Page 50 of Lies That Bleed
When we turned a corner we had to bunch together and I felt Kohen’s hand slip in mine, depositing the locket into my fist. I slipped it into my pocket before anyone could see and flicked my gaze to his, but he faced forward, ignoring me.
Why did he do that? Risked getting his butt chewed out for a stupid necklace. There was only one answer I could come up with.
Psychological warfare. From day one, he’d moved out of the way so that Tetra could take his place; he had his team of Imbrians protect her in The Wilds; he helpedme save Liana—he did these nice things so that I would grow soft towards him and then he would betray me.
I was not going to let that happen.
“Choose a bunkmate of the same sex!” one of the drill instructors screamed, and I scrambled to get next to Tetra. We formed an orderly line of two by two and the instructor pointed down the hallway of open rooms. “Find a room. This is a co-ed dorm, not a brothel. You are here to learn. We arenotyour parents, you are grown-ass adults, so we expect you to behave like it. Remember that,” she said, and then all the instructors flattened their backs against the wall as we walked briskly to the first open room we could find. My stomach sank when Kohen and Dev slipped into the room directly next to mine, but I shook it off.
We were given ten minutes to unpack and make our beds. Perfectly folded sheets were set at the end of each bunk. I instinctively started making the top bunk bed up because I knew with Tetra’s foot she wouldn’t be able to get up here. When I was done folding the corners exactly like Elaine had taught me, I slipped my locket under the mattress between the boards and then jumped down to look at Tetra’s bed.
It was awful.
“Tuck them tightly,” I whispered, yanking the sheet and bedspread down and showing her how. She nodded, doing the next one.
“Tighter, crease it with your hand,” I told her.
She did, and struggled without her cane, falling over a few times.
“They will give you a Fleet-issued cane made of rubber,” I whispered. “I forgot to tell you that.”
She looked relived at that.
“Inspection!” an instructor screamed, and I stood, creasing the last part and then standing at attention, back ramrod straight, hands clasped behind me and chin up.
Tetra mimicked my position and I worried less about her. She was smart and a quick learner—she would catch on. Boots sounded down the hall and then I heard the sound of sheets being torn off a bed.
“This is the Imperial Fleet! Not your mother’s basement!” an instructor bellowed down the hall.
“Yes, sir!” a female yelled back.
In the next room the same thing happened.
And then it was our turn. Instructor Ashendell stood in the doorway of our room and peered at me.
“If the emperor’s own daughter doesn’t know how to make a bed, you all have to run a mile,” she said from the doorway, and there was a collective groan down the hallway.
My heart burst to life inside my chest as her gaze ran over my top bed with a critical eye. She even stepped up on the first rung of the attached ladder to get a closer look. When she jumped down, she held my gaze.
“Congratulations, Miss Everhart, you are the new official cadet bed-making instructor.”
“Yes, ma’am!” I said.
It was a compliment. I would need to train anyone who had their bed torn up and it would fall on me to be punished if they couldn’t learn. Elaine told me things like this happened. It was a test of my leadership skills.
The instructors fanned out and tore apart nearly all of the bedrooms.
“Pathetic!” the older instructor my father had spoken to outside screamed. “You have twenty minutes to remake them or you all have to run a mile. You may ask Miss Everhart for a tutorial.”
Great.
My room was suddenly flooded with worried-looking cadets. My ex-boyfriend Jace was among them. Tetra stepped to the side and I tore her lower bunk apart for the tutorial. My nervousness ramped up a notch when I noticed Kohen in the crowd, and then went even higher when I saw that three of the instructors were watching me.
I separated the blanket and sheet and then shook the sheet flat, draping it over the bed.
“The trick is constant creasing with your hands, every step of the way.” I tucked the sides, lifting up the mattress and creasing as I went. “Think of your hand as an iron, and crease tight. If you think it’s tight enough, it’s not,” I said.
“Got it,” a girl with long brown hair said and spun to leave the room. I recognized her from the academy; we went to school together. She dated Alek in eleventh grade and was super stuck-up. Her name was Summer and she was a know-it-all. I’d seen her come in with a beautiful male lion creature. We didn’t run in the same social circles, so I normally did my best to ignore her.
