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‘— was a fool back then, Thea. I didn’t know what I was saying.’

Thea sounded tired when she replied, ‘It hardly matters now, Van.’

Van? Who the fuck is ‘Van’?

‘But itdoesmatter. I was wrong to say those things to you, to call you a —’

‘Just leave it.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Why the fuck not?’ Thea snapped. ‘You’ve left it for over six years already. What’s a few more?’

Wilder tensed where he stood by the stable entry. Who was she talking to? Why were things so familiar between them? And more importantly, what had the bastard said to her to warrant such an apology in the first place? Wilder’s knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists.

‘Because,’Vanpersisted, ‘I still care for you. I’ve seen the woman, thewarrioryou’ve become… and I’m not threatened, not anymore. I’mproud. I want to be with you.’

Wilder’s blood went cold and an ugly, unwelcome feeling stirred in his chest. It was like a viper unfurling from its nest as he imagined whoever the prick was with Thea, touching her, kissing her —

Wilder was suddenly at the door to the tack room, recognition flooding him as he spotted Evander, the stable master’s apprentice, reaching for Thea.

She easily sidestepped out of his grasp, and her gaze found Wilder’s, as though she wasn’t surprised in the least to see him there.

Evander, however, whirled around and blanched as he realised whose shadow darkened the doorway.

‘Warsword Hawthorne,’ he stammered, taking a step back from Thea, snatching up a spare bridle from the work table with trembling hands.

Wilder didn’t so much as look at the blithering idiot. ‘Get out.’

Evander didn’t need telling twice. He darted forward, squeezing past the Warsword and fleeing the stables altogether.

The searing look Thea shot Wilder would have wilted the hardest of warriors. ‘Did that make you feel like a big man?’

‘I don’t need a simpering stable boy for that.’

Thea snorted – actuallysnorted. ‘Could have fooled me.’

Wilder didn’t move a muscle.Good. It’s better that she hates me.Things will be easier if she feels this way about me…

That familiar fiery glare pierced him completely, and he couldfeelthe anger surging in her magic –fuellingit. As a Warsword, Wilder was sensitive to any magic, but he didn’t know if it was his Furies-given abilities that heightened his awareness of Thea and her power now, or… if it was something to do with what had happened between them.

Whatever the reason, as he met her gaze and refused to look away, he could sense that unbroken storm raging within her.

It made him uneasy.

Feigning indifference, he leant against the doorframe. ‘We gonna talk about it yet?’

‘About what?’

‘Your magic, Princess.’

He saw her pulse flutter in her neck before she folded her arms over her chest and scoffed. ‘You’re not my friend. You’re not my… anything, besides my mentor. And even that’s debatable. I don’t have to talk about it with you. I’m here to train, to learn, and that’s it. That’s all I want from you.’

Wilder was glad he was braced against the wall as he felt the wind get knocked out of him.I guess I deserved that, he thought. He hid it well, though, straightening instead. ‘You finished fucking around in here, then?’

‘If you’ve finished swinging your dick.’

The filthy words from her wicked mouth gave him pause for a second, but he forced himself to move. ‘This way.’