The armchair swung around, revealing Kailin.
Understanding shining in her eyes, she smiled. "Exiled from your room?"
"Temporarily displaced," I corrected, settling into the armchair next to hers. "At least I hope it's temporary, or I will have to sleep on one of these couches if Shovia is not back before curfew."
"Is that your way of asking me if she told me her plans?"
I nodded.
"She said she would see how it goes and not to wait up for her." Kailin closed her book, keeping one finger between the pages to mark her place. "We didn't have the opportunity to talk about your first flight during dinner. How did it go?"
I looked away to hide the guilt in my eyes.
Kailin had arrived late, and before she'd gotten there, I had learned that Commander Ravel had been her flight instructor. I'd promised myself not to obsess over their special relationship and accept it as a given, but it wasn't easy. Afraid that I would say something I would later regret, I'd engaged in the general flow of conversation around the table and avoided talking to Kailin privately.
"It was indescribable," I admitted. "There's something about being that high in the sky and seeing the world from that perspective..." I trailed off, searching for words adequate to describe the experience. "It changes you, makes you feel superior, which I know is wrong, but we belong to a very exclusive club now."
I was a member of another exclusive club, the monarchy of Catonia, but somehow being a rider meant more to me.
"I know what you mean," Kailin said. "Very few people ever get to experience it, but that makes me feel privileged rather than superior."
Elucians were compelled to tell the truth, so I knew she meant what she'd said, but perhaps she just wasn't all that attuned to her own feelings. There was no way being chosen didn't make her feel superior.
"How about your fear of heights?" I asked. "How did you manage that?"
I really didn't want to bring up Commander Ravel and how she must have felt secure with his arms around her.
A shadow crossed her eyes. "It went well, I think. Commander Ravel distracted me with stories about dragons and how they enjoy engaging in gossip."
"Really?" I was proud of myself for not reacting to her mention of the commander. "What do they gossip about?"
"Everything, it would seem, but mostly riders. He told me that my brother's dragonia sings his praise to the other dragons, so to speak."
"Well, that kind of makes sense. There isn't much else dragons can do to entertain themselves after they are done hunting for the day, and since they communicate telepathically with one another, they don't even have to be close to each other to gossip."
"It's not…" she trailed off. "So, are you planning to camp out here until Shovia returns?"
I glanced around the empty lounge. "That was the idea, though it looks like I might end up sleeping on one of these couches. I doubt they'll be done before curfew."
"That would be against academy rules," she pointed out. "Page 43 of the rulebook explicitly states that cadets must be in their assigned quarters after curfew unless given special dispensation by the floor monitor."
I raised an eyebrow, impressed. "You've memorized the rulebook, including what page every rule was written on?"
"Not all of it. But the section on curfew violations caught my attention because the penalties seemed particularly harsh."
"So, what do you suggest? That I knock on the door and tell them to be done before curfew?"
She hesitated for a moment. "Worst case scenario, if it's almost curfew time and Shovia is not back yet, you can sleep in her bed."
The suggestion caught me off guard, sending a rush of heat through my body and getting me instantly hard, but a moment later, reason cleared the haze of lust, and I realized that Kailin hadn't issued an invitation to anything other than using her friend's bed.
"Thank you." I shifted the book so it was hiding the evidence of my arousal. "I hope it won't come to that."
Kailin gave me a quizzical look as if that hadn't been the response she'd hoped for.
Had I been misreading the situation?
The slight flush that colored her cheeks made me wonder if perhaps her thoughts hadn't been entirely innocent after all, and the possibility sent another surge of heat through me.
