Page 34 of Great Falls Rogue
Turning back to Arisha, Coal crosses his arms. “I’m not leaving.”
“Neither am I.”
The warrior’s jaw tightens. “Fine,” he says finally, pulling his hair back into its usual tight bun as if preparing for battle all over again. “But if you repeat anything you see, hear, smell, or even bloodythinkin this chamber for the next hour, I will make your life so painful, your hair will have bruises. Do you understand?”
Arisha’s throat bobs, but she squares her shoulders toward Coal. “And if you harm Lera, I’ll work out a way to castrate you in your sleep.”
“This changes nothing when you are on the training pitch,” Coal says. “I’ll still expect you to do at least one halfway decent push-up. And punish you when you don’t.”
“Agreed,” says Arisha. “And any cooperation now is not a sign that I like you.”
“Agreed,” says Coal.
“Do I get a say?” I ask.
“No.” The pair answer together, this time not even bothering to exchange dirty gazes.
11
Coal
Crouching beside Lera, Coal suddenly realized he didn’t know what to do next. Everything about her filled his consciousness, from the racing pulse that made the hollow of her neck tremble with every beat, to the tightness on the side of her jaw where she clenched her teeth to conceal her pain. Her large chocolate eyes had a guarded look that tried and failed to hide the penetrating stubborn intelligence lurking inside her. Intelligence and pain, a hurt that extended a lot deeper than her strained arm. One day, Coal would find that man he’d seen in Lera’s nightmares and repay him in kind for every beating.
“Shade is still gone.” Arisha set a very well-stocked basket of bandages, salves, and other healer’s supplies on the bed beside Lera. “But this might be of use. I’ll get some water.” The door clicked softly behind her, leaving the dorm room suddenly far too silent.
Coal raised a quick brow at the impressive basket, then returned his attention to Lera. The girl’s small body had an ethereal beauty that made her the object of every man’s fantasy—obviously, given the brawn—but to Coal, it went deeper than that. Coal remembered Lera’s body taking him inside, melding with his in an explosion of power and ecstasy and connection that he’d so expertly destroyed in the month since.
“Let me see the arm,” Coal said, the words too collected to be his own. Maybe Arisha was right and him staying here was a mistake. He’d coupled with Lera and then ignored her for a month, only to spy on her nightmares while she sat shackled in a dungeon cell. That he’d not done the spying on purpose—didn’t even know how the hell it happened—little changed the facts.
From how Lera pulled her arms away from him, she was of similar doubt about the merit of Coal’s presence. “I can take care of it myself, sir.”
Sir.Because Coal was an instructor and Lera a student. He’d gone out of his way to remind her of that, and now he was paying for it.
“You could.” Arisha had returned, and, ignoring his better sense, Coal dunked a cloth into the washbasin she brought over and dabbed the blood on Lera’s arm. “But you didn’t get to this state on your own.”
“Neither did you,” Leralynn said quietly.
Seeming to sense the intensity in the room, Arisha once more slipped out.
Coal paused, then dipped the washcloth back in the basin, turning the water a soft pink. Was Lera referencing the fight or something else? The probing light in her eyes made Coal feel far too seen. His chest tightened suddenly at the eerie notion that he might not have been alone last night. That the tunnel of memories he’d stumbled into might have gone both ways. “I’m not sure what you mean,” he said, hoping to the stars the lie sounded genuine.
A muscle in Lera’s jaw ticked. When she tried to pull her arm back, Coal held it firm. He wasn’t letting her go. Not yet. The next swipe of the washcloth was harder and longer than Coal had intended, and he opened his mouth to apologize for hurting her—until he noticed what was on the skin beneath. The half-healed slash creeping from beneath Lera’s raised sleeve came from no shackle or training weapon. Coal was fairly certain no one had pulled an edged weapon in the last morning fight, but even if they had, this mark was a bit too old for that.
A fight. Leralynn had been fighting. Coal frowned at the mark, his memory suddenly scraping up River asking him about another injury of Lera’s. One that Lera had told River came from training, though Coal knew it had not.
Lera yanked against Coal’s hold, this time hard enough to reclaim the limb.
Lifting his head, he captured her guarded gaze, ignoring the wave of possessive instinct that made him want to pull the girl against him. The same possessive instinct that made him also want to wring her neck for playing them all.“Who are you fighting when no one watches, Leralynn of Osprey?” he asked.
Lera’s face closed off from him, the distance between them suddenly a cavernous void. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
She flung his own words back at him.
Coal cursed. Even if he’d avoided the topic himself a few moments ago, this outright lie stung. More to the point, whatever Lera was doing clearly wasn’t safe. “You want to try that again?” His voice dropped to low command.
“You want to tell me why you’ve gone out of your way to avoid training with me for the past month?”
“You know exactly why,” Coal snapped with more force than he’d intended. “I’m an instructor, and you are a cadet. What happened between us in the forest cannot happen again. Keeping clear of me is the best thing for you.”
