Lion Shifter by Lucia Ashta

Author:Lucia Ashta [Ashta, Lucia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-10T05:00:00+00:00

12

The days passed in a blur. Between my three daily classes, each an hour and forty-five minutes long, and extra practice time with Ky after dinner, I collapsed into bed most days in a heap of physical and mental exhaustion. I could’ve done without the physical exhaustion bit, but at least an exhausted brain didn’t bother overly much with thoughts of Leander and what might have been.

From the frequent looks he gave me when he assumed I wouldn’t notice, I knew Leander was thinking about us. But if he wasn’t willing or able to move past his father’s judgments, then I had to let it go. He was an elfin prince; I was neither an elf nor royalty. I had no dowry to impress a king of the elves. End of story. At least, that’s what I kept telling my heart, which was devilishly persistent despite my rational arguments.

“Where’d you go just now?” Wren asked, prodding me with her elbow.

My own elbow slid out from under me atop the dining table and my fork clattered loudly onto my plate. I cringed until I was certain the cutlery hadn’t broken the plate. I had no desire to start my day endangering my life by telling one of the pygmy trolls I’d broken one of their plates. They took any offense to the dining hall personally, and if I’d learned anything since arriving at the Menagerie, it was that you never wanted to offend the trolls. Like ever.

“She was mooning over Leo,” Jas said, though I’d asked her not to keep saying shit like that. As usual, Jas did what she wanted and didn’t seem to care much about how her words were received by others.

I sighed and pushed my plate away. I’d tried for fresh fruit and a bagel piled high with cream cheese this morning, but, as of late, my appetite just wasn’t what it normally was.

“I wasn’t mooning over Leander.” I hoped I hadn’t been. I’d been working hard not to. “I’ve just been tired lately.”

“You have been pushing pretty hard.” Wren’s concerned eyes traveled the length of me. “Couldn’t you ask Ky to give you a break from the extra practice for a bit?”

“Trust me, I’ve tried. He says the dangers are too great and that I can’t rely on anyone else to protect me. Sorry, Sadie,” I added with a flash of apologetic eyes to the perpetually hungry shifter in her usual seat at the end of our table.

“No worries,” she said as she shoveled a small mountain of scrambled eggs drenched in hot sauce into her mouth. “He’s right. Even I can’t anticipate every single attack, and I can’t be there to watch your back every second of every day—though I try.”

“Are you finally admitting to some limitations?” Wendi asked from the opposite end of the table, where as a rule Wren, Dave, Jas, Adalia, and I did our best to ignore her. As feisty as Sadie was, at least we could always count on her to be real.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.