Page 37 of Great Falls Cadet
“That was the top,” says Coal.
Damn it. “Here—” Scooting forward, I take Coal’s rough hand and set it to the tip of the pointed ear I know is there, though my eyes slide off it each time I try to look. Beneath my touch, I feel Coal’s finger slide along the elongated slope until—
Coal screams, the pain in his voice ripping my chest. When I pull away, the male is rocking with his head between his hands, his body shaking as I’ve never seen. His glazed blue eyes see nothing.
“Coal!” I take the male’s bare shoulder, now blazing hot as if with fever. “Coal. What’s wrong?”
The warrior blinks, his eyes returning to focus. To confusion. The rocking stops, and he frowns at my touch. “What did you want me to do?”
My mouth is dry as I pull back, shaking my head. “N-Nothing. I changed my mind.” The words come in a horrified whisper. The veil magic isn’t just convincing my males of the illusion, it is fighting to keep that reality. Like the pressure I felt when I forced myself to see the sclice last night—except, by the sound of Coal’s scream, many times worse. I recall Autumn’s warning about the importance of removing the amulets at least once a day. With the magic absorbed, the males cannot do that. And their bodies are adjusting the best they can.
Whatever solid ground I still felt beneath me falls away.
14
Lera
Coal and I don’t speak as we make our way back to the Academy, the earlier storm having calmed to a chill wet evening wind. Coal walks a step behind me, as if afraid I might fall or bolt or else melt to the ground in a pile of injured regret. The male’s misplaced guilt over what we did grows more palpable with each step closer to the school’s high stone wall, just as the wet, slippery earth confirms what I already knew about the state of Sprite’s and my tracks.
My cold, numb body is a match to my equally numb mind. The litany of hard facts marches through my thoughts, interspersed with the memory of Coal’s scream when he touched his ear, making me flinch each time. I can’t stay at the Academy, where I am creating more problems than I’m solving—wreaking havoc with the males instead of helping them, threatening their disguises, confusing their senses. My tracks have washed away, and even if they hadn’t—even if I could find my way back to that clearing in the woods and that shattered tablet—the clay was already well on its way to disintegrating even before the rain. The veil’s hold is overwhelmingly complete.
I kick a stone, watching it plop along the mud. Not even a satisfying thud at the end.
We came here to discover the nature of magic leaking into the mortal world and instead became victims of it. Centuries of vital information and reports are now locked deep in River’s mind, which means I’m no closer to saving the mortal realm here than I would be anywhere else. Without River’s direction and knowledge, I’ve no notion of how to even start looking for the rip, and I certainly can’t do it while workingagainstmy males.
Autumn may be able to guide me through seeking out the rip—she may even have a way of reversing the veil—but that comes down to crossing Mystwood.
Without River’s passage key, which he announced stolen from him only yesterday, doing so would be suicidal. Maybe I’ll go find the Sentinel Guild, see if they’ve a key squirreled away somewhere, or else brave Mystwood without it. With the magic acting the way it shouldn’t, maybe I’ll survive the passage—and at least dying in Mystwood forest would be swift, whereas watching my males not know me—not need me—hurts all the time.
So Guild or Autumn? Roam the mortal realm in relative safety to reach a possibly useless destination, or risk Mystwood to get to a more likely solution? I click my tongue, the proverbial dice spinning inside my mind to land with my friend’s face up. Autumn it is. The four males at the Academy, whether they know who they are or not, don’t need me to hold up the walls against whatever rodents come their way. They need me to help them regain themselves. And at present, I’m only making things worse.
It seems Gavriel had one thing right—the prophecy mentions no companions for the human turned fae, and here I am with none.
“I want you in the baths,” Coal says as we return to Academy grounds the same way we left—over the wall. It’s the most direct route from our forest path, though this time, my muscles shake numbly as I climb the high stone and shinny down the rustling tree. In the evening’s dimness, the human guards take Coal’s short grunt as all the reason they need to find employment elsewhere. “Then the infirmary.”
“I want it to be summer with flying squirrels,” I mutter over my shoulder. Sleep. I want sleep. Then I’ll ride out in the morning.
Coal quickens his pace, cutting off my path. Against the darkening sky, his silhouette rises like a powerful beast, his light hair at odds with the settling blackness. The grass out here beyond the inner walls is damp with dew and sparkling in the dying light. The Academy and its keep tower before us, torches and lanterns already lit in its many windows. Students settling into their last evening of freedom for the week. “I wasn’t making a suggestion.”
“No?” I raise my face to meet his, quelling the insane urge to kiss him and punch him, both—neither of which would help me just now. “I forget the term for when someone with zero authority tells someone who doesn’t give a damn what he wants her to do.”
“The term isnow,” River says, stepping out of the shadows.
My breath freezes in my lungs. It’s the first time I’ve seen him since last night’s battle—since that promise of retribution in his cold gray eyes. If anything, he’s more dominating, more breathtaking than ever, his close-cropped dark hair framing a strong, perfectly sculpted face. A king’s face, though he doesn’t know it. His back is almost painfully straight, his broad chest covered in creaseless red wool. A chest I used to have unlimited leave to caress, to press my face into. I swallow a hard breath, a tiny squeak escaping my throat.
Apparently, the guard at the wall didn’t just melt out of the way, he went squealing to the keep tower. Head turning slowly, River sweeps Coal and me with his gaze, his nostrils flaring delicately. Taking in our mixed scents. Putting pieces together until his face is carved of cold marble.
Coal’s movements are so subtle, I can barely see the shift of muscles as he straightens before his commander, lifting his chin just enough to bare his neck to River. Not surrender, but a show of fealty. A promise to accept any sentence River might pass. My chest clenches.
“Thatnowapplies to both of you,” River says. “Infirmary. Go.” Turning on his heel, River strides away, his final words coming over his shoulder. “I will have clothes for you both sent there and will join you shortly.”
Coal’s shoulders stiffen, and I swallow a sigh. Little as I want to see anyone just now, I’m not going to let Coal face River’s wrath on his own. Even if it means facing Shade’s unrecognizing yellow eyes again, when I’d been hoping to leave with the memory of his wolf safely in my mind.
15
Lera
Ahalf hour later, I sit wrapped in a woolen blanket on a worktable in Shade’s infirmary, the air around me filled with sharp-smelling salves—some of which are still tingling along the gashes on my back. Having smelled the situation of Coal and me with as much efficiency as River had earlier, Shade sent Coal into the other room before efficiently stripping me down to my undergarments with as little interest as if he were taking a saddle off a horse.
