He looked between Evira and I, but didn’t comment on it. Although I saw him look her over in her little silver sports bra and pastel-blue yoga pants.
He wouldn’t comment on it, because he liked it.
He liked my interest in her, because it made things easier. It was a way he could keep her close without him actually having to act on his desire for her directly. He was afraid to, afraid of hurting her, because of the political complications on her end if they took things beyond their one special night together.
So this was all he had.
Perhaps it was time to alter that, however.
She wasn’t in the Dracoryn Realm now. There was little oversight. And the oversight that Ihaddetected could be seen to carefully, the narrative altered to her benefit.
I called over to Winter, “Did you come here to my sparring session so we could finally see to—”
“Just passing on by before my next class.”
Ah, yes. Checking up on me again.
So, lo and behold, beseeching Zayn not to inform Winter of the assault upon me had been ignored, my decision overturned.
Despite the clear effort Winter had put into making it appear otherwise, I’d read between the lines and determined that Zayn had most definitely told him about what had transpired. Winter had come to my dorm suite to enquire about the research I’d been conducting for him earlier that same day. The absence of a single cursory question following that claim had made the falsity undeniably clear.
But Zayn’s failure to honor my request had laid bare my own error in judgment.
I’d made the decision to shield Winter from falling into his self-sacrificing caretaker state from an emotionally unstable and mentally compromised place. Shortly after he’d arrived and proceeded to sit there with me in the aftermath of that ordeal, I’d realized that it had been an overreach on my part. In trying to spare him pain, I had taken a decision out of his hands that hadn’t been mine to take.
Strikingly, Zayn had clearly realized that himself. I didn’t think for one moment that he’d revealed the truth out of spite or any ill intent. He’d wished to assist and to rectify the mistake I’d made. And that was truly momentous for him.
The fact I’d made such an error was exactly why I was so strict with ensuring I always kept my mind clear and sharp—or things like that would be the result.
However, that attack… it had caught me off guard.
But in trying to bury it, that had only worsened things.
So I’d taken some time to see to it. And I’d laid it all bare to Winter as well. I hadn’t wanted my mistake, nor the weight of any secrets coming between us. Nor actually between Zayn and I either. Because, despite how infuriating he’d initially been to me, things had… evolved.
“Winter.”
“All in good time.” He offered me a smile. “Glad to see you doing this.” He told Evira, “I wondered when you’d engage in one of your favorite hobbies.”
Her eyes sparkled at him. “You remembered that?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Good memory.”
I inwardly rolled my eyes—difficult to do. It was obviously much more than that for him, and I saw the realization in her own eyes.
So much unspoken between them.
No. This just wouldn’t do.
Time hadn’t assisted.
It needed… some careful, veryslight, strategic intervention.
“Well, continue on,” he told us.
As he turned to leave to get to his next class, I was at the threshold with a burst of speed, grasping his arm and stilling him before he could take his leave.
With a spark of my magic, I employed anauditory reductionspell. “I said I’d assist you with your necromantic issue. That hasn’t shifted.”
