Page 12 of Legend

I eyed him as he reshuffled the cards. “It isn’t just practice. You’re amazing.”

He leaned back, his eyes glinting. “When I was a cadet, I was one of you.”

For a moment I was confused, then my jaw dropped. “You were an Assassin? Well, that explains your strategic prowess.”

“Who's in the mood for a drink?” Ariana called out. She’d taken up residence at the bar, pulling down bottles and lining up glasses. The clink of glasses and the gentle slosh of liquids added to the sounds of the snapping fire.

“Count me in.” I probably shouldn’t drink while playing, but it had been anight.

“And us,” Jess said, as she and Britta stood at the soaring bookshelves, their fingers tracing the spines of ancient tomes.

“This place is incredible.” Morgan stood near the fire watching the game as she warmed her back. “How long has it been here?”

Tivek stole a glance at her before returning his eyes to his cards. “A long time. This is the part of the academy that was the original castle, so it must have been a secret room for an ancient Drexian ruler.”

A shiver went down my spine at the thought of the millennia that the walls in the academy had seen pass by. It was enough to make me almost miss another furtive glance by Tivek toward Morgan, his eyes lingering on her for a moment too long. Was it possible that the adjunct had a crush on the cadet? He was older than her, but Morgan was already an officer in the Navy, so she wasn’t a teenager.

I narrowed my eyes at my opponent. Or was he doing this to distract me? I quickly banished the thoughts of a blooming romance, focusing instead on the game at hand.

When I played my next card, Tivek stopped me. “You have gone too high too quickly. Unlike everything else in Drexian culture, our card games reward patience.”

“Then I should be able to win easily against Vyk. He’s all bluster.”

Tivek lifted an eyebrow. “Never underestimate him. His dangerous reputation is not only because of his battle skills.”

I swallowed hard at this, wondering if I’d made a fatal error in challenging the Drexian to cards. Was I the one who’d been too cocky?

Ariana approached, a dazzling purple cocktail in hand. “A little liquid courage.”

I accepted the drink gratefully, the cool glass a welcome contrast to the warmth of the room. As I took a sip, the flavors exploded on my tongue—a perfect balance of sweetness and bite, with a hint of alien flavors I couldn’t place. I even welcomed the buzz of the booze on my tongue and the heat as it hit my stomach.

After a few more hands, my skills at the game began to sharpen, thanks to Tivek's expert tutelage. The pressure of my impending match with Commander Vyk still loomed large, but I allowed myself to enjoy being in the moment, being in the secret room, being with my friends.

Besides, now that I really knew how to play, I had no intention of losing.

Chapter

Nine

Torq

Ileaned back in bed and glanced again at the timepiece on my bedside table. Where was she? More importantly, what had happened to me?

Only a short time ago, the idea of having a girlfriend, much less a human one, would have been unthinkable. I was a high-born Drexian who was expected to marry well and enjoy sampling as many females as possible before then. But then I’d met Jess, and she had changed everything.

I released a long breath as I thought about how I’d gone from instant fascination with her, despite her clearly lower birth and her unusual independence, to a barely controllable desire. My hunger for her had driven me to blackmail her and then to fall for her body and soul. It was hard to remember what I’d been like before she consumed my thoughts, but I knew I’dbeen insufferable and arrogant. I knew, because Jess had no problem reminding me.

“Infuriating female,” I muttered to myself, although I could not suppress the grin that emerged every time I thought about my mate.

In truth, I loved that she challenged me and kept me humble. It had been a first for me, but I had grown to value her opinion. Before her, I had relied on the opinion of my clan, even though I had rarely measured up to their cruelly impossible expectations. Once I had freed myself of them, and their toxic influence, I had been able to fully embrace Jess and her oddly fulfilling concept of “keeping it real.”

If I was too cocky, she told me. If I acted like an elitist, she reminded me that we were all equal. If I tried to control her, she was quick to tell me that she was not my property.

That did not mean I agreed with everything. Despite her protests, Jess was still mine. I might not own her, but she was mine. Mine to love. Mine to possess. Mine to protect.

I missed her when she was not with me, and I worried when she was late—like now. Jess had been on her way to meet me in my quarters after the meeting in the Stacks. I had been the one who had agreed to make a quick trip to the kitchens to snatch some warm bread with Volten and Kann, so why was she not here?

I had disrobed and slipped beneath the sheets, or I might have been tempted to storm from my room and search the corridors for her, something she would not like. We were still feeling our way around the parameters of being together as cadets, and hunting her down would be overstepping my boundaries.

---