Soulbound by Heather Brewer

Maddox, “Who is that?”
    “That…” —she sighed— “…would be Darius. He’s the best teacher on campus when it comes to fighting. If anyone knows how to handle a katana, it’s him.”
    It wasn’t hard to see that though they were roughly the same age, Darius was clearly the more skilled combatant. From across the field, Darius turned his eyes toward me, his skin flushing, and flipped Trayton over, putting him down hard on the ground. Without even pausing to take a breath, he shouted, “You, out of my training area!”
    Somebody was in trouble, for sure. I glanced around the outskirts of the field, but couldn’t even guess who he was yelling at. It was only when he crossed the field in an angry stride right toward Maddox and me that I realized it was us. He locked eyes with Maddox and jabbed a thumb in my direction. “I don’t want her near my training area, Maddox. Get her out of here.”
    Me? He wanted me to leave? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I hadn’t done anything to him. My heart thudded in my chest, and I narrowed my eyes in disgust. “Y’know, if you’re going to talk about me like I’m some kind of plague, you might as well do it directly. I’m standing right here.”
    He looked at me, a fire burning like hot coals in his eyes, and then directed his attention back to Maddox. “Now.”
    Maddox grabbed me by the sleeve, dutifully trying to lead me away from the field. “Kaya, we should—”
    Shaking her off, I stepped toward Darius, but he didn’t budge. “Why do you want me to leave?”
    His eyes were alight with anger, his shoulders tense.He was fuming, and I had no idea why. “I will not have some
Healer
standing around gawking at my class, distracting my students.”
    Shaking my head, I lost my cool completely. “The only one who seems to be distracted is
you
!”
    No one made a sound. Even Maddox seemed to stop breathing.
    Darius lowered his voice to a growling whisper. He was standing so close, his breath was warm on my cheek. “Extra duties for you tonight, in the rose garden. That’s on the opposite side of the campus, just so you know. As far away as you can be from me and still be at the academy.”
    My jaw hit the ground. “But—”
    He turned his eyes to Maddox. “See to it she gets there after her final class of the day.”
    Before I could say anything else, Maddox dragged me away from the training area and we headed toward one of the L-shaped buildings.
    I ranted the entire way. “What the hell is that guy’s problem?”
    Maddox sighed. “Darius is…temperamental.”
    “Not exactly a good quality for a Barron, is it?”
    Maddox opened the door and we moved inside, keeping our voices respectfully low, as classes were already in session. “Oh, he’s no Barron. Darius is an Unskilled. One of the few who knows just about all there is to know about the war. He’s also one of the best fighting teachersavailable. He can even put Barrons down, something that’s almost unheard of. An Unskilled against a Barron? Normally, there’s no question who’d win. But Darius is pretty amazing.”
    I snorted, still fuming over the way he’d emphasized
Healer
, like I was a thing rather than a person. “Yeah, an amazing dek.”
    “Yeah, well…Listen, I’ll be here when you get done, okay?” Maddox opened a classroom door and smiled. “Good luck.”
    With a deep breath, I stepped inside the classroom, trying to put Darius out of my thoughts. The room might have passed for any normal classroom outside Shadow Academy. Three rows of three tables each filled the room, with a large slate board at the front of the classroom, two small buckets of chalk rock sitting on the floor in front of it. There were about twenty students inside, both male and female, though most were girls. And, as expected, all Healers, not a single Trace in sight. The woman standing at the front of the class wore a bitter, pinched expression as she noticed my entrance. “You are late.”
    I