Marin got me the books I requested, and I wandered back to my room. So far, I’d read a brief book on basic magic at Ute’s. The book Marin obtained for me was much more detailed. There were systematic lists of what skills were attributed to each specific magic subclass. I put that aside for later. Even here, I got homework. Jeez.

I focused on the book on jatua. I bore marks on both wrists and ankles, all of them bands. The thickness and design of the symbols varied with the person’s link with that element. So far, I carried power with all four elements, though my fire and air power seemed strongest. This was unusual. I saw some faint symbols within the bands; those, I’d decipher later when they became clearer.

It looked like I wore wristbands. I didn’t recall seeing such extensive markings on anyone else’s wrists or ankles, but the shoulder marks had distracted me.

So far, I knew I had some connection to the earth. I sensed things. I felt when the Imani were near, that deathly cold permeating the area. My strength and speed had improved, as I could attest from training with Hana. I also had some connection with fire; I healed. Now I wanted to learn something offensive, something to hurt them.

I grabbed the first book, hoping for some instructions. It consisted of lists and formulas. No Magic for Dummies. I would have to wing it. Just like everyone else.

I sat up and focused a bit. I followed Hana’s instructions and centered myself. I felt heat build in my gut. This seemed to be the center of my power. It would be my belly.

My breathing leveled off, and I started counting backward in my mind. Concentrating, I looked at the water in the basin and imagined it heating, the water boiling. A few minutes later, I was sweaty, but the water remained room temperature. Well, that was a bust.

What else could I try? I knew Marin said he could communicate with people in another room. Let me see. I closed my eyes and pictured Marin, his mahogany hair, earnest face, light brown eyes filled with sharp intelligence.

“Marin,” I thought and waited.

Wind blew through my hair. “Elizabeth?”

I jumped a foot and almost fell off the bed. I heard Marin’s voice clearly, as if he was right next to me, talking in my ear.

“Hi!” I thought back triumphantly.

“Hi!” I heard him smiling.

“I can talk like you can!”

“I can hear!”

Ha. Okay, that worked and wow, it was…intimate. What else could I do? Maybe I could influence weather or change shapes. That last scared me a bit. I didn’t want to try that alone. I’d head down to the garden later to try out the weather thing after lunch. Magic rocked.

I concentrated. “Marin, are you still at Midday?”

“Where else would I be?”

I sent him a mental head-slap. “You almost done?”

“Yes,” he whispered.

“Let me know when the meeting’s over. I’m hungry.”

“Want me to bring you something?”

“Yes, please.”

“I will be up soon.”

I lay on my side, waiting for my food. I was drifting, looking at the symbols, when my door opened. I glanced up, expecting Marin, but Finn snuck inside. His face was set and unsmiling. He closed the door behind him with a slam. I smiled and sat up as he climbed on the bed.

“I have missed you,” he declared and nuzzled my neck.

Heat spread through me. I shivered and let his weight bear me back into the covers. He grabbed my legs and tugged me down, so our hips were aligned.

“Well hello. Are you supposed to be here?”

He ground his hips into mine. “No. You complaining?”

“Well no, but I think we should talk.”

“No talking,” he said as he slipped his hand under my shirt, stroking my side. He bent and kissed me, mouth open, sipping. His hands cupped my breasts, his thumbs drifting across my nipples. The calluses on his fingers were rough on my skin. Tingles spread in the wake of his touch.

“I cannot linger, but I had to see you. I wanted to check in on you. I was also horny.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“I’m sensing that.” I wiggled my hips, teasing his hardness.

He laughed and kissed me again, deeper, his head angled. His hands slid to push down my leathers. Whoa. I caught his hands.

“We need to talk,” I said.

He groaned and pressed his forehead to mine. “Why must we talk?”

With a grin, I bit his chin. “I’m a girl; we love talking.”

He snorted. I tried to pull down my shirt; Finn resisted. He ran his hands down to my waist. He sealed my lips with his.

Pushing back, I replied, “I mean it. We need to talk. I need to know what’s going on.”

I motioned between us.

Finn jerked backward. Marin walked in with food. Finn’s back was to the door, so he didn’t see Marin enter, but I did. I stiffened.

Guilt washed through me as Marin’s brows lowered, and his expression grew stormy.

Finn chose his words with care. “What do you mean?”

Marin dropped the tray on a nearby dresser, causing a racket.

“Are you crazy?” he hissed and gripped Finn’s shoulder.

Finn started and turned around.

“Lands sake, some privacy here,” Finn yelled as he stood up. “I wanted to see her.”

“You had to come up here and put her life at risk? No one can know she is here!”

“No one does. I have just been gone a few minutes.”

“A few minutes anyone could have noticed. Use your head.” He poked him in the forehead. “This one.”

Finn growled and stepped into him. “Do not touch me.”

Marin glared back. “I can—and will—do what I want. You were ordered to stay away, and I expect your obedience. Get out, now, before people notice you are gone. You were just going to get a drink, and Ute is waiting for you. Go.”

“People will miss you too. What are you doing here?” he pointed out, shoulders tense.

“It is my house. Plus, I just dismissed the meeting, and Elizabeth said she was hungry. Now go.”

“When?”

“What when?”

“When did Beta say she was hungry?”

“Hello, I’m right here.” I flapped my arms, but neither of them paid any attention to me.

“Just now, during the meeting,” Marin replied.

“How?” Finn looked at me. Marin edged him to the door.

“She can talk to me from other rooms. It is an air ability. She is getting stronger.” Marin’s voice sounded smug.

“Can you talk to me?” Finn asked. He craned to look at me around Marin, who crowded him out the door.

“I have not tried. I knew Marin could communicate that way, so I tried with him first. But I thought you didn’t want to talk.” I sounded snarky.

Finn’s face tightened, but he continued. “Try now.”

Marin hissed. “No, not now. Ute is waiting. Go!”

Finn said, “Try,” and walked out the door.

Closing my eyes, I went to try, but Marin landed on the bed next to me. I couldn’t meet his eyes. I adjusted my shirt and pushed my hair behind my ears.

He placed his finger under my chin, lifting it. He regarded me a moment.

“That was not a good idea”

Anger flashed. I sat up. It wasn’t any of his business. He put his hand on my arm, and I shrugged it off. Scrambling, I moved to the edge of the bed and ignored him to pick at my tray. Marin walked out while I was eating. Observant, that guy; he knew I didn’t want to talk to him.

My eyes drifted closed again. This time, I pictured Finn, his long midnight hair, his white eyes blurring to blue. I breathed out, “Finn.”

I waited—nothing. I tried again. “Finn.”

Nothing. I finished my meal in silence. Inaction grated at me. Wandering to the door, I poked my head out. I heard Marin in his room; he was banging around. Embarrassment filled me, but I needed to do something to get rid of my energy, this edginess that crawled underneath my skin.

I knocked on his door. The noise stopped. A few seconds later, Marin answered the door.

“Yes?” Marin blocked the door, talking to me through only a crack.

My thoughts scattered when I realized Marin wasn’t wearing his shirt. I didn’t expect that and tilted my head to get a better view. The angle on the door made that impossible. Shame washed through me. I’m such a hoe.

“I wondered if you would teach me to fight. Hana taught me some basics yesterday, and I can practice that, but I wanted to learn more.”

I realized I didn’t know if he could fight. I assumed he could; he carried a knife, but I hadn’t seen him wear the leathers that others did.

He regarded me, then opened the door farther, his hand on the top of the door, and waved me in.

When I went to enter, I had to skim under his arm. He shifted his arm, tensing on the door when I slipped past him, my body brushing his. My gaze slanted to his.

“That sounds good. Let me change.” Marin went to a drawer, grabbed clothes. Facing the dresser, he dropped his pants and bent down to kick them off. His ass bounced in front of me. Hoo. There were no words. He stepped into a new pair and as he yanked them up, he turned back around.

My gaze remained southward. I turned my head and felt a flush crawl up my neck. I had not been caught looking at his perfectly taut butt. No sir. Not me.

“Feeling shy? You did not seem shy earlier.” His voice held a sharp edge. He tightened the laces on his pants, movements rough.

Wait, what? I peered back at him and realized he was angry. His cheeks were flushed and he had a tic moving at the corner of his mouth. I felt that little surge of guilt again and suppressed it.

He strutted toward me and I retreated.

When he reached me, he glared down at me, pressing me back against the wall. Our gazes locked. Lightning danced along our skin where it touched, a slick slide of sensation.

“Why do you call me Elizabeth and not Beta like everyone else?”

“What?”

“Why?”

“It is a shortened form of your name. That is like calling me Mar or Zanth, Zan. I do not care for it.” He shrugged and stepped back, shaking out his shoulders. He grabbed the Fost version of the wife-beater, put it on, and went out the door. “Follow me.”

I trailed him without saying a word; it was better that way.

What followed was two hours of pure torture. I couldn’t match his speed. He tossed me around like a kewpie doll. It was a good thing I could heal or else I wouldn’t have been able to walk. Tossing me on my ass improved his mood, but mine started to sour.

“What’s wrong with you?” I snapped when he threw a jab straight at my face. I twisted out of the way, but he caught me on my shoulder. The impact knocked me sideways, and I flowed into the attack, grabbing his arm. I threw him over my hip.

He went down hard. Oorah. The thud when he hit felt remarkably satisfying. Eyes glittering, he scrambled up, chin down, peering at me through his lashes.

“Nice.” He skirted around me.

I twirled, keeping him in my line of sight.

Swiftly, he kicked out and caught me behind my knee while I tried to move out of the way. He snagged me as I fell. I stood, bent backward over his arm. His fingertips trailed down my face. “You need to move faster.”

I stomped on his toe, hard, but without any real force behind it due to my position. Twisting, I fell and then bounced up. “You need to stop being an ass.”

“Why are you with him?”

Whoa, mental whiplash at the topic change.

“I’m not with him, I don’t think. That is what I was trying to find out when you came in. We’ve, uh, been together only once.” Flushing bright red, I tucked my hair behind my ear and glanced down at the admission.

“Why?” he bit off.

“When Finn found me, he could have killed me, but he didn’t.”

“I would not have let him.”

I held up my hand. “Finn stayed with me and protected me. He slept on a chair while I slept on the cot. Even with everything going on, he sought to protect me. He made me feel safe and offered me comfort.”

“You do not know him. I guarantee he did not tell you about his mother, about his family.”

“He told me about his family.” A little bit anyway.

“Did he tell you about his mother?”

Um. “He said she died during childbirth.”

“Ah.” Marin’s ah was filled with all kinds of stories.

“What ah?”

“Nothing.”

“So there is something more?”

Marin demurred. “It is not my tale to tell.”

“Then why even mention it? I don’t know him; I don’t know anyone here is what you’re saying. Thanks.”

I stalked toward the door.

He stopped me with a hand on my arm. “That is not what I meant.”

“What did you mean then?”

“Why him, why not me?”

“Why not you?” Shifting, I avoided his gaze.

“Yes, why not me?” His fingers lifted my chin.

I didn’t struggle. I couldn’t meet his eyes, but I watched his lips, which wasn’t much better. They curved. He licked his lower lip while I watched. My belly tightened. Tingles raced underneath my skin, shortened my breath. I held up my hand, and he placed his palm against mine. Sparks leapt between us.

“I like you too,” I confessed, still avoiding his gaze.

“So you desire us both?”

I jerked up my head. He had an unreadable look on his face.

“I didn’t say that,” I argued. “I said I like you both. I have been with Finn, and I need to see where that is going, if anywhere, before I start anything else. I don’t sleep around. I don’t understand the Fost way of free love.”

“The what?”

“The sleeping with everyone trying to get pregnant thing.”

Marin raised an eyebrow. “I did not realize that was a thing. But not everyone believes in that. I do not.”

“Uh huh.”

“I do not. So you want to be with him? Only him?”

“I didn’t say that. I said I needed to figure out what we have, if anything. Quit putting words in my mouth! Until I know, I’m not starting anything else.”

Marin considered that for a second. “You two got involved quickly. Are you sure you are not with him to feel safe? It is understandable, if that is why, but I would not let anything hurt you. And well, he is…popular.” His eyebrows lifted.

“Stop.”

“What?”

With a glare, I stared him down. “You know what.”

His sigh filled the room. “I do not want you to be hurt.”

“Why?”

“The Orin are not faithful people. You said you do not sleep around. That is not the ‘Fost way,’ as you put it. Finn will. He is already contracted to mate with Lara.”

“What?” I sputtered. “Lara? But she is sleeping with Zanth.” And she’s a right bitch.

“And she will still be sleeping with Zanth. They do not mate for love. They mate for position, to cement an alliance.”

Finn never mentioned that, but then, we hadn’t gotten to talk. I felt chilled when I realized how little I knew. Marin was right in that regard.

A smiled bloomed on his face. “You are right, you do need to talk. But it sounds like I have a chance.”

I gulped.

Oh, boy.