I also liked the deep, golden tan tones of his skin, and the way that his dark hair was lengthy enough on top that it fell into his face as he leaned forward into his laughter. When his more disciplined posture returned, he brushed the longer locks back with one hand and my breath caught in my throat for a moment.
The left side of his face was marred by the slash of a scar through his brow, eye, and cheekbone. It had to have come from a vicious blow, or one Hel of a sharp blade. The scarred eye in question was white and clouded, I could only assume it was now blind. The other eye was a stunningly light shade of glacial blue, noticeable even from a distance.
Whoever this guard was, he was a lesson in colors, angles and contrast, and—oh gods, he was looking at me again.
I averted my eyes, pretending to be focused on the lecture.
“Do you know him?” Laurel asked.
“I most certainly do not,” I murmured back, though a reckless part of me very much wanted to get to know him.
I didn’t come to Sophrosyne or the Arcane Studium looking for romance, or even friendship, really—but one thing was certain upon my arrival: I could spend hundreds upon hundreds of hours in this city and still only glean a fraction of the information it contained.
In all likelihood, I would be here for years to come, searching for my answers and hopefully mastering arcana along the way.
I still wasn’t looking for romance, but with handsome strangers like that walking around the place? I could be convinced to open my mind to the possibilities of a casual fling every now and again. There was more to life than lectures and dusty old tomes, after all.
Even as a guardsman, I could sense a wicked, dark sort of edge to the man that I found strangely intriguing. It wasn’t just the scar, or the hint of a tattoo I could see crawling up his neck. It was just in his energy, the way he carried himself, the way he laughed. It felt dangerous, but also beautiful.
I kept stealing hungry, hidden glances in his direction for the entirety of the lecture. Sophrosyne was a big city, and he was the most attractive creature I’d encountered so far… by a long shot. The odds of encountering him again felt slim.
You have to appreciate such ephemeral beauty while it lasts, right?
Or maybe it was just that higher concentration of aether in these woods getting to my head. One or the other. Probably both.
Besides, he had been staring at me first.
Chapter Ten
Kieran
I could not stop staring at that woman if I tried.
“So,” Hans murmured beside me. “Is this why you signed us all up for this boring shit, K? To eye-fuck some pretty little freshling from afar?”
Jeremiah tried his best to cover up his snort with a false bout of coughing, and I elbowed him in the side for good measure.
“It’s good for morale to have higher ranking officers pick up grunt work on occasion, Deering,” I replied to my lieutenant, unphased.
“And it’s good foryourmorale to find the most attractive creatures in the city for another notch in your bedpost,” he snarked back. “Like, my gods. She’s probably been here for all oftwo seconds and you’ve already got her in your crosshairs. I’m almost impressed, Captain.”
At that, I couldn’t help but laugh.
I had a good rapport with most of my men, but Jeremiah, Hans and I were particularly close. We kept things informal, for the most part, because I preferred it that way. True loyalty didn’t require the pomp and circumstance of military formalities, and these two were probably the closest thing I had to friends.
“So, are you going to go over and introduce yourself, or what? She keeps looking over here, and it’s certainly not for our ugly mugs,” Jeremiah cajoled.
I raised a brow. The two of them were perfectly good looking men—perhaps notmytype, but they each had their way with the ladies & gentlemen of Sophrosyne well enough. Still, I did hope that my second-in-command was right.
“Nah, not just yet,” I replied, still looking at her surreptitiously from the corner of my eye.
“You know he’s got a method to his madness, Jer,” Hans reminded his fellow officer. “And the Fates fuckin’ know that it works damn near every time.”
“Is that jealousy I detect there, Deering?” I shot back with a grin.
Slowly and intentionally, I pulled the thin leather cord that I used to keep my hair back and held it between my teeth for a moment. I could feel her eyes on me, and didn’t bother to hold back the smirk as I pulled my hair back, tie still dangling from my mouth.
“You’re goddamn right it is! I’d be hard-pressed to find anyone worth a tumble around here that isn’t your sloppy seconds these days, you handsome bastard.”