Chapter 408. A Man Who Doesn’t Know How to Teach Without Drawing Blood
’Fuck...’ William thought. ’Of all the people to appear now.’
’She’s exactly what I need and exactly the last person I want to deal with.’
’She’ll push Kaela until she breaks, and she’ll push me until I lose my goddamn mind.’
’She doesn’t know how to teach without drawing blood, and she doesn’t know how to speak without cutting you down to size.’
The tension in the air was thick enough to choke on. William could feel his pulse hammering against his ribs, a primal reaction to a woman who had always been as unpredictable as a lightning strike.
He stared at her, his mind racing through old memories, the sound of her spells cracking through the academy air, and the way she could dismantle a man’s confidence with three words.
Catherine stepped forward, breaking the stalemate. Her expression remained the practiced mask of a noblewoman, but there was an unmistakable brightness in her eyes, a spark of recognition that cut through the morning chill.
"I take it you’re the one I was expecting, Selena."
Selena gave Catherine a respectful nod, though the teasing glint in her eyes never wavered, remaining as sharp as a dagger’s edge. "Catherine... Still playing the diplomat, I see."
"Still smoothing over the rough edges of the world." Her gaze snapped back to William, sharp, demanding, and utterly predatory. "So, Wade."
"Are you going to stand there gaping like a fish, or are you going to explain why you’re pretending to be some pampered courtier when we both know you’re still just a soldier who doesn’t know how to use his goddamn head?"
"Wait... Selena?" William finally found his voice, though it came out rougher than he intended.
Genuine surprise and perhaps a flicker of old frustration colored his tone. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Royal invitation," Selena said, grinning widely as she closed the remaining distance between them with that infuriatingly effortless stride. "Apparently, someone at this palace decided the royal guard needed some proper refresher training before all this wedding business gets out of hand, and my name came up."
"Imagine my surprise, arriving to find you three already playing house." Her eyes swept over the group with obvious, delighted curiosity, as if she were examining specimens in a lab. "It’s been a while, hasn’t it?"
"Feels like an entire lifetime since I last saw any of you properly."
"It has been a while," Catherine agreed.
A genuine, warm smile spread across her face, a rare sight that softened the hard lines of her regal bearing. William caught it immediately: that knowing glint in Catherine’s eyes.
She hadn’t just suspected; she had known. She had orchestrated this reunion with the precision of a grandmaster.
"Considerably too long, honestly."
Kaela, who had been standing like a coiled spring beside William, finally relaxed her stance but only slightly. She glanced between the three adults with open, wary curiosity.
The girl was used to violence, used to training, but she wasn’t used to this kind of charged, unspoken history.
"I don’t think we’ve properly met," she said, her voice steady despite the intensity radiating off Selena.
"Selena Ashbourne," Selena said, extending a hand toward Kaela with an easy, confident grin that didn’t quite reach her calculating eyes. "Combat theory instructor mostly retired from active teaching these days, though apparently not retired enough to escape being roped into royal training assignments."
"You must be the princess everyone’s been quietly buzzing about."
Kaela tilted her head, her brow furrowing.
"Buzzing about?" The word sounded foreign to her, something belonging to ballrooms and tea parties, not training yards.
"In a good way, don’t worry," Selena assured her, the corner of her mouth twitching upward.
She shook Kaela’s hand firmly, a grip that was professional, testing the girl’s reaction without saying a word. "Word travels fast among instructors, you know."
"Magic circles and training reports have a way of leaking."
"Apparently, you’ve become quite the topic of conversation lately."
Selena leaned in slightly, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial tone that still carried enough volume to make William’s jaw clench. "Something about demolishing a testing block on your very first attempt with a new set of gauntlets."
"And considerably more than one training incident involving destroyed palace architecture, if the rumors reaching me are accurate."
Kaela’s cheeks flushed a deep crimson, the heat of embarrassment visible even in the morning light.
"The pillar incident has clearly traveled further than I’d hoped," she muttered, looking away.
"Oh, it’s traveled considerably further than that, sweetheart," Selena laughed, a rich, throaty sound that echoed off the stone walls of the courtyard. "I heard about it from an entirely different source before William even bothered to mention your name properly."
"You’ve apparently made quite an impression already... Most people break bones; you seem to break buildings."
...
Selena’s gaze didn’t just linger; it dissected. She swept her eyes over the three of them with the sharp, predatory precision of someone who had spent decades reading micro expressions, body language, and the unspoken currents of desire and loyalty.
She saw the way William instinctively positioned himself to shield Kaela, the way Catherine’s posture softened slightly when she stood near him, and the unspoken bond that tied them together like invisible threads. Her amusement wasn’t just mild; it was growing into something wicked.
"So," she said, the words dragging out as a slow, dangerous grin spread across her lips, revealing teeth that seemed too sharp for someone so casually dressed. "The collection’s grown, has it?"
The implication hung in the air like gunpowder residue.
Catherine didn’t flinch. Instead, she burst into laughter, a genuine, unguarded sound that startled the morning stillness.
"Selena, honestly."
"What? I’m simply making an accurate observation, Catherine."
"Don’t deny the obvious," Selena said, entirely unrepentant.
Her eyes flicked meaningfully between William’s rigid frame and Kaela’s flustered expression. "Last I heard, it was just you and Catherine holding down the fort, and now there’s clearly a princess added to the mix."
"I have to say, William, your reputation for... gathering interesting company... has grown considerably since I last saw you."
Kaela froze. For a heartbeat, she simply blinked, her mind processing the implications of ’collection’ and ’gathering.’
Then, understanding struck like a physical blow, and a furious crimson flush crept up her neck, spreading across her cheeks. "Oh. Oh, I see."
"That’s... well, technically accurate, I suppose." She stammered, looking anywhere but at William.
’Goddammit, Selena,’ William thought. ’Can you not for five minutes?’
’Can you not turn every moment into some twisted psychological autopsy?’
’She’s going to strip us bare right here in the courtyard.’
William cleared his throat awkwardly, the sound rough and strained. It was the same defensive reflex she had provoked in him countless times back at the academy—the sound of a man trying to regain control while his foundations were being shaken.
"Selena, please... Not here."
"Why not here?" Selena challenged, stepping closer, invading their personal space with the casual confidence of someone who feared nothing.
She was entirely unbothered by his discomfort; in fact, she seemed to feed on it. "I’m simply appreciating the trajectory of your life, Wade."
"Last time I saw the two of you," she said, gesturing with a dismissive wave between William and Catherine, "there was considerably more tension, more unspoken accusations, and considerably less obvious affection."
"Now look at you... apparently expanding your horizons quite successfully."
"You make it sound so... calculated. Like some kind of strategic conquest," William snapped, though the fluster in his voice betrayed him.
"I make it sound exactly as it appears from the outside," Selena countered, her grin widening. She didn’t back down; she leaned into the provocation. "Don’t worry, I don’t mean it as an insult."
"In this world, most people end up broken, bitter, or alone."
"Not everyone manages to build something this genuinely happy out of what could easily have been a complicated, bloody disaster."
Her tone shifted slightly just for a fraction of a second from teasing to something almost sincere, though the edge remained. "But don’t get too comfortable with the sentimentality."
"Happiness makes you slow. And in this palace, being slow gets you killed."
The shift in atmosphere was instantaneous. The warmth of the teasing evaporated, replaced by the cold, hard reality of what Selena Ashbourne actually represented: a reminder that their peace was fragile and that the training—the real, brutal, bone-crushing training—was about to begin.