Page 62 of Shadow Weaver
A heavy weight settled on my chest. “I know. I know this can’t be a thing. I get it.”
He pulled back and locked gazes with me. “You do?”
I nudged his nose with mine. “Orion’s law.”
He sucked in a breath. “How?”
“It doesn’t matter how. I understand.”
He swallowed hard and rolled his forehead against mine. “If I could …”
I scanned his face to note the longing there, the truth of his feelings. Feelings that rivaled mine.
I licked my lips. “I know.”
“This can’t happen again,” he whispered. “If we’re found out …”
I nodded mutely, fighting the threat of tears.
He kissed me once more, softly, then lowered me to the ground.
With a final lingering glance, he turned back to the scope, and I escaped down the stairs to get cleaned up and file this moment away.
* * *
I staredat the slats on the bed above. Watchtower duty had been over for an hour. Mal and Gimble had taken over for Hyde and me. And thank goodness they had. The hour we’d spent up there after we’d brought each other to climax was silent and dreadful and filled with words neither of us could say.
Mal and Gimble turning up had been a relief. Hyde had retreated to the control room, and I’d escaped to the dorm. The others would be back off patrol soon. The stints were short as Hyde had set up a tight perimeter for us to monitor, but when I’d checked the patrol rota, my name wasn’t on there, and it pissed me off. I needed to be out in the mist doing something, because I couldn’t do the one thing I desperately wanted. I couldn’t get Harmon back.
A shadow fell over me. “Did you have sex with Hyde?” Thomas asked. “I was just with him, and he reeks of you, and you stink of him. You both reek of sex pheromones.”
Damn nightblood senses.
I rolled onto my side to face him. “We did not have sex.”
His eyes widened. “Bullshit.”
I sat up. “Not sex. And it’s over. I don’t want to talk about it.”
Thomas opened and closed his mouth as if wanting to push the issue, but then he threw up his hands. “Fine. I get it. Shit is complicated.” He tugged off his boots. “I just spoke to Brady.”
I sat up quickly. “He’s here? He’s back?”
Thomas held up his hands. “Whoa, chill. No, I spoke to him on the radio.” He looked at me pityingly. “Indie, man. You have it bad.”
I slumped back down on my pillow. “I need to hit something, but Hyde has me on fucking watchtower duty most of the week.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what the radio call was about. New rota from the fortress. The knights are in the process of preparing sector three for end-of-term trial.”
Oh, fuck, with everything else going on I’d forgotten that we were going to be tested before we could graduate.
“Like we haven’t dealt with enough crap already? You’d think they’d skip the fake shit and just fast-track us already. Our people were taken, for fucksake! There are tunnels running under the mist, and goodness knows what else is coming for us. We need to be active, not playing games to prove our worth.”
Thomas’s jaw ticked. “Yeah, I agree. But we don’t matter. Not yet. Not until we get the knighthood. There is one bit of good news, though.”
“What?”
“First years have been roped into tunnel guard duty.”
