Page 37 of Great Falls Rogue
The smell of cayenne pepper announced Han’s approach even before the sound of his soft footsteps brushed Coal’s ears. Entering the clearing, the man spotted Coal and snorted softly, his blue-gray eyes filling with the same derisive loathing Coal had marked at the training courts.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Han asked.
“You left a girl chained to a dungeon wall.” Pushing away from the oak, Coal stepped toward Han. “River might have to swallow the horseshit you spew, but I’ve no intention to.”
“Are you here tofightme, Coal?” This time, Han actually laughed, his face crossing the line from handsome to cruel in an instant. “And here I thought you were just spanked for as much last night.”
Coal’s hand curled into a fist, Han’s gaze narrowing at the motion.
“You know…” Han’s tone changed, amusement disappearing. “On second thought, I think I’d welcome the exercise.” The shift of Han’s hips was the only warning Coal had before Han’s boot slammed into his ribs, the force of the blow lifting Coal into the air.
Coal’s back bounced off the very oak he’d leaned on moments earlier, the impact a distant thud. Rolling over his shoulder, he dodged the next attack, his senses coming into focus.
Han crouched in a fighting stance, his chest moving as evenly and slowly as Coal’s own. When Han’s lips pulled back to expose a set of bright white teeth, a guttural primal growl escaping from his chest into the forest, Coal knew that only one of them was walking out of the clearing alive.
And Coal little cared who it would be.
13
Lera
“Idon’t like him,” I tell Arisha, hugging a pillow to my chest. Without Shade’s wolf in my bed, the mattress feels too large. The male has been gone two full days now—who knows how far he’s gone in search of the mysterious fae girl.Stars take me.“I don’t like the whole notion.”
“There are a number ofhimsthat would fit logically into that sentence.” Arisha makes a mark in a study schedule she’s drafting, her wild brown hair uncharacteristically loose and brushing the parchment. We both know she doesn’t need one and is simply using the busy work as an excuse to stay in the room with me all day. Keeping me company as I recover from last night or keeping me out of trouble. Probably both.
“Han. And not only because he shackled me to a wall. Granted, that’s a pretty good reason too.” I try to sound nonchalant, though the memories still send chills over my skin. The heavy dread that had wrapped around me after Coal left seemed to have lifted for a spell but returned with a vengeance a few hours ago. A low, rumbling oppression stalking me from the shadows.
I rub my face. The fight with Coal, that’s what’s eating me. Just when I thought the chain linking our fears would link our trust as well, Coal looked me in the eye and informed me that our connection mattered nothing. That he didn’t want me in his heart, or soul, or life.
I glance at the darkness outside the window and light another lantern, my green silk pants and short-cropped top swaying comfortably. No gowns, no gray uniforms, not tonight. “Why is the man suddenly here?” I say, returning to the matter of Han. “Great Falls was never going to participate in the Trials—it’s all the veil’s doing to make a place for Tye.”
“It isn’t all that sudden, actually,” says Arisha. “Tye came over a month ago. Once that happened, Sage suddenly had both the notion and the means to make Great Falls a real player in one of the continent’s most important events. It makes sense that he’d start maneuvering to field a competitive—and royal—team. If princelings are competing, their throne-holding parents will come to watch. All because of Sage. The little worm is probably bathing in his future self-importance.”
“Maybe. But Han still appeared right after I ran into the Night Guard.” I rub my tightening chest.
“Word in the courtyard is that he’s well known—has been in Prowess for a decade. The royals…”
Arisha’s words blur. In the edges of my vision, the bedchamber flickers to a dungeon cell, to a forest, to whispering darkness all around me, night sounds making me flinch. My breath quickens, then catches, that shadow-stalking dread inside me uncoiling. Focusing. Getting ready to pounce.
“Lera? Leralynn.” Arisha is on her feet and, by the sound of it, has repeated my name several times by now.
“I’m sorry.” I blink my friend back into focus, her concerned blue eyes grounding me. “Sorry. I was just thinking… What is the veil going to do when Tye travels to the Trials? Is it going to be strong enough to convince a much larger group that he is—” I cut off, the wave of wrongness smashing into me strong enough to make my heart stutter with panic, a phantom scent of cayenne tickling my nose. Something is wrong. Very, very wrong.
I stuff my feet into my boots, barely seeing what I’m doing, and am at the window before I can form words from the onslaught of sensation. Not words—word. Just one.
“Coal,” I tell Arisha, though I know nothing more than that. Only that something is wrong. That Coal is in the middle of it. That Coal is ready to die.
The darkenedAcademy is a blur as I shimmy out the window, climbing down the outer wall of the dormitory with practiced ease. Only lanterns in a few windows and torches on the ramparts light my way, casting deep shadows everywhere else. The familiar dark woods lining the inside of the Academy wall greet me with a rustle of leaves and a scent of pine that I mark only in the periphery. I run without knowing where I’m going, except toward the eye of the gathered dread.What are you doing, Coal?I demand in my head, as if the male might hear my question.
My foot snags on a root, and I stumble, momentarily pulled back into the now. Back to some common sense.You can’t just blindly run through the darkness, Lera.Even if I’m right that the magic I share with Coal is guiding my direction now, rushing into an assault vicious enough to endanger Coal’s life is more likely to make me a victim than rescuer.
With a curse, I realize my common sense returned too late for me to have grabbed any weapons. All I have on me is a boot knife Coal once gave me, and that just because it was sheathed in my shoe to begin with. A knife. That’s all I brought.
I am considering returning for a sword when another wave of darkness slams into me, this one heralding a searing pain along my ribs. Leaning one hand on an oak, I force air into my lungs, breathing through the pain.You aren’t the one wounded, Lera. You are supposed to be the one doing the thinking.
Right. Shoving down the panic, I force myself to survey the sounds, my thought finally coming to rest on the Academy wall. Not a surreptitious route by any means, but it does offer both a good view and an easy path around the Academy. With my immortal sight, I’ll have a fighting chance of seeing something.
After a month of using the underground escape passage to get outside the Academy, it takes me a moment to locate a climbable approach. Hips flattened against the cold stone, I climb as quickly as I can find the scant grips and footholds. Rock scrapes my abdomen, my short top providing no protection against the stone. But even that is an advantage. A reminder of where my body is as Coal’s darkness swirls dizzyingly in my mind. Of which body is mine.
