Page 35 of Great Falls Protector
I make a move toward the door, desperate to be out there helping, but River’s steely hand closes over my arm. “Don’t even think about it,” he murmurs, eyes still on the crowd.
I twist my arm out of his hold with a sudden burst of fury. “You want to tell me what in star’s name is going on with you?”
“You think I’m the one who owes you an explanation?” Pulling away from his observations of the Great Hall, River stands to his full, formidable height and levels me with his gaze.
My back tightens, the sting from the verbal lashing rousing my own ire. “You just dragged me across the Academy and locked me in here. Of all the times to indulge in mood swings, River—”
“I dragged you across the Academy from a fire, Leralynn.” River towers over me, his voice grim. Shoulders spread, penetrating gaze intent on my face, the male looks every inch the lethal warrior. Beside his powerful thigh, his hand opens and closes as if the energy and tension coursing through his hard muscle needs some way to escape. It’s a testament to the male’s mastery of himself that the whole keep isn’t shaking now, his body controlling its magic with the very instinct I still lack.“A fire that you set. With magic. How long have you been a member of the Night Guard,LadyLeralynn of Osprey?”
8
Lera
Istare dumbly at River. The ice slithering over my skin morphs to a prickling heat.
My mouth is dry, my heart knocking against my ribs, echoing through the small chamber. “Have you lost your mind?” I enunciate each word as if speaking to someone slow of thought. “I’m the one who’s been telling you nonstop that you have a problem with the Night Guard. Why would I be working with the very people I’ve been openly trying to stop?”
A low growl escapes beneath River’s breath. “I saw you. Right before the arena went up in flames.”
“Doing what?” My voice rises, drowning out the clamor in the Great Hall below.
“Doing magic.” River’s fingers flex at his side, his voice never rising above a dangerous murmur. “You were angry. You extended your hands. You set the fire.”
“I was trying to stop Han from murdering Tye in cold blood!” My nostrils flare, drawing in the musk of the antechamber with every breath. “Maybe if you’d been paying attention to that bastard instead of trotting around doing Sage’s job for him, you could have stopped that little problem before it happened.”
I’ve struck a nerve. River leans over me, his teeth flashing as he speaks. “Then you don’t deny setting the fire?”
I rise on the balls of my feet, forcing him to lean back, taking up the air between us as effectively as he did. “By accident, not by Night Guard order.”
The male steps back, his face paler than it was moments ago, the sudden silence in the room as loud as thunder. “So Zake told me the truth. Youarefae.”
River hadn’t believed Coal’s claim and had gone to talk to Zake himself. I exhale in a sharp puff, my thoughts tearing between gratitude that none of Zake’s words set off River’s amulet and annoyance at which highlights the pompous immortal ass decided to focus on. “How do you talk to Zake and walk away thinking thatI’mthe fae you need to worry about? Or did the impending Night Guard attack not bloody come up?”
River flips his wrist, sliding a knife from his sleeve into his palm. “Show me your true self, fae.” He spits the last word like a slur.
“You’re pulling a knife on me?” I shove River in the chest and am as surprised as the male himself when he stumbles back into the wall behind him. Blood rushes loudly in my ears, the whole antechamber feeling hot as blazing furnace. “Do you actually think, with any shred of logic, that I’m working with the Night Guard?”
“I think you’re working toward your own end, and always have been.” River snarls and pushes himself off the wall to regain his coiled fighting stance. I can’t believe we’ve come to this, facing each other like two enemies on a battlefield. “I said, let me see you.”
Before I have time to second-guess it, I reach to the back of my neck and snap open the clasp. The dreaded relic clatters to the stone floor with a high-pitchedting,a weight lifting off my senses at once. Despite everything—the fire, River, Zake—my body can’t help but pause to savor its first breaths with both the amulet and the mortal world’s wards gone. Power thrums through my veins. Deep inside my core, my freed mating bond pulses along with my heart—a bond River’s veil will not let him feel. The one he wouldn’t want, even if it were offered. “Happy now?” I ask.
River doesn’t answer.
Standing frozen for the first time since I’ve met him, the male simply looks at me, his beautiful face laid bare. His gaze drinks in my face and ears and body with a reverence usually reserved for the stars alone. The first breath he draws into his lungs makes his chest expand against his coat, his clean scent overpowering all others in the space, even headier now with my amulet off. Bringing his fingers to his lips, River exhales slowly, the wonder that colored his face only moments ago melting into something different. Regret.
“River?” I reach a hand toward him.
“No.” His eyes shutter, and he steps back quickly, the knife in his free hand shifting to a different grip. “Don’t touch me.”
I flinch, letting my hand drop to my side. An ache twisting deep in my soul creeps out into my newly sensitive body, magnifying each small way River’s rejection cuts into my flesh. My chin shifts to point at the weapon in his grip. “You want to kill me?” I ask.
“Want? Stars, no.” The strong, smooth planes of the male’s face are drawn so tight that I can see the small muscles twitching along his jaw and the shimmer of silver pooling along his lower lids. He swallows, his throat bobbing. “But you’ve the power and will to set an arena full of innocent people on fire, Leralynn,” River says quietly. “And every tale you spin is a lie. I’ve tried everything I could, but there are no more chances. No more risks I can take with so many people’s lives at stake.”
The tears welling in River’s eyes spill quietly onto his chiseled face now, making my throat ache with tears of my own. Then his words—and the knife still in his hand—register, leaving me too shocked to move.
“I have to stop you,” says River.
My heart pounds, pain branching through my chest and limbs, seizing my air. Because…because maybe River is right. I am dangerous. Not from malevolence—but from sheer, bloody incompetence. From the moment I shattered that rune tablet that made the males absorb the veil amulets, to my ongoing failures to make any progress in securing the wards or even convincing Sage to stop the trials, to now outright setting the arena on fire—it’s all been me. I’m the common denominator. I glance at the wall separating us from the Great Hall, echoing louder now with the frightened voices of parents and children seeking each other out, whimpering in fear and pain. I did all that too. I lost control of magic despite knowing it returned—all while River contains his own power on instinct. Even Tye, who was in the midst of an acrobatic stunt when the wards faltered, kept his flames moving as precisely as scalpel cuts.
