Chapter 12 Sam #5
I turn on my heel and leave before he can steal the final word from me.
That night, I have dreams of my own.
I’m training with Rook in a simulated duel that’s taken us into close quarters. I’m backed into a corner of the training arena, trying to stay in the pocket while I throw sloppy discs of magic toward him, but my energy wanes rapidly.
Air explodes from my lungs as my back hits the ground. Rook’s not even touching me, but I’m pinned in place, both shoulders flat on the floor. In Rook’s hands, my magic has been multiplied a hundredfold.
Almost casually, he ambles toward me to inspect his handiwork. “Yield?” he asks.
I shake my head, refusing to quit. I’m not ready to give up, not yet. Rook’s suddenly nose to nose with me. I’m still pinned flat, and my champion is everywhere, overwhelming my senses, the hard planes of his body ghosting over mine, the scent of aftershave and sweat filling my nose.
I don’t know who initiates what happens next. One moment, he’s still hovering above me as I try to assess my options in our simulated duel. The next, our mouths are pressed together, sudden and inevitable and desperate.
But when he pulls his head back from the kiss, it’s not Rook’s familiar blue eyes that I’m looking into.
Tamsin Blackwood smiles down at me with that warm dark gaze, freckles stark against the blush misting her golden cheeks. “I’ve been waiting for you to finally do that,” she breathes against my mouth.
Her lips brush over mine gently, then more insistent. I close my eyes. I lean into the kiss. And for a moment, I lose myself in it.
When I wake, my room is dark, and I’m alone in my bed. I’ve never felt more lost.
Master Silverstein makes me meet him for coffee the next morning.
I mumble an expletive at the text message on the screen.
Noah Silverstein isn’t one to give a ton away in his messages, but I’ve known our arcane master long enough to have a good guess at what this is about.
When I stride into the coffeeshop whose address he sent me, the expression on his face all but confirms my suspicions.
Silverstein’s bushy brows are furrowed hard over a steaming mug of black coffee, and he doesn’t smile when I sit down across from him.
“You were out late last night,” he tells me without preamble.
I bury my automatic groan into my hands, which I rake through my unbrushed hair. I didn’t even bother slicking it back into a ponytail before I left the hotel. “Which snitches are about to get stitches?”
“Come on, Samantha.” Silverstein puts his coffee down and settles back into his seat. He looks like a detective interrogating a suspect, and I hate that the visual automatically makes me squirm. I can’t be guilty if he hasn’t accused me of anything. Yet.
“Was it Rook?” I ask from between my fingers.
“It was my own damn ears, if you must know.” Silverstein fixes me with a thoroughly unimpressed stare. Judgment practically radiates from him. “You’re not as quiet sneaking back into that suite as you think you are. And, as I’ve reminded you before, I’m right down the hall from the two of you.”
“And I hate that for us both.”
“Be serious, Chan.” My master instructor leans forward, still unsmiling. “You’ve been off since we arrived in New York. And now you’re sneaking around on your own in the city?”
I contain an involuntary little sigh of relief. So he doesn’t know I was with Tamsin Blackwood. That’s something, at least. One less thing I’ll have to make up a lie or a half-truth to explain away.
“I’m sorry.” I am, kind of. My respect for Silverstein is genuine, and I like him. But right now, all his mother-hen behavior is getting in my way. I can’t afford to piss him off, so I can’t say that, obviously. But I do need to convince him to back off.
“I just needed to clear my head” is what I settle on, at last. “I’ve told you before.
Being here, for a duel of this magnitude, it’s all just a lot, okay?
I went for a walk through Arcane New York to get my head back on straight.
I’m sorry it got late. I lost track of time. It won’t happen again, okay?”
Silverstein keeps eyeing me like he wants to say more. I meet his gaze head-on. I don’t want to give him any reason to think I’ve got something to hide. “How’s Rook?” he asks at last.
“He still gets nightmares.” I bite my lip then add, with what I hope is breezy confidence, “You know Rook, though. It’s a natural response to being in the limelight. He’ll still perform just fine on the big day.”
“And in the meantime?”
My tone shifts. “I’ll take care of him.” I don’t have to fake the steel in my voice. “You know I will. I always have.”
Silverstein makes a noncommittal noise, but he doesn’t look away, and he doesn’t question my promise. For a moment, he looks like he might keep pushing the issue. Instead, he just grunts. “You been practicing much magic yourself?”
I’m surprised by the question. “A little when I need to blow off steam. Not really important right now, though, is it?”
“Come on, Samantha, don’t keep kidding yourself.
” The old master gives me a wry look. “You need magic like you need to breathe. It’s not just about the arena for you.
It’s not even just about winning. You love this shit.
You love magic. You always have, long before you came to my training center.
I could tell from the first day I met you. ”
Unbidden, my mind drifts toward the Four Elements. The flow of the sequence, every time I cast it, and how for just a few minutes, the act of magic sets me free. As free as I’ve ever felt, even when Jamie was still alive.
And, of course, how Tamsin Blackwood interrupted my last attempt to finish it.
I shut down the memory like a lock clicking into place. “Love is overrated. I’m here to make sure my champion brings his next victory home. That’s what you sent me to New York for in the first place, right?” My jaw works. “I won’t let you down. Either of you.”
Silverstein looks, for just a moment, like he wants to argue with me.
Then he sighs, obviously too weary to argue whatever point he was trying to make.
“See that you don’t stay out so late again,” he orders instead.
“It’s game time. But remember that I don’t just need you to take care of Rook.
I need you to take care of yourself, too, you hear? ”
“Loud and clear.”
“I mean it, Samantha.” Silverstein leans forward on his elbows.
“You do anything that convinces me that either of you are endangering yourselves, I’ll take you both straight home like a pair of schoolchildren, duel or no.
I’m not scared to call the commissioner and cancel this whole deal.
I don’t care how hard you worked on negotiating it.
I’ll throw the whole thing out the window the second I believe that either of you can’t handle it. Understand?”
That does, in fact, get my attention. I swallow hard. “Understood.”
Noah Silverstein isn’t a man in the habit of making threats lightly.
I’m not sure what he knows—or what he thinks he knows.
But I am sure of this: I’m going to have to tread carefully around him.
I can’t afford to get Rook pulled out of this duel.
Not when I’m this close to everything I’ve wanted for the past four years.
I sit back in my seat and smile at Silverstein.
“You won’t have to make any calls to the commissioner.
We’ll be just fine. And this duel is going to be the magic show of the century.
” I lean forward. “Now that that’s settled, let’s talk duel strategy.
I should update you on how Rook’s practices are going. ”