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“Your eyes,” he said, his voice hoarse and breathless as he pulled out of the kiss to push a lock of damp hair back from her face. Carefully, they disentangled themselves, Inota stumbling a little as her feet hit the ground again… but Callan was there to steady her, and she leaned gratefully into the warmth of his embrace again.
“What about my eyes?”
“I could have sworn…” He was smiling, his face still flushed. His hair was a mess and his lips were slightly parted and he was just about the most stunning thing she’d ever seen.
But what he said next sent a cold, icy dread into the pit of her stomach.
“I thought—just for a moment, I could have sworn they changed color.”
Chapter 7 - Callan
It felt like it took the rest of the weekend for Callan’s feet to return to solid ground. He’d already been sure there was something very special about Kaya—he’d known that before he’d even touched her, let alone what had happened between them down in the study room. But now he had absolutely no doubt that she was his soulmate. What else could explain the way his whole body had seemed to light up at her touch? The way his dragon had been wide awake the whole time, as though he’d been seconds from shifting? And afterwards… afterwards, he’d felt different. As though he’d reached some new point in his life, some new awareness of himself and the world that had been missing before.
It was that feeling more than any that lingered with him as the week wore on. He just wished he could talk to someone about it—anyone at all, in fact. But Kaya had left the study room surprisingly quickly after they’d made love, saying she had preparation to do for the week ahead. He wished he’d thought to stop her before she left, that he’d raised the subject of their being soulmates, but honestly, he’d been so utterly disoriented in the afterglow that it had been all he could do to put his clothes back on and find his way out of the library. They’d have time, he assured himself. They’d have plenty of time to talk. And at the end of the day, what did they really need to say to each other? It was as obvious as anything what they were to each other.
But as the days wore on and he continued not to see a trace of her in the hallways, his worry took a new form. Was she avoiding him? Could it be that she was worrying about the school regulations their little date in the library had violated? He had to admit, they had certainly gone above and beyond harmless flirtation down there. This was well and truly in inappropriate student-teacher relationship territory now. But at the same time, he was struggling to reconcile that knowledge with how he felt about her. Those rules were in place for a good reason, to protect against abuses of power. Surely there was an exception in their case, right? It wasn’t like anyone was abusing any power here. If anything, he was the one who’d pursued her, inviting her on their little ‘study date’...
He tried not to let it interfere with his focus on his studies, but the preoccupation was weighing heavily on his mind. He’d always been a firm believer in rules and regulations, and it felt distinctly uncomfortable to be in violation of such a major one. But what could he do about it now? He felt the way he felt about Kaya because she was his soulmate. That kind of magical bond couldn’t be resisted, couldn’t be changed or curtailed just because a bunch of rules said that it should. Surely there was an exception, right? He couldn’t be the first dragon in history to have found their soulmate among the teaching staff at university…
But at the same time, it wasn’t exactly the kind of question he could go to the Dean with, was it? Suspicions would be aroused. So instead, he found himself heading into the library to look for an unabridged copy of the school’s governing documents. The request earned him a raised eyebrow from the librarian on duty, and when he returned with the enormous tome, Callan understood why. A thick layer of dust on the cover told him it had been a long time since anyone had taken this kind of interest in the school’s rules and regulations.
“I’ve gone down a bit of a rabbit hole with an assignment,” he explained with a rueful grin. The librarian gave him a faint smile as he passed the book over.
“Don’t work too hard, hmm?”
Callan wondered what it said about him that the library staff of the university had taken a specific interest in whether he was burning himself out or not. Nothing good, probably. But what was he supposed to do,notdo his research? The Brisant library was a fantastic resource to have at his disposal. So what if it meant a bit of sleep deprivation here and there? And besides, this was personal. This was about the woman he loved.
A few hours into the book, though, and Callan had to admit that even his prodigious tolerance for dense texts was being challenged. There was a good reason the students were given a thoroughly abridged copy when they enrolled, it seemed… this was almost unreadable, with constant references to other sections of the document, and at least four complicated exceptions to even the simplest of rules. It took him the better part of an hour to even find a reference to the school’s position on relationships between teachers and students, and he realized grimly that it wasn’t going to be as simple as looking up the relevant section and reading it over. This was a long-term project, and one that might well be beyond his skill level, at least for now.
When he brought the huge tome back to the library desk, the sympathetic look he got from the librarian told him he probably looked about as drained as he felt.
“You had an illuminating afternoon, I take it? Satisfied your curiosity?”
“I feel like I somehow know less about school rules than I did when I started,” he admitted, and the librarian’s soft laugh made him feel a little less stupid.
“What was it you were trying to find out about? Maybe I can help narrow the field a little.”
Callan hesitated for a moment. He’d intended to keep what he was looking for very much to himself to avoid arousing suspicion, but that had been when he thought the book might actually be readable. What was the harm in getting some expert insight? The librarians had probably heard a thousand weirder questions than this one during their careers here. Still, best to obfuscate as much as possible. “It sounds silly,” he started. “But there was a throwaway reference in one of my history books to two soulmates who worked together at Brisant a long time ago, saying they first met at the university, and I got curious about whether soulmates were an exception to the school rules against relationships between their staff. I’ve been interested in the intersection of magic and law lately.”
The librarian nodded thoughtfully. “I know the pair you mean. They were on the same level, though, so their relationship wasn’t affected by the rules. The restrictions only apply when there’s an imbalance of power… a supervisor and their subordinate, for example, or a student and a teacher.”
“Right,” Callan said, hiding his disappointment that his cover story hadn’t worked. “I see.”
“Sorry. Should’ve asked before you wasted your afternoon.”
“Not a waste,” Callan said with a smile. “If I thought chasing passing interests down rabbit holes was a waste of time, I’d be feeling pretty sad about my life by now.”
“Spoken like a librarian,” he said with a grin. “I can put that back for you if you’d like.”
“Actually, would you mind if I checked it out? I’d like to look up a few more things before I give up for good. Call me a masochist if you like, I’d deserve it.”
It was another week before he saw Kaya again. He’d been beginning to wonder if she’d deliberately changed her schedule to avoid him—he could have sworn she’d been at most of his classes in her topic for the first part of the year in her role as a teaching assistant, but he didn’t want to ask after her for fear of raising suspicion. He kept his head down, trying to focus on his work to keep his mind off her, but he knew he was fighting a losing battle.
And when she slid into the seat across from him at dinner one night, it took him a moment to accept that she was really there. He’d certainly seen no shortage of her in his dreams.
“I’m sorry,” she said without preamble, and Callan wondered what she’d read into his expression. “I left our session last weekend quite abruptly.”
“No harm done,” he managed, acutely aware that they were in a crowded hall and that it would have been profoundly inappropriate to throw himself across the table at her. “Though I was starting to worry you were avoiding me.”
