Page 113 of Fortress of Ambrose
Nore brought the lamp base down again. This time it struck the fellow’s head, and the metal shaft snapped in half. He howled in pain. She snatched the rope from him.
“Headmistress, can we help?” Draguns rushed inside, one holding a pillow. Ainsley was gone.
“Stand back,” Nore shouted as she tied the fellow’s wrists together with the precision of a sailor before tugging it tight. Then she lugged him to the door.
“You will drag him through the halls like this all day. If anyone wants to control when and how I make an heir for this House, this is akindnesscompared to what I will do to them.”
“Yes, Headmistress,” the Dragun gushed. “We are so sorry. The oath—”
“I don’t care about your oaths. I don’t care about your traditions. This is nowmyHouse!” She slammed the door in all their faces. Yagrin was breathless. She was furious, but fully clothed, thank goodness.
“Did he touch you?”
“You think he’d be alive if he touched me?” She lifted the sleeve of her nightgown. “I nicked my arm on the broken lamp.” She held it out to him.
Yagrin ran his hands along her soft, smooth, and unmarred skin.
“I tried to be nice, offering him tea to sit down and talk through whatever this tradition is. He genuinely seemed confused. But instead of taking the cup, he grabbed me by the wrist.” She huffed. “So I whacked him, good.”
“Uh, yeah. I doubt he’ll ever be signing up for anything like that again.”
Her frustration melted into a guffaw. It took about an hour for their conversation to move on and Nore to settle from the stressors of the day. When she did, Yagrin was sitting in a chair by her fire, holding a picture of Nore as a baby and her brother sitting on her mother’s hip. After a shower, she sat beside him on the floor.
“Thank you for checking on me, I’m not sure I said that.”
He waved the words away.
“I mean it.” She stretched her neck, holding her shoulder. Yagrin had long noticed the lack of any pillows on her bed. She was in pain. Red always had neck pain if she didn’t sleep just so. Now he knew why.
“May I?”
Her gray eyes said yes. She didn’t answer, but she moved in front of him, sitting beside his toes, her back pressed against his shins. He gathered the long locks of her hair and moved them aside, exposing her bare shoulder. He bit his bottom lip to try to stop thinking about kissing her there.
As he moved his hands over the muscle between her shoulder blades, she arced backward, lengthening her neck. He studied the new lines of the face of the girl he loved. He’d known Red’s every dip, blemish, and curve. And he adored each one of them. But Nore’s lips were shaped a bit differently. Full and pink. And soft. So very soft.Goodness, she is beautiful.He closed his eyes as he kneaded her muscles, and the moment he’d let himself kiss her at House of Oralia flooded his senses. Desire burned inhim, but he focused on getting the hard knot out of her back. He dug his knuckle deeper, and she moaned in relief.
“There.” She straightened against him, pressing against his firm touch. He worked the heel of his hand harder, up and down in a smooth motion, deeper with each movement.
When he finished, her fingers found his. She cupped his hand and turned to face him.
“I don’t know if I can do this.” Her stare burned with fear. “Being Headmistress.”
“You can do anything. But do you want it?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
Yagrin laced his fingers between hers, and she let him. “We will make you a choice.”
“You cannot fix this. I’m bound by a Pact. They have my heart.” She shook her head. “There’s no way out. There’s no way for us. For this.” She laid her head on his lap, and he raked his fingers through her hair, drawing circles on the crown of her head the way she liked.
“It’s okay to be terrified. It’s okay to not have the answers. I was made a Dragun and never wanted any of it. My future was decided for me before I was even born. It’s okay to not like that. And resist it.”
Her lashes batted as she looked up at him, listening. She was really listening. Not thinking of ways to get rid of him or mean things to say to push him away. He could see the girl he loved in those eyes.
“You are a fire that will not be extinguished,” he said.
“Fire needs air. I can’t breathe here.”
“Then let’s break you out of this cage. Maybe there’s a way out of the curse.”
