Page 35 of Deadly Alliances

My mother used to always tell me as a child, “Patience is a virtue,” and with Arthur as my father, I didn’t have a choice but to adopt that virtue. Since I had met Arya, patience had been harder and harder to come by.

Peters leaned against the tree right beside me, his arm pressing up against mine. I slowly turned my head to look at him, and the suggestive heat in his brown eyes sent a slimy shiver down my spine that had nothing to do with the biting wind.

I sidestepped away from him, then rounded the tree trunk to where Char was sitting on an unearthed knotted root, hugging herself against the cold. She scooted over when she saw me, leaving just enough room for half of my butt to sit on, and I gratefully accepted.

“How long do you think until the storm clears?” I asked low enough for just her to hear me.

She shook her head and looked up into the branches that only partially shielded us from the falling torrent of rain. “I don’t know. An hour, at least.”

I growled in my throat, frustration flaring in my chest.

“Hey, it’s fine,” she said. “We’ll still get there with plenty of daylight to spare. This won’t set us back too much.”

“And if the storm rages all night?” I asked, trying and failing to keep the irritation from my tone.

She shrugged. “Then we’ll just push the attack to the next day. It’s all we can do if we want the mission to succeed.”

I nodded, although I didn’t like the sound of any of that. As much as I had hated the imprint for so long, I missed it so much now. At least before, I would’ve been able to sense if Arya was in danger, if she was being hurt. Without it, I had no idea what she was going through, and the mystery of it was a plaguing anxiety that never left me.

I closed my eyes to will those fears away. I needed a distraction. Anything.

I looked up and around at my fellow teammates. Peters sat down beside Tekashi on the damp ground where she was hugging her pack against her, again getting close enough for her thigh to brush against hers. Without a word, she scooted to theside. After a minute or two, Peters scooted closer, and Tekashi climbed to her feet and walked to the other side of the tree.

“What’s the story with…” I whispered to Char, tipping my head toward Peters.

She grimaced. “Yeah. He’s creepy but mostly harmless. He’s only been reprimanded once for sexual harassment.”

“Onlyonce?” I asked, my gut knotting with disgust. “Isn’t that enough? What did he do?”

She inclined her head closer, and I did the same so that I could hear her over the patter of rain that surrounded us in stereo. “Apparently, he inappropriately touched a senior officer while she was in her mao form.”

I balked, cocking my head. “Wait, in her mao form?”

She nodded. “I think he’s got a thing for shifters. You know,intheir creature form.”

The knot in my stomach clenched even tighter, threatening to expel the early dinner I had before we left. So it wasn’t my imagination that he was grinding into me.

“Do me a favor?” I asked her.

“Sure,” she replied.

I looked into her eyes, expressing as much of my desperation as I could through our shared gaze. “Don’t pair me with Peters again when the rain stops.”

Chapter 14

Ashlyn

My heart beat to a thrilling tune as I crept along the dim hallway.

I looked over my shoulder for the sixth time to make sure no one saw me leave the avian common room. I didn’t have to go very far, but under the circumstances, the distance seemed astronomical. Each step that I went undetected felt like a huge milestone.

I stuck to the walls like glue as I made my way to the large supply closet south of the avian common room, my senses keen to the slightest sound or shifting of shadows. I just hoped the others would make it okay. Those from other wings had farther to go, and with the guards patrolling the halls at night, they’d need more luck than I did. If even one of them was caught, we’d all be in serious trouble.

The moment my hand touched the knob, I peeked over my shoulder again, then swept in silent as a ghost. I gave myself a second to regulate my breathing before I let my gaze fall to the students already huddled inside among the racks of cleaning supplies.

They all relaxed when they saw it was me, and I smiled at the group reassuringly, registering who all was in attendance.

Brett was there, of course, sitting beside Niko. His parents weren’t particularly powerful, but they were wealthy phoenixes. And as Niko’s best friend—aside from Tobias—he was an obvious choice.

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