Crime and Punishment: Great Falls Academy, Episode 2

by Alex Lidell

  Tossing his own sword aside, Coal crouches, circling me with a predatory calm. His breathing is steady, his muscles moving not a hair more than needed. Flexing his knees to lower his level, the male launches at me from the side, collapsing both of my legs from under me as he straddles my chest. The hot weight of him squeezes my lungs, his hands forcing my wrists up over my head, grating my knuckles into the gritty dirt.

  I curse.

  Coal forces my wrists up higher, lowering his glistening body toward mine, his battle-honed pectorals heaving with harsh breaths, his metallic scent filling my nose. The air between us crackles with heat and strain. My already speeding heart lurches into an outright gallop, something primal inside me waking to rage against the restraint. Instinct has me reaching for my magic, roaring at finding it shackled. The mortal world’s bonds tighten over the cords of power so hard, it hurts.

  Anger and fury lash through me, feeding off each other as I thrash between the twin holds of Coal’s iron hands and this world’s chokehold on my magic. The hobbled power inside me bangs futilely against its restraints. My body arches, the violence inside me exploding, rattling my bones. Hurting. Hurting. Hurting.

  So much violence. So much darkness. So much pain.

  Too much to all be mine. Stars. One of the first discoveries we’d made in Lunos—when I awoke in the throes of Coal’s nightmare—was that during times of intense sensation, Coal’s strange magic has a way of bridging the gap between us. Of letting my body temporarily strengthen from the male’s power.

  Coal’s nightmares do the trick. Bedding does it better.

  My vision narrows on nothing but Coal’s face, so close to my own that the steam of our breaths mixes together. His eyes, focused on nothing but me, are tight. Tiny specks of purple fight their way to sparkle amidst brilliant blue. Yes, Coal’s strange magic is roaring as loudly as my own, my weaver’s body picking up the echo even here, on mortal soil.

  I snarl, the carnal sound still new despite the six months that have passed since my brush with death forged my human self into this immortal form, the magic linking me forever with four fae warriors.

  Magic. Yes. What if that’s all it was? What if, without it, we’re nothing but five fae warriors who once fought beside each other? My throat closes, but I force air through it nonetheless.

  Coal releases me as I banish the thought to a place deep inside me, his eyes unreadable as he dusts himself free of sand. Free of me.

  The fence where Katita and Tye had stopped is now empty once more.

  “Maybe we scared them off,” I mutter, realizing I’d spoken aloud when Coal’s brow rises in question. I shake my head quickly.

  For a moment, I swear the corner of Coal’s mouth twitches. “If you are adequately warmed up,” he says, recovering and putting away the fallen weapon, “it’s time for us to get started.”

  5

  Coal

  Pulling on his discarded black tunic, Coal turned away from the woman whose lilac scent made his head swim. Leralynn had fought admirably the previous night, but their match in the sparring ring just now had felt like something else altogether. A musical symphony that pierced so deeply into Coal’s core that his heart still pounded against his ribs. And his heart wasn’t the only thing pounding painfully.

  With sweat slicking her creamy skin, Lera’s face glowed ethereally despite the darkening sky, her auburn hair falling in a cascade of shining locks. The short pause since the match ended had already tightened her nipples to hard points that lifted her shirt, making it impossible to avoid noting the soul-wrenching breasts she seemed unaware she possessed.

  Coal, however, was rather aware of the objects in question. Very inconveniently aware. Just as he’d been aware of her tight thighs and hips, the tantalizing curve of her shoulder meeting her neck that taunted something primal inside him. Made him want to bite, stars take him.

  None of which was either logical or acceptable. Or welcome.

  Leralynn was a cadet. A student—an infuriatingly stubborn student who seemed to have been born without self-preservation instincts. If Sage, the Academy’s headmaster, could hear Coal’s thoughts, he’d string him up on a whipping post. And would be right, for once in his life.

  Swallowing, Coal hopped the training yard fence and led Lera out at a brisk run, the graying sky a perfect harmony to his racing pulse. With luck, it might start raining. Icy hail would be even better, especially if it could pour right into his leathers and put down his painfully throbbing hardness.

  Reaching the edge of the corrals, Coal turned toward the tall perimeter wall, crossing the great stone courtyard at a jog. Their footsteps echoed through the empty space, the only sound but for the clank of a metalsmith’s iron and a lone hawk high overhead. He’d intended to stay inside Academy grounds, but the place suddenly felt too small. Too much like a cage. Plus, Leralynn didn’t deserve to be gawked at.

  It had taken all of Coal’s will to halt himself from shoving Tye and Katita right into the sand and keeping them there until the pair couldn’t look at Lera again without twitching in pained memory. Like the lust, the protectiveness had come out of nowhere, gripping Coal’s chest like a band of iron, making it hard to breath. Hard to think.

  Which Coal needed to start doing. And fast.

  Stopping before the infamous tree that Lera no doubt used to get herself over the wall last night, Coal made short work of pulling himself up and jumping the two-pace gap to the wall. No need to explain more than that. Actually, there was little need to explain anything with Lera, not when she understood him without words. And, somehow, Coal understood her. Why, he had no idea—and no intention of trying to figure out. That could only lead to trouble, and trouble was exactly what he’d come to the Academy to avoid.

  Sparring had been a mistake. Fortunately for all involved, the mistake wouldn’t have a chance to repeat itself since the girl would be packing up soon enough. River seldom asked for a favor, and if the commander wanted Lera gone, then Coal would make it so. And would keep the girl at arm’s length until then.

  Landing on the soft-packed earth beyond the wall, Coal spared a backward glance to ensure his charge was still there.

  She was. And her damn eyes were alight with…with excitement at the turn of events.

  Coal growled under his breath and picked up the pace, choosing a trail uphill through the dense mountain forest. The rough, rocky terrain and whipping pine needles set an appropriately ominous atmosphere for the rest of the afternoon. Lifting his face toward the chill wind, Coal savored its nip along his skin, his body merging with the forest-covered hills. For a moment, he pretended he was alone, that the tantalizing lilac scent the breeze carried came from nothing but oddly placed flowers. That River never ordered him to drive Lera out of Great Falls. That his world made some bloody sense.

  None of it was true.

  Especially the part about the world making sense. Running a step behind him—probably because the trail was too narrow to let her pull ahead—Leralynn looked downright pleased. As if an uphill trek through puddles and branches and bugs was exactly the way she’d wanted to spend her day of liberty. Her gaze never stopped surveying the terrain, especially each time they came to an overlook where sheep pastures and forested trails drew a mosaic across the countryside, with the steep gray mountain faces as a dramatic backdrop. Stars, despite a pace that would have had anyone but Shade or Tye emptying their stomach three times by now, Lera seemed utterly unaware that she was supposed to feel anxious and miserable at all.

  Cresting a hill, Coal spied a patch of thick mud. Dropping them both for push-ups in the middle of the cold goo, Coal felt a prick of satisfaction when a small flash of irritation finally flittered across Lera’s face. “Two dozen,” Coal said. “All the way dow—”

  Coal shut his mouth. Leralynn was already dipping into the freezing mud with each descent, the tightness around her jaw confirming that grit and moisture were seeping effectively into her gray uniform. Her head swiveled each time she str
aightened her arms. Not just surveying her surroundings but…watching for something. Or searching for it. Coal’s gaze tightened.

  “Another dozen,” Coal ordered a heartbeat after the set was finished, waiting just long enough to let a false sense of relief fill Lera before snatching it away.

  At least that had been Coal’s intention—and a failed one judging by an utter lack of surprise in the girl’s face. As if she’d known exactly what he’d do. Just as she had when the two sparred that afternoon. Yes, Leralynn was a decent fighter—but not so good as to block Coal’s opening volley the way she had. Not without somehow knowing to expect it. Knowing him.

  A shiver that had nothing to do with the mud and cold ran down Coal’s spine, a memory echoing through his skull.

  Coal’s hands were shackled, his shoulders screaming from the strain. The taste of blood and fear choked him, blood from his last beating crusting along his skin. The islanders who’d held him for the past year never intended to let him leave. Never let him take his life either, no matter how he tried.

  A noise scraped against Coal’s hearing. He shifted, the sores beneath his shackles sending lightning bolts of agony down his skin, choking him.

  “You aren’t alone.” A feminine voice sounded behind him, soft steps circling until a young woman with intelligent brown eyes came to stand before him. She was small, barely reaching Coal’s shoulder, yet she filled his world with a lilac scent that drowned out all else. One of the islanders he’d not seen before.

  “Let me out.” Coal’s quiet words ripped from his raw throat, the sound of his own plea tightening his chest.

  The woman bit her lip, her eyes glistening. “I can’t,” she whispered. “I can’t take your pain either. But I can be here. So you aren’t alone.”

  Coal shook himself, trying to shed the memory of the mirage. Of whatever that woman had been. She’d done as she promised, staying with him whenever his captors let him be, mending his soul piece by piece even while his captors bled his body. But when River and Shade finally broke Coal free, he’d found no trace of her. Not in the prison. Not in the silent night. Not anywhere.

  Later, at the docks, Coal learned that a woman matching her description had purchased passage on a ship two days earlier. Had left. Without saying a word.

  Coal shook himself. A small woman with auburn hair and intelligent brown eyes—just like Lera. No wonder his body was playing games with him.

  Beside Coal, Lera had finished the second set of push-ups and was awaiting further orders. Saying nothing, Coal got to his feet and set them running again. Up a hill. Down. Pushing through pine branches and climbing hand and foot over tumbles of lichen-covered boulders. Back up. Up higher still, Leralynn’s breaths became ragged as the already gray sky darkened further. Sooner or later, Coal was going to get that rain he wanted.

  They had just crested another hill when the young woman’s forever watchful eyes froze on a spot some yards to their right and widened, her hand bracing on her thigh. Following her gaze, Coal tried to mark what might have caught Lera’s attention but found nothing—just a forested slope leading up to a sharp ridge across from them, cloaked in a wide grove of trembling green aspens. Coal jerked his chin toward the decline. “Move.”

  “Wait,” Lera said, her breath more strained than Coal had expected, her pulse beating so hard that he could see it in the soft side of her neck. “One moment, sir. Please.”

  “No.”

  Lera didn’t move.

  Coal gripped her upper arm, dragging her back into a run.

  Lera took a single step before tripping over another, her hand clutching her side. The strained breath grew rapid, her slender shoulders trembling with a distress that made Coal freeze—despite this having been the goal of the excursion. Bloody hell, he was turning into mother Shade.

  Lera swayed slightly.

  “Leralynn?” Dropping to one knee beside her, Coal surveyed the girl’s face.

  Color high but decent, eyes sharp, lips pink. He had to be missing something—she was strong, one of only a handful of people who’d been able to keep up with him. If she crashed this suddenly, something had happened.

  “Talk to me, Lera,” Coal ordered, his eyes intent on hers.

  Twisting away from his gaze, Lera bent double, dry-heaving into the earth. “Please,” she whimpered between bouts of coughing, her body trembling like a newborn foal’s. “Can’t. Just. One. Breath.”

  Coal’s gaze narrowed. Where the hell did that one-word speech come from? She’d said “One moment, sir,” easily enough—why would she find it harder to speak now? Coal’s attention shifted to Lera’s chest, its rise and fall steady enough.

  Something cold slithered through Coal’s core. In all his years as a soldier, Coal had pushed himself and others enough to learn the breaking points. Knew enough to stop pushing a hair before such a point was reached.

  And he sure as hell knew when someone was lying.

  A simmer of heat started in Coal’s blood, spreading like a crack in a glass through every fiber of his body. His jaw tightened, his fists clenching in a fury to rival the coming rain. Leralynn was lying to him. Playing him. As she had all damn day—sparring with him, forcing his guard down with every parry and thrust, all but goading him into taking their run farther. Until now. The girl was no more at endurance’s end than she’d been minutes earlier, her elaborate show merely a way to buy time while she marked the land as carefully as a cartographer.

  Yes, she’d found something. Perhaps the very something that had her climbing over the wall last night, a sword at her back.

  Coal followed her gaze, still seeing nothing of particular interest except perhaps a set of switchback tracks. No, Coal didn’t know what the bloody hell Lera sought, but he knew when he was being toyed with. And that Lera was doing it dug so painfully into him that bile rose up Coal’s throat.

  “What’s wrong?” Coal demanded, his voice low. One last chance for Lera to give him the truth.

  “Can’t. Breathe.”

  Coal’s jaw tightened, the chill in him turning into crackling ice. An idiot. He’d been an idiot, while River has seen the woman for what she was. The first time since the western isles that he’d loosened a part of himself with anyone but River and Shade, and this was what he got. Deceit. Like that of another woman who’d once brushed Coal’s soul.

  Something inside Coal snapped, as clear and loud as a branch beneath a careless boot.

  Grabbing Lera’s nape, Coal forced her to her feet, the woman’s stagger damn believable except for the spice of excitement, not misery, spicing her lilac scent. When she tried to mutter something Coal couldn’t bear hearing, he tightened his grip to the edge of pain. If Leralynn wanted to play games, he would ensure there was no need for feigning distress.

  6

  Lera

  I found it, I found it, I found it.

  As Coal pushes me on, I mark every landmark in sight, the path back to the shattered tablet—only one steep gulley away—dimming all the world to irrelevance. My heart pounds, the tendrils of hope sending new energy through my body.

  Even as Coal leads me back into the thicker part of the forest, away from that clicking aspen grove shimmering on the next hillside over, I keep the image in my mind, tracing our route to get back to the tracks. With the weather threatening to turn, I’ll have to go out tonight. Even if it means swallowing my pride now.

  “On your back. Legs six inches up.” Coal’s icy voice hauls me back to reality. Face unreadable, the male points to a shallow, fast-running stream—an offshoot of the Great Falls waterfall a mile off. The riffle is just over a pace wide, small stones agitating the rushing water to a white foam.

  I wave away the buzzing mayflies, trying to make sense of the order.

  Instead of explaining, Coal sweeps the back of my knee, only his quick grip on my tunic stopping me from cracking my head open as I fall into the stream. The freezing water is upon me at once, clawing my lungs and face and thighs. Taking my breath. My
muscles seize, the shock of it jerking me up, only to have Coal shove me right back into the water.

  I fight to draw air, freezing liquid rushing over me, jetting into my mouth and nose and ears. I spit, my heels pounding the stream as Coal holds me down, my head downstream of my body. The water turns to needles, my constricted lungs screaming. I gasp for air, able to draw none into my shaking body. When I finally do, it flows together with the rushing stream.

  I choke, my heart pounding, driving panic though my blood. Bile and spit and water climb up my throat. My thrashing limbs make turning my head into an unbearable effort, even when Coal’s hand lifts from my chest to let me retch.

  “Are you—” My tongue is too thick for my mouth, the words possible only from fury alone. “Are you insane?”

  Coal crouches beside my head, his beautiful, chiseled face as hard as I’ve ever seen it, the graying sky reflecting in his blue eyes. “Do I have your attention now?” he asks, his low voice a deadly rumble. “On your back. Feet six inches off the earth. I don’t give a damn what you do with your head, but if you get up before I tell you to, you’ll be doing this with my hand pressed down on your sternum.”

  My mind spins, finding no logic. No footing.

  Swallowing my curses together with rushing water, I hold Coal’s gaze as I surrender to whatever this is. Lie in the stream. Keep my legs up as water weights down my boots. Try to keep from choking on the rushing stream.

  Ten seconds. Thirty. A minute. Until not even anger can warm me, despair rushing in to fill the void. My body numbs, my muscles shaking against the hard rushing stream. I can’t do it. It isn’t bloody fair, and I can’t do it. And—my head goes under, the water rushing gleefully into my mouth. Deeper. Into my throat and up my nose, pounding against my clamped vocal cords.

  Terror rushes through me, the world darkening around the edges. My lungs hurt, my body desperate for air that’s somewhere. Not here. Not anywhere. I feel my limbs flailing against the rushing water, the muscles stiff and desperate and unable to find purchase. To remember what to do. Faster. I need to move faster. No time. No time. No—