Page 6 of Prowess Trials
River’s brows twitched together, his senses peaking as he picked up his pace, his boots kicking up the scent of mossy earth. Soft oak branches brushed River’s face as he hurried through them, his lungs and heart taking on a familiar steady rhythm. River might be wearing the stiff woolen coat appropriate for a deputy headmaster, but he was much more than that—and the stranger would learn it one way or the other. “Sir. Remove your hood.”
The man quickened his pace, heading deeper into the trees. A mistake given that the forest led nowhere but to a wall, though the man might not realize it.
Caw caw.
A pair of crows caught River’s attention for a moment, the birds unusual in this part of the Academy. Looking away from the man’s swishing red cloak, River blinked as more and more flapping wings landed on the branches. A hawk. A trio of vultures. An eagle with a bright white head and sharp yellow beak.
Caw caw. Caw caw.
What in stars’ light?Shaking himself, River hurried after the fleeing figure, his pulse now rising with each step. The birds didn’t belong. Just as this man did not.
The tall stone wall came into view through the trees, and the figure slowed his pace, giving River just enough time to reach him. Gripping the man’s shoulder, feeling hard muscle beneath his thick cloak, he spun him around.
“Who are—” River’s voice tripped.
The stranger’s hood had fallen to his shoulders, revealing silvery-blond hair pulled back into a braid, magnetic blue eyes, and a pale ageless face that was not of this world. His ears came to points. When he smiled, his canines did too.
“Commander Owalin of the Night Guard, at your service,” the male said in a voice that sent ice trickling down River’s spine.
Owalin. The same name Zake had babbled to Coal in the dungeons.
Reining in his pounding heart, River stood his ground as he met the male’s pale, haunting gaze. “What do the fae want with my Academy?”
“I’m afraid it is no longer your Academy, Deputy Headmaster River.” Something flicked in the man’s hand just as one of the crows launched itself from the nearby branch and flew straight for River’s face.
River’s forearm rose on instinct to ward off the bird, which tore into his jacket with razor-sharp talons. Woolen threads snapped and—and River gasped at the fire exploding along his chest. The world flickered for a moment as he looked down, surprised to find Owalin pulling a long blade out of his flesh, his own vivid red blood streaking its length.
As River went to swing for the male, branches rustled overhead and someone cracked a blow across River’s temple from behind. This time, when the world wavered, the darkness remained. All River recalled as he fell flat to the ground was Owalin’s voice addressing one of the crows. “Our human idiot got himself arrested and will be babbling shortly if he’s not doing so already. Find Krum. There has been a change of plans.”
Thecaw cawof the bird’s answering call followed River into oblivion.
5
Lera
“Thank you all for coming to the first Prowess Trials to be held at the Great Falls Academy,” Sage’s pleased voice booms over the filled arena stands.
Hundreds of people in every manner of finery fill the raised benches, guards and servants patrolling the walkways to ensure everyone who matters has goblets of wine to ward off the heat. Some personal servants stand over their masters in the bleachers with parasols; others flutter elaborately painted fans. Overhead, flocks of birds wheel over the arena, perhaps attracted by the afternoon sun sparkling off the sand. A dozen yards in front of me, teams of Prowess athletes in every color parade around the arena, each kingdom celebrating its own with music and cheers.
The clamor of clapping hands and raised voices flying into the air is both deafeningly loud and incomplete to my immortal ears, Coal and River both noticeably absent. Coal disappeared earlier on a fool’s errand to singlehandedly find the Night Guard’s lair, while River…
I don’t know where he went, just that he wanted to be away from me.
We are done.
My fingers curl around my belly, my chest tight as the words repeat themselves over and over in my mind, burning me each and every time.We are done. We are done.
All because I made a mistake. Didn’t speak to him on a schedule he thought I should. What would River think if he knew all the other decisions I’ve made over the past months—some good, some not. All of them mine.
“He couldn’t have meant it.” Arisha touches my thigh, her hand snaking out of a hideous yellow gown that makes her resemble a frizzy sunflower. She sweeps her distracted blue gaze over the crowd. “And once he gets his memory back—ah, stop it! I can barely see over the fur in my mouth.”
“What—oh.” I frown down at Shade’s wolf, his black muzzle burrowed into my midsection as if looking for treats, his raised tail whacking Arisha in the face with every wag. I’d have expected the male to have shifted into fae form well before now, but here we are. Still in wolf form. Too long in wolf form. Grabbing the scruff of Shade’s neck, I try and fail to drag him to a more convenient location, the people around me shimmying away despite the tight seating.
I shift myself to provide some blockage for the tail, my voice bitter despite my best efforts. “Once they get their memory back—do we knowhowthey get their memory back exactly? Or anything about these wards we’re supposed to be repairing? Because right now, the best plan I’ve got is to sit on my rear, waiting for something bad to happen.”
My own words remind me to survey the filled stands, though I find nothing out of the ordinary but the number of birds and royals. And their sheer breadth of dazzling fashions, from a huge woman in a shapeless black sheath with what looks like an actual bowl of fruit on her head, to a whole family of laughing blonde girls, at least six strong, wearing matching gowns of pink tulle, their thin father cowering in the middle.
But all pale in comparison to Tye, bouncing on the balls of his feet at the arena’s edge, his emerald eyes alight. With a special gold athletic uniform hugging his muscled frame and his fiery hair catching the sunlight, the male exudes a confidence that rivals River’s striding across a throne room—a fact not lost on the many, many eyes watching the male’s every graceful move unblinkingly.
