Page 20 of Strength of Desire

“Noah.” Isaac’s voice was low, but it stopped me shorter than a shout. “The matter is not up for discussion.”

I inhaled deeply and let the air out slowly. I didn’t agree with this decision, but it was impossible to get Isaac’s mind to change, once it was made up.

“Now, why don’t I let you go,” he said. “I’m sure you have work to do.”

If I didn’t before, I definitely did now, I thought as I made my way back to my cabin.

Vesperwood was supposed to be a safe haven for students. I wasn’t interested in being Isaac’s spy, but I did want to get to the bottom of today’s attack. Find out who was behind it, and take them down.

That much came easily to me. I thought about the violence rained down on my class this afternoon and smiled coldly. Whoever was behind it needed to be punished.

I was looking forward to that.

6

NOAH

Morning came, and I met Hans and Eddie in the gym. Neither of them was thrilled to be—fine, I’ll say it—helping me, but they were there. It was hard to say ‘no’ when Isaac asked you to do something. His asks weren’t actually requests. Not really.

All my students were high-strung, jumping at the sound of Eddie closing the gym door as the last few arrived from the manor. I was glad I’d planned to go back to basics with them. They wouldn’t have the focus to run through complicated exercises without hurting themselves. And the five mile run did tire them out wonderfully.

The next day was more of the same, though some of the Hunters were getting fractious, just as I’d predicted. Some of my juniors asked if Vesperwood was sending out any hunting parties for moraghin in the surroundings. Another asked if the campus needed more guards. A senior Hunter asked if we could work on moraghin-specific fighting techniques—and then proceeded to trip over his own feet in the agility drill I’d set for them.

All of them were disappointed when my answer was negative. The fact of the matter was that I did have a moraghin-specific fighting style that I could have worked with them on any other time of the year. Moraghin’s long limbs and razor-sharp claws required long-range weaponry and spellcraft. Exactly the opposite of what I’d done on the day they’d attacked. But the students were too eager, too giddy, to teach them that yet. And I didn’t want to give them ideas.

The underclassmen, at least, seemed less desperate to hunt moraghin themselves, especially since there was still no official word on how the attack had occurred. Some of them looked like they would have been glad to have extra faculty accompany them on the walk to and from the gym, and not just on our runs around campus.

The freshmen who’d seen the attack were holding up better than I expected. Cinda was undoubtedly right. They would have mental images, flashbacks even, to what happened in the gym that afternoon. But as the next week wore on, and I continued to put them through punishing endurance workouts, I hoped I was giving them new, vivid memories to overwrite the old ones.

I couldn’t take away what had happened, and I wouldn’t coddle them, lying about what a safe place the world was. But if I could make them tired enough, and annoyed enough with me, maybe that would push out the fear.

Most knew better than to complain. Even Sean and his clique were mostly silent on the matter. I heard Sean mutter, “treated like we know nothing,” as I walked by him during wall-sits, but he had the sense to shut up once he realized I was within earshot.

I let it go, turning to walk down the line in the other direction. Felix, Ash, and Cory were at the far end, and I stiffened when I saw them, in spite of myself. I took a deep breath and forced myself to keep walking normally. I couldn’t tense up every time I saw the kid. I was better than that.

Cory was fine. Cinda had cleared him to participate, so he had to be. And if he had any troubling memories of the attack, at least he wasn’t making them my problem. Wasn’t testing my patience the way so many other students were.

He was far from the strongest student in the class. He might, in fact, have been the weakest. I wondered if he’d ever run a single mile before, let alone a five-mile loop around the grounds. He didn’t have much muscle definition, and while he was flexible, his balance and agility needed work.

But there he was, bracing against the wall like everyone else, thighs shaking, gutting it out.

He’d fallen numerous times over the last week. Been the last to finish in both our distance runs and sprints. His muscles had given out in the middle of a plank two days ago, landing him flat on his face. But he hadn’t complained once. He’d just dragged himself back into position and tried again, until I called time.

Sean could learn a thing or two from him, whispered the voice at the back of my mind.

I grunted.

Cory had been completely frozen in front of that moragh. Mostly frozen, anyway. He had no strength to speak of. Needed constant looking after. And thatwasn’tmy job. I could instruct, but I wasn’t the kid’s protector.

So why couldn’t I get his face out of my mind when I lay down to sleep? And why did my body feel electrified, drawn to his like a magnet, any time he was in sight?

No one else knew what to do with the moraghin either,whispered that traitorous voice.You yelled at Sean and Tim for trying to jump in with weapons. Is that what you wanted Cory to do?

I shoved the thought away. I didn’t want Cory to do anything.

It was a week after the attack before I had any free time to work on Isaac’s spy mission. I felt ridiculous. I wasn’t cut out for subtlety. But Isaac clearly felt the attack had been an inside job. I agreed, and the thought made my blood boil. I could do a little spying if that was what it took to catch whoever had been behind it.

After Second Hour, I walked with Hans, Eddie, and the students back to the manor, then followed Hans into the staff room. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and flopped down on the sofa, stretching his legs out.

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