Everything about the Lord of Iluul was a complete enigma—except for his obvious love for Ellowyn. Even now, while he was relentlessly training his small group, his hazel eyes continually darted across the yard to land on Ellowyn.
How has no one else seen it?
“Lex?”
I grunted as Ilyas’ voice pulled me from my musings. He was my only Vessel here today—Sasori refused to even feign interest in training the cadets. Her mood had soured even furtherwhen she discovered I was meeting Rohak without her or Ilyas present.
What would she do if she knew the secrets I was keeping from her?
The degradation of our Bond was slow at first, but had picked up alarming speed over the past few months, like a rock gently rolling toward the edge of a cliff before falling completely over the other side. I’d even seen her picking at the Bond Mark on her forearm as if trying to remove it.
That act didn’t affect me as much as it should have, and the fact that I didn’t care if she unBonded us or not was a more worrisome thought than the act itself.
Gods, we’re so fucked up.
“Lex?” Ilyas called again, gently laying a giant hand on my shoulder. I’d pulled away from my True Bonded, too, over the last couple weeks, and felt more guilty about that than anything. Ilyas didn’t deserve my ire or the dark moods I often found myself in lately, but he stuck by me no matter what.
“I love you,” I told him sincerely, holding his ocean-blue gaze. The edges of his lips quirked briefly before he squeezed my shoulder once and let his hand drop to his side.
“I know, Lex.”
I paused for a moment to just bask in the presence of my Bonded before I turned my attention back to the training yard. The sun was high in the sky now, the signal for our training exercise to truly begin.
“Cadets!” I called, instantly catching their attention. The groups lounging about the yard lazily got to their feet as both Ellowyn’s and Torin’s groups snapped to attention. There were only six groups in the yard—we’d combined with the upper-level class for today’s assignment—and I was secretly hoping that my younger cadets would thoroughly thrash Sol’s.
I liked Sol, she was a damn good Mage with a very unique relationship with her Vessel, Thandi—not unlike mine with Ilyas. But the insubordination she tolerated from the cadets was annoying at best.
“Hello, Lex, Ilyas,” Sol’s rhythmic voice called from the base of the platform as she and Thandi made their way up the stairs to join us.
“Kind of you to join us, Sol,” I said as she reached the top, the two of them standing loosely at ease as Sol relaxed back into her Vessel. Sol waved a hand in the air.
“Yes, well, we both knew that you would be here hovering like a mother hen anyway, so we didn’t see the point in wasting away in the sun.” Sol smirked and I rolled my eyes.
We were part of the same cadet class and had spent many, many hours training together. She was more a sister at this point than a fellow soldier and I allowed her a bit of impertinence.
“Shall we start with your groups or mine?” I asked and she cocked one dark eyebrow in my direction.
“Giving me a true choice or just the illusion of it?”
I smirked. “You know me too well.”
I turned my attention back to the cadets as her musical laugh floated around me. Ilyas moved to greet Thandi, something unspoken passing between the two of them. Thandi couldn’t speak, but he and Sol were given a way to communicate back when Sol almost lost her life during the attack on Isrun.
“Task force five and two, you’re next,” I called and watched as one of my groups and one of Sol’s took to the main portion of the training yard while the others backed into the rune-protected corrals.
Once everyone was safely away, I called out again, “Begin.”
Hours later,I emerged smugly victorious over Sol, my cadet groups taking a startling majority of wins. It helped that Torin’s group won nearly every battle within a few minutes, rarely losing a cadet to Sol’s groups. If he did, it was because of a lucky hit that his Mages didn’t block in time. No one ever scored a hit on Torin—he didn’t even look like he was working hard.
It was infuriating, intriguing, and awe-inspiring all at once. With every battle he won, the rest of the cadets began to begrudgingly accept his presence.
Even more interesting was Ellowyn’s group. After their first defeat, they re-grouped and changed their strategy, eventually having Leal throw an Air Shield around the twin Mages while Ellowyn used her Destruction Magic to disintegrate any attacks that flew her way. Her battles were longer, but she emerged victorious more often than not.
Frustratingly, I never noticed a slip in her magic—the Pleasure and Pain, if she even had those powers, stayed locked tight. At one point, I swore I felt the jubilance of her group when, dirty and battered, they held the final flag aloft in victory. But the moment was fleeting, and I decided I’d imagined the whole thing.
Because you’re looking too hard.
I pulled my hands down my sunburned face as Ilyas and I retreated into the Academy. Our classes were done for the day, and we’d already eaten a quick dinner in the mess hall with our cadets, as was customary after this first training simulation. It was a celebration for them and the only time alcohol was offered—there were definitely a few cadets imbibing more thanthey should, but they’d pay for it tomorrow during our physical training portion.
