Free Soulbound by Heather Brewer Page B

Why?”
    “I want to show you something after dinner tonight, I mean…if you’d like.” He smiled sheepishly, revealing a small dimple just to the left of his mouth.
    I could hardly contain my grin. “I’d love to.”
    “Good. I want to take you to my favorite place on campus.” He nodded and moved down the hall and out the door. I watched every step.
    Maddox snickered. “Oh man.”
    Her words shook me from my apparent trance. “What?”
    “Flirt much? You just met the guy, for fak’s sake.”
    Already, she could see right through me. “I wasn’t flirting! I was…talking.”
    “Yeah, sure you were.” She walked past me and started down the hall. “C’mon, Princess.”
    This time when she called me by the nickname she’d given me, it sounded different—more like a sarcastic quip than an insulting dig.
    And I
was
flirting. I couldn’t help it. Trayton was hot as could be, sweet like honey, and had that clever shyness that I found irresistible. Any girl in her right mind would have flirted with him.
    By the time we got outside, Trayton was already gone. “Headmaster Quill wants me to give you a quick tour of the campus before your first class. That is…if you’re done drooling over Trayton for the moment.”
    I smiled, suddenly feeling lighter than I had all day. “For the moment.”
    Maddox raised a sharp eyebrow in my direction. “Is that all it takes to make you relax, a pretty face? Youwere awfully tense before your meeting with the headmaster.”
    “It’s not like that. I’m just…” What was I doing? It wasn’t like I wanted to be here and the fact that Trayton was super nice and really good looking was making that all better. Tension returned to my muscles. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
    Maddox gave my shoulder a comforting squeeze. Her eyes were full of sympathy. “You’re flirting with a great guy. No crime in that. Trayton is about the nicest boy on campus. Cutest too, I think.”
    After a moment, I offered her a smile. Maddox was all right.
    The campus was several acres long, a rectangle of lush, green grounds, spotted with various buildings and trees. Moving north, we walked alongside the dorm building that contained my room and the dining hall. Once we cleared the building, Maddox pointed out its twin, which sat parallel and to the east. Beyond the dorms was a field and in the far-off area to the east were gardens and a small, shabby cottage. To the west of my dorm stood a wide open area that Maddox referred to as the courtyard. On the courtyard’s edge, facing my dorm, was another cottage, this one well cared for. Most of the courtyard was green, but a smaller area—the one right between the cottage and dorm—was paved with flagstones and home to a large fountain. Maddox pointedout two large L-shaped buildings near the north gate that were home to classes, and she explained that there were more dormitories to the far west just for the guards.
    Just west of the courtyard cottage was another open field, with two sets of bleachers bookending it. Probably forty students filled the stands, and two men were sparring at the center of the field. I nodded to the area. “Is that where the Barrons train?”
    Maddox nodded. “Want to take a closer look? We still have a few minutes before your first class.”
    We walked over and stood on the side of the field, close enough to see, but far enough away that we wouldn’t interrupt class. All the Barrons were dressed in what I had thought was training gear—turns out, I was right. And all of them, the boys and the girls, wore protective face masks. All but one.
    At the center of the field stood two men. One with long black hair, who I recognized immediately. Trayton looked strong and sure, his movements calculated. The other man, the one who wasn’t wearing a face mask, the only one with short hair, just long enough that it brushed the collar of his shirt. Short, silver hair.
    My hero.
    Biting my bottom lip, I hesitantly asked