Chapter 10
CAM
T ouron didn’t answer his door when I knocked for him at one in the afternoon, but Shar yelled a slurred, “ I’m up,” and, “ Meet you downstairs .”
I’d slept longer than usual and felt better for it. Derek was sleeping too. A shadowy mass in the back of my closet—I hadn’t had the heart to wake him.
Willowman would have answers, and if I didn’t see him before Friday’s lessons, I’d ask him then.
The kitchen was empty, but it wouldn’t be long before the goyles were up and about; classes started in a couple of hours. I set the coffee pot bubbling and cracked eggs for an omelet.
Sure enough, Waxen and Saffe shuffled into the room a few minutes later and grabbed coffee. Goyles were not morning people. They weren’t day people. But let the sun set, and they came to life, filled with energy and power. Right now, these two huge males looked as if they were sleepwalking.
“You want some eggs?” I held up the spatula.
Waxen raised his mug my way. “Let me help.”
“You could pop some bread in the toaster.”
“On it.”
Saffe sipped his coffee, flicking glances my way.
“Dayn isn’t here. You can talk to me if you want.”
“I…It’s not like that.”
“Then what is it like?” I flipped an omelet onto a plate and placed it on the table. “You do what he says, right?”
Saffe dropped his gaze. “We do what we have to in order to survive.”
“You don’t need to hang out with a turd, though,” Waxen said.
“Easy for you to say. Your father’s on the council.”
Waxen had a council member father? “Does your father know Ulrickson?”
Waxen snorted. “My father is an admin on the lower floors of the Stone Council HQ. He knows the basement well, but that’s about it.”
“But still…” Saffe rubs the back of his neck. “Dayn won’t mess with you.”
“He can’t mess with you either, if you don’t let him,” Waxen said.
I flipped another omelet onto another plate and held it out to Saffe.
“He doesn’t want it,” Dayn said from the doorway. “We’re eating at Stone Comfort.” He jerked his chin at Saffe. “Move.”
Saffe hurried over to the larger goyle.
Dayn gave me a smug look and threw a lip curl Waxen’s way before heading off, Saffe in tow.
Yep, he was a total turd. “What is his problem?”
“Small dick,” Waxen said. “It’s got to be.”
I bit back a snort and put Saffe’s omelet onto his plate.
“I smell omelets!” Ginia entered followed by Palia. “Ham and cheese?”
“Of course.”
Shar joined us a few minutes later, and Waxen excused himself in favor of the gym. It wasn’t until we were polishing off our food that Touron emerged, freshly showered, sandy hair slicked back from his handsome face, but his eyes were bloodshot as if from lack of sleep.
“What happened to you?” Ginia asked. “You went to bed early last night.”
He poured coffee and stifled a yawn. “I didn’t sleep well, though.”
He grabbed some toast and the remaining omelet, then joined us at the table. “What did I miss?”
“Waxen confirmed to Cam that Dayn has a small dick,” Ginia said.
Palia shot her sister a lethal look, mumbling admonishment through a mouthful of food.
Ginia giggled. “Dick.”
Palia swallowed her mouthful. “Ginia!”
Now that everyone was here, and we were alone… “There is something I wanted to speak to you about.”
“Go on,” Shar said.
“There’s something wrong with Melanie.”
“The ghost?” Palia looked confused. “I mean, she’s dead, so…”
“Yeah, but she’s gone all weird since she broke into the office.”
“What do you mean?” Touron asked.
I filled them in on Melanie’s strange behavior.
“Forgetfulness is normal in ghosts when they’ve been stuck on this plane for long enough, but I’m thinking that maybe something happened to her.
I mean, Flora was found unconscious on the office floor the same night that Melanie did her snooping, right? ”
“And the information she came back with was wrong…” Shar added, jumping straight onto my train of thought.
“Or maybe that’s what they put in the file?” Palia suggested.
“You think someone caught Melanie and did something to her?” Touron asked. “You think they planted the lie in her head about what was in Romi’s file?”
“Maybe.”
“But who would do that?” Palia said. “Oh…do you think the same person who messed with Melanie messed with Flora?”
We sat in silence.
“That coupled with the orb being switched…” Shar said.
I’d almost forgotten about that. “We have a spy. A mole. A fucking rat at the academy.”
“Which means we need to be extra careful,” Shar said. “That Ignus creature was after you, and no doubt the traitor in our midst is working for the graynites, so we need to—”
“Oi! You. Basque.” Bodi, the academy messenger, stood in the doorway. “For you.” He held out an envelope.
Palia was closest and took it. But Bodi lingered, his gaze flicking to the coffee pot, then to me.
I knew what he wanted.
I took another travel mug off the shelf and filled it for him. “Bring the cup back next time you pop over to see me.” I passed him the coffee, and he took it with a derisive sniff, but the gleam in his eyes was all gratitude.
“What the heck?” Ginia said.
I shrugged. “Coffee is a universal language.”
“What are we going to do about the mole?” Palia asked, taking us back to the main topic.
“I’ll speak to Serath when I see him at training later.
” I took the envelope from Palia and tore it open to find two sheets of paper.
The first was another timetable, this one with all the cadet training classes added to it, which had to mean…
“I think…I think I get to take the cadet exams with you guys!” I flipped over the second sheet of paper to find Serath’s beautiful script.
My cheeks warmed, expecting a romantic note, but the words on the page were instructions that spawned contradictory emotions in my belly.
“What’s wrong?” Shar asked.
“You look like you’re about to throw up,” Touron added.
I swallowed against the sudden dryness in my mouth. “It’s from Serath. It says that as of tonight, I’ll be sleeping at the observatory for my own safety.”
Touron’s face fell. “They’re moving you?”
“She was going to have to move once she became elite anyways,” Palia pointed out.
“But so soon?” Touron pouted. “Who’s going to bring me coffee in the morning?”
“I’ll still do that. I can still be here, stay here during waking hours. I get to keep my room for now, I just…I have to sleep there.”
“Oh…” Shar’s eyes went round as the implications sank in. “Let’s hope they put you on a different floor to Serath.”
“Of course they will,” Touron said.
But even if they did, would it stop us from finding each other?
I wasn’t so sure, and that…that worried the hell out of me.
* * *
There were a few surprised faces when I strolled into cadet training, but Farnell didn’t give me a second glance. He ordered us to pick a sparring partner to warm up and then retreated to the other end of the training room with his clipboard and a frown.
“You want to partner?” Shar asked.
“Only if you promise not to take it easy on me.”
“You have my word.”
I spotted Curi’s blue head as he entered the room, but he wasn’t alone today. He had Waxen with him. He scanned the room, zeroed in on me, and headed over.
I forced my body to relax as he put his arm around me and dropped a kiss on my head. “You didn’t save me an omelet,” he said, voice low. “Waxen’s been bragging about how delicious they were.”
“You didn’t come down for breakfast.”
“I’ll make sure to join you guys tomorrow.”
I looked up at him in surprise. He sounded softer, his gaze less angry. It suited him.
“We’re here to fight, not canoodle!” Farnell growled. He walked off muttering something about goyle males and sex drives.
The next twenty minutes passed quickly. Shar didn’t hold back, attacking with purpose, but my sessions with Selas had obviously done something because I was able to evade and even landed a couple of blows. Still, we ended with me in a headlock, patting her arm to indicate surrender.
“You did good,” she said. “Training with the elite is paying off.”
“I still have a way to go.”
She ducked her head. “I’m sorry for doubting you when you got here. I truly didn’t believe you’d make it, but now I know you will.”
Her words were like warm molasses filling the crevices of doubt in my psyche. “Thank you, Shar, that means a lot.”
“Now that you’re all warmed up, it’s time for a little field work.”
My ears perked up.
“You’ll be sent off campus in pairs to one of five locations,” Farnell continued.
“You’ll have a map and some supplies and an hour to reach extraction point.
You’ll need to work together to make it back on time.
There’ll be points to the team who makes it back first and deductions for the team who makes it back last.”
“Do we get to pick our teammate?”
“In a manner of speaking.” He held up a bag. “You pick a name. If it’s your own name, you pick another. That will be your teammate. You won’t get to pick and choose your unit if you qualify. Out there, every guardian is your friend.”
Shar shot a worried glance my way, but I shrugged. Farnell was right. We were training for guardian, and in my case elite. There was no room for prejudice on the field.
Shar was called first and picked Waxen. Ginia got Saffe, and Palia got Curi. That left Dayn, Bax, Touron, and me. An awful sense of déjà vu came over me.
If I got stuck with Dayn…
Touron went up next, took a deep breath, and pulled out his own name.
“Again, Lomax,” Farnell drawled.
Touron glanced my way, the pressure visible on his face. I lifted my chin and smiled to let him know it was okay, no matter what.
He drew again, his shoulders tensing. My pulse stalled.
“Lowther,” he said.
He’d drawn Dayn, leaving me with Bax, which was fine by me. Bax was all talk around Dayn, but having some alone time with him might give us a chance to get to know each other. I wasn’t expecting to make friends, but we could be civil, which certainly wouldn’t have happened with Dayn.
“That leaves Bax with Basque,” Farnell confirmed.
Bax glanced my way, but Dayn grabbed his arm to draw his attention away.
The goyle was a bully. I couldn’t believe I’d overlooked his attitude thinking Curi was the asshole all this time. Curi, who now happened to be watching Dayn and Bax with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
“Everyone, move,” Farnell said. “To the gates. You’ll find packs and maps waiting there.”
Excitement mingled with anxiety because this was a chance for me to test myself.
A challenge to push me up a rung toward taking the cadet exams, but the last time I’d left campus, we’d been attacked by grotesque, and I’d almost been kidnapped by Ignus.
Was he a graynite? Lionel hadn’t confirmed it, saying it was intel for elite only.
Curi and Touron flanked me as we headed outside.
“You need to be careful with Bax,” Curi said. “Watch your back.”
“And punch him in the nuts if he fucks with you,” Touron added.
“She’ll be fine,” Shar said from behind us. “She’s a fucking Basque.”
I just hoped I could live up to the name. Not for myself or for anyone here but for Romi.