Kerrigan scrubbed her face dry and met him for the next three days for training. And in that time, he scrapped everything they’d been working on. What was the point of bond training if she had no bond? He made her memorize the flying test as he remembered it so that she could fake the testing for Alura.

They didn’t discuss what had happened between them or March. He never once changed from the military general she’d first met back to the caring man she’d fallen in love with. He was direct and unwavering. She hated every minute of it even though she knew it was necessary. Both giving up what they’d briefly had and focusing only on the training.

When they returned to Kinkadia, Alura ran her through her paces.

She shook her head when Kerrigan finished the test. There had only been one snag that was different than Fordham’s impeccable memory, and she’d faltered but recovered.

“I must admit,” Alura said when she reached Kerrigan and Tieran, “I didn’t think ten days was long enough to make up for what we had done in a month, but you passed. You keep surprising me.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Alura circled her, pacing softly around the dirt-covered arena. “You practiced with Fordham?”

“Yes. We were in my home of Corsica for a week and used ancestral land to work on it.”

Alura stopped just outside of Kerrigan’s vision. “Corsica? Were you near Lillington by any chance?”

Kerrigan’s heart hammered as she nodded. “Yes. We celebrated Geivhrea with the locals.”

“Interesting.”

“Your mother is from there, isn’t she?”

Alura came into her view. “How do you know that?”

“My father told me.”

“Your father is a swine,” Alura snarled.

Kerrigan arched an eyebrow. “No argument there.”

A smile cracked Alura’s hard features. “My mother always said she would take me there one day, but it’s never happened.”

“You are more than welcome.”

Alura narrowed her eyes. “My mother wouldn’t be though.”

“I think she would. It all happened a long time ago.”

“Feuds sustain themselves,” she said under her breath.

“Sir?” Kerrigan said.

“You’re dismissed, Argon. Come back tomorrow with the others, and we’ll get to work on formations.”

“Yes, sir,” she said and then patted Tieran’s side before traipsing out of the arena.

She found Fordham, Audria, and Roake seated around the dining room table, chowing down on roasted chicken, vegetables, and bread. Kerrigan reached for a skin of water and took the seat farthest from Fordham. They might be back to how things had been, but it didn’t make it any easier to see him. It only made it worse.

“You passed?” Audria asked.

Kerrigan nodded. “Formations tomorrow.”

“Finally,” Roake grumbled around a bite of chicken.

“Where’s Noda?”

The three of them went silent.

Kerrigan glanced between them. “What? What am I missing?”

Audria sighed. “She’s not coming back.”