“How much did you tell them about the deal?” Lory asked her bodyguard as they turned the corner to the parcours, getting into position where Anees directed them atthe side of the group. Lory sidestepped two ashlings getting ready for their first ascent to the higher fake facade at the back of the parcours, Aiden hot on her heels, folding his arms over his chest and playing with a flurry of ice crystals as had become a habit.
“Just that you need to perform well at the trials in all disciplines.” He shrugged, scanning the yard for potential threats as he always did. “Falcrest asked me to keep the rest a secret.”
That she’d be fighting for her life and had sold her soul for the opportunity. A quick glance at the front of the parcours and Lory found Khayrivven in discussion with General Ycken, who was gesticulating wildly, even when he managed to keep his voice low.
“What’s going on over there?” Lory asked Aiden, not taking her eyes off the captain and the general locked in an obvious disagreement. Falcrest’s eyes flashed a dangerous gray as he noticed her attention, and he paused whatever he had been about to say, stalking straight for Lory and grabbing her by the elbow.
“Ycken seems to believe it’s time for you to learn in the field rather than in a safe environment.” The barely hidden fury on his features was so new that a flash of fear struck in Lory’s core. Whatever the general had planned really got Khayrivven upset.
“You need me to come, sir?” Aiden’s question sounded more like an offer.
In response, Khayrivven merely shook his head. “Stay with the rest of the blues, Bellmont. Vednis will need you to catch her up on training.”
He didn’t react to the blues scrambling out of their path as he dragged Lory along like to yet another trial, and judging by their approving expressions, most of them were hoping she wouldn’t return from wherever he took her.
“Where are we going?” she hissed at him when they entered the building, and Khayrivven let her go, wordlessly hurrying down a set of stairs. Lory needed to jog to be able to keep up with his insane pace.
“Out.” With his left hand, he grabbed the end of the limestone wall, hauling himself around the corner rather than slowing.
Lory copied his movements, grateful for Anees’s training on the parcours and the healing elixir she’d poured over her burn wound. The remaining pain was negligible, and swinging herself around the corner came easily, the way it had on the streets of Dunai.
At the end of the hallway, Khayrivven stopped, turning around so abruptly Lory bumped into his hard front.
“I’ll need to blindfold you.” It wasn’t a question, merely information while he was already pulling a stripe of black fabric from his pocket.
A memory of being tossed in a windowless room after being swayed in a pair of strong arms snuck into her mind as Khayrivven waited for her to turn so he could tie the fabric behind her head.
“Are you going to carry me again?” Unsure if the thought scared her or excited her, Lory held her breath as Khayrivven’s fingers brushed her cheeks, placing the blindfold so darkness was all she could see.
“Absolutely.”
A shudder raced down her spine at the hint of amusement in his grumbled response.
“Is that a threat?”
Khayrivven’s fingers slid down the back of her neck, leaving the long ends of the bound blindfold to trace the sensitive skin behind her ears, then along her collarbones, where he’d once peeled off a layer of burned clothes.
“You tell me.” So fast, she couldn’t get out a response, he slid his arm under her shoulder and the other under her knees, heaving her against his chest, and started walking. “We can’t risk you trying to run away, can we, Gutter Gem?”
His mouth, so close to her ear, nearly made her back arch, but Lory told herself the racing of her heart was because of what would be awaiting them outside the academy. She hadn’t set a foot outside the premises from the day she’d been brought in, and the thought of a breath of freedom made her spirits lift. Out there, no one knew who and what she was. No one would fear her or despise her. With her clean, black clothes and boots, she even looked like she hadn’t just crawled out of a desert hole. Maybe this would be the first time the world saw her as an actual human being.
“Where did you just go, Lory?” Khayrivven’s velvet voice brought her back to the present, his thumb brushing over the edge of her shoulder where his hand wrapped around it. Fast, swaying steps transported them along endless corridors, the echoes bouncing off the walls the only indicator they were still inside the gray stone quarters of Ashthorn Ward.
“Just trying not to get nauseous from your rocky pace.”
She nearly leaped out of his arms at his responding chuckle, his mouth by her ear once more as he whispered, “You like my arms, Gutter Gem.”
Obnoxious prick. And right he was. She hadn’t felt so safe in weeks, despite the new target on her back. And the way her body seemed to mold against his hard muscles made her wonder what it would feel like to have all of him against her.
“And if you have a problem with my pace, you’ll need to tell me exactly howyoulike it.” Once more, he’d called her back to the present, and she was grateful for the blindfold so she didn’t need to see his perfect, kissable mouth, and the heated expression in his eyes she knew went with that tone. “I can adapt to accommodate you, you know?”
Lory’s hands itched to feel the defined cords along his neck, or to glide over his chest, but she bit her lower lip, suppressing any retort she could come up with.
“Where are we going?”
Khayrivven jerked to a halt, gently setting her on her feet, hands on the sides of her shoulders to stabilize her as she swayed for a moment, adjusting to solid ground.
“A lively place.” His absent tone made her want to pull off the blindfold, but the fingers of one hand skated up her neck to her cheek, fingertips brushing her cheekbone. “You’ve been there before.”
