17. Annalise
Chapter seventeen
Annalise
“Woah! Slow down there, Tiger. This is still formation you’re rushing to.”
“You try being on house arrest for a month, and then you tell me you’re not excited to see people again.”
The courtyard hums with the same restless energy it always has. Recruits rushing between buildings clutching their coffee cups and laughing with their friends between classes. Dragons fly in the distance, taking advantage of the breeze before they have to land for afternoon class.
Normal. Everything is perfectly normal.
Walking beside Matt toward the parade grounds, his shoulder brushes mine every few steps, his silent reminder that I’m not alone.
We’re only a few steps away before eyes turn to me and the conversations quickly die. As the crowds part, laughter turns to too-loud whispers.
"That's her. The recruit who survived the rockslide."
"I heard they found her unconscious."
"I heard she almost died, and it took six healers to bring her back from the edge!"
Matt's jaw tightens, but I keep walking. I expected this.
“I heard her dragon lost his shit when she got hurt. A few people said they practically went deaf from his roar.”
"She isn’t even scarred."
That one almost makes me laugh.
Not scarred.
If only they knew how much Redline was used to heal me physically. If only they knew the battles I’m still fighting just to try to get back to who I’m determined to be again. If only they knew the things that pierced through the calluses built up from so many years at my dad's mercy.
The further into formation we get, the more the rumors evolve.
A guy lowers his voice dramatically.
"Apparently, her partners died trying to save her."
I nearly choke on my own breath.
"I heard she killed them."
"No way."
"Seriously. Think about it. She’s here because she tried to kill her dad, now she just so happens to be the only survivor."
Voss’s eyes dart away as soon as he notices me looking at him. Coward.
The irony of their comments is almost enough to make me smile, though.
Her dragon lost his shit.
She almost died.
She killed her partners.
I guess they're all true.
By the time Matt and I make it to our spots, it feels like everyone's watching us without looking directly at us.
Matt’s already wound tight, his shoulders squared as he glares down at everyone in our vicinity.
Then, from a nearby row—
"Man, imagine being that hot."
The voice belongs to a Delta recruit.
His friends snicker.
"What?"
The recruit gestures vaguely in my direction. "I heard she had two dudes trying to kill each other over her."
A few laughs.
"Guess that's what happens when you seduce both of them and they find out about it during a Land-Nav test."
More laughter.
"Seriously, bro’s before hoe’s and all that shit. I’m not losing my life over some girl."
Matt's head whips around, the muscles in his forearms flexing.
Fuck! I know that look.
“He’s not worth it,” I whisper at the same time the recruit notices Matt staring.
Unfortunately for him, he mistakes silence for encouragement, "Actually, scratch that. When we got here, people were saying she was probably hooking up with both of them. My money’s on that they found out, and she had her dragon kill them so she could avoid the embarrassment."
His group erupts just as I grab Matt’s arm, my grip hard enough that he won’t get any further without forcing my hand off first.
He freezes as I smile sweetly at the recruit.
"You know..."
The laughter dies as everyone around gives up the pretense of not listening in.
"You’re right."
The guy blinks. "What?"
"You’re right…My bonded would kill for me.”
I smile devilishly as Tyr roars, dropping from the sky directly overtop the now-isolated recruit.
The gust from his descending wings hits the parade grounds like a physical force, whipping my hair pony across my face and sending dirt and loose grass skittering across the stone.
The recruit staggers beneath him, throwing an arm up against the sudden blast of air as his friends put even more distance between themselves and him, like they’re afraid they’ll be caught in the fallout.
Tyr spreads his wings to their full span overhead, blotting out the sky for a heartbeat before throwing his head back and roaring again. The sound rolls through the parade grounds, vibrating in my chest and swallowing every other noise as he circles once above us.
My eyes never leave the now-sweating idiot as I take slow, deliberate steps toward him, the dagger Korr’s insisted I keep, secure in my hand.
His throat bobs as he swallows, but I only smile wider.
"But that’s assuming I won’t just kill you myself."
For a moment, it feels like the entire campus has frozen, no one daring to so much as sneeze in the now-tainted air as every eye waits to see what happens next.
There’s a long whistle behind me just before the rancid smell of ammonia permeates my nose, and the spell is broken by recruits now laughing at the puddle pooling at his feet.
His face reddens, but I don’t wait to watch what he’ll do next.
Turning to walk back to my spot, I’m shocked to find not only Matt and Perry, but Sasha, Emily, Ian, and Zeke standing mere steps behind me, faces bright with smiles despite the ‘ready for a fight’ positions their bodies are still in.
"Aww, sweet baby didn’t know who he was talking to," Emily mocks as we hear him scream for people to move out of his way.
“Not so fast, Recruit. You’re here for accountability, and you haven’t been dismissed,” Dean Stevens' voice commands from the front of formation, a slight smirk cemented on her normally stoic face.
I hadn’t noticed her arrival, nor that of every one of my instructors wearing mirrored looks of approval behind her—well, almost every one…Hunter is nodding slightly, his jaw tight—until our eyes connect.
Then, all at once, his expression cracks. “There she is," he mouths, a reluctant grin taking over for the briefest of moments.
The tension loosens, stress visibly draining from his shoulders.
Around us, conversations slowly restart.
For the first time since waking up in Hunter's house, I feel something close to normal.