I beamed. He had figured out my alias. I never should have doubted him.
“I need you to meet me at noon behind the dorms. There’s a manhole where one of the Rider’s hollows will lead us out.”
Reev went still. I could only tell he was breathing because I was pressed to his chest.
“Reev?”
He nodded. “I know where that is.”
His hands slid to my waist, and he nudged me back. I let him, joy engulfing all the uncertainty. I had more things to tell him, but they could wait until we were safely out of Ninurta.
He peered down at me as if waiting for something.
“What did they do to you?” I reached behind his neck. “Why didn’t you tell me about—” Reev squeezed my wrist. I let out a small gasp.
Immediately, he loosened his grip. He brought my wrist to his lips to kiss away the hurt the way he used to when I was a kid. The action made me smile.
“Like I said. It’s complicated.” His voice was rough. “I’m sorry I kept it from you, but they’ve begun cleansing my memories. I can’t—” He looked pained. “The Kahl means to put a new collar on me afterward. It’s been . . . difficult.”
All the better that we were leaving tomorrow. I wished we could go now. I couldn’t stand letting them have my brother a moment longer.
“It’s just one more night,” I said, more to reassure myself than Reev.
He glanced over his shoulder, his hand tensing around my wrist. “I should go. They’ve probably noticed I’m missing.”
“Reev—” He cut me off by hugging me again, and I touched my forehead to his shoulder.
I wanted to catch the threads to stretch out our time together. How was I supposed to let him go? At least the separation would be brief.
“Please be safe,” I told him.
“Of course. Be careful in your match tomorrow. I’ll see you soon.”
“Are you sure you’ll be able to—”
“Yes,” Reev said, and gave me a nudge toward the stairs. He softened the action with a smile. “Now get back to your room before we both get in trouble.”
I couldn’t stop smiling. At my floor, I turned down the hallway and came up short. Avan stood outside his door with another boy. Neither of them noticed me.
It wasn’t the fact Avan had broken the lights-out rule that gave me pause, it was the body language of the boy with him. He was shorter than Avan, around my height, with sleek, well-groomed White Court hair and large eyes that watched Avan with enough interest to make me seethe. He rested a fine-boned hand against Avan’s arm. His body seemed to strain forward without actually moving.
I wouldn’t have minded if this boy was my opponent tomorrow.
Avan moved to open his door. His smile was practiced but still warm enough not to be entirely false.
When he turned to face the boy again, his back to me, the boy leaned in. I sucked in my breath, unbalanced, as if my feet had been knocked out from under me.
Avan pressed a hand to the boy’s shoulder. He must have said something, because the boy’s face went red and he seemed to shrink in on himself, averting his eyes. Then he awkwardly rubbed at his neck as his mouth formed what looked like the words good night. He hurried away. Avan stepped into his room.
“Savorn.”
His back stiffened. Then he relaxed and looked over his shoulder, a real smile on his face.
“What are you doing wandering around?” He opened his door wider and motioned for me to come in.
Once the door shut, I said, “I found Reev.”
Avan’s fingers paused in unbelting his tunic. “It occurred to me earlier that our rooms might be monitored.”
I glanced around at the blank walls. “How? Peepholes in the ceiling?”
“If Kahl Ninu can enslave mahjo, then I wouldn’t underestimate him.”
Drek. I rubbed my temple. Well, it was too late now. We’d already said more than enough to condemn us.
“Tell me anyway,” Avan said, probably thinking the same thing.
I grinned. “He’s agreed to the plan.”
Avan turned away and tugged off his tunic. I admired his back, the lean muscles and angular planes I now knew by heart. I did not, however, know about the fine scars scattered across his shoulder blades. They were pale against his skin. Had those been caused by his dad or maybe by a past lover? My happiness wilted.
Avan didn’t notice as he tossed the tunic into the hatch in the wall. He disappeared into the washroom.
“That’s great,” he said over the sound of splashing water. “Wasn’t expecting it to be that easy.”
Something in his tone made me feel defensive. “Reev recognized us during your match. He couldn’t say anything because he was being watched.”
“Okay,” he said, reappearing. He had dried his face with a towel, but wet strands of hair curled beneath his jaw. A bead of water splashed against his collarbone. “I trust you.”
I smiled. With those three words, he had put me at ease.
He crossed his arms over his chest, stomach muscles flexing as he leaned against the door frame. Just as I had imagined, his tattoo crawled across the side of his chest in jagged black branches. What I hadn’t imagined were the three brilliant-green leaves at the tip of the longest branch—the only leaves on the tree.
Before I lost my nerve, I pointed to his chest and asked, “What does that mean?”
He looked down, his fingers tracing one crooked branch. The corner of his mouth twitched up. “It’s stupid.”
“Tell me anyway,” I said, repeating his earlier words.
His hand dropped to his side. “I got the trunk and the branches done when I moved out of the shop. The tree had one leaf. Kind of like . . . the start of something new.” He rubbed his neck and shifted so that he was turned away from me. He actually seemed embarrassed. “Something good, I mean. I figured I would add more leaves as . . . well, as things changed.”
I knew it had been important for him to get his own place and to get some distance from his dad, but I hadn’t understood how much it meant to him to separate himself from the life he’d known beneath his dad’s roof. Knowing this now made me wish I’d done more than kick that man’s decrepit ass.
“That’s not stupid,” I said. Avan looked back at me.
Now I was embarrassed. I busied myself poking through a book at the top of a pile. I had to know, and since we were both already feeling awkward . . .
“What was that about just now?” I asked. “We’re not supposed to mingle with other teams, remember?”
“I guess you haven’t noticed everyone breaking that particular rule,” Avan said, his words laced with amusement. I looked up, and, sure enough, he was flashing me his dimple. “I was asking around. We were on a tight deadline to find Reev.”
“That was about Reev?” I remembered the way the boy leaned in, as if expecting Avan to reciprocate.
Avan pushed off the door frame and crossed the room. “He took my friendliness to mean something else. It tends to happen.”
“I’ve noticed.” I propped my hip against the table, watching him approach, his dark eyes searching. His lashes were longer than mine. I drew an unsteady breath. The weight of unspoken things settled into the space between us, space I wanted so badly to close that my body ached with it.
His throat moved as he swallowed. “Can I be honest with you, Kai?”
“Aren’t you always?”
He opened his mouth but closed it again.
I searched for words to replace his silence. “Did . . . did you mind it? His misinterpretation.”
I winced at my clumsiness. Avan’s smile twisted into a smirk. I brushed my fingers against his lips, wanting to wipe away that look.