Page 94 of Kingdom of Shadows and Wings

Outside, the relative silence eases my irritation. As the sun slips behind the clouds, a prickle of awareness teases the nape of my neck. Turning, I spy the culprit. A visibly pissed off Thorne stands outside the administrative building, his rigid posture and flat mouth dead giveaways. He’s staring right at me, so that’s great.

My blood sings as he finishes his conversation and stalks down the path toward me. Asinine on my part, honestly. No one in their right mind wants Thorne marching toward them as if someone stuffed his favorite boots with dragon droppings.

He grabs my arm and pulls me behind a tree, performing a frantic, head-to-toe visual inspection. “You’re okay?”

I wrinkle my brow. “I’m fine. Why?”

His shoulders relax. “Torno just told me about the man who broke into your dorm room and tried to stab you.”

Wait. Did I misread the signs? Thorne wasn’t pissed but worried? Overmysafety?

My heart melts into a pile of goo. “It happened while we were away last night. I’m perfectly safe.”

His scowl deepens. “Perfectly safe until the next attempt. Meanwhile, here you are, frolicking about on your own like you don’t have a care in the world.”

“I’ll have you know that I have plenty of cares…er, lots of things I care about. And walking at a sedate pace is hardly frolicking.” The warmth in my chest expands. “Thanks for worrying about me, though.”

With a smile, I place my hand on his chest.

His muscles twitch at the contact. He raises his own hand, as if to cover mine, but stops abruptly and whips his head to the side. With a low growl, he jerks back a step, leaving my hand to fall to my side.

Torno strolls into view, following a walkway to one of the training fields. She dips her chin at us without stopping.

I return her nod and refocus on Thorne. The scowl has vanished, leaving his features arranged in that carefully blank expression I’m growing to hate. “You’re not special. I’m merely performing my duties. It’s part of my job to help maintain the safety of the campus and all fledglings.”

His voice is as flat as his expression. Cold. Just like the chill that chases the warmth from my chest.

From prick to sweetheart to prick again, all under a minute. That might be a new record, even for him.

I rub my sternum, a futile effort to banish the hurt from his verbal blow. He tracks the motion and—wait. Was that a flinch? No. Surely not. That would mean he cares, when he basically just told me the opposite.

In all honesty, I think he probably does care. At least a little. But the effort he puts into hiding this truth sends a message all by itself.

He doesn’t want this. Me. Whatever this connection is between us.

The fake smile straining my lips requires a lot of effort. “Well, then, thanks for looking out for everyone’s safety.” My forced cheer rings fake to my own ears. I should stop there to avoid any unnecessary awkwardness, but I can’t help myself. “For the record, if someone tried to stab you, I’d care. Not just because I want all my instructors to be safe, but because I care about you as a person.”

This time, his flinch is obvious. Torment flares in his eyes as he gazes at me, his hands fisted at his sides. “Don’t. Care, that is.”

Ugh. Not this again. “Why not?”

“Because nothing can happen.”

“Nothing as in, we’re not allowed to give a damn about each other as human beings?” He folds his arms across his chest, quirking his left eyebrow up in challenge as if to say,you know that’s not what I meant.I throw my hands up in defeat because, fine. I do know. That doesn’t mean I need that eyebrow to call me out like that. “Is it the instructor-student thing?”

A beat passes. “Sure.” He gives my body one last inspection. “Don’t let me catch you by yourself again.”

He walks away without glancing back.

I want to argue, but what’s the point? He couldn’t be clearer about not wanting anything from me, and I need to respect his boundaries. To him, I’m probably just another fledgling watching him with starry eyes. If I’m so desperate for a romantic relationship, I should take his advice and find someone my age. A peer. Not a moody instructor who makes me want to bang my head on a wall half the time, anyway.

Luckily, the next days keep me busy. Preparations for the upcoming trial and my race to locate Leesa don’t leave me much time for brooding. I push myself in conditioning and weapons training, as well as flex my expanding power in magic. Thorne deems me proficient enough at flight to join my regular class. Now that I’ve conquered my terror of riding an alicorn, flying comes easily. My aptitude for riding and connection to Zephyr grow with each session. Sometimes, we’re so in tune, it’s almost as if we can read each other’s minds.

If only using weapons in the air were half as simple.

Thorne cuts our morning lessons down to every other day, helping me practice those skills along with anything else he can dream up. The grueling sessions don’t allow much space for chitchat, which I’m sure comes as a big relief for us both. I also recruit my flight unit and Theo to help me practice my skills on the ground when afternoon classes get out and sometimes even after dinner.

If I can keep my eyes open at night, I read Leesa’s book. So far, nothing jumps out as pertinent to my life or Leesa. I worry that I’ve gotten my hopes up for nothing.

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