Page 6 of Destinies of Diamond
Pain exploded through me, but on the bright side, nothing broke. Typhon was there to cushion the blow and mend my wounds.“I do wish you engaged in a safer mating ritual, hatchling,”he muttered.
I ignored him, my attention still completely on Knox. Knox wasn’t really trying to hurt me anyway. He let go of me instead of pinning me down, and I took advantage of this to shoot to my feet and launch my counterattack.
I got a few good hits in before Knox decided to take things further. He intercepted my fist and finally buried his claws into my flesh. It hurt, but I didn’t flinch.
Blood trickled down my arm from my wrist. I tasted copper and lust in my mouth and grinned savagely. “Now who’s the one playing dirty?”
He stared at me and blinked several times. Slowly, his eyes started to clear and his sharp grin softened into a more human expression. His hold on me loosened. “I suppose both of us are,” he answered.
Just like that, he crushed his mouth to mine. I kissed him back, the familiarity of his taste comforting and arousing at the same time. These past couple of days had been tense and dreadful, since Selene had been giving us the cold shoulder. We all needed to let out some of our tension.
Unfortunately for me, we hadn’t chosen the best time and place for such activities. The sound of a cleared throat interrupted us before we could do much more than kiss.
We broke away, only to see Commander Trevor now standing next to us. “Well, this is an example on what… not to do on the training field. Usually, you don’t make out with your opponents, Flight Lieutenant Alexander.”
“Of course not,” Knox replied without missing a beat. “I wouldn’t use such a method on my enemies.”
“This is a unique case,” I added just as calmly.
“A unique case?” Commander Trevor repeated with a scowl. “What do you mean?”
“I’m clearly an undercover agent and he was verifying my credentials.”
Commander Trevor stared at us like he’d never seen us before. To be fair, the whole conversation had gone entirely off the rails. I couldn’t believe I was saying these things either.
Maybe Knox wasn’t the only one whose sanity was slipping. I hadn’t been dealing with things all that well either after that whole business in Eos. Mercifully, Commander Trevor didn’t seem to find the whole exchange as out of character as it was.
“I’m dealing with children. Just keep it in your pants, Prince Brendan, or I will find a way to forbid fraternization between students.”
I barely managed to suppress a flinch. That was a pretty useful threat, since the school’s policy on relationships had always been a somewhat scandalous topic for debate. It always tended to get shelved because most people didn’t deem it as important as the budget for shuttle repairs, but Selene’s arrival and my relationship with my lovers could change that too.
“Sir, Yes, Sir,” I replied. Secretly, I wondered when Commander Trevor had become someone I was supposed to fear.
Commander Trevor nodded jerkily and left us to finish our sparring session. The rest of our teams went back to their fight as well. They’d been distracted by our little display, but now, the show was over.
Knox and I didn’t actually settle our match, since the class ended before either of us could win. It didn’t bother me. Instead, as we left the training yard, I studied Commander Trevor again.
Yes, something was definitely not right with him, and I had to find out what it was. I couldn’t afford to take any chances. I was already risking and hiding too much. If I wasn’t careful, everything might blow up in my face all over again and Selene would pay the price for my recklessness.
Private Affairs
Selene
The evening after the announcement, we all received our assignments, just like Commander Trevor had promised. We reviewed everything together, in our dorms, curious to see if we matched in any way.
As he flipped through the file he’d received, Brendan let out a deep sigh. “Looks like I’ll have to report to my uncle throughout this time. This won’t end well. What about you guys?”
“Me too,” August said. “I have an assignment with the dean, although it’s not clear what I’m supposed to do.”
“I’m with Professor Achebe,” Knox muttered. “Why in the world did they assign me to him?”
Pollux huffed in irritation. “Consider yourself lucky. I’ll have to run errands for Lord Welton. Selene, who did you get?”
“Commander Trevor,” I said. I actually felt a little relieved. He’d supported me ever since I’d arrived at the academy and had taught me a lot of things, without looking down on me or making feel inadequate. Maybe I’d finally had a stroke of good fortune.
Silence fell over the room. For some reason, it felt ominous and I temporarily abandoned studying the hologram in favor of looking at my lovers.
They were all staring at me with strangely intense expressions on their faces. I frowned, wondering what in Gaia’s name they were hiding now. “What is it?” I asked, not bothering to suppress my irritation.
