Page 19 of Kingdom of Shadows and Wings

Olive holds up a finger while she finishes a sip of water. “The day before she went missing, she went to all her classes as usual. After dinner, I only saw her briefly in passing before I fell asleep. I wasn’t feeling well that day and went to bed early. When I woke up the next morning, she was gone. I didn’t see her in the mess hall for breakfast, and she didn’t show up to her first class.”

“What about Helene? Did she see Leesa go to bed that night?”

Olive shakes her head. “No, but that’s not unusual. In the week or two prior to that night, Leesa was often the last one back to the room before bed.”

“Was that typical for her?”

Olive hums and traces her eyebrow with her thumb. “Now that you ask, no, not really. It seemed like maybe she had something on her mind.”

The horn signaling the end of lunch trumpets. As we rise to carry our dirty plates, I make a mental note of my follow-up questions for later. Olive nudges me with her shoulder. “Leesa’s a badass, so try not to worry. It won’t help, and joining training this late in the game will be difficult enough as it is. At least give yourself a few days to settle in.”

She has a point. I need to learn the ropes at Flighthaven before I do anything else. With a sigh, I redirect my attention to our upcoming class. “What do we have next?”

“My favorite.” Olive’s eyes sparkle. “Flight training.”

My stomach cramps, the food souring in my gut. It takes everything in my power not to vomit for a second time today.

Chapter Eight

After making a quick trip to the bathing chamber to splash water on my face, I pull myself together and head to the alicorn enclosure, where Olive told me our training class meets.

The rest of my unit gathers outside one of the paddocks, along with a handful of other recruits. Olive shoots me a concerned glance, but I mouth,I’m okay.

“So glad you could join us, Duchess.”

That voice.

As soon as recognition hits, my blood chills to ice. So much has happened since yesterday’s encounter that I forgot who the flight instructor was. “I’m…” I make eye contact with the gorgeous jerk I smacked into outside the alicorn stable, andZiva help me. He’s not just attractive. He’s so beautiful, he could be a god himself.

His gold-flecked eyes are unimpressed. “You’re what? Testing my patience? That goes without saying.”

As haughty as a god too.I clear my throat, ignoring the muffled laughter from other students. “I apologize for being late. It won’t happen again.”

“Oh, I know it won’t.” He stalks over to me and leans in, close enough for his warm breath to graze my ear. Power rolls off him and zips along my skin like tiny lightning bolts, stirring the shiver that sweeps across my neck. “Because next time you’re late, you’ll be mucking out the alicorn stable for a month. Do I make myself clear?”

No one makes a sound, but I don’t miss the gleeful smirk on several of the nearby students’ faces. Including Elijah’s.

Nodding, I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from saying something that will make him carry through on his threat.

He gazes down at me from his taller height like he can glare me into submission. Despite my instinct to put more space between us, I refrain from taking a step back. Something tells me he would enjoy forcing me to retreat, and I find myself bristling at the idea of rolling over and showing this man my belly like a chastised puppy. “In my class,” his voice is low and menacing, “we use our words like adults.”

Maybe if you behaved like a reasonably well-adjusted adult instead of an arrogant ass...

I swallow the snark rising to my tongue and manage a conciliatory tone. “Sorry. You made yourself clear. I’ll endeavor to be on time in the future, since I have no interest in cleaning the alicorn stable.”

His lip curls. “You think honest labor like mucking out stalls is beneath you. What a surprise.”

All I can do is gape. Fuck knows what’s wrong with this guy. I just agreed with him. He should be happy. Instead, he’s acting like I offered him a bowl of dried dragon dung. Even so, the smart thing to do is shut my mouth and fade into the background, but my stubbornness kicks in. Seriously, what’s his problem? “Instructor Thorne, did I do something to upset you? Besides being late for class, that is.”

His eyes narrow. “Everything about you upsets me, Axton. Not another word out of you unless you want to get started mucking out those stalls now.”

Pivoting, he stalks to the front of the class. I gawk at his broad back, cheeks ablaze with embarrassment and anger. The nerve of this guy. I’d trade him for Kinneck in a hot second. Even if that meant triple the number of push-ups and barfing twice as much.

Wearing brown flight leathers molded to his muscular build, Thorne surveys the crowd like royalty with a wide stance and crossed arms. His hard gaze sweeps over the waiting faces. “Today, you’re going to practice flight formation again. We’ll continue to do so until you get it right. Grab your mounts and be ready for training in ten minutes.”

Everyone scrambles to obey. Wasting no time, I fall into step with Olive as she heads to the alicorn stable.

Not having a clue what to do, I catch up with her before she enters the structure. “How do we prepare an alicorn to fly?”

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