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“Endymion!” the voice called again, and Bain stood before me. How long had he been there?
“What?” I said, my voice a whisper compared to what I’d intended it to be but still held a twinge of sour. If I had my wish, it would’ve been Zephyr who came in the darkness instead of the nerdy asshole.
“What is going on? I could hear you screaming from all the way downstairs.”
Had I been screaming? I didn’t remember screaming. I remembered saying stop, but it felt like a murmur if anything.
“There was coldness. There was…” I saw his brow dip above his perfect nose and clamped my mouth shut. “Never mind. You wouldn’t…”
“I wouldn’t what?” He walked over to me and scanned me head to toe. His hand touched the top of my arm and I gasped. “You need to get hold of yourself. You’re scaring the other students. I can’t be here. This shouldn’t. It can’t be you.”
He stepped backward before turning to walk away. My skin glistened with dew from the rapid cold-to-heated sensations.
What the hell had just happened?
“I’m scared…” I whispered to him, but the air along with the renewed sunshine were my only audience. Bain was gone and I was left hollow and shaking.
Chapter Sixteen
I passed the fighting field early the next morning, still lost and confused for the most part, but if I was going to attend this school, I would give it my best shot. All my friends back home would give their entire makeup collection to go to college in a castle or a manor house or whatever this had been back in the day. It was a stunning and awesome campus just to walk around on. Stone and wood and all-natural materials spoke to me deep in my soul. My hometown was nothing like the big city, of course, but it was a pretty typical American place, and the homes were mostly tract houses, post WWII. Erected quickly to house the men coming home and their young families, near an airplane factory that had closed two decades ago.
Unlike many other towns who gained their income from a single factory, ours had other industries happening, and was still thriving, but compared to the hallways I was privileged to walk here, it felt like a temporary camp. The idea of going to school at the JC instead of the Sciathain Academy? It would be a major step down in my college career. Not that the subjects we were studying were traditional, but lots of places offered unusual classes in summer session, so I should just relax and enjoy them. I’d be in English 101 and all the rest in fall, no doubt.
Maeve, our instructor, was fencing, if that was what you called it when two people were trying to hit each other with big, heavy medieval-type swords rather than those wire things our fencing club at school were so in love with. And neither Maeve nor her opponent were wearing any padding at all. Of course, that padding would have had to be black for Zephyr. Again today, he wore a black T-shirt and very tight black jeans, along with matching boots and belt.
I took a seat at the edge of the field to watch what I was supposed to be able to do but probably would suck at hugely. Those swords had to weigh a ton. And there were a number of other weapons off to the side. Some narrower swords, bows, and arrows. Piles of spiked balls whose purpose I could only guess were to make holes in your opponent. Maybe put out an eye.
The two fighters were elegant in their moves, but it still held a certain amount of deadliness. As if they would indeed not hesitate to skewer the other should they lower their guard whenever they came close together,
Alara showed up and dropped to sit next to me. “Did you eat yet?”
“No, I was on my way when I ran across”—I waved toward the scene before us—“this.”
“Oh, yeah. There’s always some sort of private battle going on. Those with advanced skills take advantage of their free time to improve even more.” She set her bookbag beside her. Since we took no books to class so far as I could tell, she probably planned to fill it with muffins or something. “They do make an elegant pair, don’t they?”
“Hmm?” I was pretty deep into the fantasy that it was me out there sparring with Zephyr. We’d go round after round, jabbing and stabbing and poking and really give each other a workout. Sweat droplets would roll down that elegant forehead, a lock of black hair clinging to his temple. Finally, he’d let his guard down just a little bit, and zip! I would hook a leg behind his knee, and he’d fall, taking me with him.
Which could lead to only one thing of course.
Kissing.
“Endy!” Alara poked me with an elbow. “Where is your mind?”
“I turned to face her. “Nowhere.”
“You’re red as a pomegranate. Oohh. Do you have a thing for Zephyr? Or Maeve? You wouldn’t be the first. In either case. But Maeve wouldn’t work.”
The two in question had their heads together and looked to all the world to be a couple. “Don’t be ridiculous. Are they dating?”
“Maeve and Zephyr? The reason I said she wasn’t going to work if you were crushing on her is she doesn’t date students. Ever. Just look at her. She’s got an incredible body, all that long red hair. When she takes it down from those dozens of braids, it goes all the way to her knees.”
Ciara’s was almost that long, too. Very unusual.
“Nothing between them. That’s interesting.” I looked over at my friend, who was currently smirking at me. “I mean, not really, not super interesting. Just gossip.”
“Yeah. And Zephyr goes his own route. But he’s a skilled swordsman and archer. If you have any trouble with bows and arrows, he’s the one to ask for help.”
I started to reply, to scoff and insist I wouldn’t need tutoring with archery. I’d loved it in high school, could hit a target mounted on a hay bale with the best of them. But before I implied I was a girl William Tell, my phone rang, and a glance at the screen told me it was the call I’d been waiting for.
