Of Blood and Aether: Harbingers Book One by Harper Hawthorne

Author:Harper Hawthorne [Hawthorne, Harper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Six

Kieran

So far, this evening had been a total wash.

I had successfully resisted the urge to pester Arken immediately after I got off work. I had already dragged the poor woman out with me and my lieutenants almost every evening this week, traipsing about the town. And though she had given me no indication of her boredom, I couldn’t bring myself to monopolize all of her free time. Only most of it.

I was a selfish bastard, after all—but she had her entry exams tomorrow. I could behave. But I couldn’t help but smile to myself as I kicked my boots up, resting my legs on the desk.

For the past several weeks, at her request, I had been running Arken through daily strength training drills and exercises intended to improve her endurance for Physical Arcana. If she wanted to test into such a high-level course, the scholars were going to test both her arcane aptitude and her physical strength.

At first, the Little Conduit fucking hated me for holding her to it. The first time I had her run laps, I think she was about ready to strangle me. Every time I said another one, those golden-brown eyes had been brimming with adorable animosity. But Arken Asher was nothing if not stubborn as Hel. This morning, she could almost keep up with my pace as we ran around the Student’s Quarter. Almost.

I had used the last several hours to catch up on tedium—missives I needed to read, reports to file, notes to review from various sources across the city. Even cities as grand as Sophrosyne had their seedy underbellies, and I had informants lurking in every dark corner. I had been a little too efficient though, and didn’t have much else to work on, leaving me restless.

It was right about now that I would be typically headed to a tavern, on the hunt for some pretty distraction. But, for whatever reason, that impulse felt less than savory.

For whatever reason.

I scoffed at my own thoughts. I knew damn well why those distractions weren’t appealing lately.

The last time I had a stranger in my bed, I spent the entire godsdamned night thinking about her instead. I probably should have been ashamed of that, if not a bit embarrassed—but I had gotten away with it, and therefore I was not. Still, I wasn’t exactly proud of the fact that I had taken some random, brown-haired woman to bed, just to treat her as a stand-in for the one I actually wanted to be balls deep inside.

Thank the gods that I had at least managed enough tact and self-control not to moan Arken’s name out loud while I fucked the other woman, fast and hard and aggressive—the same way that I regularly fucked my own fist thinking about the same damn thing. Arken in my bed. Arken on her knees. Arken screaming my name.

Platonic. So very platonic.

As lovely as such images were in my mind, I was grateful when a tap at my window distracted me from my inappropriate, borderline pathetic obsession.

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