Chapter 40 Low Profile? Impossible!

Chapter 40 Low Profile? Impossible!
Chapter 40: Low Profile? Impossible!

ARIA SILVERMOON

I moved on the damaged leg. It screamed at me and I filed that information away and kept moving, because stopping was worse, because stopping was losing, because I had been in private training rooms my entire life being told that girls didn't do this and here I was doing it in front of everyone—

The finish came from positioning.

Darius's voice from this morning, exact and clear in my memory: a larger opponent is easier to redirect than to overpower.

I didn't overpower Callum. I redirected him — used his own momentum on his next advance, angled out of his line at the last second, guided the force sideways, and he was simply suddenly going somewhere he hadn't intended to go, and then he was on the mat and I was standing over him and the room—

The room was not quiet anymore.

I stepped back. Breathed. Didn't let the leg buckle even though it wanted to.

Callum looked up at me from the mat. Then he nodded once — clean, genuine — and got up.

The noise in the hall was something I'd never heard directed at me before. It moved through my chest differently than I expected.

I found Nathan in the crowd automatically. He was not pretending to be calm. He was openly, completely losing his mind, hands on his head, mouth forming words I couldn't hear over the noise.

I looked — just for a second, just one — toward the wall where the professors stood.

Darius wasn't looking at the crowd.

He was looking at me.

His face was doing something I didn't have a name for yet.

I looked away before it could become something I'd need to examine later.

My leg hurt enormously.

I avoided Darius's gaze as I limped away from the ring. My leg throbbed with every step.

Nathan reached me first, practically bouncing.

"Moon goddess, Lucian! That was incredible!" The pride on his face was embarrassingly obvious. I couldn't help smiling.

I smelled Darius before I heard him. That cedar and midnight scent, always a second ahead of him. I turned and found him already looking at my leg.

"You're hurt," he said.

"Yes. I'm okay. I'll go get it looked at." I shifted my weight and immediately regretted it.

"I'll take you. Can you even stand on that?"

"I can. I'll go myself. Nathan will come with me."

"Nathan still has sessions." He glanced over his shoulder. "Don't you, Nathan?"

Nathan's eyes went wide, bouncing between us like he was watching a very tense game of tennis. "Erm. Yes. Yes, I do. Go on, Lucian. We'll celebrate later."

"But you can't leave either." Marcus's voice came from behind us. He strolled over with Viktor at his shoulder, easy smile on his face. "Well done, Lucian. Truly." Then, to Darius: "You're the professor in charge. You can't abandon a whole session to walk someone to the nurse's office."

"My student is injured."

"His opponent is more injured. Go check on Callum."

Darius's jaw went tight.

"It's fine, I'll just go myself—" I started.

"I'll take you," Darius said at the same moment.

"Professor Rivera needs you." Marcus stepped neatly between us. "The session's still running. You can't just disappear." He flashed that easy smile again. "Let me. I'll make sure he gets there safely. Trust me, Professor Darius."

"No." The word came out sharp. Final.

"No?" Marcus raised an eyebrow.

Right on cue, Professor Rivera appeared. "Professor Darius! We really need you back, please come over."

Marcus spread his hands like he'd personally arranged it. See?

I felt the hesitation in Darius. Then Marcus stepped to my side and placed one hand on my shoulder, one on my waist. I froze, eyes wide, not quite sure what to do with myself.

He guided me out of the hall. The weight of someone's stare burned into my back all the way to the door.

"Thank you Marcus. But I can walk myself," I said once we were out.

"You really can't. You'll make it worse." He kept his grip easy, unhurried, like he had nowhere else to be.

He clicked his tongue. "If you were a girl, I'd have just swept you off your feet and carried you there. But you're a guy, so that'd be a little uncomfortable, right?"

My heart did something stupid and loud. Does he know?

"Or," he added, glancing sideways at me, "don't tell me you're into guys?"

I said nothing. Does he know or not? Moon goddess, this is going to kill me.

"Do you?" he pressed.

"No." I shook my head firmly. "No, I don't."

"Good." He nodded, almost to himself. "So Darius doesn't have a chance. Shame for him. A little bit of a shame for me too, honestly."

I frowned, not quite following that, but let it go.

"Do you know Professor Darius? From before?" I asked. "You two sound like you might know each other."

He smiled. "Do I or don't I."

That was not an answer. That was deeply unsettling.

\---

We reached the nurse's station and they got to work on my leg. I sat on the bed, leg stretched out, while they cleaned and wrapped it. Marcus leaned against the wall, perfectly content to stay.

"Thank you, Marcus. You can go now. I can handle myself from here," I said.

"No, I'll stay with you."

"The combat training is still going on. You're new here, you should take your lectures seriously. I wouldn't want you getting into trouble with attendance already." I was trying to be considerate. That was what I told myself. The truth was I just wanted him gone.

"Don't worry about that. I can handle it."

He deflected so smoothly I almost didn't notice. He does that the same way Darius does, I thought. Like your words just slide right off them.

I was working up a third attempt when the curtain snapped open.

A large man filled the doorway. Broad, unhurried, the kind of person who didn't need to announce himself to take up space. He looked at Marcus, then settled his gaze on me.

"I'm here on behalf of Professor Darius." His eyes moved to Marcus. "You can go back to training. He said I should stay with him. Those are his orders."

I blinked. Who is this person, and why does he speak like Darius runs a small private army?

Marcus, notably, did not look surprised. Just annoyed.

"And how are we supposed to know you're actually from him? I'm not going anywhere."

"Direct orders from Professor Darius."

Marcus's phone buzzed. He pulled it out, read whatever was on the screen, and his expression curdled completely. He pocketed it without a word, shot the man a look that could strip paint, and walked out without glancing at me once.

Okay. That went surprisingly well.

"I'll be just outside the door," the man said to me. "I won't interfere." And then he was gone too, the curtain falling shut behind him.

I lay back on the narrow bed and stared at the ceiling.

The nurse came back, left medication on the side table, walked me through how to use it. "Since you haven't gotten your wolf yet, healing will take a little longer than usual," she said. "Don't put too much weight on that leg for the next few days." A few more instructions and then she was gone too.

Silence.

I stared at the ceiling.

I had just made myself the most talked-about person in that hall, which was exactly the opposite of what someone with a secret should ever do. The whole point was to stay low. Be forgettable. Don't give anyone a reason to look too closely.

So much for that.

This was serious. I needed to think about what to do, how to manage whatever attention was coming my way before it started working against me.

I closed my eyes.

Darius was coming when he finished. Of course he was.

I didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified.

Probably both.