Page 56 of Lies That Bleed
“He’s not coming. Neither is Liana. They don’t want the admirals—or any other humans for that matter—knowing the extent of their powers. Or ours,” I told him plainly.
He looked relieved, actually exhaling and slumping.
My gaze narrowed. “Why, what power are you hiding?”
He looked up at me then and there was a vulnerability in his gaze. He seemed like he wanted to tell me, to confide in whatever gift his bonding had brought about. “A horrible burden,” he said instead, and then walked away, giving me his back.
A horrible burden?
I walked five paces behind him, my mind spinning with how to handle this situation. I was the emperor’s daughter, yes, but I couldn’t pull rank during an official ceremony like this—could I?Tell the admirals that our powers were secret?
No way, we’d be court-martialed.
Liana had no idea the bind she’d put me in by doing this.
Twelve admirals satat the back of the auditorium. Eight men and four women. All of whom I’d seen on occasion with my father but had barely exchangedmore than a few words with. I only knew half by name. All the lieutenants were fanned out along the walls of the arena with their creatures in tow, and we, the cadets, stood in the middle with our creatures behind.
The arena was giant, four times a normal human sized one, so that it could fit our creatures comfortably.
Drill Instructor Ashendell walked over to me, and with every footstep I dreaded the conversation we were about to have.
“Where is your creature, Cadet?” she shouted.
“Gone, ma’am!” I shouted back.
Murmurs rose up around the hall and another instructor asked Kohen the same thing. We were the only two who had arrived creatureless. He was a few paces away from me.
“Gone as well, sir!”
“Have you informed them that they needed to be here?” Instructor Ashendell asked.
“Yes, ma’am.” My heart felt like it might burst out of my chest at any moment.
“Then gogether!” Ashendell grabbed the hem of my collar and lowered her voice. “You will not embarrass me in front of the admirals,” she growled.
I gave her a pleading look, lowering my voice as well. “You don’t force a Talanagi to do anything. She left. I cannot make her be here.”
Her eyes widened. “If you can’t control your creature, you’re not bonded.”
It was true. I could have taken over Liana’s will—well, in theory, she was a Talanagi so I wasn’t one hundred percent sure on that, but I would never do that. Most humans wouldn’t.
“I won’t,” I told her.
She let go of my shirt just as one of the admirals stood from his chair on the platform.
Admiral Blade.
Bonded to Sahiri.
I was so screwed.
The admiral walked down the long empty space between us, his silverback gorilla creature following closely beside him. The gorilla was huge, with glowing green ember marks along her back.
Kill me now.
Lieutenant Ashendell stood at attention, looking away from me, and I flicked a panicked expression towards Kohen. He looked cool as a cucumber.
Awesome.
