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He gave me a quick wink before walking away, leaving me frozen and irritated as all hells in front of the target.

One more throw.

That was it.

Lanson stepped up and whispered something to Wolf that I couldn’t hear, but whatever it was, it made Wolf’s features morph into something terrifying and amused.

It was a terrible combination.

I shifted on my feet, rubbing my hands together in front of me. When Wolf looked at me again, he smiled.

Then he sent the dagger flying. It landed so close, I felt the puff of air from the force. The dagger hit the target right beside my head, inches above my ear.

Too fucking close.

Everyone in the class froze, probably waiting to see if the dagger had hit me.

A loose piece of my black, curly hair fell like a feather, floating in the air until it landed by my feet.

Was he fucking kidding me?

I pulled away, yanking the dagger out of the target and marching over to Wolf.

“That’s enough for now,” the commander announced. “Find a target and get to work. If you get stabbed, that’s on you.”

The students began silently dispersing as I stomped toward Wolf. “What the fuck was that?” I hissed, holding onto his dagger.

Wolf shrugged. “Your little boyfriend was worried that I would hurt a hair on your pretty little head.” His eyes flickered to my curls. “I think you’ll survive.”

He leaned into my space and yanked his weapon from my grip. When he turned and walked out of the courtyard—leaving the entire class—I didn’t stop him.

I turned to find Lanson watching my every move.

“Are you okay?” he asked carefully as I approached.

“I’m fine,” I assured him, trying to act as if Wolf didn’t have a way of pissing me off like nobody else. “He must have it out for me today.”

Lanson mumbled some sort of agreement before we got to work, throwing our daggers at the target in front of us, thankfully with no lives actively at risk.

Wolf didn’t come back for the rest of the day, and if the commander noticed, he said nothing.

And I wasn’t sure if the pit in my stomach was relief, or something very, very dangerous.

Chapter

Seventeen

My interactions with Wolf grew cold before stopping altogether.

He didn’t really care about me. I knew that. I wasn’t sure what I was to him, what we were. He cared about me enough to protect me, to hide Ryder’s body so I wouldn’t be kicked out of Moira.

He cared enough about me to punch me in the fucking face during training, too.

But I put that behind me. I spent my days with Lanson, Voiler, and Ashlani, thankfully not fighting in front of the class anymore.

With each day that passed, I felt it more and more—the weight of our time here slowly dwindling away.

The sun set beyond the edge of the castle walls. Lanson and I sat in the grass, our feet stretched out before us, as the glowing orange sky took over my thoughts. Our fingers almost touched in the plush, cool grass below us.