Chapter 14: Terms

Cassandra's POV

I folded the page in half, and then in half again, and put it in my back pocket.

My hands were doing it without me.

"You knew," I said. "At the gate. You read my name and my rank, and you looked at me and said Beta, then."

"I did."

"Then you gave me a note under the door, and a bet, and a rule about every place I was allowed to stand."

"Cassandra."

"You watched me pull my punches for a month. You knew what was in them."

"I wanted you to have somewhere to put it down."

"You wanted," I said. "Everybody decides something for me."

His jaw went tight, and a muscle moved in it.

He did not argue, and that was worse.

"I had the oath," he said. "It is the only reason."

"You had a mouth. You could have said, whenever you like, I know what you are, and I'm not afraid."

"You would have run."

"Maybe. That would have been mine to do."

The ridge at his temple had not risen, but I could see the skin tighten over it.

I had once put my fingers on that place, in the dark, and he had shaken.

"Say your terms back to me," I said.

"What?"

"The terms. In your office, the first night. You said them very clearly."

He closed his eyes.

"Training on the floor only," he said. "Never in your dorm, never in my office. No marks the healers would ask about."

"You had a rule for where I stood and a rule for what I left on you."

I took a step back.

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