Page 34 of Shattered Stars

“But it’s so …”

“Corny,” I venture, even though my insides are glowing, my heart brimming and my bond humming.

“Romantic.” She shakes her head. “The country is doomed,” she adds dramatically.

“Why?” I laugh, taking the note from her hand and folding it carefully. I need to find a safe place to keep it.

“Because you’ve turned the authorities’ enforcer – our key weapon against all the bad guys out there – soft. Next time they send him to make a capture, he’ll probably recite them poetry.”

“He’s sweeter than you’d think.”

Winnie watches me as I take the letter to my desk and find a special spot for it inside my top drawer.

“Good,” she says finally. “You deserve sweet as well as hot, Rhi.” Then she lunges across the room and wraps me in a large, unexpected hug. “I’m so happy for you, so happy everything’s working out.”

“Touch wood,” I say, reaching up to tap her on the head. “Let’s not jinx things, okay?”

I’m still uneasy by the way those other men have been making me feel and though I want to believe Winnie’s explanation, I’m finding it hard. Winnie, however, seems utterly convinced I have my two fated mates and now I’m going to get to live happily ever after.

Stars, I want to believe that too. But Stone’s stuck working here, forcing our illicit relationship underground, Azlan has been sent on yet another mission, and sooner or later I’ll be graduating from this academy and heading with the others to protect the borderlands in the West.

I don’t see us living happily together any time soon.

10

Rhi

“My love lifehas really put you in a good mood,” I say to Winnie as she hums cheerfully to herself as we walk the path to Dr. Johnson’s class.

“I don’t know. I just have a good feeling today.”

“A good feeling that has nothing to do with whatyouwere up to last night, I suppose.” Winnie may be fascinated by my complicated love life but hers is proving just as successful and a lot more straightforward. In fact, Winnie and Trent are becoming inseparable. I’m happy for her. Trent is a total sweetheart.

“That definitely helped,” she confesses.

However, Winnie’s good mood takes a serious battering when we arrive at Dr. Johnson’s classroom and find her waiting outside again with instructions to follow her down to the meadow for another lesson on combining magic.

Winnie grips my arm as we follow the others.

“Do you think we’ll be paired with the same people again?” she asks anxiously.

“I don’t know. Why? Do you have a problem with Dane?”

“Apart from the fact he was friends with that scumbag traitor, Andrew, no. But last time you got stuck with–”

“Tristan,” I say, my gaze straying towards the back of his golden head.

“Will you be okay?”

“I’m not scared of Tristan Kennedy,” I say a little too loudly, the girls in front of us peering over their shoulders to scowl at me.

“I’m not concerned about you being scared of him,” Winnie hisses.

“Unlike everyone else, I am not infatuated with his hot ass.”

The girls glance at me again, then pick up their pace.

“Good,” Winnie says, squeezing my arm in encouragement. “Hopefully he won’t be your partner this time. Hopefully we’ll be allowed to pick our partners.”