Page 39 of Lies That Blemish
“Kohen probably knows that. That’s why he sent me on this wild goose chase when I should be at the training center or the Wilds ready to welcome our new recruits.”
A few had already come out bonded—none to a Talanagi yet, but it was night two. This was when things really started happening in the Wilds.
Tetra grasped my hands. “Let’s take a break. We can keep going tomorrow after we hopefully have good news of how many cadets made it out.”
I nodded, setting the note on my desk.
A single note after multiple nights of searching over a dozen boxes.
Kohen lied. The bastard lied!
As I was leaving the office, the phone rang.
I picked it up.
“Hello, this is Empress Aisling.”
“Empress, I have Admiral Steele on the line for you.”
Elaine? My heart sped up. Was everything with my sisters okay?
“Put her through,” I told her.
There was a click, and then Elaine was on the line.
“Everything is fine,” she started, and I relaxed.
“Except for the fact that we are dying of boredom!” Victory shrieked in the background, and I grinned.
“And I haven’t even learned to properly fly on Zara because we are separated! It’s torture!” Valor growled.
“I left my purple nail polish at home!” Virtue whined.
“They want to come home just for a night,” Elaine told me, and I could tell by the fatigue in her voice that she was tired of their complaining.
“No letter from Maxim? No retaliation?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
I killed his sister. It was eerie he wasn’t responding.
“Have Verik drive them in a caravan of four cars. You and Vespa stay with them the entire time. They can come in the morning and stay one night. Then we all go back to Sky Reach and move in together. I’ll be done wrapping up the Lottery here by then.”
Three excited teenager shrieks filled the line, and I smiled.
“We will see you tomorrow. I’ll have Gwen hang back here. She’s having fun with her old boot buddies,” Elaine told me, and we both hung up.
I opened my mouth to tell Tetra, and she waved me off. “I heard everything. They are so loud. Remind me to only have quiet children.”
I barked out in laughter at that. “Oh, T, I don’t think it works that way.”
We got washed up for bed and went to our respective rooms. I was exhausted, but my mind was chewing on that note.
Just get the job done.
Just get the job done.
Just get the job done.
