Page 55 of Nova Academy

The same shame I felt when I’d arrested Hastings reared up within me, but I pushed it back down. Even though the situations were vastly different, I had learned from my mistake and I wasn’t about to make it a second time.

When we were safely secluded away in my room, I released his arm and stepped away.

‘You can stay here until you’ve calmed down and you can think straight again,’ I told him, backing towards the door. ‘Take as long as you need. You’ll be locked in here for the time being since I need to get back to the bridge, but I’ll have food sent to you in case you get hungry. I’ll come check on you when I have a free moment.’

And then I left him there.

I didn’t go back to the bridge. Instead, I followed the familiar passage to Addy’s workshop, eager to talk to her and assure her I was seeing things her way now. And to ensure I was, in fact, doing the right thing. After all, just last night I had promised her I would help her with Mercer, not to mention my vow to make things up to him after I had falsely accused him of a despicable crime he hadn’t even committed. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten it all so quickly, my own insecurities and emotional overload wiping it away without a second thought.

I owed it to both of them to do better,bebetter.

The workshop was really coming along. Mercer and his crew had started a long-needed process that had become the cadets on maintenance duty’s primary objective. I was impressed that each of them had stuck it out and put up with the overwhelming clutter enough to keep sorting through it, and I hadn’t had any complaints.

It was still nowhere near done, as I spent a good long whilesearching the stacks of junk that wasn’t really junk to find the woman I was searching for.

I found her near the back, surrounded by growing piles of gadgets as the cadets under her command for the week rifled through a pile and sorted what they uncovered. She perked up when she saw me, knocking over one of the newly made piles in her eagerness to reach me.

‘Sorry! Sorry, I’ll clean it up. Sorry,’ she called back to the cadets that were groaning in dismay at her clumsiness. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

‘Xander!’ she shouted unnecessarily when she faced me. She wore a great grin the spread across her cheeks from ear-to-ear, her sharp pointed teeth gleaming and glinting under the artificial lights. On another Griknot I might have found it menacing, but on Addy it was simply adorable. She was a dinky little thing and the farthest thing from dangerous that I could imagine. Sure, she could defend herself if she needed to, but that wasn’t her style. Gadgets and weapons were where her fatalities lay.

She was definitely a long-range threat under all that gleeful, bouncing pinkness.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.

‘I came to talk to you.’ I looked up at the cadets. ‘Take the rest of the day off. You’re dismissed.’

That was followed by a chorus of happy exclamations as they ran out of there before I could change my mind. It was a nice break from the sombre and strained mood of the past few days.

‘What’s going on?’ Addy asked as she led me to the now empty chairs I had forgotten were even here under all the mess.

I held her hands as we sat down. ‘I owe you an apology,’ I began, and knew I was correct when she didn’t try to interject.

‘I didn’t listen to you this morning, and after I promised I’d help you with Mercer, I went back on my word almost straight away. Well, almost.’

‘Almost?’ She frowned. ‘Something else happened.’

‘He broke a punching bag and got kicked out of combat training,’ I said, jumping straight into the thick of it. ‘Found him as he was coming out because the princeling called me down for an S.O.S. He’s in my room.’

‘Hebrokea punching bag? One of those super fancy, super expensive,unbreakablepunching bags?’

‘Yup.’

‘Huh.’

‘Right?’

‘What’s he doing in your room?’

‘Cooling down. I don’t know what happened, but it’s clear he needs a space to just breathe and work through it without us all jumping down his throat-Yes, you were right.’

‘I’m always right,’ she shot me a smug smile that quickly turned down again. ‘Is he okay?’

I huffed out a sigh. ‘I don’t know. I think he will be. He just needs a minute alone and none of us were giving him that today.’

‘Well, good. Thank you for pulling your head out of your ass,’ she snarked. Then she batted me away when I ruffled her hair.

‘All right, missy. Enough bragging from you. I just wanted to let you know what was going on because he’s your friend and give you the apology, but now I’ve gotta get back to work.’

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