Page 4 of Shadow Weaver
Stop.
Just stop.
He stood before us now, dressed casually in cargo pants and a black vest that left his muscled arms bare and revealed the tattoo that snaked down his neck and over the top of his right pectoral. His arms were crossed in his classic I-mean-business pose.
I had yet to look up at his face. To lock gazes with him. To see that spark in his eyes before he squashed it.
“Two more weeks,” he said. “After that, you’ll be moved to the fortress for fast-track orientation with Master Venerick.”
I couldn’t help it. I had to look at him. I lifted my attention to his face and grazed his hard jaw and firm lips before roving over the brutal scars that ran diagonally across his face to pause at his blue-green eyes. Eyes that didn’t look back at me, that were studiously fixed on the other side of the room.
My heart sank a little.
“You’ll be allocated a bed in the dorms for your orientation week,” he continued, “after which you’ll be given your training schedule and work orientation rota.” He skimmed the group, skipping over me as his gaze went back and forth. “I’ve let Venerick know you’ve worked well as part of this troop so you may get lucky. He may not reallocate you. Either way, you’ll be spending most of your time in barracks three through five, which are in sector two.” He dropped his hands and flexed his fists. “With the holidays almost at an end, most of the masters at the Academy will be taking portal leave. The Academy will be running on a skeleton staff, but if you need anything, you can go to Master Vince, myself, or Larkin.”
“You’re not taking leave?” Carlo asked out of turn.
Annoyance flashed across Hyde’s cut-glass features. I waited for the reprimand, but it didn’t come. “No. I’ll be … around,” he said quickly.
Around. No specifics then. And he still hadn’t looked my way. My heart squeezed painfully in my chest.
Harmon’s hand slid onto my lap palm upwards. The knot eased a bit, and I slipped my hand into his to receive a squeeze. I shot him a quick, grateful smile, and when I looked back at Hyde, it was to find his intense gaze fixed on my face.
Finally.
His attention dropped to my hand, entwined with Harmon’s, and heat flared in his eyes, but it was gone in a blink.
“Dismissed,” he snapped before striding from the room.
Brady got up and walked off to the control room with Lloyd in tow. Aidan, Devon, and Carlos began to chat amongst themselves. I could feel Harmon’s and Thomas’s hot gazes on either side of my face.
For a moment, there was nothing but an empty pit in my belly, and then that pit was filled with a bubbling lava of indignation. How dare Hyde treat me like this? Like I was invisible one moment and a burr the next? Fine, so he didn’t want anything to happen between us, that didn’t mean he needed to be a wanker about it? Why not just be civil?
I made to stand, jaw tense.
Harmon gripped my hand tighter. “Justice … don’t.”
I shook my head slowly. “I have to.”
“Let her,” Thomas said softly. “I think she needs to do this.”
He released me with a sigh. “Then be cool about it. Take a breath.”
I nodded, took a deep breath, and headed after Hyde.
* * *
I caughtHyde inside the workshop, on his way to the garage door release.
“Master Hyde?”
He froze with his hand on the release button. “If you have any questions about the fast track then you can speak to Vince.” His tone was clipped.
“No.”
“No?” He turned to face me slowly. “No, you don’t have questions about the fast track, or no you don’t wish to address them to Vince?”
He had his hard face on, the mask of the master, and I could almost feel the ice between us.
