Chapter 20
Chapter twenty
After lunch, I head out to the training field to meet Ambrose before my next class.
Snow crunches under my boots as I step into the clearing and walk across the field.
The mazes are long gone, as if they never existed.
It’s now a frozen expanse of white under the gray winter sky.
Wooden dummies and practice weapons are scattered among the fresh powder.
The far edges of the perimeter blur in a haze of frost and fog, making the area feel mysterious and beautiful.
This is where cadets have their endurance, skills, and resolve tested.
Right now, it’s just vast fields of fallen snow and Ambrose up ahead.
A soft gasp leaves me as he raises his hands, fire shooting out with deadly accuracy, hitting target after target. The flames are a sentinel being, moving like a living thing. Angry, ancient, and powerful. It behaves like a caged beast finally freed.
His hood is lowered, the wind tugging at his unbound hair, whipping it across his face as he concentrates.
His shoulders tense as he puts all his effort into controlling the unpredictable flames.
It’s magnificent to witness. I carefully make my way to his side, clearing my throat so he knows I’m here.
He shoots a quick look in my direction before closing both fists, extinguishing the fire immediately.
I slowly clap my hands. “Impressive.”
“It’s a great party trick,” he teases, a quiet smile tugging at his lips.
“I still can’t believe you’re a fire wielder,” I admit, shaking my head in disbelief.
“You and me both.” He quietly laughs and rubs his hands on his thighs.
He approaches the targets, inspecting the first as he runs a hand over the burnt bull’s-eye.
His broad frame causes him to sink in the snow as he makes his rounds to the other three.
He’s a perfectionist, and nothing less than excellence will pass his scrutiny.
He must be satisfied with what he sees because he turns and walks directly back toward me.
I wrap my arms around myself, as if the gesture will protect me from the elements. He throws a heavy arm over my shoulder and looks down at me, his lips pulling into a full-blown smile, highlighting his straight white teeth. “It was pretty cool, huh?” he asks.
The corners of my mouth lift. “Very badass,” I confirm.
I scan the area as we walk back toward Kintoira. The training field is empty except for the two of us. Soon, lunch will be over, and it will once again be filled with students practicing their craft, but for the moment, it’s quiet and peaceful.
“How did they remove the mazes so quickly? The walls were enormous.”
“They didn’t actually remove anything,” he answers, taking in our surroundings.
I keep walking, waiting for him to answer because it’s too cold to stop and talk. “Well, they didn’t grow legs and walk away.”
He tugs me in close to him and ruffles my hair.
I swat him away.
“It was an illusion, brat. A hell specifically crafted for you by the upper-level Noctryns. Nothing you saw, feared, and escaped from within that maze was real.”
I can feel my jaw drop on its own accord. Ambrose takes a finger and pushes it closed.
“You’re kidding,” I choke out.
“Nope, I’m not,” he answers simply, like it’s obvious that we weren’t truly fighting for our lives within those passageways.
“You were never in any real danger, Nori. The final trial is created to weed out the mentally weak, more so than to weed out prospects by death. Although that is certainly a probability.”
“So that’s why I couldn’t see what Finnley was seeing unless I touched his face,” I whisper.
He pulls his bottom lip between his teeth, debating on how much knowledge to leak.
“Correct. They took each of your biggest fears, as well as a combined fear, and brought them to life. As an officer, I was able to get all the details from your maze run.” His eyes cut to me, but he looks completely unapologetic.
“Seems like your little friend doesn’t care for wraiths, hence his battle with one.
The thing that keeps you up at night…” he trails off, hesitation smeared across his face.
I bite my lip. Hard. “Keep going.”
“Your biggest weakness is yourself and losing those you care about. That’s why the mirrors were incorporated. You were forced to face your reflection and lose your friend in the same way.”
I don’t say anything. I just let him continue.
“And last but not least, you both hate spiders.”
I brush a small strand of hair behind my ear and give him a subtle nod. I don’t disagree with him. “So Finnley never really got pulled into the mirror? It was all in my head?”
“He stepped through an archway you couldn’t see. Something called him through so that you could live out your own horror, so to speak. But all in all, he was never technically inside a mirror.”
“Although something did call him through the archway?” I repeat, stopping to face Ambrose.
He slips his arm off my shoulders, allowing it to fall to his side. “Correct, but only the Noctryns know what it was. They pick and choose the information they share with the Veil officers.” His brows furrow in an angry pinch.
I’m both annoyed and impressed at the dark wielders’ tenacity.
I can feel Ambrose’s heavy stare on me as I replay everything in my head from that day. I know he’s trying to decide whether he wants to ask something or not.
“Go ahead, I can see the wheels spinning,” I tell him, stopping to fully face him.
He clears his throat and rubs the back of his neck with his hand, his bicep flexing with the motion. “Have you had any dark manifestations?”
“I haven’t had any manifestations, period. Light or dark.”
His tongue pokes the inside of his cheek. “No shadows or mind manipulation abilities making themselves known? No success with their blood magic?” he asks, his gaze sharpening on me.
“Nothing,” I confirm. At this point, I’m not sure how upset I’d be if a shadow emerged. At least it would be something.
“Thank the gods.”
“Should I be thankful, though, Ambrose? I’ve shown nothing. Nada. Zip. I’m literally one of the last who have yet to manifest, and I’m starting to really doubt the outcome here while you’re dancing around in gratitude.”
He blinks. “It’ll happen, Nori. You’re just a late bloomer,” he assures me, his eyes hardening like there isn’t another option or explanation.
I kick the snow and start walking again. “Have you heard any updates on Professor Huntsal? I wasn’t sure if they shared anything in your officer’s class that the rest of us aren’t privy to?”
He pulls his gaze away before throwing his head back and sighing.
“No. They haven’t shared much except updated orders.
We’ve been assigned the task of investigating her disappearance, while the Noctryns have been assigned to look into the missing dark object.
At this point, we’ve both come up short.
Whoever took them had complete access to the academy and a big enough reason to risk taking them. ”
What kind of reason would someone have to risk something so big? The ramifications of doing so would be astronomical.
“They’d have to be very familiar with the academy layout as well as where dark objects were being kept,” I murmur more to myself. “Or know someone else who has this information.”
“Nothing for you to worry that pretty little head about,” he assures me, scooping up a ball of snow and chucking it across the field. “From what I understand, you passed that dickhead’s interrogation with flying colors.” He puts extra emphasis on the word dickhead.
“Well, it is something for me to worry about, Ambrose,” I correct him. “And honestly, the interrogation wasn’t as bad as I imagined it would be.”
He stops and looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind. I shrug and pull my hood up. The snow has started to fall again.
He jogs to catch up with me, gripping me by the shoulder, stopping me and spinning me toward him.
“Don’t trust him. Any of them, but especially him.
He always has some kind of trick tucked up his sleeve,” he states.
“I mean it, Nori. Don’t mistake what you think is kindness for anything other than it is. A means to an end.”
“And here I was thinking you two were becoming friends,” I reply sarcastically.
He yanks on my braid gently and shoots me one of his devastating smiles.
The kind he used to get out of trouble with.
Only now, it’s me who feels like they’re in trouble.