10. Chapter Ten

I could not stop staring at that woman if I tried.

“So,” Hans murmured beside me. “Is this why you signed us all up for this boring shit, K? To eye-fuck some pretty little freshling from afar?”

Jeremiah tried his best to cover up his snort with a false bout of coughing, and I elbowed him in the side for good measure.

“It’s good for morale to have higher ranking officers pick up grunt work on occasion, Deering,” I replied to my lieutenant, unphased.

“And it’s good for your morale to find the most attractive creatures in the city for another notch in your bedpost,” he snarked back. “Like, my gods. She’s probably been here for all of two seconds and you’ve already got her in your crosshairs. I’m almost impressed, Captain.”

At that, I couldn’t help but laugh.

I had a good rapport with most of my men, but Jeremiah, Hans and I were particularly close. We kept things informal, for the most part, because I preferred it that way. True loyalty didn’t require the pomp and circumstance of military formalities, and these two were probably the closest thing I had to friends.

“So, are you going to go over and introduce yourself, or what? She keeps looking over here, and it’s certainly not for our ugly mugs,” Jeremiah cajoled.

I raised a brow. The two of them were perfectly good looking men—perhaps not my type, but they each had their way with the ladies amp; gentlemen of Sophrosyne well enough. Still, I did hope that my second-in-command was right.

“Nah, not just yet,” I replied, still looking at her surreptitiously from the corner of my eye.

“You know he’s got a method to his madness, Jer,” Hans reminded his fellow officer. “And the Fates fuckin’ know that it works damn near every time.”

“Is that jealousy I detect there, Deering?” I shot back with a grin.

Slowly and intentionally, I pulled the thin leather cord that I used to keep my hair back and held it between my teeth for a moment. I could feel her eyes on me, and didn’t bother to hold back the smirk as I pulled my hair back, tie still dangling from my mouth.

“You’re goddamn right it is! I’d be hard-pressed to find anyone worth a tumble around here that isn’t your sloppy seconds these days, you handsome bastard.”

I snorted, flashing Hans a wink as I re-tied the length of my hair back in a quick bun, pleased to have it out of my face—and to give the attractive Conduit more to ogle, should she be so inclined.

“Maybe I’ll go introduce myself first, then,” Jeremiah suggested. I knew from his tone that the man was joking, but something inside me still bristled at the implication. Odd.

“You’re welcome to try,” I replied breezily, shaking off that unusual flare of jealous energy. “Unlike Hans here, I don’t mind sloppy seconds. Or thirds, for that matter.”

The two men continued to volley jests and insults back and forth for the rest of the afternoon, most of them at my expense. Though I had indeed signed us all up for lecture duty as an excuse to observe the golden-eyed beauty I had encountered the other day, it was also just a nice excuse to give my men a break.

The growing number of disappearances across the continent was taxing on us all. It took a great deal of effort and coordination to retrieve intel from other territories while also covering our own tracks, making our work absolutely untraceable as we investigated the issue. It was important that if we meddled in the affairs of the Atlassian Houses, that we were never, ever caught doing so. The Elders would have our heads for breaking the terms of their treaties.

Much of my work operated under the principle of don’t ask, don’t tell—or, at the very least, that our ends had to justify the means—and so we worked hard behind the scenes. We made our cloak-and-dagger efforts count. My specialized forces were some of the most talented and efficient men on the Elder Guard, and we solved quite a few complex problems over the years behind the scenes.

Which is what made these disappearances all the more frustrating.

We hadn’t figured out shit.

Weeks had turned into months now since the first child had been taken from Samhaven, and we still had no concrete evidence or solid leads. Even our above-ground efforts to collaborate with the other territories’ military forces had proved useless thus far. It didn’t help that most of them were bumbling fools, playing their part to wield a sword and look scary in exchange for a healthy salary. The continent hadn’t seen war in decades.

Truth be told, I was exhausted. A day of monitoring the Wyldwoods, which were relatively safe these days, was a much needed breath of fresh air. Literally.

And then there was her…

The freshling was more of a figurative breath of fresh air, I supposed. It had been a long time since I felt so immediately attracted to a perfect stranger. For me, attraction often developed over a round of drinks and good conversation. I could find beauty in the mundane, so long as the mind was engaging and clever.

I had no idea whether this little Conduit was clever—or engaging, for that matter—and I didn’t even know her name, much less her mind. Eventually, I would have to find an excuse to run into her in a less formal setting, because unless I legitimately stalked the woman, there wasn’t much I could do with a physical description alone.

Not that I was entirely above the idea of stalking her from the Shadows… but no, not yet.

“You joining us at the tavern tonight, boss?” Jeremiah asked, interrupting my train of thought.

“He fuckin’ better be! You still owe me a drink, Vistarii. I won that bet fair and square,” Hans griped, pointing two fingers at his eyes and then one back towards me. Cute.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there. Go run a quick lap around the perimeter, will you?”

It wasn’t really necessary. Don’t get me wrong, the scholars had good reason to employ our services out here, but we weren’t even a kilometer deep in these woods, and most of the dangers one might encounter were prowling around much, much deeper. I just needed to buy myself a little more time to be alone with my thoughts, and to catch a few more glimpses of the pretty little Conduit uninterrupted.

The two men groaned, and I gave them a charming smile in response.

“That is an order, you two. Get going.”

As the two men left, I stole another glance at the girl with that glossy, dark brown mane out of the corner of my eye, only to find that she was already staring back at me.

Though she was on the complete opposite end of the clearing, I could’ve sworn I caught her blushing as she looked away.

Excellent.