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I shot him a warning stare. “History doesn’t bore me.”
“If you say so,” Maddox said simply, then shoved his hands into his deep pockets.
Viktor looked at me, his blue eyes meeting mine. “What are you interested in, Elle?”
My heart raced. “Oh, I like to draw and go for walks in the woods near here. It’s so beautiful.” I sounded dull, so I searched through the clutter in my mind for anything else. “I do some gardening from time to time.”
His smile didn’t falter. “The woods are one of the best places to be.”
“Right? I love the smell of it.” I stopped myself, realizing how weird I sounded.
“Me too. Maybe you can take me there soon.”
“Straight,” Maddox said out of the blue.
We both looked at him, and I tilted my head.
“Definitely straight.”
Sorry, I mouthed, but I wasn’t too sorry.
Maddox shrugged. “Aaron will be glad.”
“Mm-hmm,” I mumbled, then looked up at Viktor. Damn, he was tall. He seemed to be coping so well. I’d spent the first few weeks here crying when I’d been dragged from Salvius. “I’m sorry you had to leave your home.”
“Me too. I’m okay.” His lips curled from a smirk to a softer smile. “Thank you for asking.”
“Did you have family there?”
His expression hardened. “Yes.”
“Do you miss them?” I closed my eyes after I said it. What a stupid question. Of course he did.
Maddox turned, staring at me wide-eyed. Viktor didn’t answer. I parted my lips to speak but thought better of it.
We didn’t say anything else on the way back. When we reached the mansion, Dora opened the gates and walked us up to the mansion. “Welcome home.”
Chapter Four
Amelody from a songbird followed Edmund, Viktor, Maddox, and me as we walked around tall, narrow trees and over the muddy ground. Golden-brown leaves, decayed with spots of black, carpeted the well-trodden path leading to a clearing.
Wildflowers of white and royal blue peppered the area, growing against the luscious blades of green in the center. The grass stretched out through the clearing, spreading thin and browning at the edges when it reached the tree line.
It was my preferred place to come and train. Only protectors originally had weapon training as a part of their curriculum, but Edmund had pushed for it to be in ours too, after Dora had asked for it when she became keeper some twenty years ago. He argued with the council that it was needed due to keepers’ frequent travel to dangerous places, to retrieve dark objects or translate ancient runes. None of them had ever needed to use it, but I admired his want for us to be able to defend ourselves. It also made me feel powerful, and I liked the break between studying language and history. Next to deciphering dark objects and researching their properties, it was my favorite lesson.
I looked up and smiled. Cotton-candy-shaped clouds set against a pastel-blue sky, and a gentle breeze cooled the warm air. The day would have been perfect if it weren’t for the presence of death hanging over Istinia.
Edmund white-knuckled his dagger as we reached the log stumps we sat on between sessions. “How many more will need to die before they take it seriously?” He ran his free hand through his dirty-blond hair, which naturally swept to one side. “We need to bring a caster in today. I requested one to come yesterday but they were ‘too busy.’”
Maddox leaned against a tree trunk. He brushed dirt from his white cotton top. He never looked so casual, but it was only during training when he’d replace his suit with anything else. “I’m shocked Alma hasn’t bothered coming to the mansion, considering we hold the key to ending this.”
“We only hold the spell, not the ability to cast it,” Edmund said with an exasperated sigh. “Never mind that now. Let’s focus on training.” He shifted his gaze to Viktor. I wasn’t sure how Edmund felt about him yet. He’d, thus far, been unreadable. “First you’re brought to a territory you don’t know, right when people are being murdered left and right. You must feel out of sorts.”
Viktor shrugged. “There were murders in Salvius too. It’s nothing new.” He grabbed a couple of throwing knives from his belt. His white top hugged his abs and barrel-shaped chest. When my gaze moved down to the front of his black pants, Maddox cleared his throat. Flushing with heat, I whipped my head to the side to take in Maddox’s amused smirk.
Edmund pointed at a tree a fair distance from where Viktor stood. “Hit that tree.”
The muscle in Viktor’s arm tightened as he pulled it back, holding the knife between his fingers and thumb. The knife left his hand at dizzying speed and sliced through the air with deadly precision. I peered through the arrowed sunlight to the gray-brown trunk of the tree. He threw another three, one quickly after the other, forming a line of knives down the middle—except for one, which landed to the left. I wondered if he’d done it on purpose.
