C7 The First Test

The training grounds felt colder than usual, though I suspected it had less to do with the weather and more with the weight of every eye tracking my every move. I tightened my grip around the wooden sword until the grain bit into my palm, watching Damien across the ring look infuriatingly composed, as if yesterday's argument between us had simply evaporated overnight. My ribs still throbbed whenever I turned too fast, and the bruise darkening my cheek pulsed with its own stubborn heartbeat.

My eyes drifted to the balcony before I could stop them. Lyra stood there, watching me with a quiet attention that made my pulse stumble the moment our eyes met, and the small smile that followed undid something in my chest I refused to name out loud.

"Prince Kael." Commander Gareth's voice snapped my focus sideways. "Focus," he said, when I only blinked at him. "I am focused," I insisted, glancing back toward the balcony despite myself. His eyebrow climbed. "On what?" "Training," I said, entirely too late, and the snort from Adrian was followed by Victor's outright laughter, Noah pressing a fist to his mouth to hide his own. Even Damien sighed, shaking his head. "You're hopeless."

"Jealous?" I shot back, grinning, and watched his expression darken instantly. "Don't start," he warned, right as Gareth's spear slammed into the ground hard enough to silence the whole yard.

He split us into pairs, Damien and me, Adrian with Victor, Noah left to face an instructor alone — and when I asked if he intended for us to fight each other, his answering smile carried no warmth at all. "You'll defend each other," he said, and something in my chest tightened at the shift. Cross the field, retrieve the silver flag from the distant tower, fight through ten guards, and do it all without letting my wolf fully off its leash. Control, not power. My grip flexed involuntarily around the sword hilt.

The horn sounded and the guards came at us in a wave. Damien moved first, fast and precise as always, every strike carrying purpose I couldn't help but envy. A spear swung for my blind side and I barely got my blade up in time — until Damien's own strike knocked the attacker sideways before I'd fully registered the threat. "Watch your left!" he barked, not even sparing me a glance. I grinned despite the adrenaline hammering through me. "You're welcome," I said anyway, and when he growled "Move!" we surged forward together, fighting in a rhythm I hadn't expected either of us to find so easily.

Three guards closed around him moments later, and I didn't think, I just moved, throwing myself between the blades, my sword catching one strike meant for his ribs. He looked at me, something unreadable in his eyes, and I couldn't resist. "You're welcome," I said again, and watched him almost laugh before we turned back to the fight as one.

Halfway across the field, my wolf stirred hard beneath my skin. My vision sharpened without permission, colors bleeding brighter, the coppery scent of a guard's bleeding hand hitting me like a physical blow. Claws pricked at my fingertips before I could stop them. *Not now,* I thought, jaw clenched so tight my teeth ached, while something ancient and hungry whispered through my skull — *destroy them* — over and over, patient and insistent.

I staggered back a step. "Kael?" Damien's voice reached me distantly, like it was traveling through water. "I'm fine," I said, though my own voice came out wrong — too low, too rough, edged with something that wasn't entirely me anymore. A guard charged and my body answered before my mind caught up, sword cutting faster than I'd intended, and when the next one came I felt the leash slipping entirely.

Then her voice cut through everything else. "Kael!" My head snapped toward the balcony on instinct, and the whole world seemed to slow around her. She wasn't afraid, I searched her face for it and found only steady concern instead, her eyes locked on mine like she could physically hold me there. "Look at me," she said, quiet but absolute. "Not them." My breathing began to even out despite myself. My claws receded, my vision dimmed back to ordinary, the wolf inside me settling like something soothed rather than caged. Her voice reached parts of me no command from Gareth ever could.

Damien studied me for a long moment, then glanced toward the balcony, something flickering across his face I couldn't quite name. "She really can calm you," he said. "Don't make it weird," I muttered, already moving. "I wasn't." "You were." He shook his head and broke into a run instead, and this time neither of us fell behind the other for a single step.

We reached the tower together, Damien's hand closing around the silver flag as the horn sounded our victory and cheers rolled across the field. I doubled over, hands braced on my knees, lungs burning, and looked up to find Gareth already approaching. "You passed," he said. "That's it?" I asked, straightening. "No." His gaze moved to Damien first — trust earned, then settled back on me. "And you learned something more important. Control isn't about suppressing your wolf," he said, letting the pause stretch just long enough to matter. "It's about knowing what gives you a reason to hold it back." My eyes drifted toward the balcony before I could stop them, and Gareth's mouth twitched knowingly. "Exactly," he said, and I looked away fast enough to feel my ears heat.

Victor sauntered over, insufferably pleased with himself. "So the great Kael has finally discovered his weakness." "What weakness?" I demanded. "A pretty woman," he said, grinning, and Adrian and Noah both lost it laughing while even Damien allowed himself a faint smile. I leveled my sword at Victor with mock menace. "Say that again." "Pretty woman," he repeated, already backpedaling, and I chased him clean across the training ground while something in my chest, tight for days, finally loosened enough to let me laugh.

That evening I found Lyra waiting outside my quarters in a simple dark-blue dress that did far more to unsettle me than any guard's blade had all day. My heart lurched at the sight of her. "You came," I said, stupidly, and she only smiled. "I said I would." I pushed the door open and let her step past me into the room, close enough that her perfume — sweet, subtle, entirely too dangerous — settled over me like a warning I had no intention of heeding.

"How do you feel?" she asked, studying the bruise still darkening my jaw.

"Alive," I said.

"Low standard."

"After today," I said, and she laughed, soft and warm, before her expression gentled into something quieter. "I was worried about you," she admitted. "You didn't have to be," I said. "I wanted to," she countered, and stepped close enough that I felt the words as much as heard them.

"You listened to me today," she murmured, fingers drifting to rest lightly against my chest, and I felt my pulse stutter beneath her touch. "You asked me to," I managed. "I know." Her fingers pressed slightly harder. "So I thought you deserved a reward." My throat went dry. "What kind of reward?" She only smiled, stepping closer still, close enough that I could count the flecks of gold in her eyes. "Close your eyes." "Why?" "Because you don't trust me?" "I trust you too much," I admitted, and watched her smile widen at that before I finally let my eyes fall shut, heart hammering against my ribs in the dark.

For a long moment, nothing, and then her lips brushed my forehead, soft and warm and far too innocent for the way it wrecked me completely. I opened my eyes to find her still close, watching me with something unreadable dancing behind her gaze. "That's my reward?" I asked. "For today," she said. "And tomorrow?" "Depends," she said, tilting her head, "on whether you behave." I laughed, low and disbelieving. "That's unfair." She was already retreating toward the door, drawing every ounce of warmth in the room out with her, when she paused, her expression shifting into something suddenly, sharply serious.

"Tomorrow morning, don't go anywhere," she said.

"Why?"

She hesitated, glancing toward the empty corridor behind her before lowering her voice. "I heard something. Someone's been asking questions about you." My smile died instantly. "Who?" "That's what I'm trying to find out," she said, and then she was gone, the door easing shut behind her, leaving me standing alone with my pulse still not fully settled and a single question lodged cold in my chest.

Someone had been asking about me. And I had no idea yet what they already knew.