21. Theo
Chapter twenty-one
Theo
The hotel suite has an absurd number of locks.
I noticed them as soon as we stepped in the door last night—deadbolt, chain, a second reinforced latch, and some kind of magically etched security seal worked into the frame of each bedroom door.
I guess this must be a part of the enhanced security precautions Mom was telling me about the other week. The instructors apparently have some new thing about sending recruits on covert missions and the need to make sure their hotel rooms are so locked down, we could survive a Clowessian invasion.
Unfortunately, even with all these extra locks, I've barely slept. Okay, in all fairness, it’s not because of the security.
No, it’s because Annalise Corvin has been on the other side of the suite's common room.
We got back late last night after spending hours upon hours watching and waiting to see if Matt and his partner would succeed in the first part of their mission.
Watching them was frustratingly uneventful, minus the interesting show I watched through binoculars while Annalise was in the bathroom.
But my time with Annalise? Let’s just say I’m glad they were able to get the information they needed, because now our mission isn’t over yet.
Today, we have to intercept the pair before the final handoff, which is where our Frankenstein plan comes in.
Delay them.
So Annalise and I spend breakfast going over the route, the timing, and every possible inconvenience we could think of to slow Matt down.
By the time we leave the hotel, I feel pretty damn good about it.
The plan is solid, our cover is solid, and, surprisingly, working with Annalise today is...easy.
It didn't start that way.
Yesterday, she'd been polite but guarded. I got the distinct impression she'd been evaluating me with every sentence I said, deciding whether I was worth the effort of getting to know, or if I was just here riding my mothers coat tails and expecting preferential treatment.
Fair. I'd do the same if I were in her position.
But somewhere between arguing over surveillance positions and debating whether chocolate-covered pretzels are a superior snack to cinnamon crisps, I finally got her laughing.
And once Annalise started laughing, I discovered something nobody had bothered to tell me—She's funny. Like really fucking funny.
Which is almost as insistently distracting as the fact that she's breathtakingly beautiful.
How did not a single person who answered questions about her not mention that?
My mother certainly hadn't. She talked about Annalise enough over the past few months that I'm pretty sure I've heard her entire résumé. Resilient. Talented. Brilliant under pressure. Dangerously determined. A natural Dragon Rider. Exceptional shot.
And the other recruits?
They wouldn’t shut up about her. Good and bad, it was like they couldn’t get enough—which wouldn’t have been surprising if they were talking shit about the girl born into a middle class family, but no. They relentlessly talked about her like she was someone they—maybe not admired, but respect.
I was told countless stories of her early dragon bonding, details about her sentencing as though they were sitting in court themselves that day, hell—I even heard about the whirlwind relationship with her ex that apparently ended in catastrophe.
But yet, not a soul told me about her infectious humor or the way her eyes roll back when she’s biting into a new snack. I didn't expect someone who can make me laugh while simultaneously arguing that sour-cream-and-onion crisps are an abomination against nature.
At least that particular bit of research paid off.
We barely make it through the Vault gates before Captain Lin spots us.
"Good work," she calls to Annalise. "That was one hell of a mission."
Annalise smiles. "Thanks, Captain."
My chest tightens unexpectedly. Did we actually pull it off?
Then Major Halden appears. "Sit down. Time to debrief."
The smile disappears from Annalise's face as we take our seats.
Once we’re all sitting, there’s no missing Halden and Lin’s considerably less pleased expressions than they wore thirty seconds ago.
That should be my first warning.
Halden drops a report onto the table. "Your targets were able to make their handoff."
I blink. "What?"
"Matt and his partner were delayed," Lin says. “But they passed the material in time—barely, but still within parameters."
Annalise's eyebrows shoot up. "How barely?"
"Three minutes."
Silence.
I stare at the report.
Three minutes.
We spent half the night planning the delays. Deflated tires, faux construction zones courtesy of the cones we…borrowed…from a local construction site, that forced them to go around not one but two major events taking over the main roads.
We executed it perfectly.
Apparently, Matt simply decides to be an enormous pain in everyone's ass. Again.
Halden continues. "Your interference worked. Their route was compromised, their timing was thrown off, and they were forced to alter their approach several times.”
"Then how did they make it?" I ask.
Lin's mouth twitches. "Because he’s Reyes."
Of course. Just Matt being Matt.
Halden taps the report. "He recognized the secondary route and pushed through the western corridor instead. His partner followed. They reach the handoff point with approximately one hundred and eighty seconds to spare."
I groan, but Annalise clearly fights back a proud smile. "Gods, he’s going to be unbearable about this."
"Very," Halden agrees, surprising me that he’s showing any true emotion.
"Bets on how long it takes for him to try to kill me?" I joke. It's the wrong response. I know it immediately when both Halden and Lin look at me, but Annalise says nothing, simply smiling and waiting.
"What?" I ask.
"Nothing," Lin says quickly, which definitely means something.
The debrief continues for nearly an hour.
We go over every movement, every communication, every point where the operation could have gone better. Halden questions our choices while Lin pushes us on contingencies. We discuss the unknown recipient and what the failed delay reveals about the courier's habits.
By the end, my brain hurts, but I've learned something else: Annalise is good.
Not just good for someone who's been away from classes, but really good.
She noticed things I missed. She anticipated questions I never thought of. She remembered tiny details from surveillance that I'd completely forgotten. And most shockingly, she never once seemed intimidated by Halden.
I'm beginning to understand why my mother is so impressed.
When we finally leave the briefing room, Annalise exhales, "Well."
I glance at her. "Well?"
"We technically failed."
"We delayed them by nearly two hours."
"And they still made the drop."
"Three minutes before we wanted them to."
"Exactly."
I smile. "You're a glass-half-empty kind of person, aren't you?"
She shoots me a look. "I'm realistic."
"That's what pessimists say."
"I'm not a pessimist."
"You're currently arguing that succeeding at ninety-nine percent of a mission is failing."
She considers that. "And yet, the one percent was all it took to lose.”
I smile wide and wait.
“Okay, fine. Maybe I'm a little pessimistic,” she laughs, elbowing me gently as we walk toward the barracks together.
For a few minutes, neither of us speaks.
The silence isn't awkward anymore, which is new.
Glancing at her, I can’t help but admire how stunning she looks, the sunlight catching in her hair, and the faintest smile still tugging at her mouth.
I wonder what it would be like to—
I take half a step closer.
A low growl rolls through the air and I nearly jump out of my skin.
I look around, but I see nothing.
Then I see a crimson and black dragon watching us from across the courtyard.
I swallow hard.
Right, her dragon. Her extremely protective and perceptive dragon.
I subtly move back to where I was, but not subtly enough for Annalise not to notice.
"Something wrong?"
"Nope."
Her eyes narrow like she’s ready to force it out of me, but I smile back innocently. "Absolutely nothing."
She clearly doesn't believe me.
We reach the barracks, and I swear for a brief second, a panicked look flashes across her face.
“I’m not following you, I swear. I’m barracks E too. Room 223.”
"You've got to be kidding."
"What?"
“Our rooms are in the same hall,” she laughs, though it’s more like the one I heard for the first part of our mission. “I’m room 212.”
We’re not neighbors by any means, but we’re close.
"Guess we're neighbors."
"Apparently."
She pulls out her phone. “I’m actually going up to Matt’s room to wait for him, but give me your number."
Far faster than I’m ready to say goodbye, she’s done typing and saving me as a contact.
"Now you can text me when you inevitably realize I was right about the cinnamon crisps."
"I will never admit that."
"You will."
"Never."
She smiles.
"I'll see you later, Theo."
I watch her turn to continue up the stairs, then—
"ANNALISE!"
A familiar voice echoes up the staircase.
I turn and barely hide my annoyance when I see Matt.
The bastard jogs up the last few steps like he owns the entire building, and Annalise's face lights up immediately as he points directly at her.
"I'm coming for you."
She bursts out laughing. "You deserved it."
"Oh, I deserved it? You! You put me through hell today."
"You survived."
He stops in front of her, a cheesy grin plastered across his face. "I'm going to spend the rest of the evening explaining exactly how much I hate you."
"Over dinner?"
"Obviously…who knows what you were forced to eat while stuck in that watch wagon."
"I ate quite well, thank you very much! And don’t be an ass,” she scolds, as she throws her arms around him.
Matt catches her easily, laughing as he hugs her back, then lifting her to spin her in circles once his feet are fully on the landing.
I stare…There's something almost brotherly about it…but not quite.
Until Matt glances over Annalise's shoulder at me. The look lasts half a second, but it’s more than enough to say I see you.
I raise an eyebrow.
Matt raises his.
Fantastic.
Annalise pulls back and looks at me, completely unaware of the silent conversation she's just interrupted. "Oh! Theo, come with us."
I blink. "Me?"
"Yes."
Matt's expression says absolutely not, but Annalise ignores him. "You need dinner, too."
"I do…"
Matt sighs dramatically. “She’s not going to drop it until you agree, so let’s fast forward through the part where you pretend to object and then eventually give her what she wants. I need to get some real food in her stomach before she passes out and I get lectured or scorched.”
"You’re so dramatic," she laughs, just as her stomach growls loud enough to rival the dragons on the way in.
I smile, "He’s right. We should eat. We haven’t had anything since breakfast in bed this morning."
Matt’s eyes nearly bulge out of his head as he looks from Annalise to me, smoke practically billowing from his ears.
“Take it down a notch, Mattey. The hotel we were in provided it as a service, and since the couches were covered in maps and gear, we each ate in our rooms.”
The short walk to dinner is spent mostly with Annalise and Matt arguing about…I’m not really even sure what.
Dinner is...interesting.
Annalise officially introduces me to Sasha, Ian, and Emily, and they’re all very friendly…not in the "you're new to the group so we're going to interrogate you" kind of way, or even the "Your mom's the dean so give us all the details," way I've encountered too many times already.
No. Shockingly, they just welcomed me in as soon as she made the introductions.
Emily somehow turns a normal conversation about classes into a demand for me to settle an age-old argument between Annalise and Matt about whether dragons can be bribed with pastries or not.
Sasha asks me about my family.
Ian challenges me to explain the difference between two different types of tactical runes.
And Matt—Matt is actually nice. Well, mostly.
He laughed at one of my jokes and actively engaged in conversation, but every so often, I caught him watching me.
Protective and possessive.
I try to force myself to understand where he’s coming from. Annalise has been through hell, and these are her people. And Matt clearly considers himself the first line of defense, but I'm not sure what that means for our friendship just yet.
But I'm not worried, not really, because across the table, Annalise is laughing again.
And I find myself smiling before I even realize it.
So what if the mission didn’t go according to plan and Matt has ruined our perfectly executed delay? Somehow, I still got exactly what I need out of the day—a reason to see her again.