Page 8 of Great Falls Rogue
Damn. I hurry my pace across the central courtyard, my mind already calculating the location of each piece of gear to make up lost time. To make myself ignore the nagging ache in my chest.
“Leralynn.” River’s voice hits me in the back just as I’m about to step into the safety of the trees.
I swallow a curse. It is well past eight in the evening, a time when getting through the Academy unharassed never poses a problem—bar the one day when I’ve a fickle eradicant to deploy. For a moment, I contemplate feigning deafness, but even I know better than to play such games with River.
Turning around, I bow to the male, begging the stars to make whatever he wants quick. “Sir?”
The few cadets still out veer off to give the deputy headmaster a wide berth. I wonder if it’s the same distance they’d keep from any senior officer or if, without being aware, they feel the aura of centuries of power that River carries on his shoulders.
He gestures his head toward the reflection garden ahead of us, his hands clasped behind his back as if he is taking a leisurely stroll.
My stomach tightens, my gaze darting to the sky to check the moon’s position. Gavriel and Arisha will be making their way to the meeting point by now, wondering where the bloody hell I am.
“Are you expected somewhere this evening?” River inquires with a raised brow, his too-rich voice scattering across my skin.
“The library.” Holding up one of my books, I try to conjure up an air of studious intent. “I’ve a bit of work to catch up on still.”
“I’d always thought the library was located in the opposite direction,” says River.
“My life would be simpler if you occasionally stopped thinking,” I mutter, clearing my throat quickly. “I wanted to change first. Might I go about it, sir? Arisha is waiting for me to study.”
“Why the hurry?” His voice lowers enough to send a chill down my spine. “Copying another’s work can’t possibly be all that time-consuming.”
5
Lera
My heart stops.
River waits, the perfect planes of his face unreadable in the moonlight.
My mind races through the past days. I’ve been careful. So very careful. What does he know? Whatcanhe know? It can’t be all that much. If the male had proof of foul play, he’d be hauling me up to his study, not waylaying my stroll. I force breath into my tightened lungs. He must be fishing for information, looking for me to dig a hole for myself—probably in a renewed attempt to encourage me to leave. I wonder if my common upbringing is as plain to the royal-born River as his high status is to me. If that is why he wants so badly to see me gone.
“I’ve no notion of what you mean, sir.”
He jerks his head toward the entrance of the reflection garden, the order to follow no less strict for being silent.
Schooling my face to what I hope passes for indignation, I follow River’s broad back into the vines, trees, and flowers that turn a space barely a hundred paces long into a maze one can wander for three quarters of an hour, especially in the evening’s darkness. At once, the normal rhythm of the Academy falls away to hide behind dense hedges as tall as River’s head, the thick smell of blooming roses filling the air. Somewhere close by, a small man-made waterfall burbles over smooth stones, further drowning the noise beyond. The ticking time.
Walking with his hands clasped behind his back, River has the straight spine and long, unhurried stride of a king. “Why are you here, Leralynn of Osprey?” he demands, his voice low.
“Why am I where?” I echo the question, my pulse racing. “In the gardens?”
He lengthens his stride, then cuts in front of me so sharply, I stumble back just to avoid running into his large chest. A storm moves in his gray eyes, tightening the world around us with its intensity. River’s woodsy scent fills my nose, pushing away the perfume of roses and ferns. “You understood my question well enough, Leralynn. Why are you here at the Academy? It isn’t to forge alliances, or you’d have known better than to force Princess Katita to her knees. It isn’t for academics, or you’d be doing your own damn work. It isn’t to please the Lord of Osprey, or you’d be making an effort to avoid notice, fearing the hell you’d pay should a bad report be sent. So I repeat. Why are you at Great Falls?”
A shiver runs through me, the amulet around my neck burning hot in warning. The last time I went against the veil’s magic, Coal paid in screams of agony. My mind races, and there is nothing feigned about the fear rising through my core. Rushing through River’s choices, I know I can’t deny the first and last options, which leaves only one available route. One that an innocent cadet would certainly take.
“This is the second time you’ve implied that someone else is writing my papers, sir, which is as insulting as it is untrue. I’m here to study and would very much like to do so tonight.” Raising my chin, I step forward to get past the male, my mind promising me that he has no proof. Not yet.
River’s palm slams into a tree trunk behind by head.
I jump, the slapping sound echoing through my bones, my lungs breathing in a phantom stench of turned wine and rancid sweat that clings to Zake’s clothes.My heart stutters, my mouth suddenly dry as the man towers over me, his thick arm blocking my path. My shoulders curl, bracing for the coming blow, my breath caught in my throat as my heart pounds—
“Leralynn?” River’s voice splashes over me like ice water, washing away Zake’s memory. River, not Zake. Stunning, large, and infuriatingRiver.The reality that had momentarily fogged over recrystallizes into focus just as quickly. I scowl at the male whose muscled arm blocks my path and shove the arm away.
River’s arm gives only a hand width, a condescending shift along the tree’s trunk that sends a jolt of fury through my already primed core. My racing blood heats, now rushing so fast that it rumbles in my ears, feeding the tension vibrating the air between us. “I’m here to study,” I say again. “Now let me pass.”
As if my deception struck a tender spot, a storm passes over his face, turning his gray eyes to thunder.
