A physique that flexed as he took a step forward and lightly took hold of my arms. “You can do this, Aflora. It’s just a tumbling exercise. Ella will show you how it works. Just don’t call on your fire, okay?”
Mother Earth, even now he was trying to help me and had no idea how I’d used him last night. My hesitation on the mat had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with guilt.
Just don’t think about it. Or how good his hands feel on my arms right now. In fact, you should take a step back, I coached myself.
Except I didn’t listen at all.
Instead, I looked deep into his golden irises and thought about how they glowed while I went down on him. I swallowed, his taste a lingering memory in my throat. “I can do this.”
“I know you can.”
With a nod, I forced myself to look at Ella. She arched a light blonde brow. “Oh, are you finally ready? Because I’m bored and growing fairy wings over here.”
Trayton snorted. “You wish.”
“I do!” She threw her hands up in the air. “Fae should have wings and pointy ears.”
My own ears twitched at the thought, and I brushed my dark strands behind them to show off the tips. “I have pointy ears.”
Ella spun around to face me, her lips pulling into a huge grin. “There! That’s what we should look like. All she needs is wings.”
“Fairies have wings,” Trayton explained calmly. “And they’re not real.”
“Well, technically, pixies exist and they have wings.” Amusement briefly touched my chest as I thought of Claire’s obsession with the little creations brought on by her connection to the spirit element.
“We have our own version here,” Trayton muttered. “Ella loves them.”
“But he won’t let me keep them as pets,” she pointed out.
“Because they bite and like to set fires all over the damn place.”
“Are you all going to stand around and chat all day or get down to work?” Zephyrus’s voice came from right behind me, the heat of his body sending a shiver down my spine. He’d worn gray sweatpants and a white T-shirt today, something several of the females seemed intrigued by throughout the gymnasium. Myself included.
I firmly blamed Shade for my runaway hormones. If he hadn’t spent every night taunting me with his touch and tongue, I wouldn’t be having all these illicit fantasies about Kols, and I wouldn’t find Zephyrus particularly irresistible today.
“Am I invisible?” the headmaster demanded.
“N-no,” I stammered, spinning to face him and having to look up to meet his smoldering green eyes. There was a hint of brown around the pupils that captured my attention for a long moment before I shook my head. “We were just getting started.”
He arched a brow. “Yeah? Because it looks like you’re all over here gossiping. Maybe I need to reassign pairings.” He glanced to the left, his mouth already moving before I had a chance to respond. “Shade! Get your ass over here.”
The Death Blood shadowed over to us in a wave of his black smoke, his expression bored as he appeared. “The whole headmaster thing seems to be going well for you, Zeph. Bet it feels nice to be able to issue commands for once rather than constantly taking it up the ass from Kols.”
“Oh, please assign me to him,” Kols said, stepping forward. “I’ll show him what it feels like to take it up the ass.”
Zephyrus shrugged. “I was going to give him to Tray, but go for it.” He looked at the other royal. “Help me manage the match between Ella and Aflora, then go spar with Fang.”
Glancing over my shoulder, I mouthed, “Fang?” at Ella, hoping I’d heard that wrong.
She burst out laughing, nodding. “Yeah, original. I know.”
“Stop goofing around,” Zephyrus snapped, his hand grasping my hip and forcing my attention back to him. “I need to see what I’m dealing with so I can better plan our independent study next week. Unless you want me to assume that all you know how to do is pick flowers from the ground?”
I bristled at the negative insinuation in his tone. “I’m not a helpless pixie, Zeph.”
His eyebrow arched again, saying nothing and everything with that look alone. We weren’t familiar enough for me to use his nickname. It just sort of slipped out.
“Headmaster Zephyrus,” I corrected softly.