Page 41 of Great Falls Cadet
“Liar,” I whisper.
Tye gasps, his face losing all color as Shade grips his shoulder and stretches the joint as if it were no more than a set of pulleys to be manhandled. With a sharp twist, the dislocated bones come into alignment and snap back into their sockets. Tye draws a stuttering breath. “That,on the other hand, felt worse than it looked.” He rolls the shoulder tentatively. “Much better. Thank you.”
“Shade?” River prompts.
“He’s all right. For now.” Shade glares at the shoulder as if personally offended by its actions. “I’d ban the Prowess Trials if I bloody could, though. Why do we have people risking maiming themselves over applause?”
“That would be my exit cue.” Tye hops off the table, both Katita and I converging on him.
“Let’s find you some willow-bark tea, Tyelor.” Katita shoves her body between Tye and me, trampling on my feet to stake out territory. Tye’s scent of pine and pain mixes with the princess’s rose perfume and the sharp tang of Shade’s workspace. In the firelit room, the deep purple of Tye’s welts look the color of sickening plums, and I twist to let River see the depth of my fury.
Katita’s foot shifts, catching the back of my ankle hard just as Tye starts walking toward the door. The surprise registers too late, my slow, exhausted feet bracing against the floor only to find Tye’s discarded shirt in the path. I feel myself going backward like an absurd doll, my hands grabbing anything within reach—which turns out to be Katita’s own tunic. The girl’s gasp does nothing to keep us upright, until Tye’s solid arms wrap both our waists, all three of us spinning about to get steady. For a moment, I’m certain the whole mess will end up on the ground, but my legs find solid footing just as River and Shade move in to lend their own support.
As we pull apart from the mess, the mix of irritation and embarrassment washing over churns into blood-chilling fear—for on the floor, in the center of the short-lived scramble, the dropped key to Mystwood now glints in the firelight.
17
Lera
Blood leaves my face. The spot against my back where the disk was tucked into the waistband suddenly feels empty. Cold. On the floor, the tiny clank vibrates against the marble as the uneven disk finishes its spin. The room stops, all eyes—even those of Coal, who has slipped in through the side door—focusing on the bit of metal. On the unspoken implication that it should not have been here.
The tiny streak of magic trickling from the disk settles around me. The males’ tense muscles say they feel the pull as well, even as they understand nothing about its vital purpose. The key to Mystwood. The way between Lunos and the mortal realm.
River snatches the disk from the floor, his gray eyes hard. Closing his callused hand around the amulet, River surveys Tye, Katita, and me with a searching glare that spurs my still heart into a drumroll. The very artifact River questioned Tye about a day past, now fallen amidst a tussle of students—one of them a known rogue.
Katita recovers first, her hands and chin rising as she looks at the silent force of menace River has become without moving a muscle. The planes of his face carved marble, his shoulders even broader, his body towering over everyone in this room without trying.
“Whatever you just picked up, sir,” Katita breathes hurriedly, “I assure you I’ve never laid eyes on it before now. I also submit that I’ve the funds topurchaseany jewelry I might require, without resorting to theft.”
“I am inclined to agree, Your Highness.” The gaze River turns on Tye is ominous enough that Tye’s bruised back tightens in a reflexive flinch even as his beautifully angled face remains the same—just a hair short of bored. His silver earring glints insolently in the firelight, doing nothing to help his cause. “Tyelor?”
Tye rocks back on his heels. “Is that the trinket you’ve been searching for? As it happens, I was just bringing it back to you.”
“With me, Tyelor,” River says quietly. “Now.”
“It was me, not him!” I cut off River’s path before he can take two steps to the door, my neck craning to meet the male’s gray eyes. Cold, hard eyes, the emotion behind them reined in so tightly that the air pulsates with tension. As the entirety of River’s attention settles on me, his woodsy scent and heady masculinity clouding my senses, his broad chest rising in slow, controlled breaths, I feel like the cub Shade called me, standing before an immortal king. My breath quickens, my fists tightening beneath spurts of anger.
“Lass.” The warning in Tye’s voice is so sharp, I’d need to be deaf to miss it. “You are a terrible liar. Don’t dig a deeper hole for yourself over misplaced good intentions.”
“Tye did not take your damn pendant any more than he forced me to go over the wall last night,” I tell River, ignoring Tye’s valiant defense. Stepping forward until the heat of our bodies mingles into one blazing furnace, I bear the full force of River’s steel-gray gaze and rigid jaw.
A voice in the back of my mind informs me that there is a more diplomatic way of conveying my point, that yelling at River is as safe as carrying an open flame through a hayloft. Yet, despite the the danger sizzling along my skin, I can’t make myself stop. River—myRiver—is somewhere in that thick-skulled head, and he needs to be put in his place. “You are better than your groundless accusations,Commander. So stop using Tye as a convenient whipping boy and ask some basic questions before you strut about showing off your bloody authority.”
The air in the room chills, everyone’s gaze suddenly on River and me.Katita makes a tiny noise, but even that is swallowed by the silence. My mouth is dry, my hands crossing over my chest. “I had your bloody trinket. So keep your damn hands—and your switch—off Tye and deal with me.”
The seconds ticking by in the ensuing silence grow heavier by the breath. Finally, River clears his throat. “Give us the room, if you please,” he says quietly, the words more menacing for their calmness. His voice carries the pure undiluted command that makes my body sing like a taut bowstring despite my own pulsing fury.
Princess Katita gives me a pleased smirk as she walks out at Tye’s side, the male looking back at me with worry-filled eyes. Coal’s and Shade’s gazes are unreadable as they follow as well, Coal only pausing to acknowledge an unspokenyou and I still have businessglance River throws him. Even once the door closes, River doesn’t speak, and I realize he is listening for the sound of departing footsteps. Making sure that we are truly alone.
“Would you like to try that again, Cadet?” River’s voice is ice.
“I’m not a cadet.”
“Good.” River holds his hand out toward the door, his very broad chest tight beneath a high-laced red shirt. The tightly leashed ire rolling silently from his strong jaw, his rigid straight spine, his woodsy masculine scent, make River’s quiet voice seem to echo from every wall in the room. The voice echoes inside my core well, igniting each fiber until my body feels too small to contain the pressure building inside me. River’s fingers flex. “Then this conversation need not happen. Allow me to escort you to the stable right now, Lady Osprey. I will have your things sent into town tomorrow morning for you to pick up.”
I don’t move. I can’t. I don’t want to.
River grabs my forearm, his grip iron hard. Painful. His breath comes fast as he invades every inch of my space, looming over me until there is nowhere to look but into his unyielding eyes.
