Arken snorted and shook her head, as if she knew exactly what I was thinking. “You’re welcome,” she replied, toasting her cup of cider with mine. Thanks to the brilliant ingenuity of the free market or some shit, the beverages were still hot and perfectly spiced.
We sipped together in comfortable silence for quite some time, long after I was supposed to meet up with Jeremiah. Ah, well. He could take it out on me later in a sparring session.
“And I do apologize for my impetuous behavior,” I murmured as she slipped back into her dress, re-tousling her hair between her fingertips in an attempt to look less freshly fucked. “I shouldn’t have interrupted your lecture. I promise to be on my best behavior moving forward.”
Arken grinned. “So…You’ll give it about a week before you’re back on yourworstbehavior?”
“More or less,” I laughed.
“For what it’s worth, the intrusion was rather welcome today,” Arken said as she straightened the collar of my shirt. “I couldn’t focus for shit.”
“Oh yeah? And why is that?”
I expected some kind of sharp-tongued, smart-ass response, but instead all I found in her eyes was honest affection.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you, either,” she said softly.
The gentle confession left my ego purring like a contented cat, luxuriating in the warmth of the morning sun.
Iwouldendeavor to be less impulsive, though—or at the very least, less disruptive…Because it was becoming increasingly apparent that these obsessive urges of mine weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. If anything, they only seemed to intensify with every passing hour, so I would have to find a way to keep myself in check—for her sake, if not my own.
When it came time for Arken to leave, I noticed the way she lingered in the doorway, a wistful expression swimming in her wide, golden eyes. It held enough weight that it bordered on genuine sadness, and I felt my chest constrict.
“Just one more lecture,” I reminded her softly. “Two more hours, and I’ll be waiting for you. You know where to find me, Little Conduit.”
Arken exhaled slowly and then nodded. “That I do, Captain. I’ll see you soon.”
“Be good,” I murmured.
“Only for you.”
And those three little words echoed in my mind long after she took her leave, pulsing through my head like a heartbeat.
Only for you.
Only for you.
Only for you.
DAY EIGHT
DARK SIDE
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
KIERAN
If it weren’t for the fact that I had spent my entire morning buried in the sanctity of Arken Asher’s slick thighs, I probably would have told you this was one of the worst days I’d had in months.
My cock would beg to differ, but by the time I made my descent into the dark and dismal catacombs of Sophrosyne, my restless mind had nothing left to siphon from those morning memories. I had already bled them dry, desperately returning to those moments in my mind all godsdamned day until I’d devoured all the peace and succor they could provide.
There was no more relief left for me. Not when another Conduit had been stolen.
Her name was Jocelyn Attwood. Fifteen. One of the Studium’s youngest Conduits, taken on route from Sophrosyne to her family home in Ithreac. Last spotted having a meal at a tavern on the outskirts of Amaranthe—just two hours south from her destination—only to be gone without a trace come morning. She had never made it home.
Fifteen.
She was only fucking fifteen.