Page 24 of Daughter of the Ninth Line: Part Two

To me, however, it felt wrong. I wouldn’t tell anyone else, but I was looking forward to them returning. I was excited to see Vox again. The memory of his kiss was never far from my mind, and I found myself daydreaming in class about the taste of his lips. I’d thought of hardly anything else, because I knew even if nothing else could come of it, I wanted more. I wanted to taste his skin, feel his lips on mine again, watch his eyelids close heavily in pleasure. I justwanted.

I wasn’t a fool. It couldn’t go anywhere, and I couldn’t be more than a notch in what I was sure was an impressive bedpost, but I didn’t care. I was so tired of being alone. If I could have him even for a moment, I was going to take it.

He’d been gone five days, and I found myself watching the horizon for the ferry from the mainland. I chastised myself for acting like a lovesick cat. I needed to cultivate a more worldlypersona. Mature. Aloof, even. The last thing I wanted to do was throw myself into his arms like some desperate clinger.

It didn’t help that every night I was having filthy fantasies. The dirty dreams were getting intense, and I felt needy. Those dreams sometimes featured more than Vox, though.

Last night, I’d dreamt of making love to Hayle, and it had felt so real, I’d woken up sweaty and aching. It was like I could smell his woodsy scent, taste the salt of his sweat on my tongue. It was the most vivid dream I’d ever had, and left me feeling riled up.

Hayle Taeme was off limits. There was no way I could trust the way my heart raced like it was going to beat out of my chest, or the panic in my veins whenever I was near him. I didn’t understand it, but I trusted my gut. Hayle Taeme meant pain. I knew that in my soul.

So I’d wait for Vox to arrive, then I’d tell him exactly what I wanted.

Someone whacked me in the shoulder with one of the training blades. “Girl, you better concentrate, or Instructor Wallred is going to beat your ass,” Shay hissed, and I looked over at the First Line’s second-in-command. She was beautiful, in the same haughty, cold way as Vox. It left very little doubt that they were related.

“Uh, thanks.” I went back to forms, hoping not to draw the ire of the instructor. They said his last name came from the time he’d taken on a battalion of rebels and painted the walls red with their blood. It sounded like a rumor you’d perpetuate just to ensure new conscripts were terrified of you, but I applauded the creativity.

Another whack to my shoulder. “Fucking hell,Ninth. You have to be the most addle-brained conscript I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet. It’s like youwantto get the shit beaten out of you.” She grumbled something about Vox and duty.

I frowned at her. “Why do you care?” I remembered her from the first day here at Boellium, and now that I had a better handle on the strength of people, I knew it had to have been either her or Vox suspending that guy, letting him bleed out on the cobblestones.

Shay ran her tongue over her teeth. “Because my Heir told me to watch you. He’s never asked that of me before, and I’m not about to fuck it up.” She paused, stepping closer. “Because he’s never looked at anyone the way he looks at you. He deserves this small taste of happiness, before the rest of his life becomes a jail cell. You wouldn’t understand, but his life isn’t gilded thrones and grand banquets.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “You know jack shit about my life.”

She shrugged. “And I don’t want to. He deserves his happiness, but anyone with half a brain knows that this will end in disaster. I don’t want to get attached to you, but I can ensure that you keep your head on your shoulders until Vox returns to do it himself—or he gets sick of you, whichever comes first.”

Damn.She didn’t hold back, but I could respect that. In Boellium, the cloying fakeness was everywhere. “Fair enough.”

I returned to my forms, Shay continuing her own beside me. She moved like liquid, and I was so jealous, I could actually spit. She must’ve had the same tutor as Vox, because they had that same smooth style. I could only dream of being that lithe and deadly.

Huffing an annoyed sigh, she turned to me. “He returns on today’s ferry. I’ll be glad to be off babysitting duty.”

Honestly, I hadn’t known she wasonbabysitting duty, so either she was a terrible babysitter or a scarily good spy. Nodding, I tried to concentrate on the rest of the forms, and not what I’d do once Vox was back in the grounds of Boellium.

I’d wait for him to find me—that much was clear, because there was always the chance that I was reading too much into this. Maybe he’d gone back to Fortaare and realized that I was some rough-hewn rock next to all those glittering diamonds.

Yeah, I’d wait for him to track me down first.

It wasn’t Vox who found me first, though. It was Hayle Taeme’s hounds. Everyone was scared of those giant dogs, but not me. I felt we had an understanding, and whenever they came up to me, I always gave them a little bit of my pilfered jerky.

I wasn’t above bribing them to like me.

However, it was odd for me to see both of them at the same time. Usually, one was always with Hayle. Braxus came over, and I squatted down on my haunches. “Hey, handsome, how was Fortaare?”

Braxus huffed a disgruntled noise, and I laughed. Yeah, that was pretty clear.

“I think I’d feel the same way about that place. Give me wide-open spaces and clear blue skies any day.” I stood and went to walk away, but Braxus gripped my fingers in his mouth. Not hard, but he definitely wasn’t letting go. “Uh, I don’t have any more jerky, big guy.”

The other hound, Alucius, nudged my butt with her snout, and I realized they wanted me to go with them.

“I get the point. You can stop slobbering on my hand now,” I said to Braxus, who gave me an unamused glare, but let go of my fingers and trotted ahead of me. Following him through the halls, I ignored the wary looks of the other conscripts. They looked at me like I was walking to the gallows.

We ended up in the library, and I was embarrassed that I still hadn’t been here in the months that I’d been in Boellium. In a past life, it would have been the first place I’d have visited. Evennow, the sweet smell of old books and leather was like a warm hug.

I saw Hayle over in the corner of the reading room and walked toward him. The hounds stopped by the door, taking up guard positions. That seemed kind of ominous.

“You know how weird it is to be fetched like a stick?” I asked Hayle, who grinned at me. Fuck, he was so handsome, it was like a punch in the gut.

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