Page 98 of The Fifth Heir

The anger stopped.

I looked away.

He had known me for less than a week. He had no right to understand that.

Torren removed his gloves and placed them on the weapons rack.

“When you kiss me,” he said, “I don’t want you wondering afterward whether you owed me.”

“I don’t owe you.”

“Good.”

He walked toward the terrace door.

I stayed where I was, breathing harder than the training justified.

Torren stopped at the threshold and looked back.

“Tomorrow. Same time.”

I blinked. “You’re still training me?”

“You still need it.”

“I thought I did better.”

“You did.”

The smallest hint of a smile appeared.

“Better is accurate.”

He left.

The terrace runes turned gold.

Chapter 14

Sebastian

The Fifth Wing contained thirty-seven sealed cabinets.

Talia had counted them.

She had also cataloged five desks, twelve empty shelves, eight lamps without visible fuel, three locked interior doors, and one wall inscription she believed had been mistranslated during a later restoration.

She presented the list to me after dinner.

“I thought you might want to help.”

I looked up from the damaged First Trial record I had been copying from memory. “Why?”

“You’ve examined every cabinet each time you entered the study.”

“I was looking for changes in the seals.”

“You also tried the third one from the left four times.”