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There are actual cheers—which surprises me—at the announcement. But they’re distant. Unimportant. I continue to loom over Eza. My blade quivers.

“You going to kill me?” There’s a small quirk in the corner of his lips. “Do it and risk the ire of Clan Moon.”

“All initiates will have the next three hours to clean themselves up and compose themselves for the house placement ceremony, which will take place tonight in the main hall during dinner,” Vaduin announces. I barely resist throwing him a withering glare.

I relax away from Eza and leave him to his defeat and humiliation.

I can barely keep myself from stumbling and keeling over.

But I need to hold my head high. Especially when a not-insignificant contingent of students is regarding me even more warily than before.

I pulled out more cards than any other initiate during my duel, and I used them mercilessly.

I sweep my eyes across the crowd once more. Kaelis is gone. Did he even watch the whole fight? Did he care? Or had I misread him? I hardly hear my friends’ congratulations as these thoughts weigh heavy on me.

But my answer comes in the form of a shadowed figure who occupies the hallway at the bottom of the spiral stair that leads from the rooftop.

Kaelis finishes his conversation with a professor and looks to me.

The latter departs and I don’t even see what direction they go in.

My entire focus is on the prince. My feet slow, unbidden. Time seems to drag.

“I’ll see you all at the ceremonies tonight,” I murmur, bidding my friends farewell. They all instantly know why. They can see Kaelis’s hand on the small of my back as he ushers me away.

I practically collapse into him the moment we’re out of sight. Kaelis’s arm encircles my waist. Without a word, his other hand reaches up to my face, pushing sweat-slicked hair from my forehead and cheeks to get a better look at my eyes.

“May I carry you?”

“Please,” I say without hesitation. I’m exhausted to my core, and no idea has ever been sweeter than allowing him to be my entire support.

Kaelis scoops me into his arms, like he’s done before, and I sink into his sturdy form. “You were magnificent.” His words sound like silk and feel just as good.

“Thank you,” I murmur.

“But two times is too many for me to be carrying you to my chambers following Eza’s foolishness. The next time, he will answer to me.” There’s a whisper of murder in his voice that’s shamefully arousing.

“If there is a next time, I’ll end him once and for all,” I correct.

“Very well. If my lady demands it.”

My lady… It sounds good on his lips.

We make it back to the apartments and he carries me not to my wing, but to his. Silently, I let it happen. Whatever “it” is about to be. He settles me on one of the chairs in his dressing room and murmurs, “I’ll draw you a bath.”

His bathroom is far more lavish than mine. Mine would more than suffice, yet I still don’t object.

The sound of running water and ghostly curls of steam fill the air as he returns. Kaelis looks down at me. My heart threatens to beat out of my chest.

Slowly, he drops to a knee. His hands rise to the first clasp on my coat, up by my neck. The fastener comes undone. His fingers move to the next as our eyes lock.

My chest swells with a slow, quivering breath. My breasts press into his fingers as they undo another clasp. And another. Soon, he’s sliding the coat off my shoulders. I shift so it comes off easily.

“Do you want me to leave?” he whispers.

“No” is the only reply that crosses my mind.

Kaelis’s fingers dance down to the hem of my shirt.

With slow, purposeful movements, he peels off the sweat-slicked garment and casts it aside.

The air is icy against my bare skin, but I’m too enamored with his movements to complain.

I don’t want to move, or even breathe—I don’t want to do anything that would even remotely risk him stopping.

Palms land on my hips and trail along the band of my tight-fitting trousers. I lean back, allowing him better access to the buttons. Before I know it, the fabric is pulled down my thighs.

“Do you want me to leave?” he asks again, as breathy as last time, with eyes threatening to devour me.

“No,” I repeat, barely audible.

He undoes the front laces of the wrapping around my breasts. A few tugs and I’m exposed: Every scar that crosses my body. Every fold and sag and line of hardened muscle. Even as he sees me, pulling the last of my small clothes off, I do not shy away or try to hide.

“Magnificent,” he whispers as his eyes return to mine. There’s almost a trace of surprise there, as if he hadn’t intended to speak at all. But the way he holds my gaze tells me he meant it. “Come.”

With only his fingers curled around mine, I almost think I could right then and there. My knees are weak. Breath short. Body bare.

The bath is steaming hot and full nearly to the point of overflowing.

He garnishes it with perfumes from the rainbow of crystalline bottles that line the wall.

The perfumes have an aroma I’ve never smelled on him before and can only assume that it’s a scent he’s made for me.

I sink into the water, the steam cleansing me from within as much as the water cleanses me from without.

Kaelis isn’t finished with me yet. Kneeling at the side of the tub, he collects my hand from the water, holding it as though it were a fragile artifact, lathering each finger with the same slow precision that he uses for inking cards.

His focus mirrors the way he studies his books in his office, or at breakfast.

I realize I’ve become a part of these little hallowed spaces he’s allowed me into. The way he touches me makes me feel as sacred as the tools in the Fool’s workshop. More invaluable than the golden cards I know he keeps hidden somewhere in these apartments.

His eyes flick to mine, and I hold his gaze. It feels as if we’re both standing at the precipice of a cliff, daring each other to be the first to leap.

Will this be the moment? I ask him. I ask myself. There’s no answer, not yet. The tension has been pulled taut to the point that it quivers.

This isn’t collapsing into each other’s arms. It’s not fleeting moments of pleasure born of desperation and needs unfulfilled for too long. This is…something more. It’s an intimacy that I have never known before. Might have never allowed myself to know, if it hadn’t quietly sneaked up on me.

He stands and moves behind me, and even in the scalding water I fight a quiver at the closeness of his body.

I sink deeper, dunk my hair, then rest my head against the curve of the tub.

Tension eases from my muscles as his fingers sink into my scalp, lathering.

My eyes fall shut, but not before catching a glimpse of his reflection in the water.

A gaze that says a thousand things neither of us dares voice.

The silence is heavy but not uncomfortable, laden with longing. We won’t call this fondness, or affection, or anything more. Because alongside all the admiration and appreciation…is skepticism and doubt.

Can you trust him? Even now doubt lingers in me. Everything about Silas, the workshop of the Fool, Kaelis running off during the winter solstice, and so much more…

I don’t know is the honest answer.

But I do know that I want him. That singular thought lingers with me as he finally leaves to fetch me clothes. As I’m left wishing I’d asked him to stay.

When I finally emerge, mind made up, my clothes are neatly laid out and the chambers are empty.

The main hall of the academy has been transformed in a few short hours for the house placement ceremony. Strings of tiny lanterns have been suspended between the trees, zigzagging over the tables decorated in silks of the house colors, each table set with extra seats.

Notably, the two parallel tables in the center of the hall have been removed. On instinct, all initiates stand where they once were. In the back of the room, brands burn, ready for Marking the initiates who made it so close…but won’t be able to call themselves students of the academy.

We will either sit among our new houses or leave for the mills. It’s the last Marking of the academic year.

I smell of the perfumes from Kaelis’s bath. I’m dressed in the leathers and heavy cottons he’s tailored. And my eyes settle on him as he assumes his place at the front, looking as austere as always. He addresses the initiates as a group.

“The night of the Fire Festival, you committed yourselves to our teachings. You paid your way with your futures.

“At All Coins Day, you showed not only Eclipse City but your would-be peers what you were capable of through the practical application of your lessons.

“And, today, you proved to your teachers and, hopefully, fellow students just how much further you can go—how much more you are capable of.” Kaelis gesticulates as he speaks.

It’s hard not to imagine those long fingers gliding over my wet, naked form.

Teasing me without trying. Working a heat into my core that’s still molten from his touch.

“This will be your final hour as an initiate. You will declare your intention for a specific house, and, should that house deem you worthy, you will be counted among our ranks forevermore.”

My breath catches, and I work to keep myself calm.

I didn’t realize how much this had come to mean to me until I was standing here now.

Presented with the prospect that maybe I won’t progress.

I could pass all the trials in the top half of the class…

and it still might not be good enough for a house to accept me.

The atmosphere shifts instantly as the first name is called. One by one, initiates approach the table of the house they are seeking to join. They place the coin down before the King of the house and, if accepted, take their seat among their ranks.