Kira lashed out with her magic, snatching her companion from the air and returning the snake to her wrist, where she coiled tightly. Kira’s hands trembled as she stroked the menace’s spine before her stunned gaze returned to my face.
Hurt flashed in her eyes, stolen quickly by anger.
While Isi was my sole vulnerability, I suspected I was Kira’s onlyweakness. The line between ally and enemy was too thin. Maybe it always had been.
I should replace her, send her far away.
Bryson gave Isi a warm smile and offered her a trencher full of succulent meat. She placed her arm on his shoulder and leaned close, saying something to him I couldn’t hear, though the laughter tinkling in her voice gouged through my spine.
I froze, every muscle pulled tight. Her eyes, bright and reckless, should only find mine. And when she brushed her fingers against his to take the platter, the beast she’d awakened inside me snarled.
This was nothing. Casual. She didn’t see him as anything but a fatherly friend.
It was theft all the same. I wanted her every smile, every glance, every touch. I wanted the pieces of her no one else saw, from the broken edges to the soft ones, even the ones she was determined to keep hidden.
“Mine,” I whispered. Not in the way a king claims land but in the way a man claims the one thing in the world he’d burn everything to call his own.
I wanted to drag her out of the room, push her against a wall, and pin her in place with my body, then kiss her until she forgot anyone existed but me.
A low, primal need twisted inside me, a heat that had nothing to do with jealousy and everything to do with hunger. I wanted to rip her away from him, cage her in my arms and kiss her until she moaned my name while the world turned black and burning.
Bryson lifted his furless companion onto his lap and fed it bits of meat, the creature gobbling down each bite like it might be its last.
Isi laughed and leaned in to offer the beast bites of her own meal, rubbing his head after.
The companion preened.
Bryson grinned.
And I ground my teeth together.
Settling back, she continued eating, but I didn’t miss how herhand kept straying to her empty shoulder, how she kept carefully looking around. She’d seen the contentment that came with being chosen in her friends, and I suspected she felt its lack starkly.
I knew that quiet flicker of doubt. The loneliness. She thought the pip had left her. That shehadn’tbeen chosen.
I wanted to walk over to her. Tell her I understood the emptiness that ate up all your joy, leaving you wallowing in the hollow feeling left behind. That feeling that maybe you weren’t strong or worthy enough. She must feel she’d failed a test she hadn’t even known she was taking.
I started to stand. My body did it before my mind caught up. In a few steps, I’d be at her side. I’d kneel beside her chair and tell her that sometimes the greatest bonds took time to forge. That her minxpip’s absence might not mean rejection.
Then she’d give me a real smile, one full of sweetness and sunlight and the kind of stubbornness that made men ruin kingdoms.
If I touched her now, I’d never be able to stop, so I made myself remain in my seat.
The meal was winding down now, the initial frenzy of hunger giving way to conversation and the warm lethargy that came from good food and excellent drinks. People leaned back in their chairs, the new warriors sharing stories of their trials, those who’d been through it themselves nodding with understanding. The magical platters were cleared away, along with the empty trenchers, leaving only refilled goblets and a feeling of triumph.
I let the moment stretch, watching them savor this time when the future seemed perfect.
Then I rose, and the room quieted.
“Newly bonded,” I said, letting my voice fill the hall. “Warriors!”
Cheers echoed in the room and drinks were raised and sipped.
When the furor died down, I spoke again. “Tomorrow you’ll report to the training hall at first light. There, teams will be named.”
The words struck like a gauntlet thrown down. Ripples of excitementand dread moved through the tables, excitement at the prospect of finally beginning their real training, plus dread at the implications of team assignments.
Isi met my gaze without flinching, and I felt that familiar jolt arc between us. Her cheeks flushed pink, but her chin lifted in that impossible, reckless way she used only with me. The way that made me want to kiss her and throttle her at the same time.
