Page 40 of Great Falls Cadet
Isn’t it?
“Master Shade!” The smooth, musical voice comes from the corridor just as the flame finishes lapping up the note. A fist knocks against the doorframe. “Master Shade, we need your help!”
The side and front doors to the workroom open together, one to admit Shade and Coal, the other to reveal a horde of five young women all circled around Tye. In his training grays, Tye holds his shoulder, which looks utterly in the wrong place, his face tight with pain. Seeing me, the male’s emerald eyes focus through the glaze.
“Are you all right, lass?” Tye asks.
Princess Katita’s flashing teal glare is hot enough to burn me, though her porcelain features smooth to concern as she turns to put a hand on Tye’s back. “Can you see to Tyelor, Master Shade?” she asks again. “He’s injured himself in training.”
Tye shifts his weight away from Katita, his nostrils flaring in a way that makes heat rise to my face. My damn males are all too familiar with my scent. And each other’s. Despite a taut face, Tye manages to raise his eyebrows at me, wiggling them with a hint of an amused grin that makes me want to both slap him and wrap my arms around his neck.
At the back of the room, Coal grabs the bag Rabbit left for him and disappears to change, the marks my nails left on his strong back catching in the firelight.
“What happened?” Shade wades through Tye’s sea of female admirers to clear a path to the worktable. “Ladies, I believe I can take care of Tyelor from here. Thank you for bringing him.”
“Yes, everyoneout,” Katita says, her voice one used to giving orders and having them obeyed. “Tyelor doesn’t need you hovering about him, and Master Shade needs room to work.” Hand crossed over her chest, the tall blond princess watches with satisfaction as the other girls step back at once, yielding to her command as quickly and gracefully as they will probably one day do in the throne room. With her gorgeous curves and long legs, Katita owns the long blue-green silk dress I’d be tripping over, making me feel positively stumpy. When Katita’s gaze falls on me, her brows tighten. “Are you deaf, wen—”
“I would not finish that sentence if I were you, Cadet,” Shade says, his quiet voice reverberating through the workroom. A pair of the girls on their way out pause for a moment, their wide eyes sprinting between the most powerful young woman in the human realm and the ethereally beautiful healer, whose kind eyes flash with a predator’s gaze.
The air tenses, only the crackle of the fire and Tye’s tight breathing to be heard. Shoulders spread wide, Shade steps between me and Katita, each step a careful placement of an animal’s padded foot. Coal once warned me that Shade truly is a wolf—and to be careful about confusing his good table manners with what he tears into for supper. Now seeing the transformation from the side, I truly understand what he meant. A muscle tightens along Shade’s jaw. “Lady Leralynn is my patient. But even if it were otherwise, I expect you to address her—and everyone in the Academy, from Headmaster Sage to young Rabbit—with respect.”
Katita steps back before seeming to realize she is moving. “I’d not realized the lady was ill,” she says with a tight bow to Shade. “I do hope it is nothing serious, Leralynn.” Clearing the way for Tye to walk to the treatment table near where I’m standing, Katita follows in his wake, her brilliant eyes flashing a silent warning to me when Shade can’t see. “Of course, not being a healer myself, I find such things difficult to judge, but perhaps Tyelor’s condition is the more urgent at the moment?” Katita says with unwavering politeness. “Would you agree, Lady Leralynn?”
“Coal, give me your boot knife,” Shade calls toward the side room, stepping aside as the door opens and a glinting dagger flies through, jamming into the wall. The hilt vibrates. Rolling his eyes, Shade pulls the blade free. “Sit down, Tye.”
“Actually, I can wait for Leralynn to be treated,” says Tye, eyeing the knife in Shade’s hand. Katita’s anger tinges the air with a bitter scent.
“Good stars.” Shade twists the knife for a better working grip. “I’m cutting your shirt, not you.”
“I worked that out.” Tye swallows the last word, covertly leaning on the table’s edge, the beautiful lines of his face tight with pain.
“I don’t practice medicine by democracy.” Shade’s patience snaps like a bow string, driving Tye’s mouth closed as he hops onto the table. Even Princess Katita finds nothing to add.
“What happened?” I ask, the world tipping just a bit when my gaze brushes the deformed line of Tye’s shoulder.
Tye’s eyes find a spot on the wall, his jaw tight as he keeps his face under control. “Bad flip,” he says, the words strained.
“Tyelor was training as per his usual schedule,” Katita injects, addressing Shade in a voice of authority on Tye’s regimen. “Though moving quite stiffly through the routine. The shoulder shifted while he was trying to catch himself after a double flip above the bar. Do you think he needs to warm up better from now on?”
“There isn’t a problem. I just didn’t account for how wet the bar was,” Tye says quickly. His voice drops, his face turning to Shade, whose knife is already slicing through his shirt’s fabric. “Shade. Please. Not now.”
My brows narrow. Trying to delay inevitable pain is my signature move, not Tye’s. In fact, the male usually takes the opposite tack. What the bloody hell is he up to, then?
Shade’s gaze sweeps from his work to survey the room. When his attention brushes my face, his voice softens. “Tyelor has a dislocated shoulder, Lera. He will feel better once I put it back into place, but it may look worse before it is better—and you already look pale as milk. Please take a deep breath and find a place to sit before you fall and I’ve another injury to deal with.”
“What is going on here?” River asks, letting himself in to take stock of the situation. His deep gray eyes flick to me, then away again just as quickly, unreadable. Shade cuts away the rest of the fabric, the remains of Tye’s shirt pooling on the floor just as River addresses him. “Tyelor, are you all right?”
“No.” I don’t realize I’ve spoken until the word has escaped my mouth. My hand tightens on the edge of Shade’s neat countertop, my eyes on Tye’s bared back. Emerald-green eyes meet mine and look away quickly. The real reason for Tye’s resistance to undressing now shows in sets of long livid bruises covering his corded shoulders. Bile rises up my throat. These aren’t marks from the same mishap that caused his shoulder injury, or from a sparring match. These are from a beating.
I turn toward River, eyes blazing.
The male lifts one brow in silent answer.Yes. I did that. Surprised, are you?
A chill that starts in the pit of my stomach spreads through my core, Tye’s morning visit replaying in my memory. Because of our going over the wall against orders, I was to see Coal this afternoon and Tye was reporting to River. Forthis.Because of me. Because I went over the wall and he came with me.
Throat tight, I step up beside Tye, laying a hand on his good arm. “I’m sorry, Tye.”
“It looks worse than it feels, lass.” Tye gives me a tight smile. I have to stop myself from cupping his cheek, running my thumb over his blanched lips.
