Page 88 of Lies That Bleed
I shrugged. “Rules are rules.”
“How would they find out? Are you going to tell?” Tetra asked me angrily.
“Relax. No. I won’t, but everyone else watched.” I pointed to the murmuring crowd of candidates.
I saw the moment grim determination crossed over her face. When Tetra thought there was an injustice, she made it her mission to bend the scales in favor of the innocent.
“Alright, LISTEN UP!” Tetra cried loudly, and for a second I saw her future as a drill instructor and with that set of lungs it looked good. Every single person glanced her way.
Oh no, what was she doing?
Her creature stepped up beside her and stood tall and proud.
“What just happened here with Anika… never happened,” she growled. “She forgot her meds. It won’t happen again.”
Tucker opened his mouth to ask a question, and Tetra raised her cane, pointing it at him. “Ifanyonenarcs about this when we get to base…” She let the silence linger and her wolf curled her upper lip, growling.
“Then what?” Summer crossed her arms and glared.
I noticed she was untouched from the train accident, which was proof karma wasn’t real.
“Then you have problems with me.” I stepped up beside Tetra. “Your future empress.”
I might not agree with Tetra going about it like this, threatening our fellow cadets, but she was my girl and I had her back.
“Me too,” Kohen called from where he was helping Anika up. She looked ashamed and more coherent now.
Onyx blew a streak of fire across the sky to prove his point, and Summer didn’t say another word.
“This. Never. Happened,” Tetra said again.
One by one, they nodded, and I looked at my best friend with pride. She’d done something good today for someone who would be looked at as weak by our society’s standards, and I knew it was because she felt weak too sometimes, even though she was anything but.
When I met Kohen’s eyes, I wasn’t prepared for the look he gave me. An expression that said he was hungry and I was a meal.
What I wouldn’t give to read that man’s mind.
What game are you playing?I wanted to ask him. But I was afraid I was going to have to play to find out.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
With thirty minutes left on the clock, we reached the front gates of the Thunder Cliff Imperial Fleet base.
“They’re here!” a soldier called to someone inside the gates as we limped our way inside.
Ashendell and a few of our other drill instructors ran out of a canvas tent with wide eyes. They didn’t look as pissed as I thought they would. They looked… relieved.
Liana landed beside me and we began to unstrap the heavy payload from her back. The second we did, she took back to the skies with Onyx. I was learning that she was a bit of an introvert, and I respected that.
“Leaders, report!” Ashendell snapped.
Kohen, Roc, Jace, Summer, and Alek stood at attention and Ashendell waited.
“We were attacked, ma’am! Luskins we think,” Kohen said.
Ashendell got up in his face. “How long ago? Permission to speak freely.”
