23. Aurora
AURORA
As I followed Ryse Skoren down the stairs, the Great Bell began tolling for breakfast. The sound sent a shock through my body. How had so much happened in such a short amount of time?
I had no answers but as the familiar scents of breakfast drifted to my nose, I began to have a bad feeling about where we were headed.
“Wait, where are we going? What are you going to do?” I asked, still running to keep up.
Ryse still didn’t answer. He headed right into the Mess Hall and bypassed the line to go straight to his usual table.
I saw with deep unease that Chud Larson was already seated with a tray in front of him. He must have come directly from the Flight Simulator to the Mess Hall to avoid any suspicion.
He saw Ryse coming and frowned when he saw me right behind him.
“Hey, Skoren, what—” he began
Before he could finish, Ryse grabbed him by the front of his uniform and yanked him to his feet.
“Listen to me,” he ground out, glaring Larson in the face. “I know what you did. If you don’t want to be kicked off my Wing, you’ll put a leash on your temper and leave this little First-year alone.”
I could feel myself shrinking in embarrassment as my face flooded with heat. Little First-year? Is that how he saw me? Also, it felt like everyone in the whole Mess Hall was staring at us.
Chud’s face went red…then purple.
“You can’t do that!” he snarled. “You can’t kick me off the North Wing!”
“Watch me,” Ryse said stonily. “I’m the Wing Leader—it’s my choice if I don’t want a cheating, murderous asshole flying with me.”
Chud’s face got even darker.
“What…you…you can’t…” he sputtered, clearly so angry he could barely talk.
“Keep it in mind,” Ryse said and shoved him back down in his chair. “I’ll be watching you,” he added. “If you want to stay in my Wing, you’ll fucking behave!”
The whole Mess Hall really was watching us now. The usual noisy chatter had stopped so Ryse Skoren’s last words were heard by everyone there. As he stalked away to get in the breakfast line, most of the eyes followed him…but a fair number landed on me.
All around me, I could hear the cadets starting to murmur. They were wondering what the fight was about and why Ryse Skoren, who was practically royalty at the Academy, was causing a scene over a skinny little First-year like me.
I have to admit, I wondered the same thing myself.
Why did Ryse feel like he had to protect me?
Also, I couldn’t help wondering if the threat he’d made to Chud Larson would have any effect.
If the angry upperclassman was determined to hurt me, would he care enough about staying in the North Wing to stop?
I didn’t know and, for better or worse, the scene was over, and the damage was done.
Slowly, I went to get a tray of my own, though my appetite was completely gone. When I settled at my usual table, Jorn-o, Leaper, Toady, and Bugs all stared at me.
“All right, what was that about?” Jorn-o asked, breaking the silence.
I kept my head down, toying with my eggs with my fork.
“I…can’t really tell you,” I said at last, remembering how the Head Master had commanded Ryse and me to keep the morning’s incident a secret.
My friends erupted.
“What? After all that?” Toady exclaimed.
“You have to tell us,” Leaper said.
“Yeah, you have to,” Bugs echoed him.
“Come on, Auri—we’ll keep it quiet,” Jorn-o urged.
I ran a hand through my hair feeling thoroughly frustrated. I ought to be able to talk about this. I had nearly been killed that morning—nearly been murdered by another cadet—but my hands were tied and my mouth was sealed.
Then I remembered that the Head Master hadn’t specifically told me not to talk about what had started the whole mess in the first place. And since I felt I had to give some kind of explanation, that was what I did.
“All right, but you really can’t tell anyone,” I said, looking around the table.
My friends all nodded eagerly, and Toady made a show of zipping his wide mouth closed and then locking it and throwing away an invisible key.
“Fine,” I said as they all leaned closer. “So Larson sat behind me during the entrance exam and about halfway through, I realized he was copying my answers…”
I told about the cheating and when I was finished, Jorn-o sat back and let out a long, low whistle.
“Whew! So you’ve been keeping that under your hat this whole time?” he asked me. “No wonder Larson rags on you so much during Flight Simulator.”
“Yeah, well…” I shrugged uncomfortably. If I could tell them everything, I would have mentioned that the Flight Simulator was currently broken and that I had nearly died falling off of it. But I couldn’t, so I didn’t—even though it felt really unfair that I had to keep my trauma to myself.
At least Ryse Skoren knows about it, whispered a little voice in my head. He knows all of it after you cried all over him too and wrapped yourself around him like an idiot.
The memory made my cheeks get hot with mortification and I tried to push it away. But I couldn’t help reliving the way I had clung to the enigmatic North Wing Leader so tightly and the fact that he hadn’t pushed me away. Well, not until I mentioned his “dragon eyes.”
The boys discussed my situation at length and when any of them asked why and how Ryse Skoren was involved, I had to shake my head and say I couldn’t talk about it.
This caused groans of frustration and a lot of begging, but I stuck firm to my determination.
I didn’t want to give the Head Master any excuse to kick me out of the Academy and he was already upset with me because he now had to punish Larson who was either his nephew or his son.
I thought it was more likely that Larson was his nephew. The two of them looked nothing alike—except for their height. Both were tall and muscular—though not as big as Ryse Skoren, who had felt like a mountain of muscle when I was wrapped in his arms.
And there I went thinking about the North Wing Leader again. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I just put him out of my mind?
I promised myself I would stop thinking about him. I had a test in Advanced Aeronautical Mathematics today and I needed to concentrate on that.
But it seemed like every time I looked up from my untouched tray, Ryse Skoren was staring at me with his golden eyes narrowed as though he was wondering something about me.
I remembered him saying I wasn’t like the other cadets…
had he found out my secret somehow? Or was he just keeping an eye on me to be sure Chud Larson didn’t come over to pound me to dust?
Either way, I was glad when the Great Bell tolled, and I could finally clear my tray and escape from the Mess Hall.