Page 5 of Crime & Punishment
The slick hilt slips from my grip a moment before Coal’s leg hooks mine. I fall backward, landing hard on the sand just as my weapon did a moment ago. Breath halts in my lungs, the dull thud of impact filling my ears even as I force my body to keep moving and roll to my feet.Get up. Get up. Get up.
Grains of sand grate against my tongue as I reclaim my fighting stance and kick Coal’s chest, my foot meeting a rock-hard body that refuses to yield.
Tossing his own sword aside, Coal crouches, circling me with a predatory calm. His breathing is steady, his muscles moving not a hair more than needed. Flexing his knees to lower his level, the male launches at me from the side, collapsing both of my legs from under me as he straddles my chest. The hot weight of him squeezes my lungs, his hands forcing my wrists up over my head, grating my knuckles into the gritty dirt.
I curse.
Coal forces my wrists up higher, lowering his glistening body toward mine, his battle-honed pectorals heaving with harsh breaths, his metallic scent filling my nose. The air between us crackles with heat and strain. My already speeding heart lurches into an outright gallop, something primal inside me waking to rage against the restraint. Instinct has me reaching for my magic, roaring at finding it shackled. The mortal world’s bonds tighten over the cords of power so hard, it hurts.
Anger and fury lash through me, feeding off each other as I thrash between the twin holds of Coal’s iron hands and this world’s chokehold on my magic. The hobbled power inside me bangs futilely against its restraints. My body arches, the violence inside me exploding, rattling my bones. Hurting. Hurting. Hurting.
So much violence. So much darkness. So much pain.
Too much to all be mine.Stars.One of the first discoveries we’d made in Lunos—when I awoke in the throes ofCoal’snightmare—was that during times of intense sensation, Coal’s strange magic has a way of bridging the gap between us. Of letting my body temporarily strengthen from the male’s power.
Coal’s nightmares do the trick. Bedding does it better.
My vision narrows on nothing but Coal’s face, so close to my own that the steam of our breaths mixes together. His eyes, focused on nothing but me, are tight. Tiny specks of purple fight their way to sparkle amidst brilliant blue. Yes, Coal’s strange magic is roaring as loudly as my own, my weaver’s body picking up the echo even here, on mortal soil.
I snarl, the carnal sound still new despite the six months that have passed since my brush with death forged my human self into this immortal form, the magic linking me forever with four fae warriors.
Magic. Yes. What if that’s all it was?What if, without it, we’re nothing but five fae warriors who once fought beside each other? My throat closes, but I force air through it nonetheless.
Coal releases me as I banish the thought to a place deep inside me, his eyes unreadable as he dusts himself free of sand. Free of me.
The fence where Katita and Tye had stopped is now empty once more.
“Maybe we scared them off,” I mutter, realizing I’d spoken aloud when Coal’s brow rises in question. I shake my head quickly.
For a moment, I swear the corner of Coal’s mouth twitches. “If you are adequately warmed up,” he says, recovering and putting away the fallen weapon, “it’s time for us to get started.”
5
Coal
Pulling on his discarded black tunic, Coal turned away from the woman whose lilac scent made his head swim. Leralynn had fought admirably the previous night, but their match in the sparring ring just now had felt like something else altogether. A musical symphony that pierced so deeply into Coal’s core that his heart still pounded against his ribs. And his heart wasn’t the only thing pounding painfully.
With sweat slicking her creamy skin, Lera’s face glowed ethereally despite the darkening sky, her auburn hair falling in a cascade of shining locks. The short pause since the match ended had already tightened her nipples to hard points that lifted her shirt, making it impossible to avoid noting the soul-wrenching breasts she seemed unaware she possessed.
Coal, however, was rather aware of the objects in question. Very inconveniently aware. Just as he’d been aware of her tight thighs and hips, the tantalizing curve of her shoulder meeting her neck that taunted something primal inside him. Made him want tobite,stars take him.
None of which was either logical or acceptable. Or welcome.
Leralynn was a cadet. A student—an infuriatingly stubborn student who seemed to have been born without self-preservation instincts. If Sage, the Academy’s headmaster, could hear Coal’s thoughts, he’d string him up on a whipping post. And would be right, for once in his life.
Swallowing, Coal hopped the training yard fence and led Lera out at a brisk run, the graying sky a perfect harmony to his racing pulse. With luck, it might start raining. Icy hail would be even better, especially if it could pour right into his leathers and put down his painfully throbbing hardness.
Reaching the edge of the corrals, Coal turned toward the tall perimeter wall, crossing the great stone courtyard at a jog. Their footsteps echoed through the empty space, the only sound but for the clank of a metalsmith’s iron and a lone hawk high overhead. He’d intended to stay inside Academy grounds, but the place suddenly felt too small. Too much like a cage. Plus, Leralynn didn’t deserve to be gawked at.
It had taken all of Coal’s will to halt himself from shoving Tye and Katita right into the sand and keeping them there until the pair couldn’t look at Lera again without twitching in pained memory. Like the lust, the protectiveness had come out of nowhere, gripping Coal’s chest like a band of iron, making it hard to breath. Hard to think.
Which Coal needed to start doing. And fast.
Stopping before the infamous tree that Lera no doubt used to get herself over the wall last night, Coal made short work of pulling himself up and jumping the two-pace gap to the wall. No need to explain more than that. Actually, there was little need to explain anything with Lera, not when she understood him without words. And, somehow, Coal understood her.Why,he had no idea—and no intention of trying to figure out. That could only lead to trouble, and trouble was exactly what he’d come to the Academy to avoid.
Sparring had been a mistake. Fortunately for all involved, the mistake wouldn’t have a chance to repeat itself since the girl would be packing up soon enough. River seldom asked for a favor, and if the commander wanted Lera gone, then Coal would make it so. And would keep the girl at arm’s length until then.
Landing on the soft-packed earth beyond the wall, Coal spared a backward glance to ensure his charge was still there.
