow, a small trickle of blood beading where his lip catches on his teeth. His chin rises defiantly, his heart hammering so hard that I can feel it between my thighs, just as I feel his hardness pressing against my backside.
His lips pull back in a snarl, and for a second, I’m certain I see his glistening canines despite the heating amulet. I know his arm is hurting him, and I know he doesn�
�t care. Our gazes meet, our chests heaving with mirrored breaths.
Yes, the magic inside me breathes, recognizing its mate. Yes. Play.
He grabs my wrist, then traps the same-side ankle and bucks his hips, rolling us over. One heartbeat, I’m straddling him, and the next, it’s me on the bottom, the uneven stone pressing into my shoulder blades.
His eyes are blue flames above me, his damp chest heaving.
I arch my hips to buck Coal off, the power inside my core too great to be mine alone. As his balance wavers, he grabs the front of my tunic and yanks me up to my feet along with him, spinning the pair of us in a circle that ends abruptly when my back slams into one of the four posts of his bed.
The scent of wood polish mixes with Coal’s metallic musk, which taunts me with every heave of his hard chest.
His hand still tangled in my tunic, Coal’s nostrils flare as he leans down, his face close enough to share breath. And then closer still until my whole body shakes with the need for him, my sex clenching around unbearable emptiness. A small moan escapes my throat.
Coal’s pupils dilate. “Lera—”
I capture his open mouth with my own, our tongues tangling viciously. Coal lets out a low rumbling growl, and I capture the sound greedily just as he plunges his tongue deep into my mouth.
The magic inside me flares, twining with the power pulsating from Coal. As I reach for the bulge inside his pants, Coal rips my tunic right down the middle. I gasp against his mouth. Continuing down, Coal yanks the waistline of my pants until they pool at my feet. The bottom of my silk nightshirt spills between us, red and damp with my arousal.
With a feral snarl, I rake my fingernails along Coal’s hot, naked shoulders.
The male kicks my legs apart in answer. Sealing his mouth over mine again, he plunges his hand ruthlessly between my slick folds. Heat races through me at once, my legs and back and soul vibrating with energy as pressure builds between my thighs. My sex throbs. I grind against his hand hungrily. Blindly. The void inside aches, howling for Coal’s cock, for the last link in the chain of power connecting us. Each heartbeat when my channel tightens around nothing drives me closer to madness until I care about nothing but my need.
