Page 77 of Lies That Bleed
Instructor Ashendell then walked over to each team leader and gave them a folded note. “This is your team assignment. It is not a secret. You may share it with the others, but no trading. Now you have twenty minutes to strategize. Dismissed.”
Kohen flipped over our card and I read it:Battle Unit.
“Yes!” I pumped my fist and Kohen gave me a grin. It seemed we’d finally moved past all of our weirdness and were both just set on passing this final test so that we could graduate.
“Let’s go look at the maps,” Kohen said. “See if there are weak spots that would be vulnerable to an attack.”
He moved with our team over to the table scattered with maps. I went to follow, then Ashendell hooked her hand gently under my arm and pulled me to the side.
“Are you wondering why I didn’t choose you as team leader?” she said. Her face was calm and introspective.
I swallowed hard. “Because my father or the admirals asked you not to?” I assumed.
She shook her head. “On the contrary, they advised me to test your leadership skills on this final mission.”
I couldn’t help the hurt that crossed my face, and Ashendell saw it too, because her expression softened. “But, as your instructor, I want you to learn a lesson from this,” she said. “As your father’s successor, you are assured a leadership position in the future, and I have no doubt you will go on to do great things for our country. But this is your one chance to see what it’s like to take orders, even when you don’t agree with them, so that when it’s your turn to do the ordering, you know how big of an ask it will be.”
Her wise words shocked me into silence. Elaine would approve of this lesson. It sounded like something she might say.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, and she clapped me on the back and walked away.
But taking orders from Kohen Badshah? My father better not find out about that.
We reviewedthe maps and the travel plan. The assignment was to travel with a special shipment, something secret that would be kept in the backmost train car, to Thunder Cliff base six hundred miles north near the Luksa border at The Wall. Kohen had suggested that we both fly over the train on our creatures and I agreed. We found two passes through the mountains near Golden Hills that looked like weak ambush points, so we were going to strengthen our battle unit over those two areas, being fully at the ready for attack.
As we hiked with the five groups out to the train station, Kohen let the others go ahead and he pulled me back. Tetra was wincing with every step and I was nervous for her. Even her creature Ariyel looked up at her sadly as they walked side by side.
Onyx and Liana flew above us until we got to the train. I peered at Kohen, wondering what he was going to tell me.
“Tetra rides into battle on her wolf in the future. It takes the weight off of her bad foot,” he whispered to me.
I stopped walking, eyes wide. Had I just heard him correctly?
“I’m sorry. What?” I said.
He looked impatient. “I’ve seen Tetra ride her wolf in my visions. I wonder if you should suggest it. It will sound weird coming from me.”
It sounded weird already and I knew about his gift, which had yet to be proven to me. He could be lying. Everything could be a lie. But in my heart I knew it probably wasn’t… and that scared me.
I frowned. “Her wolf is too small.” But even as I said it, I wondered if that was true. Tetra herself was barely five-foot-one and had a petite frame. She couldn’t weigh more than a hundred and five pounds. Her wolf wasn’t a normal wolf. She was a magical creature. Maybe she had super strength…
Kohen stared at me like I was a child. “Aisling, I’veseen it. Small or not, her wolf is strong and she can handle her weight.”
I looked up at his arresting blue eyes and then to his lips, thinking about when he said he wanted to kiss me but it wasn’t where we’d have our first kiss. Now I wondered where that was. It drove me insane, knowing that I would one day kiss those lips. My brain said that could never happen, but my body ached for it.
I cleared my throat.
“Do you know how this simulation goes? Do we pass and go on to graduate?” I asked him. I needed some of his predictions to come true so that I could learn to trust them. Even so, he could be lying to mess with my head. But would he do that? He didn’t seem the vindictive type that my father made him out to be. I was trying to be loyal to my family but also listen to my heart. My heart told me that Kohen Badshah was a good man, and my body told me that it wanted that good man to do all the things he said happened in his vision.
He shrugged. “I assume we pass since I’ve seen us all graduate.”
Hmm, that was handy knowledge, but not detailed enough for me to use as an indicator that he did indeed see the future. “And the attack you spoke about… on the training campus?”
He swallowed hard. “I don’t know when that happens. It could be tomorrow or a year from now. Butit won’t happen until you hurt your wrist.” His gaze flicked to my arm and I frowned.
“Your right arm is in a cast when the attack happens,” he said.
Okay, that was detailed. I was starting to get freaked-out again.
