Page 9 of Great Falls Rogue
“You are lying.” His nostrils flare, the restrained, dignified male beside me shifting into the fae predator beneath.
At once, I am aware of how isolated the reflection garden is.Don’t move a muscle,my mind screams at me even as heat pools low in my rebellious body, my instincts waking despite my mind’s orders. I’m a predator now too, and the leashed violence surrounding us is impossible to ignore. A tangle of need races from my sex, down the backs of my thighs, making my toes curl.
River growls.
For a moment, all I can think of is his bedchamber, River’s naked body silhouetted against an evening sun. It’s been so long since I was allowed to press myself against that body, feel its ridges and contours against every curve of my own. Magic rouses inside me, filling my muscles and lungs with a power that can do nothing in this shackled world, but will try anyway. My face tilts up to meet the fury of his eyes. “With due respect, why doyouthink I’m here, Deputy Headmaster?”
He leans down toward my face, the air between us sizzling.
Wetness slithers along the inside of my thigh, my sex throbbing painfully. I don’t know whether I want to put my fist through the male’s nose or rut with him right here amidst the manicured ferns. I bare my teeth, flashing the fangs he can’t see but no doubt feels with whatever part of him remains fae.
River’s pulse hammers hard enough that I can hear its pounding. Once. Twice. Then the male finally speaks. “I don’t know.” His voice is a low, primal bass. “But I will find out.” Shoving away from the tree, he turns and stalks free of the garden, while I press my back against the rough bark.
Dong. Dong. Dong.The distant bell calls, announcing the time window I so gloriously missed and dooming the eradicant batch to spoiling before we ever try it out.
* * *
“Everything you are,you have, you’ll ever become is because of my good graces.” Zake’s voice snaps along with the deafening crack of his belt. The strap ends wrap around my ribs, making me scream loud enough that the horses whicker in discontent. “When I order a horse saddled, you saddle a horse. You don’t lie. You don’t pretend he’s lame to save yourself a bit of work.”
If you took him out again, hewouldbe lame.I swallow the retort because it doesn’t matter. Zake works his horses until they break, then puts them down in search ofbetter stock.
A pain slices through my back, so sharp and deep that my knees buckle. I slide down the wall, pressing myself into a corner.
Zake looms over me, his chest heaving, the scar on his furious red face filling my vision. My breath comes in short bursts, my heart racing so quickly that my hands shake. It isn’t over. I know it isn’t. My stomach cinches, the gripping fear making me dizzy.
“Get back up and face the wall,” Zake says too calmly for the pounding inside my head, his belt slapping softly against his own thigh. “We are not done, and it will be worse for you if I have to force you.”
I lurch awake to rushed strokes of a lupine tongue lapping my face, Shade whining softly as he steps all over my chest. Outside the window, a hint of light outside speaks of wee morning hours.
“Bad dreams?” Arisha asks, sitting up in her own bed.
The terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach calms slowly as I try to shove two hundred pounds of wolf off me. “Nothing of consequence.” I rub my face, debating the merits of going back to sleep. Maybe I’ll take it easy today for once, find some time to nap between classes. My gaze shifts back to the window, the faint gray light dispelling that fantasy in favor of the grim truth tightening my chest. There will be no rest today. It’s Ostera eve.
6
Lera
Come ride with me
The horses paw ground.
Come fly with me
There’re secrets to be found.
The stunning singer closes her eyes, swaying to her own melody while a string ensemble behind her fills the Great Hall with soul-gripping music, all the way to its high arched rafters. Beneath the silk ribbons and flower garlands of Ostera, cadets and instructors dressed in brilliant shades of blue and gold finery swing across the dance floor, their intricate steps perfectly matching. The hundreds of candles and lanterns make them look like a swirling mass of daylight. Even when royals from different kingdoms connect hands, the basic steps of the dance come easily to the experienced partners. Yes, they’ve all had dancing lessons. Probably at about the same time they learned to read and ride horses and calculate the amount of grain needed for ten winters in an imaginary kingdom with seven seasons.
“Where are you going?” I grab Arisha’s wrist as the girl takes a determined step toward the exit. Dressed in a pale yellow gown with embroidered sunflowers trailing up its bodice, Arisha looks like a proper lady for the ball—or did before the sneezing and face rubbing smeared lip paint and kohl in dark patches over her skin. “You can’t leave me alone here.”
Arisha dabs her nose. “I need to help Uncle Gavriel get your…things…ready for tonight.”
I wince. With me getting ambushed by River last night, the eradicant batch I was supposed to test had gone bad before I could deploy it. My fault, even if Arisha tries to pretend it isn’t. Which all means tonight will be it. With the added potency Ostera equinox infuses into magic, we can’t let the singular opportunity pass, so Gavriel is preparing the whole batch. Nerve-racking as the thought is, however, I’d still rather be out there in the wilderness than stay here.
“You can handle one more hour.” Arisha pats my hand, her voice dropping. “Midnight, Lera. You leave here at midnight, as soon as the requisite Ostera waltz is over.”
“Why can’t I leave now?”
Arisha looks at me over her glasses. “BecauseI’mleaving now, and that will draw enough attention without you disappearing as well. No one leaves the ball before the Ostera waltz—that’s the whole point of the celebration. River is already watching you like a bloody hawk—do you truly want to draw extra scrutiny to yourself just to avoid a few hours of socializing?”
