Page 26 of Great Falls Protector
With one hand covering my mouth and the other holding on to the sheet, I rush to my friend’s side. “Arisha, I am so, so sorry.”
“You bloody immature, idiotic…immortals,” Arisha says, extricating her head from the mess like a vicious hatchling and glaring around the room, a halo of frizzy brown hair rising around her. “Can you not—”
“River is awake and catching up quickly.” Ignoring Arisha’s sputtering, Coal leans his shoulders against the wall and looks at me meaningfully. “That’s what I came to say. It seems, you said nothing to him yesterday after you ran from the exams?”
The temperature in the room plummets at Coal’s words, the sudden tightness in my spine apparently evident enough that even Tye makes no remarks when I drop my sheet to start pulling on clothes.
“He was busy yesterday,” I say.
Coal raises an unimpressed brow. “When I mentioned that you were assaulted by a servant named Zake after fleeing the arena, I thought he was going to combust on the spot.” His blue eyes pierce me so sharply, it’s all I can do not to squirm like a pinned beetle. “In case you forgot, mortal, we need River on our side. Hundreds of human lives depend on it.”
Trust Coal to know exactly where to put the knife—and then twist it. “I think I preferred you without your memories,” I mutter. At least then, my failures had a smaller audience. In the month of being on my own, I’d forgotten that the males’ support came with a healthy dose of oversight. That no matter how much they claim otherwise, I’m yet to prove myself as a warrior—my one year of being immortal stacking up poorly against their centuries of elite training and fighting. With the initial shock of the memories’ return wearing off, the decisions I’ve made—or avoided making—are now unfurling, warts and all.
The worst part is that Coal’s right. Guilt scratches along my skin as the last tingles of denial yield to a wave of nausea.
Riverwaswrapped up all day, first with cadet examinations and then meetings with various royal delegations—but he sent messages with Rabbit three times, asking me to meet him whenever he could snatch a few minutes to himself. To explain why I ran off during exams. To tell him whether I was all right.
“I didn’t know what to say to him.” I pour myself water from a pitcher in an attempt to settle my stomach. It doesn’t work, for my stomach or my mind. But it’s the truth. River has done so much for me—spending hours tutoring me and even going so far as to rig the exams to ensure I could remain at the Academy through the Prowess Trials—and I ran off on him. My heart squeezes as I remember his face when I fled the stage. Shock, worry—hurt. Working up a way to explain my behavior, much less Zake’s identity, without triggering River’s amulet had been a mountain too high for my overwhelmed mind to conquer. “I couldn’t think yesterday.”
Hopping off Arisha’s bed, the wolf trots over to lean his weight against me, his golden eyes narrowing at Coal.
“And you figured saying nothing would do the trick?” says Coal.
Shade snaps his teeth at him.
“I figured I’d have a clearer mind in the morning.” I rub my hands over my face. “How upset is River?”
Snatching my shoes off the floor, Coal tosses them into my hands. “You are about to discover that for yourself. And you’ve lost the chance to do it on your own terms.”
2
Lera
Coal is right—the discussion with River doesn’t happen on my terms. In fact, even calling it adiscussion with Riverturns out to be a stretch.
Standing with my arms folded over my chest, I follow Sage’s pacing back and forth across the plush carpet of his new office while River, Coal, and Tye listen on in tense silence. After summoning us with all haste, Sage and River then kept us waiting so long that Tye’s stomach now growls loudly enough to be heard across the courtyard. I almost envy the male’s hunger—though River has yet to say anything, one gaze from his flat, storm-gray eyes ties my insides into knots that barely tolerate air, much less food.
“This claim of yours, Lady Leralynn, that you were attacked after you left the examination arena… It does seem rather convenient, if I may speak frankly.” Headmaster Sage’s gold chains rattle against each other as he walks, his bald pate shining in the pale morning light. River stands silently in the background in his crisp red jacket, dark hair neatly combed, sternly breathtaking—and utterly unreadable. “An attempt to shift everyone’s attention away from your actions toward someone else’s.”
“I did not find Zake’s assault convenient at all, sir,” I tell Sage, my red dress brushing my ankles as I shift my weight. My face is hot, my hands gripping my arms. I little care what lies Sage wants to twist my words into, but River’s heavy silence is something else entirely. “Without Coal and Tye’s intervention, I might not be standing here.”
At this, River’s jaw tightens dangerously, the first sign that he’s anything but a deputy headmaster watching a student be interrogated. Without moving so much as an inch, he’s suddenly stolen all the air in the room, his broad back and shoulders all but vibrating with tension. And fury. At what he is hearing. Athowhe is hearing of it.
Feeling my throat tighten, I force myself to focus on the room around me lest I lose control of my emotions with River, Coal, and Tye all watching. I’ve held on for this long, navigating the Academy and an invisible enemy on my own, and I’ll be damned if I drop the reins now.
Sage’s office, once at the top of the keep tower, now sprawls over an entire first-floor suite. With wide easy steps, comfortable leather chairs, and fine wines, cheeses, and scones overflowing their platters, the space is set up as a receiving room. As with the arena, flags representing each of the ten kingdoms decorate the wood-paneled walls, while a grand iron candelabra—a mini replica of the one dominating the Great Hall—hangs from the high ceiling in imitation of starlight.
A room meant to entertain kings—the most powerful of whom is currently standing by Sage’s side. Ironically, Sage is as unaware of this fact as the king himself.
Leaning against the wall, Coal turns his face toward the headmaster in a single clean movement that somehow manages to seem lethal. “Given that I took the attacker into custody and questioned him myself, I’d say Leralynn’sclaimis valid.”
Ignoring Coal, Sage opens his palms toward me in a poor imitation of a concerned headmaster. “Lady Leralynn, is it possible you simply stumbled into a servant who misunderstood your intentions? This, sadly, is not the first time I find you in the middle of a creative mess and—for your sake—I want to urge you to put flights of fancy behind you before you land yourself in flames you can no longer escape.”
“There was no misunderstanding,” I tell Sage, my gaze shifting to River in hopes I’ll find something new in the strong planes of his face. But the male is looking out the window, seeming for all the world to be watching two servants sweep the courtyard. “A man named Zake attacked me yesterday. We fought. I won.”
“Why did you not come to me with this yesterday, Lady Leralynn?” River asks suddenly, addressing me directly for the first time this morning. The full force of his gray gaze and deep voice make my heart race. “Certainly something this serious should have been brought to my attention before now. Not to mention any possible explanation for the unacceptable choice of behavior you made at the examinations.” His words ring with righteous authority, but his eyes tell a different story.I shattered my own moral code for you, and you threw it back in my face.
“I—” I cut off, wanting to scream in frustration. I finally have River’s attention, and I’m as much at a loss for words as I was yesterday. Anything I say that he might possibly believe will only trigger his amulet, and any half-truths will only fan his flames higher.
