Page 92 of Lies That Bleed
His words wrapped around my heart and squeezed.
“A coin foryourthoughts?” he challenged.
My heart hammered against my chest as I swallowed hard, staring at his thick lips. “I simultaneously wonder two things, Kohen. One, what you taste like. And two, if you will one day bury a knife in my back like my father did to yours.”
I didn’t expect the whimper of shock that came from his mouth.
“Ash!” Tetra popped back into the tent.
She froze when she saw us so close together, but moved forward to grab me and pull me away from him. “Ashendell wants to make sure you are okay. Your dad is pissed and everyone is scared of losing their jobs.”
I leaned on her offered arm, the one holding hercane, and felt Kohen’s hands fall away from me. By the time I made it onto the train, I was loopy as all hell, feeling the weight of sleep pull me under. I rested against Tetra, staring at Kohen and Alek, who sat in front of me, both wearing the same introspective expressions.
Then the slow rocking of the train lulled me to sleep.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Two days later, we graduated, and were all anxiously awaiting our orders for deployment. My father said the investigation into the train attack turned up nothing, and I could tell it bothered him that the enemy was able to get so close to me and leave no trail. We knew they were Luskin but that was all. Was the Luskin prime leader trying to take me out? If so, he must have spies in our city to know that I was attending the Imperial Fleet Training Center and exactly where I’d be on the train that day.
“You okay?” Tetra asked as she braided my hair down my back, interweaving the red and black sides. We were back at my house, having moved out of the training campus this morning. We would go to a graduation ball tonight at an event center near the training campus and then tomorrow morning we’d get our assignments and ship out to live on base somewhereacross the country. Everyone would get sizeable weekly imperial coin payments for their service, some more than others, depending on how valuable they were to my father, and every two months we’d get one week off to travel home and see our families. It wasn’t a bad gig to keep everyone we loved safe at home. A lifetime in the Imperial Fleet dedicated to fighting the war.
“Yeah.” I smiled. “Just thinking.”
Tetra’s flare had subsided, and we’d all kept Anika’s secret. She made it back to the training center in time to take her next dose of medication and all was well. She pulled me aside and told me that she hadn’t had an issue in years. I didn’t see a need to tell anyone so long as it wasn’t a problem that inhibited her duty to the Imperial Fleet, and as far as I was concerned, it wasn’t.
“Thinking about Kohen?” Tetra asked as she dusted my neck with shimmer powder. Tetra was always more into makeup than I was, so I let her give me makeovers all the time. The ball tonight was black tie, and Tetra had picked out a red dress for me that clung to my body like a second skin. I wore my locket with my mother’s picture at my throat—thanks to Kohen. The yellow cast clashed a bit, but what was a girl to do?
Tetra was wearing an emerald-green dress that belled out at the knee, something her mother boughther with some of the coin from the hunk of ember Tetra had brought her from The Wilds.
I laughed. “No. But now I am. Thanks for that.”
She grinned.
Kohen. The temptation I couldn’t get out of my head.
“I’ve requested that my father give us assignments far away from each other. He agreed,” I told her.
She stopped what she was doing, hand frozen over my cheek with blush. “You did?”
I sighed. “T, he’s the prince of Imbria.”
Period. Enough said.
She frowned. “I know. But… he’s also like… so protective of you, and there’s a vibe there. You guys areelectric.”
Tetra was a romantic.
I rolled my eyes. “So what? A vibe fizzles out. I need to be thinking long-term. Who will lead Amersea by my side when I’m empress one day?”
Tetra blew air through her teeth. “Man, you are so responsible. I’d be thinking:How long can I have a secret affair with him until people find out and my dad makes me break up with him and marry someone boring for the good of the country?”
I barked out in laughter. “Oh, Tetra, I love that the filter between what you are thinking and what you say is broken.”
Now it was her turn to laugh. “But seriously, you never wondered what it would be like to kiss him?”
Kiss him. Bed him. Make beautiful babies with him. I’d wondered it all. And it all ended with me lying naked in bed with a knife in my back for allowing myself to trust the enemy.
