Page 74 of Lies That Bleed
Ashendell just stared at me for a full thirty seconds before marking something on her clipboardand then smiling. “Our future empress is a human bomb.”
The class erupted into cheers and I smiled, rubbing my sweaty palms on my pants. I’d finally given them something to be excited over without revealing my dark hidden power—the power I’d already put in my little black box and would never think about again. I hoped word got back to Admiral Blade about this, because if Sahiri had forced such a power, it would have burned her and whoever stood nearest me alive. This would explain my behavior that day, and the admirals would trust me again. Most of all, my father would be pleased.
After Kohen’sand my power display, we had sword practice with our fellow cadets. We were just finishing up when I got in line behind Kohen to turn my practice blade back in to the instructor. Kohen turned to Anika and asked for her practice blade, and when their hands touched, he sucked in a breath.
She cocked her head to the side. “You okay?”
He just stared at her for a second as if lost in a trance, then he seemed to snap out of it. His hand shook, but he slipped it into his pocket to cover it. Did he just see the future? Even now he still had a far-off look in his eyes.
“I’m fine. I’m gonna go for a walk, clear my head,”Kohen said to Anika after setting the practice blades at the instructor’s feet, and then stormed off into the woods. The guilt that had slowly been rising up inside of me reached a level I could no longer tolerate. Kohen should not have broken into my house, but I couldn’t let him go through this alone.
I didn’t hate him. I should but I couldn’t.
I turned in my blade and then went after him, stepping into the thick woods to find that Kohen was… running. His legs pumped fast as he bolted full-speed through the trees, leaping over fallen logs and dry brush. I didn’t think, I just acted. I ran after him, pumping my legs hard as I streaked across the dense forest.
“Kohen!” I screamed, and he slowed.
His back heaved as he fought for breath, and when I reached him he fell to the ground on all fours, hands splayed out, breath coming out in rapid gasps.
He was having a panic attack.
Victory had had one once when she shot her first deer with a bow. It had looked like this.
“Hey, deep breaths.” I rubbed small circles on his back, like I had for Victory, and he stilled, calming.
He looked up at me for the first time since I’d gotten here and I was shocked to see the anguish in his eyes.
“So much death,” he whimpered.
Chills broke out onto my arms and I staggered backward a little, falling onto my butt.
“What? What did you see?”
He reached up and ran his fingers through his hair before slipping into the Imbrian language, a string of incoherent rambling that was both beautiful and terrifying because I couldn’t understand any of it.
“Kohen, what did you see?”
He quieted, looking at his hands as if there were something on them. He brushed them on his pants and then shook his head. “I don’t think I can live like this,” he said, and my heart tore in half. It was such a vulnerable thing to say, and to say it to someone who’d held a knife to your throat just a short time ago probably made it so much worse.
“Yes you can,” I told him.
He shook his head. “I see an attack. Here. On this very campus. I see my friends near death… I don’t know if they make it. And the worst of it all is that I’m falling in love with someone who hates me.” He held my gaze, staring at my lips in a reverent way and my mouth popped open in shock.
Me. He was talking about me.
That wasa lotto process, but strangely the L word scared me less than the attack he spoke of.
“Attack? Here? We need to tell my father.” I stood, ignoring thefalling in love with mepart.
He glared at me. “And how do we tell him that without getting me killed? My stars, Aisling, you’re my best friend and you don’t even know it yet. I can’t do this.”
Best friends. Lovers. My heart yearned for that with him and I knew it shouldn’t. I hated that he told me these things. It made me wonder if I would desire him on my own or only because he planted the thoughts in my head. It didn’t matter either way. He was a Badshah.
He stood and started to walk away, leaving me to sit there in shock.
“Hey!” I snapped, storming after him. “That’s not fair!” I reached him and yanked his shoulder so that he spun to face me.
Best friend. Love.This is insane!
