Pearl turns to the others with a bounce of her blond curls. “It isn’t fair to expect him to keep his feelings totally secret when she has a power like that. Hasn’t most of the trouble she’s gotten into at the academy been because of her noticing her classmates’ feelings when they’d rather she didn’t?”
Gnash lets out a dismissive grunt and focuses back on me. “If what you’re saying is true, why do you think she attached herself to you this way?”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “But it wasn’t only me. It was all four of us who were part of the team. We’d just had a major victory—she dealt with a sorcerer who’d held her captive in the past—a lot of other emotions were running high. From what she’s said, it mostly came out of happiness about what we’d all accomplished together, not romantic feelings.”
Toni clasps her hands on the tabletop. “That does line up with what Rollick reported.”
Shanty nods, her dark eyes trained on me. “We’ll be speaking with the team you were supervising for additional details. For now, I don’t think there’s any reason to enforce sanctions. You can return to teaching your regular classes tomorrow as planned.”
She pauses, her gaze flicking to my chest where my shirt conceals the mark. “Take some time today to sort out your thoughts. I’m sure you have a lot to consider.”
No kidding.
“Thank you.” I dip my head respectfully and get up. I might be a board member, but that’s mainly because of my sorcerous powers. I’m fully aware that even Toni has more than a decade of experience on me. The shadowkind members have centuries.
It wouldn’t be much of a loss for them to kick me out if they thought I’d exploited my position to prey on a student.
As I leave the room, my innards feel just as tangled as before. Seeing Sorsha propped against the wall in the hallway outside loosens the tension just a little.
My foster mom offers me a crooked smile and motions for me to walk with her. “I heard the bigwigs ambushed you. I hope it wasn’t too harsh a conversation.”
I shake my head. “They asked the questions anyone would have asked. It’s an unusual situation, without any precedent. I didn’t know you’d stuck around.”
“Not for long. I wanted to check on you before we left.” She sweeps her flame-red ponytail back over her shoulder and peers at me from her nearly equal height. “You couldn’t have been prepared for anything like this. Are you going to be okay?”
The phoenix shifter has never been particularly maternal, but I’ve never doubted that my well-being matters to her. She and the shadowkind men who helped raise me made sure I was comfortable, entertained, and protected, which is more than many parents by birth accomplish.
As I’ve gotten older, it’s become more obvious that Sorsha is mostly winging the whole foster mom thing. All the same, it’s nice to have someone looking out for me.
I shrug with feigned nonchalance, because there isn’t much she can do if I say I don’t know. Her phoenix fire isn’t going toburn away this connection—and I’d rather not find out what’d happen if she tried.
“It’s done,” I say. “It might not last. Even if it does, it doesn’t havethatmuch impact on my life if I don’t let it. Just one more adjustment.”
“Well, if you need any advice on complicated matters of the heart, I’m not sure how much I could offer, but Ruse would be more than happy to weigh in.”
A genuine chuckle tumbles out of me. I bet her beloved incubus has plenty he’d like to say about this situation and how I should handle it, but I suspect his attitude would be a lot more permissive than should apply in my situation. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
She ruffles my hair. “We’re only a phone call away.”
When she’s gone, the mix of trepidation and guilt rises up inside me again. I wander toward my room in the staff quarters, but the thought of sitting still itches at me.
I end up heading outside and setting off across one of the hiking trails that winds through the dry New Mexico terrain toward the ruddy mountains in the distance. Normally if I wanted a workout, I’d go to the gym or the climbing wall, but I feel the need to get some literal distance from the being who marked me.
And the climbing wall reminds me of my conversation with Peri out there—when she attempted the wall herself and her fall led to us nearly kissing.
My feet smack the hard-packed earth with satisfying thuds. I pick up my pace to a jog, looking to work up a sweat under the late-spring sun. When my heart is pounding and my muscles are stretching, the exertion burns away the mental clutter for a sense of clarity.
At least, it usually does. I’ve only made it maybe a mile from the school buildings when a prickling sensation runs through the middle of my chest beneath the mark.
At first I ignore the mild discomfort. But as I lope onward, the prickling deepens into a full out spike.
I stop, peering down at myself, and the pain doesn’t ebb. It pulses on alongside that distant heartbeat that isn’t mine.
Fuck. It appears this link between us comes with a short leash.
With a shiver that’s at odds with the warm desert air, I turn and start back the way I came.
3
