Page 88 of Unbound

"Clearly,"Typhon sniffs."Though I fail to see what you find so appealing about mating with the fire touched."

"We weren't—"I break off, cheeks burning."We just kissed."

"A prelude to mating."

"Can you stop saying 'mating'?"

"Would you prefer 'copulation'? 'Reproduction'? 'Sexual congress'?"

I grab my practice rapier from where I dropped it and storm toward the door."I'm going back to my room now. Feel free to not follow me."

"As if I would leave you to wander alone."Typhon slips into his fish form, wings fluttering as he swims through the air beside me. Despite his many complaints about the form, he has begun shifting into it on his own more often now. Part of me wonders if he secretly likes being so small for a change."The fire touched is hiding something significant, angry human. I sense conflict in him—divided loyalties, perhaps."

I slow my pace, curiosity overriding my irritation."What do you mean?"

"His pain runs deeper than those scars. Something drives him beyond simple survival or ambition. Something that frightens him more than death."

"You got all that from watching us train?"

"I gathered it from watching him look at you."Typhon's fish-eye swivels to regard me."He fears for you more than himself. An unusual trait in humans, I've observed."

"So he's protecting me. But from what?"

"That,"Typhon says,"is the interesting question."

We exit the eastern wing into the main courtyard, where evening has already settled. Stars glitter above the towers, and a fresh blanket of snow has fallen. The courtyard is mostly empty at this hour, with only a few students hurrying to their final classes or back to their dormitories, arms clutched tight against the snow, except for a pair of fires who walk with the air shimmering around them like personal heaters.

Lucky them.

I spot Serena across the open space, standing with several other fires. Her gaze finds mine, and the hatred in her eyes is so pure, so undiluted, it pins me in place like a butterfly to a board.

Beside her stands Malakai, his ruined eye covered with a black patch, his remaining one fixed on me with calculating intensity.

I expect them to approach, to threaten or taunt me as they've done before. Instead, Serena simply smiles—a slow, vicious curving of her perfect lips—before turning away, drawing Malakai with her.

"They plot against you,"Typhon observes unnecessarily.

"Tell me something I don't know."

"I could eat them both. It would solve many problems."

I shake my head, continuing across the courtyard."As tempting as that sounds, I don't think consuming students would exactly help us stay under the radar."

"You humans and your tedious moral considerations."

My mind drifts back to Raith, to the kiss, to the walls he keeps rebuilding between us. Whatever secret he's keeping, it's clearly eating him alive.

I touch my lips again, remembering the heat of his mouth on mine, the desperate hunger in his kiss. For a moment, everything was perfect—for one brief, shining instant, there were no secrets between us, no barriers. Just pure connection, raw and real.

And then he pulled away.

Whatever Raith is hiding, whatever danger he thinks he's protecting me from, I'm going to find out. Because now that I know what it feels like to be close to him, I'm not sure I can go back to keeping my distance.

Even if it burns me in the end.

19

Rector Voss paces his office with hands clasped behind his back as he watches me. He has four devices that remind me of the vessels used during the elemental trial. Each, he says, holds a great deal of elemental energy I should be able to draw from.

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