Yet here I was. Watching. Protecting a woman who should mean nothing more to me than any other recruit. She was dangerous in ways that had nothing to do with her hidden magic.
It would be easier to let the trials take her. Safer. But the thought of her dying made fear claw up my throat.
Through Gavelle, I spied movement near the entrance to the cave, a figure slipping from the shadows.
Fara plucked her way across the open area between the cave and the jungle, moving with the careful steps of someone trying not to wake the others. She carried no weapon, just a small pouch tucked against her chest. Through Gavelle’s keen sight, I watched her disappear into the jungle.
Fool. Leaving her post, abandoning her watch to travel alone in hostile territory. The trials were designed to test judgment as much as magical ability, and she’d just failed spectacularly. Pray she turned around and came back soon.
Gavelle shifted on his perch, water drizzling off his beak. I felt his discomfort through our bond, the way the rain chilled his bones and plastered his feathers to his body.
Not much longer. I need your eyes. Find her.
He launched himself from the rock, his wings slicing through the rain as he glided down and into the cave. Landing near Isi’s feet, he folded his wings and studied her sleeping form, his head cocking this way and that.
She lay curled on her side, protecting her arm. I’d seen her guarding it earlier.
Even in sleep, pain creased her brow, but it couldn’t steal anything from her beauty. Her lips were parted, soft and full, the kind of mouth that made a man think dangerous thoughts.
The elegant curve of her neck called to something primal inside me. I wanted to press my mouth there, taste her pulse, mark her as mine.
Dark circles shadowed her eyes, and her breathing came too quick, too shallow. She looked so damned vulnerable lying there that something protective and possessive roared to life in my chest.
I found myself cataloging every detail through Gavelle’s vision. The stubborn tilt of her chin even in sleep. Her golden hair secured in a loose braid. Through him, I watched her carefully, feeling the subtle tension in his body, the way his wings flexed like coiled muscle. He could strike at a moment’s notice, a predator waiting to protect.
“Trew? Trew.” Kira’s hand landed on my arm, her fingers curling around my bicep. A brand on my skin.
I jerked away from her, stepping back far enough she couldn’t reach me again. “Don’t.”
Hurt flashed across her face before anger replaced it. “Since when do you flinch from a simple touch?”
Since I’d learned what it felt like to want someone else’s hands on me instead.
“Go search the border and return with an assessment,” I said. “Take a sizable battalion with you.”
With a huff, she left, but I only half paid attention to where I should be. I could not make myself fully return to my body.
At my urging, Gavelle hopped closer, the bundle of fraewort I’d prepared and infused with magic secure under the band strapped to his chest. He approached her with the delicate care of a lover. First, he smoothed a strand of golden hair away from her face with his beak.
I had him tuck the healing pouch into her upper tunic pocket, his wing brushing against her neck in a caress. Through our bond, I felt the softness of her skin, the warmth of her breath, the way she instinctively sought comfort even in sleep.
She was beautiful. Strong. Dangerous in ways even I didn’t fully understand.
As Gavelle took flight and soared from the cave, I blinked, returning my focus to the present. The pyre still smoldered, and soot fell around me like gray snow.
I stood there for a very long time, watching until the coals had faded to gray.
Kira strode over to stand by my side. This woman had always been perceptive, especially when it came to threats to what she thought belonged to her. She stood too close. Watched me too often. And every time she looked at Isi, her mouth tightened.
I’d never touched her, but Kira still kept hoping I’d change my mind.
In sixteen years of ruling, no one has ever made me forget my duty.
Until Isi.
“I saw at least fifty Skathe near the southern ley line, though they retreated fast when they saw us,” Kira reported, her voice carefully controlled.
I nodded, forcing myself to focus on her words instead of the woman sleeping on another plane far from here. “What was their formation?”
