Lady of the Hunt

2/

As she rode the elevator from the breakfast hall to the offices on the bottom floor, Adara couldn't help but feel dread about her meeting with Leonidas. She hadn't even known she had a meeting with Leonidas until Calista had informed her of it midway through breakfast, causing Adara to scramble up and toward the elevator.

Now she rode down to his office, feeling dread. Normally, getting called to Leonidas' office was a good thing; most of the time, it meant you were getting an assignment. But since the arrival of a certain someone the night before, she couldn't help but feel that her meeting wasn't an assignment.

The doors slid open, revealing a light blue room lobby with a hallway on the other side of it. A woman sat in front of a desk near the entrance of the hallway, who looked up and smiled at Adara as she stepping into the room.

"Good morning, Adara," the woman said.

"Good morning, Alice," she replied. "I hope Leonidas wasn't waiting on me too long; Calista didn't tell me that he wanted me until we were at breakfast and—"

"Adara, it's fine. You're not too late at all," Alice kindly told her, and Adara visibly relaxed.

"I'll just head back then," she said awkwardly, giving the lady another smile as she walked down the hallway behind her.

She made her way down to the last door on the left before hesitantly knocking. A moment later, it swung open to reveal Leonidas, wearing a sky blue suit, who smiled brightly at her. She couldn't help but return the smile—Leonidas' smiles were infectious.

"Sorry, sir, that I was late; Calista didn't tell me—" The smile dropped off her face as she walked into the room and saw Orion sitting in one of the two chairs. Of course.

He leaned back in the plush seat, looking like he didn't have a care in the world, and his eyes slowly scanned up her body to meet hers. The gesture filled her with a certain amount of annoyance, especially as he gave her a lazy smile and a wave.

"Good morning, Adara, have a seat," Leonidas instructed, gesturing to the other open chair beside Orion. Adara hesitantly obeyed.

Leonidas didn't waste a moment getting to the point of the meeting. "So, Adara, I've been thinking about it, and I would like you to be training partners with our new guest, Orion," Leonidas began in a placating voice. Her eyes snapped up.

"No." Her voice was firm as she shook her head. Orion simply looked amused. How could Leonidas even ask that of her?

He let out a long sigh, like this was what he had expected."I promised Orion's mother that I would make sure someone was with him to look after him, and since you don't have a partner..."

"But I don't need a partner," Adara replied. "Can't you get someone else to do it?"

"You should have a partner," Leonidas answered calmly. "The only reason you did not was because when you came here, we had an uneven number of students."

"So? I trained with Zephyr as my partner. So can he," Adara argued. Zephyr was the instructor of the training classes. "And besides, I can hunt alone."

"Technically, you're not supposed to be hunting alone. You're paired with Calista and Cadmus; you just have a habit of getting separated for them," Leonidas pointed out. He leaned back in his chair, sighing. Adara's eyes narrowed for a moment. There was something he wasn't saying.

Orion sat quietly to the side, seeming interested and amused. Adara glanced over at him and he flashed her a smirk which made her scowl. "I prefer to hunt alone," she pleaded, turning back to Leonidas.