Chapter 52
CAM
I wasn’t an eavesdropper. Not usually, but this time I was glad I’d snooped.
There was a sense of peace inside me now. The awful clawing was gone. I waited for an hour until I heard Selas come to bed and then an hour after that until the tower was silent, then I took the stairs down to Serath’s floor.
My beast sensed that he was back, and we needed to talk.
I knocked softly on his door, and he answered almost immediately, as if he’d been waiting.
He was still dressed in his elite outfit, dark hair windswept, powerful frame silhouetted by the moonlight that filled the room behind him.
He towered over me, solid and safe, and it took every ounce of will not to step closer and wrap my arms around him.
“You shouldn’t be down here,” he said gruffly.
“I know.”
“I’m sorry about Jana. I wasn’t planning on you meeting her like that.”
“Or ever.”
“Sorry?”
“I know, Serath. I know the truth.”
His left eye flinched. “I don’t understand.”
“I overheard the others talking about it earlier. You’re not really sleeping with her.”
He exhaled through his nose, the corners of his mouth dimpling. “It doesn’t change anything.”
“Yes. Yes, it does. Because the awful pit inside me is now gone. My beast can focus on the exam tomorrow. I can stop feeling as if my heart is being torn from my chest.”
His throat bobbed.
He was wrong. Everything had changed. “I know you thought you were doing the right thing. I understand why you felt you had to. I know that the forces drawing us together are getting stronger every day, and I know that it won’t be easy to fight them, but I promise you that I’ll do my part.
From now on, I’ll respect the boundaries too.
It’s not all on you, Serath. I’m sorry you felt that it was.
” He took a step toward me, but I backed up.
“A few more weeks, and we can go our separate ways. We can do this.”
His bright eyes dulled. “Cameron, I—”
“I know.” I smiled up at him, taking a moment to soak in his beauty as it shone down on me. “Wish me luck for later?”
His shoulders drooped, the muscles in his body unknitting as he relaxed. “You don’t need luck. You have the skill, and I’ll be there at the finish line to celebrate with you.”
“Thank you.” I walked away, every step a shard in my abdomen as I fought my primal instinct to run into his arms.
Knowing that he hadn’t betrayed our bond, knowing that he was still mine had removed the pain, but it had also lifted the barrier he’d put between us.
It wouldn’t be easy to build and maintain a new one, but I was certain that we could do it. Together.
* * *
The sun was an hour from setting, and the sky was tinged crimson. The iron gates of the academy loomed in front of us, open wide enough to allow us to spill out.
Farnell stood in that aperture, his back to the outside world, his focus on us.
Around me, my fellow cadets murmured and shuffled, eager to get this show on the road.
Today, we were all dressed in lastonflex, blue with yellow cuffs and collars.
The colors of a cadet. If we made initiate, we’d graduate to navy.
General would be bottle green. For me, it would always be navy, whether I passed with a high score or not, but that fact made me more determined to prove myself.
To prove that I deserved the navy colors.
“Cadets, today is a big day,” Farnell said. “If you’re worthy, you’ll make it to the finish line and be allocated either general or initiate. If you scrape through or if you’re carried, then you’ll be allocated to a spot in administration, and trust me, death is preferable to that fate.”
“Wow,” Ginia muttered. “Harsh.”
My gaze flicked to the elites, standing in a row beside Farnell, hands clasped behind their backs like good soldiers. Orix caught my eye and winked, but Serath kept his gaze straight ahead. Selas had her chin tucked in, and there was no sign of Prasan.
“You will be monitored,” Farnell said. “You will be watched, and your performance scored.”
How would they watch us? How would they score? I had questions, but there was no time to ask them before we were ushered through the gates to the warp zone between the stones.
Prasan was there, standing by one of the huge stones.
“Where’s Willowman?” Farnell asked him.
“He got held up. But everything is set. We’re good to go.”
“All right, everyone into the circle,” Farnell ordered.
I adjusted the pack around my waist and followed the others past the stones.
Curi and Shar flanked me, and Touron and the twins were close behind us.
We ended in a cluster with Hawke and a couple of the goyles from his dorm.
“What you got in there?” Hawke asked, indicating my pack.
“Healing tinctures. I got permission to bring them.” Farnell had allowed it, and Selas had given me three daggers. One was strapped to my arm, the other to my hip, and the final one to my thigh.
The majority of the exam would take place at night, and as I couldn’t shift and didn’t have a goyle’s strength, I was allowed a weapon.
“You make the tinctures yourself?” Hawke asked.
“Yeah.”
He looked almost impressed.
“Cameron’s a whizz with herbology,” Touron said proudly.
“How’s your shield now?” Hawke asked. “Derek?”
“He’s healing.”
“Brave, what he did.”
“Yeah. Yeah, it was.” I wanted to ask about his golden sword, but it didn’t seem like the right time.
“Three tests,” Farnell reminded us. “Be aware of your surroundings and work together.”
I searched for Serath and locked gazes with him for a moment—the connection fortifying in a way that was impossible to describe. He gave me a nod, his beautiful eyes filled with confidence.
Confidence in me.
I wouldn’t let him down.
The world shattered, taking me away.
* * *
We materialized in a deep canyon bordered by steep rock face. It stretched into the distance then curved to the left.
“What do we do?” Ginia said. “Go up or forward?”
“Or back,” Palia pointed out.
“Saffe, Touron, with me,” Curi said. “Let’s go back a ways and check.”
“Everyone else stay put,” Hawke ordered.
Dayn rolled his eyes but didn’t argue.
Curi and the others jogged off into the rapidly gathering gloom and were back a minute later.
“Dead end back there,” Touron said. “Rock face will be a bitch to climb.”
“Then we wait,” Hawke said. “Sun’s about to set.”
“I’ll carry you up,” Curi said to me.
The sky turned to blood, and darkness fell. A ripple of electric energy rushed over me, and the goyles growled as they morphed into their beast forms, casting distorted shadows across the dusty valley.
Tails whipped back and forth, and wings stretched to catch the air.
My beast swelled and pushed against my senses, sharpening my vision. I willed my fingers to elongate and release talons.
“Nice.” Hawke’s voice was a grumble of appreciation.
“Let’s get out of here,” Touron said.
Curi wrapped his arms around me, and we took to the air. Touron lead the charge with Hawke close behind. The rest of us fanned out below them.
The canyon had to be over 3000 feet deep, a bitch of a climb without wings. We were almost at the top when Touron let out a bellow and dropped out of the air.
“Barrier above!” Hawke dove to grab Touron.
Shit, there was indeed a shimmer in the air above us.
Hawke managed to snag Touron’s ankle and arrest his fall long enough for him to shake off the effects of the force field and get his wings working again.
The rest of us dropped altitude, aiming for the ground.
Touron landed in a crouch and shook his head as if to clear it. “That hurt.” He grimaced. “Thanks for the assist,” he said to Hawke.
“Don’t mention it.”
“What the fuck?” Dayn spat. “What are we supposed to do in this earth crack?”
“There has to be a way out farther along,” Palia said.
Curi released me. “We can fly if we have to, but not out of the canyon, it seems.”
It was dark, even with the moon hanging like a beacon above us. “The attack will be down here. Something will come for us. We just need to be vigilant.”
“Agreed,” Shar said. “Let’s team up and watch one another’s backs.”
We split into teams. Shar, Curi, Touron, and the twins were with me. Hawke teamed with Waxen, Saffe, and two guys from his dorm. And Dayn reluctantly joined Hamlin and the other goyles from Hawke’s dorm.
The canyon widened, making it possible to walk side by side, but we spread out, making an arrow with my team at the peak.
The shadows grew longer, and the canyon walls seemed to close in.
“It’s getting narrower,” Palia said.
“Fuck,” Curi growled. “Dead end.”
There was indeed a dead end ahead of us.
I scanned the walls, noting pockets of darkness here and there. Wait…those were holes. Huge holes in the rock face.
“Guys, there are caves in the walls.” I pointed. “You see them?”
“You think one of them could be a way out?” Ginia said.
My gut twisted, scalp tight with foreboding. “I think—” A scrambling sound echoed around us, followed by the clink of falling stones.
Oh shit. The caves weren’t a way out…They were a way in.