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Red colored Oren’s cheeks, then spread down his neck. He was a fairly unflappable soldier, but our resident psychic had a handle on him.
“You heard about that?”
“Afraid so, champ.”
He let out a sigh and looked a touch miserable. “Yeah, it didn’t really go well.”
This part was less amusing. I liked teasing my best friend, but I didn’t want to see him in pain. “What happened? I’d like to hear your side.”
“Well, I was properly expressing a serious interest in Sergeant Khan, but she has a way of making things…unserious.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“I mean, she flirts, and she’s incredible at it. She makes dirty jokes slide so smoothly into conversation they take me completely off guard. Sometimes, I can’t tell if she’s just beingher witty self or if she’s mocking me and hates that I’m anywhere near her.”
That wasn’t amusing at all—not by a long shot. I wasn’t the type to take glee in the misfortune of my friends.
“I’m sure she doesn’t feel that way. She’s never had a problem telling anybody else where to put it when they upset her.”
“Yeah, but I’m her superior officer. I just got so flustered and the next thing I knew, I was kissing her. Then I lost all of my courage and just excused myself to run away again.”
“That wasn’t exactly the smoothest thing you could have done, no,” I said, rubbing my chin. I knew it was silly to meddle with the romantic life of my best friend and another officer, but it was nice to have something less serious occupy my mind. There were only so many grand wars, terrible curses, and lives to worry about before my brain cracked right in two. “But how did your little escort go?”
“We, uh, we ended up walking the entire way in silence. Once I got her to her door, I booked it.”
I shouldn’t have chuckled, but I did. “You’re not gonna win any medals with her this way.”
“No, sir. I most certainly am not.”
“If it helps, I’ve invited her to Merrik, so at least you’ll have plenty of chances to reset things.”
His face grew pale, and he broke into a sweat. “S-Sergeant Khan is coming with us?”
“Yes, her abilities will be invaluable, especially if we can keep their nature unknown. Knowing the inner thoughts of the court around us will be a huge benefit.”
Oren nodded as he swallowed hard, but he pulled himself together quickly, as he always did. “That’s true. I will do my best to fix my prior mistakes.”
“Good. But no more kissing and running, all right?”
He gave me a miserable nod and agreed. The trip to Merrik was going to be an interesting one.
Chapter 5
Ayla
I woke up late, as I always did after my first night shift of the week. On another day I’d feel better adjusted, but it was always those introductory twenty-four hours which really exhausted me.
I trudged my way to the café as soon as I got dressed, however, since I knew my nocturnal schedule would mean no fresh food for lunch. There were always MREs and other packaged foods available for those working while the cooks were asleep, but they tended to sit like rocks in my gut. I supposed it came from a lifetime of never having any processed food. The most preserved thing I ate were pickles and ale from our coven’s garden.
My mouth watered a bit as I remembered hot summer days when I was younger with a chilled bowl of dill pickles that’d finished their fermenting just days earlier. They’d been sour and tangy on my tongue, despite being “quick” ones, as Zara called them. The more official ones were underground in the larder, as it wasn’t like the coven had access to industrial grade refrigerators.
It was on my way to breakfast that a courier hurriedly pushed a letter into my hands before shuffling off, their loadedmessenger bag bouncing at their side. I turned the small envelope over and saw Kai’s sigil in wax.
Oh, so this was an official missive. Why didn’t he just come to my room? Had he been worried about waking me up? That was awfully sweet of him.
Looking either way, I quickly opened it, figuring whatever information inside should probably remain private. But as I opened it, I wondered what he could have possibly sent me. It... wasn’t a dirty note, was it?
The idea made my cheeks flush, I could feel it, and I had the strange urge to press my thighs together. I resisted the urge, however, and pulled out a single sheet of paper.
