Exile (13 page)

Aless rubbed his temples. “You remember what I said about your mana?”

“I’ve heard it from almost everyone at this point. I have mana that I can’t use, I get that.”

“You’ve been becoming more assertive since I met you. I like that,” he commented, placing a hand on Corin’s thigh.

“T-thank you?” Corin said, trying to not stare at the hand.

“And that’s what happened,” Aless stated. “Our mana has the ability to call out to various things. Water will come to me when Serac is at the surface. Your mana called out to me. There’s no other way I can phrase it.”

“My mana called for you to kiss me?” Corin asked.

“Sort of. That’s the best way to describe it. It was pulling me to you….”

“How can you tell?” Corin asked. “I don’t have a spirit within me. That can’t be true.”

Aless shrugged, moving his hand up Corin’s thigh. “It can happen from the mana itself, not necessarily from a spirit. But it called to me, I could feel that and I had to answer it. I didn’t intend to offend you.”

“I wasn’t offended….” Corin trailed off, blushing. “But… I was curious. It was my mana, then?”

“Partially,” Aless confirmed, turning to face Corin. “I would not have been as… upfront with my actions had your mana not called out to me.”

Corin’s jaw dropped. “W-what do you mean?” he asked. Aless was so close to him—it was making him nervous. He found it difficult to look Aless in the eyes.

Aless moved a hand to play with one of Corin’s pointed ears. “I suppose I should have been more direct from the start. Corin, would you mind if I kissed you again?”

Corin’s eyes widened—he couldn’t believe what was happening. He slowly shook his head, staring directly at Aless.

Aless leaned forward, connecting their lips. This was the moment he had been waiting for. Finally Selena’s attractive student, the one with the aura like no other, was his. He pressed down slightly harder, attempting to deepen the kiss.Aless pulled away, pressing his forehead against Corin’s. “You can touch me as much as you like. Provided I’m granted the same pleasure,”he finished, pressing his lips against Corin’s again, this time with more desperation.

Aless was drowning in sensations. He had no idea if Corin knew it, but he had flared his mana again and it was
intoxicating.
He generally had some self-control when it came to seducing someone, particularly someone much younger than him, but he couldn’t stop himself.

He slid his tongue along Corin’s bottom lip, and the younger man instantly parted his mouth. Aless buried one of his hands in Corin’s hair—he couldn’t get enough contact, couldn’t get close enough to the younger man. He felt the heat building up inside him again, and he flushed in embarrassment.

His control was slipping. Corin was squirming and whimpering under him and Aless couldn’t catch his breath. Aless pulled away, white beginning to dot his vision. He placed his face beside Corin’s and bit down on his neck, finally shuddering and feeling his release, somehow more intense than the incident in the temple.

He rolled off Corin, taking a deep breath. Now
that
had been embarrassing. It was one thing to climax from someone’s energy alone, particularly one that felt like an aphrodisiac, but when making out with someone? Corin hadn’t even been
hard.

Corin paused, rolling onto his side and staring at Aless, his lips still tingling. “… Did you just…?”

“Yes,” Aless replied, blushing and covering his eyes. “I swear this doesn’t normally happen.”

“It’s fine. I’m just… I’m happy,” he insisted, suddenly transfixed by Aless’s neck restraint. He had seen his thigh ones earlier, but never really taken a moment to examine the one around his neck. Aless was still trying to catch his breath, which gave Corin the perfect opportunity to focus on it.

However, as soon as he read the markings on them his eyes widened hugely and he had to fight to maintain his composure. The collar mentioned sacrifice, as far as he could tell, and spoke of a tragedy he’d heard in a myth a few years back. He couldn’t quite remember the tale itself, but he knew he recognized it from somewhere.

But why would a tale be inscribed on a collar? Corin sighed, placing his head on Aless’s shoulder. He’d have to ask Master Selena later, or perhaps Kateline. It surely meant something.

Chapter 14

“
M
ASTER
Zephyr still isn’t back, is she?” Adelle asked, appearing over Corin’s shoulder, reading the book he had propped on his lap.

Corin immediately jumped up from his spot in the barracks, allowing the book to fall off and slam onto the floor. He flushed bright red.

He had been daydreaming. Ever since the morning, with Aless pushing him against the ground, touching his legs and biting his neck….

“Master Serac said she was still watching over Master Corona,” he answered, quickly scampering to pick his book up again.

“I’m surprised you’re not spending the afternoon with your dear Master Serac,” she teased.

“W-what?” Corin stuttered.

Adelle laughed. “I think Master Zephyr is the only one who
doesn’t
know. Everyone’s talking about the mysterious Water Guardian taking a young student out every morning, and judging by the mark on your neck, I’m getting the feeling the rumors are fairly true.”

Corin immediately pulled his collar up. “How did they find out?”

“People saw you two walking out together in the morning. Zephyr be blessed no one was stupid enough to report you to Master Selena herself,” she answered, tugging down his collar and examining his neck. “Wow, so when did this happen?”

“This morning….” Corin murmured, immensely embarrassed. “Don’t you have training to do?”

“I wanted to check in with you. What are you reading, anyways?” She asked, thankfully having the courtesy not to grab it off Corin’s lap.

“It’s an old Centrallian story. Kateline asked me to translate,” he replied, passing the thick book to Adelle. Corin sighed, knowing the old fablehad to be more significant than that. The tale in the book matched the scripture from Aless’s collar, a fact that confused Corin immensely.

Adelle smiled, opening the book to a random page. Almost immediately she screamed, throwing the book across the room and collapsing onto the ground, clutching her head. Corin leapt up, couching at her side, placing his hand on her shoulder.

Adelle turned to Corin, shaking. Her eyes were squeezed shut, trails of blood dripping down from them. She threw her arms around Corin’s shoulders, beginning to sob.

Corin wrapped an arm around Adelle. “What happened?”

Adelle shuddered. “T-that book…. By Zephyr… Corin how long have you been reading that?”

“I started after breakfast,” he replied. “It’s just Centrallian. What happened?”

Adelle gave a bitter laugh. “That was not Centrallian. How did you manage to read it? H-hasn’t anything happened to you?”

Corin took a step away from Adelle. “But, it’s just Centrallian,” he insisted, walking over and grabbing the book. “Nothing’s happened to me all morning.”

“Who gave that to you?” Adelle asked, more blood flowing down her cheeks. “Did you steal it from the Forbidden Archives or something?”

Corin turned to her. “I did not! I told you, Kateline gave it to me!” he insisted. “It’s not anything interesting. It’s just a long myth explained.”

“Whatever it is, it’s dangerous,” Adelle finished, giving a small, pained moan, clutching her head again.

“S-should I get someone?” Corin asked, biting his lip nervously.

“I’m casting a few heal spells, but they aren’t doing anything,” Adelle answered. She fell onto her side and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

“I’ll find Master Selena!” Corin blurted out, dashing out the door.

C
ORIN
flushed, walking a few paces ahead of Selena, leading her to his barracks.

He found her. He had remembered what Aless had told him early in the morning and, when she hadn’t answered his knocks, Corin decided to check Piers’s room. Again, to his credit he
had
found Master Selena, but he hadn’t been prepared for the sight that awaited him when he flung open Piers’s door.

When Aless had said Master Selena was watching Piers, Corin envisioned his master sitting beside Piers’s bed and simply
watching
him, or the two guardians talking to each other, or
anything
really, other than the scene that was presented to him.

Corin had walked in on both guardians nearly naked, sleeping in each other’s arms.

Corin flushed again, remembering the events that proceeded. He had been fairly panicked even before he entered the room. Of course, this only made the scene more uncomfortable when he stormed in, yelling about Adelle being seriously hurt.

Once he had seen the state Master Selena and Piers were in, he had jumped back andaccidentally slammed his head against the doorframe. Master Selena had been immensely embarrassed by the event, as far as Corin could tell, though Piers himself had been more casual, simply pulling the blanket over Master Selena and requesting a minute to adjust themselves.

Master Selena had been out in a quarter of that, flushed bright red and covered in a layer of sweat, her hair loose, getting Corin to explain the current situation, which led them to the current moment in time.

Corin still couldn’t believe what he had seen. Yes, he had always assumed, from the way they interacted there was a
chance
there was something going on between the two. Well, that was after he had determined Piers and Aless didn’t have anything going on between them, but he still had assumed it could be the case, and all of the other students and scribes thought so too! He smiled. It would be nice to tell Aless what he had discovered, assuming Piers hadn’t told him—the older man seemed convinced Piers had been chasing Kateline! Though Corin wished he hadn’t discovered their relationship this way.

“S-she’s right in here, Master,” Corin stuttered, pointing toward his room.

Selena seemed slightly dazed and averted her gaze.

Corin pulled open the door, gasping once he saw his friend in a considerably worse state than before. “Adelle!”he called out, rushing forward and putting a hand on her shoulder, shaking her. When he had left she had at least been moving!

“Please step back, Corin,” Selena ordered, walking forward and crouching beside Adelle. “She doesn’t look good.”

“She wasn’t like this when I left….” Corin murmured, standing up and giving Selena some space to work.

Selena stood up and dusted off her dress. “I can’t do anything. She’s dead.”

Adelle was dead? She’d been breathing less than ten minutes ago! “Adelle….”

“I’ll make an offering to Zephyr in her honor. She showed much potential,” Selena commented.“Would you mind showing me the text Kateline passed you?”

“It killed Adelle. Master Selena, how can you be sure it won’t do the same to you?”he argued, looking at the book.

“It won’t kill me,” Selena argued. “Kateline and Cyril both had to see it before they passed it to you. I’ll be fine.”

Corin hesitated, sighing and leaning down, trying to repress tears. He grabbed the book, passing it to Selena. He couldn’t believe Adelle was dead. She had been the only other person selected to train in the monastery from Teron and now she was gone.

Selena opened the book, closing it only a few seconds later. “And had you tried to read it?”

Corin stood up. “Yes, I read the whole thing.”

“That’s interesting,” she muttered. “I’m surprised Cyril and Kateline even took it out of the Forbidden Archive.”

“It was from the Forbidden Archive?” Corin asked.

“Yes, If it’s what they were talking about at breakfast, at least,” Selena replied. “They were showing it to Centrallian scribes, I thought. She didn’t tell you it was from there?”

“It isn’t Centrallian,” he answered.

“It isn’t?” she asked. “But you said you could read it, and Cyril already said it wasn’t in Common or Ancient. You need to bring whatever you’ve found to Kateline. This really isn’t stuff I understand.”

Corin bit his lip, thinking back to the marks he had been able to read off Aless’s restraints. He wondered for a moment whether they were worth mentioning to Selena, but quickly decided against it.

“I could read it, but don’t we have—”

“Use the rest of the day to talk to Kateline,” Selena commanded. “Actually, you should probably go to her from now on full time. We can train afternoons if you want, but…. If you can read this, Kateline is going to have a lot for you to do.”

Corin stared at the book. “I don’t see how it could be helpful. It’s just a folktale.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Selena replied. “Tell her, not me. I’ll be in the Wind Temple, if you need me. I’ll get someone to bury Adelle’s body.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon,” he replied, looking down at Adelle before dashing out, anxiously running toward the library.

Chapter 15