Chapter 17
Seventeen
Avalon
F our days after Hayle returned home, we emerged from my dorm. Lucio had covered for us both, and none of the teachers would contradict the Third Line’s claim that we’d both gotten food poisoning from bad clams.
The Third Line had also been bringing us food and leaving it in my dorm’s kitchen, though more often than not, by the time we dragged ourselves from the bedroom, either one of the hounds or Epsy had nibbled at the edges.
It was blissful, this connection to Hayle. He worshipped me for hours on end, until I thought I’d go insane from the pleasure of it all. A little voice in the back of my head told me that he’d get bored of me eventually, that I was just new, and he was a predator who enjoyed the chase. That eventually he’d get bored, and I’d be back to being alone, only it would be worse. I would know what it was like to be as close as humanly possible to another person, and the loneliness would be unfathomable. Unbearable.
When those thoughts entered my brain—usually late at night while I was awake and Hayle was snoring softly beside me—I tried to remember his face when he’d burst into my room. That panic wasn’t the response of a man who was merely playing with his food before he moved onto something more tasty.
I didn’t understand it, but I knew deep in my gut that what was happening between us meant something.
Grabbing my hand, he pulled me closer on the stairwell. “You’re thinking awfully hard over there. World domination plans? Because I can help.”
I snorted a laugh, and didn’t even try to resist the urge to stand up on my toes and brush my lips over his. “Not today. You just focus on your battle.”
Lucio had brought word that Vox Vylan had returned and was bored enough to set up a tournament for the conscripts. The prize was fifty gold coins, basically a generational wealth to the Lower Lines, and had made the rules of battle magicless. Everyone would fight with the same amount of magic as the Twelfth Line, evening the playing field. The buzz around the tournament had found us, even though we’d been buried deep in the haze of lust.
Viana had marched into my dorm last night and declared that the entire Twelfth Line was going to participate, and the fact that Hayle’s name wasn’t on the signup sheet had been noted and whispered about. Hayle had left to sign up immediately, though he did apologize by bringing me back an entire cake and then eating it off my naked body.
Like they’d been waiting for him, the First Line had closed the signup and announced the rounds would start the following day.
Now, he kissed my temple. “I was born for battle. Unless they put me against Vylan in the first round, there’s no one else in this school who’s even close to my skill level.”
I wouldn’t put it past Vox to put himself against Hayle in the very beginning. Maybe that’s what this whole thing was—a giant dick-measuring contest.
We reached the atrium level, and Hayle stepped away, putting distance between us for the first time in days. I pushed down the hurt in my chest. He was Hayle Taeme of the Third Line. I was a Ninth Line nobody. Of course we could have sex, but he couldn’t be seen with me up here, in the cold light of day. I knew enough about politics for that.
Inhaling deeply, Hayle turned to look at me, frowning down at my expression. “What’s wrong?”
Shaking my head, I pasted a smile on my face. I’d just had countless orgasms, so maybe my hormones were all over the place. Logically, I knew I should be so blissed out that none of the negativity could touch me.
Logic and emotion rarely saw eye to eye.
“Nothing, just hungry. You better go before people talk.” I shoved him gently in the other direction.
Understanding dawned on his face. “You think I don’t want people to know?” He was back in front of me in a single movement, picking me up with his hands under my ass and walking me backwards toward one of the large stone pillars that held up the atrium. He pressed my back against the smooth stone and fucked my mouth with his tongue in a way that was definitely indecent. “I want every fucking person in this college to know you’re mine , Avalon Halhed. I will shout it from the rooftops, if that would reassure you. I told you that you’re mine, and that means I’m yours too.”
He kissed me hard once more, branding me as his. Whistles and laughter and the hushed chatter of dozens of people whispering at once drowned from my hearing slowly until there was no one and nothing but Hayle.
He pulled back, letting my feet slide to the floor. Turning, he faced everyone in the atrium: conscripts, tutors, college staff. “Listen up. Avalon Halhed is mine. I claim her, and I will fuck up any single person who says something to her about it. Am I clear?”
No one said a single thing, but it was clear from their expressions that they understood and definitely would be gossiping about this later in their own Line dorms.
Grinning, Hayle turned back to me. “You aren’t my dirty little secret, Avalon. This is deeper than that.” He kissed my forehead. “Go get some breakfast. I have to race up to my dorm and get my weapons and armor. I’ll meet you back downstairs?”
I felt like I was in a daze, but I must have nodded, because he was bounding up the stairs toward his own dorm room. I hoped he remembered the way after all this time.
A self-satisfied smirk curled my lips as I headed toward the food hall, and I tried not to enjoy the fact that people got out of the way for me now. Blending in was a dream that was long gone—might as well enjoy it while I could.
Walking into the food hall, I had a feeling that Hayle’s declaration was only just reaching ahead of me, because heads still turned. Viana waved me over to the Twelfth table, and I held up a finger so I could grab a piece of fruit first. I needed sustenance after the last few days. I couldn’t even feel my thighs, and it felt like I’d been riding a horse across all of Ebrus.
Acacia moved over so I could sit between her and Viana. “Good to see you’ve left your den of ill-repute down there on the Ninth Level,” she quipped, grinning.
Viana hummed her agreement. “Did you see her waddle from the food line? She’s got dicked all the way to the dungeon, I think. Don’t worry girl, I’ve got an oil that will clear that right up.” She winked at me and laughed at the flush in my cheeks. “I heard in the breakfast line that Hayle just fucked you in the atrium in an animalistic mating ritual.”
I frowned. Okay, so the declaration had gotten a little skewed between the atrium and here. “Uh, he kissed me, but we were both fully clothed?”
Viana actually pouted. “Boo. But regardless, way to go, girl. Bagging a Taeme is like finding a chest of gold buried in your lavatory.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what response that visual was meant to produce, but ew. “Thanks?”
Deciding it was a good time to change the subject, I bit into my apple. “Are you guys all going to the tournament?” I looked at the rest of the Twelfth conscripts.
Acacia ate another piece of bread slathered in honey. “That amount of money is life changing. We could save our entire village with that much coin.”
“We could save ten villages with that much coin,” someone interjected, and I shook my head. Vox was dropping that amount on some random tournament to keep himself entertained, and he could literally feed the whole of Eelrood with that money. That was the difference between the Upper and Lower Lines in a nutshell.
Not Hayle, though. He’d told me that he’d encouraged his father, the Baron of the Third Line, to support the drought efforts of the Eleventh and Twelfth Lines at the Conclave meeting he’d been forced to go to. Something in my chest had fluttered, but I didn’t want to think about that feeling just yet.
Viana shrugged. “I don’t think we could beat any of the First Line, or the Third Line even, but it’s worth the risk. They’re doing it magicless; we’ve trained without magic forever, so maybe we have a small advantage. Maybe they’ll knock each other out, and the Goddess will be on our side.”
Acacia nodded. “We’ve all agreed to send the prize home if we win. So we have the numbers too.” The Twelfth did that often—operated as one entity. “Plus, the college tutors have suspended lessons so we can have this tournament, and personally, I’m going to enjoy the lack of theory work and nine-hour drills, even if I get knocked out in the first round. It’s almost a holiday.”
We all laughed, but just as suddenly as it started, the mirth around the table died off, their eyes over my shoulder. I knew who was behind me before I even turned to look.
Vox Vylan stood at the table of the Twelfth Line, probably for the first time ever. He didn’t look at them. Didn’t acknowledge them in any way. “Ninth. I see you didn’t sign up for my little tournament.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t feel the urge to perform for you, my liege,” I mocked gently, but I couldn’t keep my lips from curling. He enjoyed our bickering as much as I did; I was sure of it. “Are you participating in your own tournament?”
He gave me an imperious look. “Of course. I need to show the masses that I do not need my magic to be the most powerful person here.” I wondered how long he’d been listening to our conversation as he glanced behind me at the Twelfth table.
Rolling my eyes, I cleared my throat. “Of course. What was I thinking? Is there something I can help you with, Vox?”
He opened and closed his mouth several times, before he shook his head. “No. Just wanted you to know that you are a disappointment to me yet again, Ninth.”
Yeah, I didn’t think that was it, but I didn’t want to dig around in Vox Vylan’s words for his hidden meaning today. I inclined my head. “I’ll be sure to cry myself to sleep tonight over your words.”
Had his lips just twitched? Before I could confirm, his face was once again the royal, pompous mask.
“Be sure you do. Enjoy the first round.”
Then he was gone. I didn’t have time to wonder what the fuck that was all about, because Hayle was bounding over, a grin on his face as he scooped me from my spot. “Hey, guys,” he said quickly to the Twelfth conscripts. “Just going to steal my girl.” He didn’t wait for anyone’s response, just carried me like a sack of potatoes to the Third Line section. “Guess what?” he said as he dumped me on the table beside Lucio’s plate.
I smiled apologetically at Hayle’s second-in-command. We’d bonded over my almost death. “Hey, Lucio.” I turned back to Hayle, and my heart beat faster in my chest. Why was he so damn beautiful? Surely this feeling in my chest should have disappeared by now. “What am I guessing?”
“They put out the rounds. My first battle is against Eugene from the Fourth.” His grin was purely predatory. “I’m going to make him wish he was never born.”
I frowned, my eyes drifting to Vox, but his back was to me as he talked to his own second, Shay. Had he done that on purpose? Did he know about Eugene trying to kill me? Why would he even care?
The mysteries of Vox Vylan’s actions were far outside any mere mortal’s ability to comprehend, that much was clear. But maybe, just maybe, he gave a shit about me?
I snorted at the ridiculousness of the thought. But he’d been right; I really would enjoy the first round.