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CHAPTER NINE

NOVA

“ T hree fucking weeks of this,” I groan and flop back onto my mattress, tossing my notebook and hearing it slide across the floor. “I can’t do this.”

For two-and-a-half hours, I’ve been staring at the same stupid word problem about spell timing. Tai got called away on urgent royal business and I am not to leave my room, not even for food. They had supper delivered to my room tonight. Mom and Dads are considering sending Pierce, their personal guard, if it takes longer than tonight.

There are very few they trust with their daughter, and it’s a big reason why Tai gets paid so much—it’s a full-time, live-in gig.

I glance up, shoulder blades still pressed to my comforter as Sylus exits the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist, white hair still damp and looking almost silver in the light. He raises a brow at me and the state of the area surrounding my bed. “Perhaps if you paid attention in your classes, you wouldn’t be struggling.”

I mock, “Perhaps if you put on some fucking clothes, you’d?—”

“I’d what?” His lips curl into a smirk as he saunters over to his dresser, pulling out a pair of black boxer briefs. “You’d be able to concentrate better?” He drops his towel, and I get a quick flash of miles of pale, muscled thighs and a tight, rounded ass before I can throw my hand over my head, letting it fall onto the bed.

“Can you not?!” Heat rushes to my cheeks.

Sylus chuckles, low and indulgent, the kind of sound that sticks, lingers, like melted caramel on the tongue. I hear the rustle of fabric as he presumably pulls on his underwear. “Can I not what?”

“Change in front of me?” I squeak out.

“You change in front of me all the time,” he muses.

“With the lights off!”

Heavy footfalls echo across the room, growing closer with an unhurried rhythm. A shadow moves into my periphery, Sylus’s tall, mostly naked frame blocking out most of the pale moonlight and showing off all the harsh angles of his muscles.

Heat unfurls low in my belly at the sight of him in just his boxers.

He slams his palm down on the lamp's switch, snuffing the light and blanketing the room in darkness. “I can see in the fucking dark, Nova,” he whispers, and while I can’t see his face, I can hear the amusement in it.

It takes a moment for my brain to catch up. Oh. Oh , oh, oh no. No. No!

My breath catches in my throat as the implications of Sylus's words sink in. He's seen me ... all of me ... countless times over the past few weeks. In fact, every fucking night. All those times I thought I had the cover of darkness, he could see everything. Every curve, every freckle, every inch of exposed skin. A shiver runs down my spine, though whether from embarrassment or something else entirely, I'm not sure.

I sit up abruptly, pulling my knees to my chest when it gets to be too much. "You watched me change?" I should gut him for that. Should want to carve out his eyeballs, but all my hormones seem to want to do is splay out on the bed, willing him to get a closer look.

Through the small sliver of moonlight streaming in, my eyes slowly adjust to the darkness. Sylus leans over me, all his muscles on display, and a warm, delicious kind of scent wafting from his skin. His breath fans across my face as he murmurs, “I thought you were doing it to top off some of your guard’s reserves.”

Reserves? Oh. Oh . Is he … is he flirting with me?

He’s treated me with nothing but disdain since the moment we met. Surely he can’t be …

Is that why he’s always going on walks at night? To get away from the room?

There's a brief flash of teeth in the dark—mocking, predatory—before he straightens, retreating to his side of the room. The subtle trace of his scent lingers in his wake, stirring something restless in my chest.

Is he saying what I think he’s saying? That the sight of me, naked, turns him on? Or is he implying Tai can also see in the dark?

I hold my breath, hearing the quiet dip of his mattress across the room as he settles onto his bed.

Burying my face in my pillow, my cheeks burn with humiliation and something else I dare not name. The thought of Sylus watching me, his eyes roving over my bare skin, sends a thrill through me that I desperately try to ignore.

“I didn’t know,” I mumble into the pillow. “I thought … I thought you couldn’t see.”

“All fae can see in the dark.”

I flip over so I’m facing towards his side of the room, squinting in the pitch black to see if I can make out anything. But nope. Just shadows where the moonlight can’t reach. “Well, I’m fae and I can’t.”

A soft chuckle emanates from his side of the room. “Once your magic comes in, you should be fine.”

Silence stretches between us for a long moment. I fidget with the edge of my blanket, unsure what to say next.

My heart races as I lay there, acutely aware of his presence just across the room. The silence feels charged, electric. I can't stop thinking about what he said, about him watching me. About the hunger in his voice.

I lick my lips and take a shaky breath. "So ... you saw everything, then?" I whisper into the dark.

Another low chuckle. "I did." His voice sinks into my bones, a low vibration that I feel more than hear. “Your tits, your ass,” he pauses, “your pussy.”

I swallow hard. "And ... what did you think?" The question slips out before I can stop it.

I hold my breath, waiting for his response. The seconds tick by, each one feeling like an eternity. Am I begging for scraps because he’s normally such an asshole to me? Or is it because I’ve always felt less-than, just a princess who’s always been too much to handle, too wild to fit in?

Finally, he speaks. "I think," he drawls, his voice a velvet caress in the darkness, "that you are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen."

My heart stutters in my chest at his words. I can hardly believe what I'm hearing. Sylus, the biggest alpha asshole on campus, finds me beautiful?

I press my thighs together, trying to ignore the heat that blooms between them at his words. Before I can mutter a sound, the door creaks open, and Tai strides in, the soft click of the latch shutting behind him far quieter than the tension he carries.

He flicks on the light, bathing the room in a too-bright glow that makes me wince. He looks worn, like the weight of the day has dug into him, and for the first time, his usual composure falters.

I sit up, tossing the blanket aside, my heart lurching at the sight of him. “What’s wrong?”

He doesn’t answer immediately. Instead, he crosses the room in measured steps and sits at the foot of my bed. His hands rest on his knees, fingers curling as though he’s trying to find the right words.

His eyes lift, darting to Sylus’s bed. The steady rise and fall of his breathing confirm to my guard he’s awake, though I could’ve told him that.

Tai swallows before he lifts a hand, drawing a quick circle in the air with his finger. The magic feels vague at first, like a ripple brushing against my skin, before it solidifies into the invisible barrier around us known as a silencing bubble.

His shoulders sag as he looks at me, the weight in his expression enough to make my stomach knot.

Whatever he’s about to say, I’m not going to like it.

Tai’s fingers close around mine, the gesture so out of character that it jolts me out of my worry for a moment. I glance down at our joined hands, then back up at him, narrowing my eyes. He’s got on civilian clothes: a pair of light jeans, a maroon hoodie, backwards cap, and tennis shoes.

Whatever his important royal business was, it didn’t call for his usual tech fabric.

“You’re holding my hand.” I smirk. “Am I dying, or did you figure out a way to get out of the fae deal you made with my brother?” I drop my head back, staring at the ceiling as a sigh escapes me. If it wouldn’t get me in even deeper trouble, I would’ve already laid into Bennett for what he did. I can’t risk Tai getting reassigned.

I let my head fall forward again, my gaze dropping to his—and my breath catches. His crestfallen stare knocks the smile clean off my face. “What is it?” I whisper, afraid that speaking too loudly might shatter whatever fragile thing he’s holding together. “You’re scaring me.”

He swallows, but he doesn’t let go. “There’s been an accident.”