Chapter 17

Chapter

Seventeen

Vyk

I paced across the floor in my quarters, hating myself for more reasons than I was willing to admit. I had not told Fiona how to find my quarters, although I had a feeling that an Assassin instructor would have no problem securing that information. I had also not specified a time, which meant that I had been waiting alone in my spartan quarters since I had finished dinner.

Stopping at the foot of my bed, I gave a cursory glance around the space. As the academy’s security chief, I had been granted larger quarters than most of the staff. It wasn’t as large as the Academy Master’s suite, but it dwarfed the dormitory rooms that housed the cadets and even the regular staff quarters.

Like the rest of the school, the walls and floor were black stone, which sucked up the light and any warmth that attempted to linger. It was why I kept the fire burning in the hearth that was inset in one of the ebony walls. At least the artificial flames sent golden light dancing across the ceiling, although the heat from the cavorting fire could only be felt if you stood close, which I often did.

I walked to the fire now and held out my hands, letting my palms absorb the warmth and allowing the hypnotic sight of the flames calm me.

She would come. She had agreed to come. Not only that, she had lost a bet, and I sensed that the captain was the kind who always paid her debts.

Despite my original hostility toward the humans at the academy, and especially toward the females, I had noted that they were honorable and diligent. Not a single human had displayed any of the weakness I had expected. None of them had complained that the academy was too tough or that the accommodations were too stark or the distance from Earth was too great. None of them had been at all what I had anticipated.

Especially not her.

I had been watching Fiona since the first time we had met, and she had ended up storming away from me. I had been startled that she had not shown me the deference I was due, but I was even more shocked when she’d put me soundly in my place.

“I don’t have any idea who you are, but where I come from, respect isn’t handed out like candy. If you want me to respect you, then you’d better respect me.” Her words still rung in my ears. Then she’d mumbled something about a Grandad and had flounced away, leaving me to stare after her and try fruitlessly not to ogle her twisting ass .

From that moment on, I’d kept a close watch on her. I’d seen her glare daggers at me during the all-staff meetings. I’d watched her give me dismissive side-eye glances at academy dinners. And I’d been on the receiving end of murderous stares after the trials. And with each dark look, I’d become more and more fascinated by the woman.

It was rare that anyone challenged me. I was accustomed to Drexians falling in step behind my orders and shuffling aside to let me pass when I strode through the corridors. But Fiona did none of that. She was not afraid of me, and it was not because she hadn’t heard my reputation. She was an instructor in the School of Strategy. She would have done her research on me. But still, she refused to shrink from me, and that was intriguing.

Being curious did not mean that I wanted anything more from her than answers. I only wished to know how she alone did not fear me. That was all.

I had vowed never to take a human as a mate. I had promised myself that I would never trust another human female. They were too capricious, too unreliable, too indecisive. But none of those words would describe Fiona.

I turned to warm up my back, sweeping my gaze across the space that held little besides my large bed draped in gunmetal gray, a pair of armchairs angled to face the fire, and a bare desk. As I looked at my quarters through eyes not my own, I was struck by how unwelcoming it appeared. Aside from the fire, there was nothing that could be considered inviting.

With a grunt of frustration, I crossed to the bed and snatched one of the pillows from the top. I used both hands to punch the sides in an attempt to fluff it up. I returned it to its place, moderately pleased that it was no longer flat. I seized the other and clapped the sides with even more vigor. Fluffy pillows were not much, but they were something.

I tossed the pillow up and crushed the sides together with both open palms, but instead of puffing up like it had seconds earlier, the seam on one end popped. Bits of fluff exploded into the air, flying up and then drifting down, as I stood in shock at the white down that was snowing down onto my bed and floor.

“ Grekking hell,” I growled, as I blew away a bit of fluff that had landed in my open mouth. My quarters might have been stark, but at least they had been clean. Now it looked like a flock of birds had exploded inside my room.

I desperately swept my hands across the bed to gather all the loose down, hurrying to the attached bathroom and peeling the feathery poofs off my now-damp palms and into the trash. The rest, I kicked under my bed, hoping that she would have no reason to look down.

My heart pounded as I rubbed my hands down the front of my pants, then groaned and attempted to flick off the fluff I’d deposited onto my dark uniform pants. How was it possible that I was more nervous about Fiona coming to my quarters than I was about going into the deadliest of battles?

I snorted out a rough, garbled laugh. “Give me an attacking Kronock fleet any day.”

I knew how to handle a direct assault by an enemy combatant. Females were another matter entirely .

My door beeped, alerting me that there was someone on the other side. At least she had not pounded her fist. That was a good sign, wasn’t it?

I shook out my arms as I went to the door and pressed my palm to the side panel. When it slid open, I was ready for the woman on the other side.

I was not ready for her hard gaze to land on me and soften before the edges of her mouth quivered. Was she fighting off the urge to laugh?

Fiona stepped forward and raised her hand to my face. Instinctively, I caught her wrist and held it.

She raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t try to wrench her arm from my grasp. “You don’t trust very easily, do you?”

“I am a security chief for a warrior academy that was once sabotaged from within.”

She held my gaze as I held her wrist, the steady thrumming of her pulse sending heat up my arm. Then she tipped her head to one side. “Do I look like the enemy?”

I could not tell her that she looked very much like the creature who had damaged me more than any Kronock. I could not tell her that I feared that damage more than any broken bone or bloody gash.

We breathed together for a few moments before I slowly uncoiled my fingers from her wrist, my gaze never leaving hers. Instead of dropping her hand, she gently touched the side of my face and then pulled it back and held up a puff of white fuzz. “I like the silver, but you’re not ready to go full Santa Claus yet. ”

I took the fluff she dropped in my hand and remained motionless as she sidled past me into my room. What was a Santa Claus?