Page 57 of Great Falls Rogue
“Stalking me?” Tye asks when I’m a few steps away. His normally lilting voice is even, emotionless except for the slightest tinge of annoyance.
“Avoiding me?” Walking around to see his face, I gasp. Deep rope burns cover the insides of his calves, thighs, and arms, and the small toe on his left foot is so discolored, I’m certain it’s broken. The injuries look even more lurid in the dim room, the torchlight turning his muscles and bruises into a deep contrasting field of shadows. On his upper body, the male’s right elbow looks larger than his left, more swelling around his shoulder hinting at recent dislocations. Beneath his mane of red hair, his usually bright face is tight, his green eyes dull, his freckles standing out against blanched skin. His silver earring is missing, and this, for some reason, is the thing that makes tears lodge in my throat.
Stars.In the week since Han arrived, he’s already shattered Coal’s arm and is well on his way to destroying Tye too.
Sitting next to him, I reach out to touch a bruised knee. Guilty as it makes me feel, perhaps the injuries will make urging Tye to step away from the Prowess team easier than I expected. Surely this isn’t what the male imagined when he started down this path.
Tye catches my wrist before I can touch his skin, the grip tighter than his usual playful tugs. “Don’t.”
“What happened?” I ask, staring unabashedly at his naked body.
“You wouldn’t understand.” He releases my wrist. “It’s not personal, Lera. There is a certain amount of pain and strain that comes with training for top-level athletics—things that look brutal to outsiders but are a normal part of elite training. To be blunt, I don’t have the energy to explain that to everyone who wants to gasp and criticize every scratch. Hence my preference to bathe outside other’s company.” He raises a brow at me, just in case I may have missed the implication thatother’s companyvery much includes me.
I raise my chin. “I’m not others,” I say, refusing to grant Tye any distance. “I’m—”
“You are gawking,” he says flatly.
Yes, I am.I frown but don’t look away. Slipping off the edge, Tye lowers himself into the water. A few more moments and he will walk out of my reach unless I hop fully clothed into the bath as well and trail behind like a simpering admirer.
Crouching with my forearms on my knees, I drill my gaze into Tye’s back. “Wait.”
To my relief, the male pauses, though his coiled body says his patience is wearing thin. If I want to talk, I need to do it fast. And I’m not above bringing mating into the mix. Not if it brings Tye back to me and away from Han. “In the dungeon, we—”
“We played.” Tye’s emerald eyes flash, for a moment filled with the life energy I’m used to—even if it’s rooted in annoyance. “That was what we agreed to, lass. A distraction. I was honest with you then, and I am honest with you now. I need to go. Han doesn’t want us… He wants us focused on training. Nothing else.”
“Han is a sadistic ass who I wouldn’t trust to wipe dung off my boots.”
Tye’s sharp face tightens, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “No one is asking you to trust him. Or to like him. After Han refused to release you from the dungeon, I don’t blame you for despising the man. But he’s the one person who understands thatIneed to win the title. I’ve sacrificed too much—” He cuts off raggedly. “The Prowess Trials title is why I’m in the Academy in the first place. I don’t expect you to understand,LadyLeralynn of Osprey. Or approve. I do expect you to stay out of my way.”
I bite my lip, the seconds ticking. Then, in a moment of reckless abandon, I throw down my cards. “Pull out of the Prowess Trials, Tye. Please.”
Tye freezes in utter bewilderment, the warm water lapping his washboard abdomen and circling smoothly around his hips. For a moment, the only sounds are the bubbling springs and softly spitting torches. “Why in all the sky’s stars would I do that?”
I take a breath and straighten my spine, having only one last move to play. The truth. Or as much of it as I can manage without setting off Tye’s veil amulet. “Because you know there are things—magical, evil things—that prowl the Great Falls woods. You’ve fought them. Because keeping the ten kingdoms’ kings and queens out of the Academy—out of the blight’s reach—is the responsible thing to do. And you are the only one with the power to make it happen. Pull out of the Trials, and, without you, there is no Great Falls Academy team and no Trials on Academy grounds.”
Tye’s face darkens with an ire I’ve not seen before, his lively emerald gaze closing off to me with the finality of an iron grate snapping closed. With slow, deliberate steps, he walks toward the edge of the pool and looks me right in the eye, his heady pine-and-citrus scent now taunting me. He’s not mine—he may never be again. “Did you just ask me to throw away my life’s destiny to head off some wildly unlikely threat that’s fluttering in your imagination?”
“I asked you to use your power for someone beyond yourself,” I shoot back.
“Because I’m the only one who can stop the Trials?”
“Yes,” I breathe.
“Not Sage, the headmaster of Great Falls Academy, who is actually in charge? Not Han, who is training the team. Not the Prowess committee, which is making the final decision on venue. Not any of the royals, who are the only reason the Academy even cares about the competition? No, not any of them.” Tye braces both hands on the pool’s edge, looming over me, his glistening muscles vibrating with fury. “What you meant to say, Leralynn, is that I’m the only one you think can be manipulated to do your bidding.”
“I’m not manipulating you. I’m…” My words fumble, the last of my hopes crumbling to dust. I take one last wild stab at reasoning with him. “What do you think Han and Sage are up to exactly? Why bring the Trials here to the edge of the continent when there are far grander cities and bigger arenas elsewhere?”
Tye snorts without humor. “I think the pair of them are using the fruits of my lifetime of training to parley a bunch of snot-nose royals onto a competition pitch. And I think I’m going to swallow it all with a smile for the chance to win. To break out of common poverty into a life that matters. A title. Land. The things that noble-born ladies like you take for bloody granted. Now, if you would kindly take your presumptuous arse out of here, I’d be much obliged.”
Without waiting for my response, Tye turns away—nearly falling into the water as his knee wavers for a moment before his body regains control of itself.
My throat tightens, my plans and hopes all drowning beneath the blood-tinged water. I rise to my feet—then pause, my eyes glued to Tye’s swollen shoulder.
Notallof them.
One last option suddenly looms before me, so terrible it steals my breath. An option that Shade taught me only three days ago. For a moment, with bile crawling up my throat, I consider walking out without the courtesy of telling Tye the horrid move I’m about to make. But at least I’ve enough shame to own my words.
The walls of the bathhouse close around me, the thick humid air we once shared with such pleasure now suffocating me. “I’m going to report you.”
