‘You knew I was mated!’ she spat, her veneer cracking. ‘You did it on purpose!’
He laughed bitterly. ‘At least he got to see what a whore the fate tied him to.’
Her witchcraft lashed out like a whip, aiming for his chest. He stifled it with thick, merciless waves of shadow that sucked the air from the room. My lungs burned; I coughed as darkness pressed in.
‘I’ll kill you all,’ she screamed, her voice shredding the silence. The threat sounded too real, and despite everything, I found myself caring about these people more than I should.
And just as I started to hope she would choke on her madness, my father swept a hand through the air, and his darkness swallowed her whole, portalling her away.
Relief hit me so hard my knees nearly gave.
Chapter Forty-Five
Avari
Isaac’s shadow flared across the grass. ‘You seem awfully distracted today,’ the tall professor chastised, eyes burning into the depths of my soul. ‘Why?’
The way he carried himself, full of quiet confidence and command, made it seem as though he owned the place. And me.
My gaze drifted past him to the lands of shadow and the patches of unexpected wildlife I discovered while connecting to nature. For a moment I let myself breathe in the stillness, a small escape from the relentless authority of every man in my life.
Isaac, at least, was different. His dominance wasn’t born of arrogance or control; it seemed to be an integral part of who he was. It unsettled me how I didn’t entirely mind it.
I cast him a quick glance, confused by his sudden curiosity. Only days ago, he made it very clear we wouldn’t be friends.
‘There’s a lot going on in my personal life,’ I said, hoping that would end the conversation.
It didn’t. His piercing blue eyes narrowed. ‘What’s happening in your personal life?’
I hesitated. It wasn’t as if I had much of one. Still, I offered, ‘You may not know this, but my mother is Queen Harper of Ortensia.’
The man ran a hand through his midnight-black hair, genuinely surprised. ‘Well then. Your childhood must’ve been interesting. Now all that restraint makes sense.’
‘Why do you say that?’ I ignored the slight dig, curious instead about his reasoning.
He shrugged. ‘I’ve trained enough soldier-born kids to know what war does to them later in life.’
It made me realise how little I knew about him. ‘What kind of professor are you, exactly?’
‘Mostly combat,’ he replied, lifting a brow as though wondering how I would take it.
Maybe it was a blessing I hadn’t attacked him in our first session. I doubted I would have stood a chance. But my witchcraft hummed beneath my skin, eager to test him anyway. ‘How in the world did you end up training me to wield?’
Isaac laughed, clearly amused. The whole arrangement seemed beneath him, a man my father called one of the finest instructors alive. ‘It took a lot of convincing. Your sister brought out the big guns.’
‘Meaning?’
He sighed, brushing an invisible crease from his jacket. ‘She tracked down my mother and told her the new princess of shadows needed help and that only one man could do it. The moment my royalist mother heard, she wouldn’t stop nagging until I agreed.’
‘I thought my father ordered you to teach me.’
‘No.’ He chuckled, his tone light but edged. ‘He could try, but I’d refuse.’
Interesting. ‘Not keen on training princesses?’
A grin tugged at his lips. ‘I’m more into stabbing and kicking ass. Toile dresses aren’t my thing.’
‘They’re not mine either,’ I countered, crossing my arms. ‘So your mother pressured you into it. Why stay once you realised it’s a lost cause?’
