A slow smile curled on Theo’s lips. “I’m impressed.”
Jade cocked her head, their eyes locked. “Didn’t believe I could take you down? Or have you lost that deadly edge?”
Theo chuckled once, his words quiet enough for no one else to hear. “No, I think I’m only weak when it comes to you.”
Her heart should have been slowing down as the fight came to a halt and her body stilled, but it only pounded harder and faster against her ribcage. Jade’s eyes flicked down to Theo’s parted lips almost involuntarilybefore meeting his gaze again. Her breathing deepened, and she hoped he hadn’t noticed her wandering glance, but the slight crinkle at the corners of his eyes told her otherwise.
Jade pressed her lips together and swallowed hard, trying to return her being to normalcy, barely able to ignore the things her heart was screaming at her.
“You win,” Theo said, and for a split second, Jade didn’t know what he was referring to. Then she was brought back to the mat, their position, the arena, the people watching them. She cleared her throat and pushed back before hopping to her feet. Theo collected both his knives in his left hand as Jade offered her arm to help him up. He took it, grasping her bare forearm for a moment longer and drawing infinitesimally closer to her. Theo’s eyes latched onto hers, and he searched her gaze for a moment. His lips parted as if to speak, but something in his face changed as though he reconsidered before he spoke.
Something held him back, but what? The other troopers? Uncertainty about how Jade might respond?
“Well, I guess you don’t have to polish boots for a month, Ni’ihm.” He flashed a grin before holding out his hand for her weapon and then collecting the last one from the mat.
Jade sucked in a deep breath after he turned away from her to return the weapons to the racks. She’d managed to win their spar, but barely. Theo’s grip around her waist as he had pinned her against his chest had thrown her for a loop.
He appeared beside her at the bench where they’d left their jackets, and Jade jumped. She’d been so lost in her swirling thoughts she hadn’t noticed his approach. In a swift movement, she slung her jacket onto her arms and started to button it.
“That really was an excellent maneuver you used to break my hold. But, to be fair, I had you. If it were a real fight, you wouldn’t have walked away.”
Theo’s head barely tilted in her direction as he also donned his jacket, but Jade didn’t miss the redness to his cheeks. Was it from the exertion of the spar? Or something else...
“Good thing it wasn’t a real fight.” Jade finished with the buttons and tugged the hem of her jacket. Theo craned his neck to face her fully, and she grinned with closed lips. He laughed once, dropping his head to focus on his buttons. “And don’t worry,” she continued, “I’ll get loads of satisfaction handing my boots over to you every time they need a polish.”
Theo scoffed, but Jade simply kept her cheeky grin plastered to her face. “Try not to enjoy ittoomuch.” He fitted his cap back atop his head, homing in her stare to his sea blue eyes.
She shrugged. “Get some rest, Captain Redman. I think you need it.” Jade strode past him without another word, needing to get in the fresh air and clear her head.
Maybe she should have said something to Theo then and there. Surely he noticed the same energy between them that she did. But she hadn’t want to confess any private feelings to Theo when other soldiers were present. It could wait.
Jade had nothing until hour seventeen, when she was scheduled to have a logistics meeting before dinner at eighteen half. She needed a shower, having collapsed in bed following the ball and then immediately heading to base for the debrief with Matherson when she woke up.
Jade closed the door to her bedroom and unlaced her boots, kicking them off without a care and then stripping the socks from her feet. She undid the band from the bottom of her braid as she padded to the bathroom and turned the shower on, and a knock sounded at her door.
Her heart leaped to her throat. Had Theo followed her? Had he come to say to her the things she hoped to hear, the same things she wanted to say to him?
The knock came again. Jade inhaled slowly through her nose, hoping to calm her anxious heart.
“Captain Ni’ihm? I have a message for you.”
Not Theo. Disappointment rushed through her as she turned the door handle.
A trooper in her company stood on the other side with an envelope in his hand.
“This just came for you. It was marked urgent.”
Thanking the trooper, Jade accepted the envelope and shut the door. She took slow steps back toward the bathroom where the shower still ran, the water warming, as she examined the envelope.
It was, indeed, stampedURGENTin blocky red letters beside her title, name, and base. Jade slipped her finger under the corner of the flap and tore at the seal. She gripped the paper inside, tugged it out, and flipped it over.
Her heart stopped.
Three interlocked triangles over a line in black, handwritten ink stared back at her.
Adrenaline poured through her system as she unfolded the paper. She had never received a letter on base from her informant. She’d always found them in strategic locations while on assignment, clearly meant for her. But this...this filled her with a sickly sense of dread.
It’s time for us to formally meet.
