Page 113 of Kingdom of Shadows and Wings

Sterling’s shoulders lift in a shrug. He touches his mouth to my ear. “Don’t move.”

He forces us to wait for ages, my body hyperaware of him against me. Finally, after those ages pass, he cracks open the closet door and pauses. My heart jumps to my throat.

“He’s gone, but we’re out of time.”

The ever-light comes back on, washing the room in an eerie glow. Nothing looks amiss.

I make a beeline for the cabinet. Blocking Thorne’s view, I quietly remove the last page from my file before returning the folder to the designated spot. Folding the paper, I shove it in my pocket. Too risky to read here, so I’ll do it later. If Thorne knew I tore the page out, he’d throw a hissy fit, so I decide to spare us both and not tell him.

“Let’s go.”

With him leading the way, we sneak from the room. After turning down the next hall, we run into trouble in the form of a guard at the far end of the corridor.

Thorne yanks me back around the corner. My pulse ricochets. “Now what? He’s blocking the way out.”

Thorne hesitates before tugging me in a different direction. He leads me into another building, this one lit with ever-light lanterns on the walls.

“Quiet,” he murmurs.

A series of widely spaced doors line the corridor, but he pulls me down one with a single door at the end.

After opening the door, he pulls me inside the room and walks to a large window to part the curtains. During our time in the records room, the cloud cover eased. Moonlight spills into the space, turning everything a silvery, magical shade.

Confusion grips me. The interior’s spacious and well-appointed. Luxurious rugs blanket the stone floor, and a huge canopy bed draped in thick blankets and furs dominates the space. Two upholstered easy chairs and a table sit in front of a fireplace. “These are your instructor quarters?”

Sterling nods.

“You could be sleeping here all the time but instead, you choose to sleep near the smelly alicorns most nights? Make it make sense.”

He shrugs. “The room in the stable is closer to the outdoors and nature. I don’t like feeling trapped.”

I study the bed. “It’d be hard to feel trapped in that bed. It looks big enough for ten people.”

A beat passes. Two. My breath hitches as an image of Sterling and me naked beneath those silky covers flashes through my mind, and my teeth sink into my lower lip.

The atmosphere thickens.

He prowls toward me, hair mussed, sin filling his gaze. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

“No, I haven’t.” I’ve totally been avoiding him. Gulping, I back up. “Wh-what are you doing?”

“I’m finishing what we started, before you fled the other morning like a scared rabbit.”

Outrage sparks beneath my skin. “I did not flee like a scared rabbit!”

“Then what would you call it?”

“Strolling. Istrolledaway after you hung back and watched me talk to that assassin as if you couldn’t care less. As ifyou weren’t interested in me at all.”

He releases an incredulous laugh. “Is that what you think? That I’m not interested in you?” His expression darkens. “I suppose you’re right, though.”

His callous agreement twists a knife in my heart. A painful knot clogs my throat. “Of course.”

“Interested is far too tame a word to describe how I feel about you. Obsessed, bewitched. Those come closer.”

My battered heart gives a hopeful beat. “Th-they do?”

He stalks closer, backing me up until my legs hit the bed. His knuckles graze my cheek. “They do. Though that doesn’t change my stance that this is a terrible idea.”

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