Closing the gap he’d created, I dared to try for a husky, sultry voice. “You said it yourself, you’re not my teacher anymore.”
He had the worst possible reaction—he burst out laughing. I flinched, preparing to flee, but he stopped me by bringing his hands to the sides of my face. Trailing his fingers through my hair, he reached around to cup the back of my head and leaned in, whispering, “How can you be bold as the sun one moment, and quiet and shy as the new moon the next?”
An open smile dazzled me. He tipped my head forward and our brows touched, setting a fire in my gut. I shut my eyes, every sense narrowing to the spot connecting us.
“Nim?n telo, T?stien Valo.”
I opened my mouth to ask what he’d said when a high, cruel voice interrupted. “What’s this?”
I jumped back. I couldn’t have looked guiltier if I’d tried.
Dimitri continued. “Is the infamous fae of stone cracking? Surely your taste in females doesn’t extend to scrawny humans barely capable of holding a sword?”
I clamped down on the tirade of abuse threatening to spill from my treacherous mouth. Not that I thought telling him he was as likable as dog shit would really wound him.
“Dimitri.” Wilder bowed his head a touch. Adopting a pleasant, brisk tone, he added, “Out for a nighttime stroll?”
A shake of his head but it was slow, careful. “I’m on my way to see Hilda.”
“Of course,” Wilder remarked. “I might see you there. Goldwyn and I have to meet with her later on tonight.”
“I hadn’t planned on keeping her that long, although maybe we’ll have more to discuss tonight.” He smirked at me, eyes roaming, judging. “A human, Wilder—really?”
“What can I say? We all have our favorite pupils, don’t we?”
That comment hit its mark. Dimitri’s face paled and tightened; I couldn’t imagine what it meant. “And that’s all this is.” His hand waved between us.
The floating firelights illuminated Wilder’s blank expression. “We’ve done nothing to be ashamed of.”
A faint, taunting smile marked Dimitri’s face as he replied, “Glad to hear it.” He took a step toward us. A clear threat. “Because if you were doing something, I’d feel obligated to tell certain … interested parties that you’ve been sullying yourself with human filth.”
Wilder raised his brows a touch. “I’m surprised at you, Dimitri. I thought your strongest objection would be that she’s my student,” he said lightly. An act, playing casual.
Dimitri angled his head. A sneer playing around his mouth, he said, “As you well know, whatever you did would be nothing compared to how Goldwyn acted before Cecile, or the amount of recruits Mikael goes through.”
Wow. Interesting.
“It seems that I am the only one with any propriety left,” Dimitri sniffed.
Auntie cackled. Pfft! He just can’t find any poor, innocent soul willing to let him stick it where he wants.
A bubble of hysterical laugher popped. I saved myself at the last minute by turning it into an explosive cough.
Dimitri scrunched his face in disgust. “I’d have that one checked if I were you. She appears to be in the grips of a disease.”
Wilder pulled me under his wing. “I’ll take her to the healer right away.”
“And just some friendly advice—”
I choked back a laughing snort.
“Stop these cozy training sessions,” Dimitri finished.
“Serena has a month of training to catch up on,” Wilder reminded him—politely.
“That task should now fall to Goldwyn. Of course, the situation might have been overlooked if your interest in this human wasn’t so apparent. But you don’t want to be accused of favoritism, do you?”
Wilder tensed beside me. “I’ll discuss the matter with Goldwyn, but I believe you might be right.”
I screamed internally.
“Is there anything else, Dimitri? We wouldn’t want to delay you from meeting Hilda.” A shallow smile.
Dimitri bared his teeth and gave a mocking bow. “Your concern is touching, Wilder.”
He shot into the sky without a goodbye. I turned to Wilder, ready to fight him on the training sessions, when he pressed a finger to his lip. He gazed upward, searching the navy-blue sky, listening for something outside my mortal hearing.
Then he was moving, pulling me toward the stables. Stalking across the pit, I prepared myself for the worst.
We entered the stables, and the sweet smell of hay and the whinnies of horses greeted us. The firelights that accompanied our sparring had traveled with us. They illuminated Wilder as he twisted to face me. He didn’t make eye contact—he was too busy scanning every inch of the stable block.
“Are we alone?” I dared to ask.
A pause, and then a curt nod.
“Are you in trouble? Are we?”
“No, not yet.”
“You’re being evasive.”
Wilder grimaced. I spotted his hands clenching, then unclenching. “He was right, you know.”
“About what?” I felt a scythe swish over my head.
“Over the years, the mentors have taken lovers from among the students.”
My blood chilled. “Are you with someone at the moment? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
My voice trembled. And I didn’t care. It wasn’t in me to pretend the answer didn’t matter.
“No. I’m saying the complete opposite,” Wilder said flatly. “I’ve never sought out a recruit’s company. I’m not free to act on such desires, Serena.”
An awkward silence, in which heat and tension built in the air between us, crackled like lightning. “Are you telling me you’re married?”
He actually smiled at that. Smiled, when I was breaking and bleeding from the inside. “It’s nothing like that.”
He didn’t elaborate, and my patience snapped. “Why did you bring me in here?”
“To apologize.”
“For?” I pushed out.
He continued smoothly, not missing a beat. “If I hadn’t shown you affection, we could’ve continued on with our training. I’ll hate myself for that in days to come.”
My heart plummeted down, down, down.
He continued. “I wanted to see your progress. You’ve been one of my more … surprising students.” His mouth quirked to the side, creasing his scars. “One second I’ve got you figured, and the next your whole body shifts, your fighting style changes, and you’re showing flashes of brilliance rare in humans and fae. I wanted to see you use the moves I taught you to show everyone, especially the fae, what you’re capable of.”
I had to push down the impulse to run over and throw my arms around him. Either that, or hit him—I couldn’t decide which.
Bitterness and panic were clawing at my throat. “We can still see each other outside of classes.”
“And what reason would we have to see each other?”
He kept his tone light; I shrank inside. “Do we need a reason?” I breathed.
Courage, Auntie whispered.
Before he could answer, I took a deep breath to combat my racing heart and went on. “I’m not suggesting that we become … intimate, but there’s something here, isn’t there?”
Raw emotion thundered through my veins. There was no looking him in the eye. I took to staring at a nearby stallion, praying, pleading. He was moving, drawing me in close and wrapping me into a hug. His broad chest expanded against mine. “There are so many reasons for us to never see each other again; you can’t even imagine half of them. I almost envy your ignorance.”
My pride bridled at that. “I don’t know how to walk away. To pretend. Help me understand,” I whispered against his chest.
He pulled away to give me an appraising look. “Number one, official fae and human couplings are outlawed. We can take you as lovers, but a fae cannot marry or produce faelings with humans. Offspring—demi-fae—are denied the rights any full-bloodied fae can expect in society. That’s if they’re not killed outright at birth.”
“I don’t want to do any of those things,” I blurted out. “At least not yet, anyway.”
Wilder huffed and closed his eyes, grimacing. “I don’t blame you, but that alone should tell you how many fae in Aldar view our kinds mixing.”
“I don’t care what people think,” I said, defiant.
“It’s not just that you’re human,” he croaked out. “Even if you only wanted a friendship—”