Page 11 of Starlight Mates

I can’t break in front of him.

Steeling my gaze, I lift the corner of my lips up in a smirk. “I don’t know what to tell you, Finn. Dreaming of me now? Cute, but I’m not interested.”

He growls, his eyes darkening again. The darkness is his Nexus, I think, and we are both playing with fire. Even though my body screams to move closer when he reaches for me, I don’t. I step back away before he can touch me, and a throat is clearedbehind him. “This is the female wards. Men are not allowed in here. That includes you, Tutor Finnegan.”

He doesn’t even look back at the woman, only leaning down with his eyes locked on mine. He takes my breath away with that look. “This isn’t over, Sun. Stay the fuck out of my head.”

The corridor is crammed full of gawking faces when he turns, and my cheeks brighten as Finnegan storms through them all and out of sight. An older woman is standing close in an orange pinstripe suit, and her perfectly curled locks of grey hair are pinned back. She is one of the tutors, I’m guessing.

“Nexus mates are not allowed in the wards unless they are of the same sex, and even then, they are not allowed in your room. I will excuse this just once even if Tutor Finnegan does not teach first-year trainees.” She looks past me to where a guy is trying to sneak out of a room a few doors down. “Ranger Luke, good to see you up bright and early. Perhaps you came to volunteer for toilet cleaning duty for the next month? What was that? ‘Yes, Tutor?’ Brilliant.” Her voice changes in an instant from sarcastic to downright scary. “Now get out of this ward before I change my mind.”

Poor Luke runs away without one of his boots. The tutor clears her throat. “It is brilliant to see most of you are out of your rooms nice and early. I’m not sure what Tutor Finnegan was doing here, but do not follow his bad example of breaking the rules.” She pointedly looks at me. “We have a welcome speech in the entrance hall, and then you have your breakfast before your first lesson begins. Let’s get a move on.” She claps her hands and turns around on her high heels, going straight after Finnegan, who I just know doesn’t give a shit about breaking the rules and embarrassing me.

Annie rushes out of the bathroom, braiding the last bit of her hair, and she’s fully dressed in the same clothes as me, but shemakes it look cute. In fact, everyone in the corridor looks like they’re wearing the same. “What did I miss?”

“Moody Nexus mates. The usual,” I mutter as we both pull on our boots before rushing out the door, staying close to each other’s side. Annie seems to have decided that sticking together is a good idea. I’ve never really had a friend outside of Harry, and look what happened there. I just got him in loads of trouble and at risk of being murdered by my mates. He has a death threat hanging over him, and I know anyone I get close to is at risk. No, having friends is not a good idea.

Annie doesn’t give me any chance to escape her though, staying right at my side through the walk down the empty grey stone corridor and into the middle part of the castle. We head down the weathered staircase that’s made completely of stone. The thick stone banister wraps around in a circle, and we meet the other trainees from yesterday halfway down from their floor. I don’t know where the rest of the older rangers are, but I can hear people talking and moving about the castle in the distance.

Hundreds of us flood the entrance hall, and we all wait, no one speaking a word, but I assume we are all just as nervous. It’s very obvious how few women there are in this year, and I stand a little closer to Annie. It’s a vast room, making all the hundreds of us look tiny in it. There are so many wide corridors heading off in different directions, all of the walls the same grey stone, and yet it is modernised with electric lights throughout. Framed paintings of people I don’t know line the walls, but I would guess they are old presidents of the academy. There isn’t a single woman’s portrait among them. All old men.

The tutor from this morning claps her hands, and we all turn to see her on the steps. “Welcome. I’m Tutor Jettie, and I want to take a moment to formally welcome you into the Ranger Academy Castle. Some of you may be aware of the castle’s long and dark history, but for those who aren’t, a quick reminder.This was the last stand for our kind against the Vian in the great war. In the early nineteen hundreds, this castle housed some of our most powerful Nexus, and they died in this very room to pave the way for Nexus kind. When you learn to fight here, when you pick up your Nex weapon of choice and fight the Vian, know that the souls who battled here are with you. They are our family, our ancestors, and in their honour, we work here for our future.”

I swear a cold air claws right down my spine. Haunted castle? Fuck no.

“Being a ranger is no effortless task. It is the hardest job in our city, and it comes with the risk of death at every turn. The clothes you wear are rangers’ uniforms. No Vian will be able to take your power and life through the clothes. They are woven with runes to protect us, but we will teach you how to make sure your clothes are your last defence.” She points to the right. “The dining quarter is to your right. Down there, you’ll find food at all times, and beyond them are healers waiting for anyone. That’s where you’ll go for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The healers are there if you cannot walk, are screaming, or near death. I do not expect to hear that you’ve seen them for period pains or a splinter.”

Annie and I glance at each other for a second to smile, but she carries on. “The food options you are given are to sustain you for the various lessons, and we expect you to eat protein to make sure you gain muscle and do not pass out. You’ll begin with Tutor Hollis’s class today, and I would advise you don’t eat too much, because he has a record of making beginners throw up on day one.” My stomach drops. “His lessons are a detailed training class where he will learn your strengths and weaknesses for this first week. Tutor Hollis is one of our finest rangers, and if he tells you to do something, I advise you listen. You’ll be punished hard in this academy for disobedience, and no one’s allowed to give up. You’ll be pushed harder if you do. That’s just a warning. Yoursecond class will be with me, and it will be on the history of the Nexus Beings and on our enemies, too. Knowledge is as strong a power as your Nexus.”

She makes sure to look many trainees in the eye as she advises us. “Your third class is to work on your powers, but for now, while you’re so new, we will extend that to more training with Tutor Hollis or Tutor Rhodes, who teach on alternative days. Tutor Aleksander has you on Tuesdays and Thursdays all day, and this is a great honour. Tutor Aleksander has only ever come in to teach occasionally, and he has never taught a class from scratch. I am excited to see what will become of this year with his instruction.”

He came to torture me, great.

“I will let him explain his particular lessons himself. You’re back to the normal three lessons on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Weekends are yours, but we will be assigning work for you to achieve in your spare time.”

I swear she looks right at me for a second. “If you have any actual problems, my office is underneath the staircase there, along with the offices of all the other tutors. You knock once, and you do not enter without being accepted. Anyone found in tutors’ offices without being invited in there will be subject to severe punishments by the president of the Ranger Academy. Are we understood?”

Yesrings out from us all, and she claps her hands, pointing at the corridor to breakfast. None of us needs to be asked twice. Annie and I get pushed to the back of the queue as everyone rushes down the corridor in front of us.

She leans in. “Any chance Tutor Hollis will be nice to you because you’re his?—”

“No chance. If anything, he is going to make it worse than it needs to be,” I quickly explain. “They all hate me.”

Her eyebrows push together. “They can’t really hate you; they are your?—”

“I rejected them, remember? Yeah, they can hate me, and truthfully, I’m not interested in getting to know them either. From what I’ve seen so far, they are possessive assholes,” I mutter.

She frowns. “But then you were trapped, and you couldn’t get back to them. It’s not like you…” She drifts off, seeing the look on my face I don’t hide well enough. “I remember that day and how your parents were waiting. I know your parents were difficult, and they didn’t mix well with the other families. I remember it all, and I never once thought you left willingly.”

I can’t say a word, and she watches me. She clears her throat. “Honestly, I always wanted to be your friend when we were kids. It’s the luck of the Wolf Gods that we both came here at the same time, don’t you think?”

We step forward in the line that has built up. “I kept to myself back then, so don’t worry about it.”

She plays with the end of her braid. “I should have been your friend. There were so few Nexus in the town, and I was just stuck between you and Rochelle.”

I tilt my head, my Nexus awakening at Rochelle’s name. “Are you still friends with her?”

“Um, no.” She shakes her head. “She made other friends after what happened with her mate.”

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