A week and a half later, the hustle and bustle of students exercising all around us accompanied our steps. Cyan’s first official week was filled with mental and emotional assessments to ensure his well-being first and foremost, as well as teaching him how to read and write.
Every morning, Aedan and I accompanied him to the library to meet Mr. McGrath for private classes before going to our own, then met him for lunch and back to the library. We spent our breaks together, usually with us regaling him with stories of our childhoods and the academy.
Surprisingly, though he still had much to learn, he was picking things up so swiftly that yesterday he’d braved a few classes with us—all notes taken by Aedan of course—but he was getting the gist of things fast. Mr. McGrath was impressed and very satisfied with his advancement.
I was trying my best to stick to my promise to Aedan, but he definitely had way more patience for Cyan than I did. His grumpiness made me want to smack him more often than not, so it was a work in progress. Still, I didn’t tell Aedan about what I’d witnessed that night. It was Cyan’s secret, and I had to admit I felt bad for even being there.
Today was physical endurance day, and I was disturbingly excited since none of us knew what an Iron Faery was capable of, not yet. We moved together toward the farthest section of the training field, making sure to be far enough from everyone else that even if they looked our way, they wouldn’t be able to grasp what we were doing.
Swords clanged at our approach, arrows whistled through the air—piercing their targets—grunts and battle shouts echoed from the few warriors who flew above us, engaged in a deadly dance of power and skill. The sounds swirled in my ears like holy music. This place was definitely my temple.
A few heads turned in our direction, most students filled with curiosity about the new addition to the academy, “Aedan’s cousin”. Others, particularly the girls, blatantly followed his advance, waving and giggling among themselves, staring at him as though he was the only guy here while undressing him with their eyes.
Disgusting.
“Morning, Cyan!” Cara called from where she stood, pausing her hand-to-hand combat exercise. She’d purposefully lowered the zipper of her jacket on the front to show her cleavage at him.
My glare met Cara’s eyes as she smiled at him, waving, and rage like I’d never felt swelled in my chest. I all but snarled at her, causing her face to twist into a snarl of her own for a split second before resuming her flirting.
Cyan glanced toward her group, his disinterested stare barely reaching her before focusing again on what Aedan was saying. That was extremely rude of him, but this time, I wholeheartedly approved. Even with her shameless attempts to call his attention during the past week, he had completely ignored her. Surely another reason for her to hate me, but oh well.
Giving my archenemy my most delightful smile, I pressed closer to him and waved my fingers at her. Wrong move. What felt like raw electricity shot through my core at the contact, and his head snapped down to me, his gaze intensifying as his fist clenched—had he felt it too?
It was not the first time I’d felt something similar with him since he arrived, but I was fully intent on ignoring whatever that was and living in denial.
“Our class only has a month left to graduate,” Aedan continued, oblivious to our little moment.
Cyan swallowed hard before pulling his gaze from me and focusing on the other students on the field. He seemed uncomfortable surrounded by so many people. His nostrils flared, eyes sharp, muscles coiled as though he expected to be attacked at any moment.
“After the great tournament, where we get to demonstrate our dominant skills, we are either assigned to our ever-growing army or sent on special assignment to other kingdoms in the realm,” I added, calling his attention back to us. “They pay heftily for the privilege to have even one of us in their guard, which helps not only Aērelis, but it allows Mr. Kavanagh to maintain the academy and give us all the tools we need to be trained to the best of our abilities.”
“The queen said you were all left without abilities,” he countered, looking at us with distrust.
My lips became a thin line; he’d been defensive the entire morning and it was getting old. Not that I was a patient person. “Elemental abilities yes, but Aērelis Warriors are capable of far more than just magic.”
Assessing me for a moment, he nodded, accepting my explanation as true. His eyes lifted to the hand-to-hand combat exercise going on above us.
“That means everyone you see here, although still perfecting certain skills, is already classified as a warrior—”
“And more than capable of kicking your ass if you keep testing my patience,” I warned, interrupting Aedan, whose lips twitched even as he gave me a behave look.
A glimmer of humor entered Cyan’s crystalline eyes, but he pulled his gaze from me, walking to the weapons rack. We’d been testing his physical endurance this morning, now it was time for us to see whether or not he could fight.
“What are we doing here?” he questioned, the distrust returning as he focused on the swords.
“We know you were able to escape your captor, but getting away might have been circumstantial luck. We need to know how you will fare in a—”
“It wasn’t luck,” he growled through gritted teeth. “I was fighting for my life.”
“Then why didn’t you fight before that day?” I challenged… And there went my promise to give him a chance.
He was in my face before I even realized he had moved.
“You think it’s so easy, don’t you? It must be fun to judge me when you’ve had an entire life of warm beds and hot food. While you sit here in your perfect school with everything you could possibly need at your fingertips.” He gestured to the academy.
“Hey!” Aedan forced him back. “You have no idea how hard her life has been.”
Cyan’s resentment-filled eyes bore into my bestie’s. “I don’t give a fuck how hard you think your lives have been, because you were in here while I was out there… in their claws.”
He walked away from us, halting in front of the weapons rack.
Swallowing, I glanced at Aedan, who gave me a reproaching glare.
“You need to stop, C. What the hell happened to giving the guy the benefit of the doubt?” He sighed frustratedly, rubbing his face. “I will always defend you. You know that. But you have no idea who he is, and we won’t learn anything about him if we can’t get him to open up. And let’s not forget what is important here. This is a chance to prove ourselves to the queen, to set ourselves apart from the rest of our class. She trusted us to help him, and that is what we are going to do.”
My shoulders fell, leaving me deflated. I hated when he was right, but he was, I needed to get off my high horse. Returning the glare, I walked toward Cyan, stopping next to him.
“Most armies force their warriors to become proficient in every weapon,” I began to explain, preferring not to acknowledge what had just happened. “And while we are taught to wield all of them, we are encouraged to choose one and bond with it, becoming proficient in its use.”
With the words, I felt the enchanted bow and arrow materialize on my back. Cyan’s keen eyes snapped toward it, but he didn’t question it.
“During a fight, warriors shouldn’t be forcing themselves to do anything that is not spontaneous or that comes naturally to them. If you have to think about your attack, even for a millisecond—
“You have already lost,” Aedan finished for me, swirling the twin swords in his hands without even paying attention. They were a part of him.
Processing the info, Cyan glanced at the rack and then at my quiver. “Are you good with that?”
A slow grin curved my lips. “Are you good at breathing?”
“Why don’t you judge for yourself?” Aedan dared, pointing to the basket full of soft targets behind him. “Those are small leather sacs filled with colored powder,” he explained. “Take one of those and throw it as hard and far as your arms will let you.”
Giving them both my back, I began to run forward, waiting for the target to be released. The instant the whistling sound of the leather bag hurling through the air reached me, I jumped—spinning and nocking my arrow all in the same movement. Then, I let it fly.
Landing in a crouch, I touched the ground as my eyes snapped up just in time to see the leather burst as the arrow went through it, releasing a cloud of orange and yellow that swirled above the training field. I blinked, seeing the target had flown higher than I anticipated.
“Don’t ask me to do that with a sword,” I joked, jogging back to their side. “I mean, I probably could, but don’t ask me. He on the other hand…” I nodded toward Aedan. “Care to demonstrate?”
“I thought those were just for arrows,” Cyan added, his attention shifting from the leather sacs to my friend when Aedan began to run. A glimmer of appreciation still danced in his eyes from my feat.
“You are running out of time.” I pointed to the basket and Cyan quickly grabbed the soft target. Turning, he swung it with all his might, and I watched, perplexed, as the thing flew higher than I’d ever seen it go.
No one could throw that hard, not even our battle professor.
Aedan jumped, turning as I had, and sent one of his swords flying. The blade spun in the sky toward the soft target, effortlessly slicing through the leather and releasing a purple and blue cloud. The sword reappeared in my friend’s hand, the same way the arrow had magically returned to my quiver.
“All weapons chosen by a warrior are enchanted. They always return to us,” I explained, my gaze examining Cyan’s arm while my friend jogged back to us.
Aside from the bulging muscles, I couldn’t really tell what it was that allowed him to throw so well. I mean, I had an idea. In the past few hours, Cyan had crushed every single test—the strength one quite literally.
I guessed a part of me didn’t want to admit that having his goddess-given powers made him better than us. To be honest, it kind of stung to even think about it. Aērelis had worked so hard to remain the praised warrior race we were before the attack, and I took pride in what we had become without magic.
Not that I didn’t wonder who I would be able to become if I had elemental abilities. Using the Solara magic during the tour had been the highlight of my life.
Cyan’s impressed gaze roamed Aedan and I when we stood side by side, but there was something else in his gaze… intrigue, maybe? His head lifted to the sky then returned to us—hints of blue and purple still cascaded onto the grass. “What do you want me to do now?”
“Fight us,” I answer simply.
“Not to brag, but we are kind of great at combat,” Aedan playfully added, and I grinned.
“That we are.”
“Is that how you got those?” Cyan’s gaze went to our wrists, probably remembering us boasting our wins to the queen.
“In part, yeah,” my bestie answered.
“The battle trials are not only about fighting someone else one on one, but about using all your skills and senses to get through several challenges, eliminating your competition in the process.”
“You kill them?” he asked, shocked.
“Um, no, psycho,” I scoffed. “We don’t kill our own. We disqualify them. The magic markers placed throughout the course sense when someone has bested the other, until only one remains, and then they announce who has won.”
“They give us the ribbons to mark our accomplishments.”
Cyan nodded, clearly relieved.
“Okay, grab a weapon, and let’s begin,” my best friend instructed, and we both stepped back several paces, creating a fighting area.
Cyan hesitated, staring at the rack for a few moments.
“What is it?” I asked, falling out of my fighting stance.
“I’ve never seen any of these. The ˈlēTHəl don’t need physical weapons to torture us.”
Holy fuck.
The gravity of his words was like a punch in the stomach. No, they didn’t. They had terror and black magic at their disposal.
“That’s fine. We can totally do hand-to-hand,” Aedan offered nonchalantly, as though Cyan’s statement hadn’t hit him too.
Seeing him nod and stand across from us, arms loose at his sides, we let go of our weapons.
“Why don’t you try to stop us from attacking you?” I offered and he nodded again.
Exchanging a glance, Aedan and I lunged toward him, and jumped, each going at him from a different angle. A second before we reached him, Cyan’s eyes gleamed silver, and both of his arms lifted.
What I could only describe as liquid iron rushed like a wave over his skin, possessing it, transforming it, and one of his fists crashed against Aedan’s chest, sending him flying back from the force of the impact.
I spun, leg poised to kick his back, but his arm suddenly wrapped around my waist as he turned in the opposite direction. Snatching me from the air, Cyan pulled me down to him. My body bounced against his chest as we crashed together over the grass, but he just held me fiercely to him.
I should have bucked out of his grip and launched another attack. I could have kicked him. Used his thigh as a foothold to flip back and smash his face in with my boot, even throat-punched him to free myself and shoot to the sky with my wings.
Yet, I was too shocked to do anything. He’d plucked me out of the air like I was nothing but a swaying feather.
The liquid iron rippled out of his skin once more, uncovering his sharp cheekbones, chiseled jaw, and perfectly kissable lips that hovered only a couple of inches from mine. Cyan’s stunning eyes—that reminded me of a bottomless sparkling ocean—captured mine as he held me, and even the feeling of his broad chest curling over my breasts, fitting my form perfectly enthralled me, but none of those things kept me in his arms.
His energy rushing through me did. Warm and wild it captured me.
Our panted breaths mixed while our eyes bored into each other’s, unable to look away and his arms tightened around my back, pulling me impossibly closer. Every inch of us seemed to meld together, his thigh parting my legs and settling between them like he belonged there. The new touch was intimate and exciting, sending the molten heat straight to my navel once more.
Unable to help myself, I let my hands that had been braced against his broad pecs roam his chest, up his deliciously strong shoulders, and down his corded arms. My fingers gripped the iron hands that curled around my waist on their way down, and something happened to me.
Wild tingles burst from my core, hardening my nipples against my battle suit. The feeling was similar to what I felt every time we got too close. Ever since he held me in the headmaster’s office, but ten times more powerful. It made every cell in my being feel raw, energized, sliced open, and anew all at once…
Multiple, tiny, crackling, and effervescent explosions occurred along my body, stirring something in me.
Sturdy breaths escaped his mouth, crashing with my frantic ones, and letting me know that whatever was happening had captured us both. Cyan’s crystalline eyes darkened, his sensual gaze becoming intense to the point of undoing me, and as his attention fell to my lips, the tip of his tongue darted over his—as though he couldn’t wait to taste me.
My heart began beating a thousand times a minute and his thigh pressed harder to my center, making the need for him pool between my legs. To my delight, and shock, his hips slightly shifted beneath me, showing me how deliciously hard he was.
Holy hell. The feeling of him like that sent a new wave of thrills through me. I’d never had a man become hard for me, but having him so hard against my core caused my delicate center to start aching for him.
Fine we are both horny, still, I can get a hold of myself, can’t I? I am a freaking warrior for Goddess’ sake!
Even with the thought, Cyan’s head lifted from the grass, his forehead pressing against mine for a split second.
Thundering heartbeats reached my ears, his and mine, and I feared my heart would burst out of my chest and jump into his while he held me so close, inappropriately close, but I couldn’t find the will to complain. His gaze said he was disarmed by my presence like I was by his.
“Who are you?” I whispered, our lips almost touching, completely enthralled by the sensations running through me.
“I-I am…” Cyan tensed, his jaw locking with jerking muscles, and threatening darkness obscured his expression.
Abruptly sitting up, he set me down beside him, standing, and stepping away from me like I had the plague.
Gee, thanks for ruining the moment.
Granted, I had no idea what kind of “moment” we had shared, but three things were for certain—I was terribly attracted that asshole, stunned by what he could do, and so intrigued that I knew I would think of nothing else until I discovered what it was I felt with him.
“He needs help,” Cyan grumbled, and my eyes widened, only then remembering Aedan.
Daingead! I cursed in the ancient tongue, and lurched to my feet, rushing to where my bestie stood, several feet from us. “Are you okay?”
He nodded, but didn’t look up at me, his gaze fixed on the chest plate of his suit. Thankfully, he’d worn his steel armored suit today as a precaution. Lifting a hand to his chest, I felt the fractured structure underneath. I expected it to be bent, pushed inward from the impact, yet the steel seemed to have cracked into a million pieces from the contact with Cyan’s iron fist, as though it had been made of glass instead.
What the fuck?
“Are you sure you are okay?” I questioned, opening the front of his suit before he even had a chance to answer. The breath returned to my lungs when I noticed his skin was red from the force but smooth and unharmed, the steel plate had worked as designed, absorbing the brunt of the hit.
“I’m okay,” Aedan assured, amused. “I’m a warrior, you know? It takes more than that to get me out of the battle.” He winked at me.
I smacked his arm. Hard. He’d scared me. Whirling around I smacked Cyan too, seeing him recoil from me, rubbing his arm.
“Why did you hit me?”
“Because you hit him!” I snapped. “You shattered his chest plate.”
He made a face. “I didn’t hit him, I tried to stop him like you told me to do, but sometimes I can’t fully control the shift.” Stepping closer, he lifted one hand toward Aedan. “I can fix it?” Cyan offered more as a question.
Aedan nodded, wondering, like I was, what Cyan meant exactly.
When his hand lay flat over my friend’s chest plate, the shards of metal visibly vibrated between the leather panels. He pushed them together as they turned smooth, sloshing like water under the fabric while his fingers molded them again. A few drops of metal seeped through the material, but soon it began to harden once more.
When Cyan stepped away, the shield plate was as good as new, arching over Aedan’s chest perfectly.
Fascinated by it, I reached for him, brushing away the little pearls of steel that were left behind.
“That was super cool. Thank you.”
Cyan nodded to Aedan like it was nothing, but I could see a tiny gleam of accomplishment in his own eyes.
Finally remembering we weren’t exactly alone in the training field, I glanced back to make sure no one had seen any of our extracurricular activities. Thankfully, everyone was fully focused on their fights and battle exercises to care.
Sighing, I glanced at Cyan again to find his eyes on me. The little hairs on the back of my neck stood on end immediately, responding to the energy that somehow danced on my skin thanks to him. It took a few seconds for me to be able to look away.
I wished I could describe what I saw in his eyes, but something told me not even Cyan understood it.