"Most of it's probably true."
"I doubt that." She moves toward Ryder and her hand finds his arm again. The bond jerks sideways and she watches my face while it happens. She knows. She can read it somehow and she's pleased with what she sees.
"We were discussing bond management," I say. "Academic issue."
"I'm sure. Partial bonds are inconvenient but they're not uncommon in reaper work. Ryder has handled far more complex situations." Her thumb moves once along his forearm. The bond twists. "We both will handle this."
I smile back. It doesn't touch my eyes. "Great. I'll leave you to it."
I walk out without looking at him.
The bond gives one last sharp pull as I reach the corridor. I stop and press my back against the stone wall until it settles.
She's going to do that every chance she gets. Every time she can put her hands on him when I'm close enough to feel it. She'll use it like a scalpel because she can see exactly where it cuts.
I push off the wall.
Two hours later, someone tries to hex me on the path to the library.
Binding magic from behind the hedges, the kind that locks your joints and drops you. I feel it starting at my ankles and have just enough time to think this is going to hurt before it hits something six inches from my skin and stops.
Not absorbed. Stopped. Like hitting a wall that isn't there.
I keep walking like nothing happened, because looking around announces I noticed and sometimes the smart play is to let whoever helped wonder if I caught it.
Twenty feet later I duck into the library alcove and wait.
Thane appears forty seconds later, hands in his pockets, trying for casual and not quite managing it.
"That was you," I say.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Dragon fire barrier. I've felt your magic before." I lean against the wall. "You've been following me."
"I've been in the same areas. Coincidentally."
"Thane."
He drops the act. "Eveline brought her own people. Not bound by academy rules. They've been watching you since she arrived."
"I figured. Why are you stopping them?"
He goes quiet, staring at the floor like it might have answers written on it.
"My mother was a null," he says finally.
I don't move.
"She was executed in the Purge when I was five. Dragon law says nulls contaminate bloodlines. My father had her killed before it became a political problem. I was told she died of illness until I was fourteen and started asking questions." He looks up. "You remind me of what they did to her. How people here talk about you like you're a problem to manage. She was a person. So are you."
I let the silence hold because he just gave me something that cost him and the least I can do is not fill it too fast.
"You've been protecting me because of her."
"I've been making sure you don't end up like her." Different thing and we both know it. "That's all."
"Thank you."
