Page 42 of Lies That Bind
“Liana’s not responding to me,” I whispered to Kohen as I passed.
“She’s conserving energy for the rebirth,” he told me.
I growled. I didn’t like this. Not one bit. The red dragon rider could find her and put another one of those nets over her to keep her from fully being reborn.
But she had survived a thousand years without me—I had to trust she’d be able to survive another few days.
Admiral Caruso saluted me, as did the two men and one woman beside her. I glanced at the rank pins on their uniform to see that they were lieutenants. The female looked particularly badass, with a shaved head and the small amount of hair she did have dyed hot pink. A white snake creature was coiled up her arm.
“These are your instructors,” the admiral said. “Combs…” She pointed to the pink-haired female. “Hammer…” Shegestured to a male with long dark hair and broody eyes who was missing a finger on his right hand. “And Rahul…” She pointed to a light brown-skinned male with short-cropped hair and brown eyes.
“Imbrian?” I asked Rahul.
“Half,” he said, giving no more and no less information.
I nodded. “Will you be instructing the others from Riverine who’ve been posted here?”
Because Tetra, Alek, Roc, Meera, Dev, Kian, and Anika were due at any moment.
Combs, the female who stood stiffly, flicked her gaze to me. “Yes, Empress.”
Two words. They were not a chatty bunch.
“Alright, well, thanks for your service to the Fleet.” I saluted them, and they saluted back.
As they left, Admiral Caruso stepped over to me and raised one eyebrow. Her eye was no longer swollen shut, but her face was still covered in bruises. “I haven’t seen Lieutenant Steele around…”
It was an open-ended question.
“Mmmm,” was all I said.
“She mentioned she might be gone for a few days.”
I trusted Caruso, but also I didn’t trust anyone.
“She will,” I confirmed, and her eyes narrowed.
“Does this have to do with your missing creature?”
Ouch, right for the heart.
“No,” I said, though as empress, I didn’t need to say anything.
“Then it has to do with the top-secret letter I saw being delivered late last night. Commander Ledger won’t say what it was.”
This woman was relentless. I sighed, too tired to debate. “Yes, and I will let you and the other admirals in on the contents of the letter when she gets back.”
Her interest piqued, she said nothing more. Instead, she looked at the sky. “Why haven’t they retaliated for bringing down their Red Palace?”
I knew why. Maxim was waiting on my reply to his ridiculous marriage proposal.
“Any luck on finding my father’s killer?” I wanted to change the topic until I was ready to talk to the admirals about the fact that the new Luskin prime leader asked me to wed him.
She nodded. “Found a new lab. Telling no one where it is. Results should take about three to four days.”
I blew air through my teeth.
“What if it was one of us?” I asked her.
