Page 85 of Shadow Caster
“Fuck you, Larkin.”
“You wish.”
They both fell into silence. Shit. Did they know I was there? Wait, why was I hovering at the end of the corridor? I lived here.
“Eavesdropping.” Larkin materialized in front of me.
I pushed past him. “Going to my room.”
I passed Hyde’s door. It was open. He sat on the edge of the bed, and there was blood. Lots of blood.
“What happened.” I rushed in and fell to my knees in front of him. His arm was covered in blood.
“I’m fine. Just the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“You’re no longer a shadow knight,” Larkin said from the doorway. “Remember that.” He vanished.
There was a bowl of water on the ground and several clean washcloths. Had Larkin been about to clean up the wound? I dipped a towel in the water, wrung it out, and began to wipe at Hyde’s bicep. Three neat lacerations appeared beneath the blood. But they were already clotting up.
I winced as I cleaned, but Hyde didn’t even flinch.
I peered up at him. “What did this?”
“A fomorian. We caught up to the raiding party where sectors two and three meet. They attacked.”
“The fomorian said those raiders were fir bolg.”
He snorted. “They looked fomorian to me.”
“But surely they would have been gone by now. They can’t stay in the mist that long.”
“Henrich, the shadow master, believes this was another wave. A new raiding party.”
“And you weren’t supposed to be there?”
“I’m a tutor, not a knight.” His smile was self-deprecating. “I teach others how to fight, but I’m no longer considered fit to serve.”
“Firstly, I think that’s bullshit. You have a bionic leg. That makes you even more kick-ass, in my opinion.”
He arched a brow. “Really? You think my bionic leg is kick-ass?” A smile hovered on his lips, and amusement sparked in his eyes.
My heart did a little skip and a jump because damn, he was fucking beautiful.
“Yeah … Yeah, I do. I think …” Don’t say it. Just don’t … “I think everything about you is amazing. I think …” I licked my lips. “I think you’re beautiful.”
Oh, shit, it was out there. Again. My heart was thudding so hard in my chest, I thought it would burst out of my ribcage. Blood rushed in my ears, like the call of the sea.
The smile on his lips wilted, and a storm churned in his eyes. “You shouldn’t think those things, Indigo. You shouldn’t say them. I thought I made that clear.”
“Yeah, you did. But then you reach for me, or you look at me, and I can see you want me too.” A fist squeezed my heart. “I get you don’t want to feel … whatever it is you feel for me. I know I shouldn’t. But heck, I do a lot of shit I shouldn’t do.”
“And you’re better than that,” he said. “Better than me, better than most of the cadets out there.” His hand was on my shoulder and then sliding up to cup the back of my neck. Heat radiated out over my skin where his palm and fingers made contact. He leaned in and pressed his forehead to mine. “Being a shadow knight is your calling, and you mustn’t let anything come between you and your destiny.”
Larkin’s words came back to me now. “What did Larkin mean? What did he mean byit was a blessing?”
His fingers flexed on the back of my neck, and then he withdrew from me, sitting back to look at me with a hooded gaze. “That was a private conversation.” His tone was suddenly glacial. He snatched the towel from my hand. “Thank you for your help, but I’ve got this.”
What? That was it?
