I grab the top book from the stack, settle onto his bed with my back against the headboard, and open it.
Maritime Threats of the Lost Islands: A Comprehensive Survey.
Quickly losing myself in the research, I catalogue every detail and cross-reference account, building a mental map of everything we might face.
Eventually, the sound of the door opening makes me jolt upright, and Kieran steps inside, carrying a tray of food and looking like he’s been awake for days. His dark hair is slightly disheveled, like he’s been running his hands through it, and his jaw is set so hard the muscle twitches beneath the skin.
He stops dead when he sees me on his bed surrounded by stolen archive texts, as if it’s totally normal for me to lounge around reading forbidden books in my combat instructor’s room mid-morning on a Saturday.
His eyes sweep over me, and one eyebrow rises. “Comfortable?”
Warmth crawls up my neck, but I force it down. Way, way down.
“I need to talk to Logan.” I sit up straighter, trying to look like a person with a plan instead of a first-year who was studying on her instructor’s bed while he wasn’t there. “He’s been training Jade for weeks, which means he has to know something about what she did last night.”
“And you thought you’d find Logan here?” He closes the door and places the tray down on his desk, focused on me the entire time.
“No. But the school’s on lockdown. We’re confined to our dormitories, and I can’t exactly fire travel into Typhon Hall and start asking people to direct me to Logan’s room.” I close the book on my lap and play with the leather binding that’s stripping away at the edges.
His gaze tracks from the book to my face, stopping there in a way that makes more heat flush up my neck. “So, you fire traveled onto my bed to catch up on your reading.”
I stop playing with the book and glare at him. “You told me to come to you when I needed help.”
“I did.” He reaches for the dagger on his desk and examines its tip as if it holds the secrets to the universe.
I set the book aside and square my shoulders. “Right now, I need your help so I can talk to Logan.”
He sets down the dagger and moves to the bed, my heart rate kicking up as he settles onto the mattress beside me, his heat bleeding across the narrow gap between us.
“Tell me about Logan and Jade’s training sessions,” he says, and it’s a command, not a request.
“They’ve been training in the Scorched Circles late at night.” I force myself to focus on the facts instead of the heat radiating from his body. “Logan’s been helping her with her fire magic, but I had no idea she hadlightningmagic. I’m guessing he was helping her with that, too.”
The admission stings. I’m supposed to see patterns that others miss, and here I am, having missed a huge detail about someone whoshares a roomwith me.
“How long have they been training together?” he asks, cutting through my thoughts.
“Ever since you announced the duels.” The guilt of that admission tightens in my throat. “I thought I was being a good friend by covering for her. I didn’t realize I was helping her hide a secret this big.”
He’s quiet for a moment. There are only inches between us, and like what tends to happen when we’re this close to each other, I replay what happened in the Fury Loop a few weeks ago—specifically the moment when I stopped thrashing beneath him because I didn’t need my thermal awareness to register the blood rushing to the part of him pressed against my hip.
Warmth spreads low in my stomach at the memory.
I really,reallyneed to push that moment from my mind. Thinking about it every time I’m near him isn’t beneficial in my current predicament. In fact, it’s detrimental.
Focus, Evie. Brother missing. Roommate hiding magic. Life-or-death situations.
But it’s nearly impossible to focus when Kieran turns his head and our faces are suddenly inches apart. His dark green eyes hold mine, and for one breathless moment, neither of us moves.
“Okay,” he says, and the word is quiet, as if he’s admitting a secret. “I’ll bring Logan here.”
The tension in my shoulders drops an inch. “Thank you.”
“Don’t make me regret it.” He stands, and I immediately feel colder. “Stay there. Don’t answer the door. Don’t leave this room.”
“Didn’t plan on it.”
He gives me a single nod. Then, orange flames rise around him, and he’s gone.
