Page 33 of Great Falls Rogue
Without meaning to, I push back into the stone. With the exception of the ill-fated choke-hold demonstration, the male has avoided physical contact with me for a month now. The rest, the flashes of memories and pain, those took place in my mind alone. I have no reason to believe he sees me any differently now than he has in the past four weeks. Even with our gazes locked, my wary body doesn’t know what to expect from itself at the warrior’s touch.
“I’m going to take the pressure off your shoulder.” Coal moves slowly, lifting me off the stone floor onto his bent knee, his hands bracing my shackled arm. The shift releases compressed veins and nerves, blood flowing back into my numb limbs with scorching agony.
I bite back a scream, but Coal’s silent, intense gaze stays on me.I know,his blue eyes say.I know.
Once I am able to breathe again, I lean into the male’s shoulder while he checks the manacle holding my wrist. Beyond the world of the two of us, I finally mark another figure in the dungeon cell.
Still stopped at the open door, River stares down at my crumpled form. The patient male who helped me read is gone, a cold, powerful commander in his place. A commander whose orders I disobeyed. There is no emotion in River’s chiseled face, his back as straight here in a dungeon cell as on the parade grounds, his dark brown hair just as flawlessly neat.This is what happens to those who fail to abide by my word,each harsh line of his sculpted body enunciates in silence.I warned you, didn’t I?
My heart hammers against my ribs, my breaths quick through the streaks of pain raking my cramped muscles. River left me here to break me. Punish me. But stupid as it is to tempt his wrath just now, I still lift my chin high, not giving River the satisfaction of seeing me cower.
River steps toward me.
Coal growls, the sound anything but human.
Stopping, River slides keys across the floor instead and leaves without a word.
I hate the relief that washes over me with River’s departure, but savor it anyway. When Coal releases my shackle, the raw skin beneath stinging at the open air, I’m more than a little glad River can’t see my flinch or note how my fingers dig into Coal’s arm.
Giving the swaying world a few moments to settle, I go to stand. Coal catches my waist in time to keep me from landing back on the floor. It takes two more tries for me to conquer my buckling knees, but at least I never make a sound. Not that words seem necessary with Coal.
Coal doesn’t touch me as we wind through the dungeon hallways and step outside—blinking like newborns in the harsh sunlight and inhaling deeply of the fresh spring air—or as we cross the entire courtyard back to the student dormitory, but he stays close enough that I can hear the short puffs of his breathing. The few cadets out and about the courtyard follow the pair of us with their gazes, their eyes burning into my skin. Shutting out the stares, I focus my thoughts on the safety of my room, counting the steps until I can hide away.
“Lera!” Arisha opens the door the moment I start turning the handle, her wide eyes taking me in. Dressed in a yellow spring dress, the girl looks like an awkward sunflower with her frizzy brown hair making up the petals. “What happened?” She reaches for me. “The last I heard, a certain muscular idiot started a brawl and then—”
Coal clears his throat.
Arisha lifts her gaze, her body freezing in place.
Pushing me past Arisha into the room, Coal shuts the door behind us. The entire small space, with its neat white walls and tall sparkling window, suddenly feels filled to the brim with Coal’s presence. With his masculine scent and sheer size, he’s as out of place here as I’d be in the guards’ bathhouse. “Make yourself busy elsewhere, Tallie.”
Arisha’s face swings toward me in assessment, then back to Coal. Putting her hands on her hips, she glares up at the male who towers head and shoulders above her. “No.” Her soft voice mixes with the sharp tang of anxiety she always has in proximity with Coal. “But I thinkyoushould.”
Coal stays put.
Arisha narrows her brows and steps right up to him, like a nearsighted, determined goat, her pale, freckled cheeks tightened in anger. If I could move, I’d throw my arms around my friend and hold her forever.
Coal pivots out of Arisha’s way. “Did you just try to evict me. Physically?” he asks slowly. “To intimidate me into backing out the door?”
Arisha swallows but lifts her face high. “Yes.”
“Did you misplace your mind?” Despite the ferocity coming off him in waves, Coal sounds genuinely curious.
Arisha scowls at him. “It might have worked.”
“Very doubtful.” Coal sighs. “Lera is hurt.”
“Thank you for clearing that up—I was confused as to what all the blood was about.” Arisha pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “And you look little better, in case you were wondering.”
Coal’s blue eyes flash. “I wasn’t.”
Time to intervene. Yanking at its ties, I let the tattered dress slump to a pile at my feet, then, wrapping a blanket around myself, sink into the divine softness of my bed in my underclothes. “Coal helped me back to the room, Arisha. The blood isn’t from him. I…I was wrapped up in yesterday’s fight at the barracks, and River had me held overnight. I’m going to get some rest now. There is little more to it.”
“There is—” Arisha and Coal say at the same time, stopping to glare at each other as soon as the words are out.
I glare at both of them. “I’mfine.”
“Like hell you are,” Coal snaps at me, just as Arisha shouts, “You are not fine.”
