Page 60 of Centaur Bolt

“She’s having sex with him,” Vali finally said as she chewed her last morsel of dumpling.

It was my suspicion as well. If we waited any longer for her, we’d be late for our class on realm diplomacy. Which sounded so boring I had a serious urge to bail.

I felt rather virtuous as I accompanied Vali to our seats in the coliseum, and almost groaned when I saw that the headmaster was once more our lecturer for the afternoon. I’d be napping in no time.

He’d just got started when the door accessing the walkway above us opened. A moment later, Kiko slid into the seat beside me. Scott sat across the aisle, his face flushed.

“Young lady, are you determined to make a habit of being late?” Amadeus had his yellow eyes fastened on Kiko. “Perhaps you would benefit from janitorial services for a week.”

Kiko stiffened. “No, sir. I’m sorry I was late.”

The headmaster’s gaze snapped to Scott, who fidgeted in his seat. Then he continued his lecture.

Kiko waited until he’d droned on for a bit. I was just at the point of asking her when she dug something out of her pocket.

The phone. She kept it low while she scrolled, then uttered a small sigh before handing it to me.

I peered at the tiny screen—it showed a tangle of vines. After a moment, I saw the old wooden structure amid them. And then, I saw it was a video, and hit play.

It just happened to be as Amadeus paused for breath. The silence made the moan coming from the phone much louder than it should be.

Kiko snatched it from me and hit the mute feature. We looked up to see the headmaster’s gaze on us.

We froze. I smiled faintly.

He went on, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Vali shot me a look.

Kiko leaned close. “The arbor is old, but I think you can use the image. We set the camera up in a shrub. Scott likes—um—to record, you know.”

I stared at her. She recorded them having sex? And now, showed it to me? I glanced past her to Scott across the aisle. He was watching us, and his eyes gleamed at me. The pervknewI was viewing the video…

I blushed bright red. But Kiko handed the phone back to me and hit play.

I peered down at the arbor—and to the flashes of naked skin appearing between the branches.Geez.

Kiko giggled softly. Vali leaned over my shoulder. “Is that—”

The headmaster glared at all three of us. Vali returned to an upright position, her face carefully schooled to one of attentiveness. I hit pause on the video and kept the phone down low on my lap. Would the image work? I was so keen to try—this boring class was difficult to sit through.

It was a relief to get out of there finally, even if it was just to go for another torturous run. Scott loomed right behind us as we climbed the terraced stairs to the exit.

“So, will the video do it for you?” he asked.

All the possible interpretations of that question flitted through my mind, and by the way his brows waggled, the dirtier ones were the most likely.

I deliberately kept my tone neutral. “Yes, thank you. It should work great.”

He quite obviously didn’t know how to interpret my reply. Kiko took my arm and scowled at Scott. “Our secret, remember?”

“Right,” he drawled.

I didn’t know what she’d sworn him to secrecy on—the fact I needed a photo, the sex in the arbor, or both, but I figured the chances of Scott telling no one to be slim.

We outpaced him on the stairs as the males jostled to be closer to both Vali and Kiko. They took about as much interest in me as the stairs beneath their feet. When I got shoved into the rail for the fifth time, I pushed up between the Satyr and the Dragon. At least there, I could walk without being buffeted.

Kiko glanced back, confirmed that Scott was a distant set of glowing eyes amid a sea of them, and said, “So, do you think you can use it?”

I exhaled. “A simple photo would have worked.”

---