Page 14 of Lone Wolf

Is that why they brought me here? To see if I would resort to those methods? Another test within a test.

So at last, I just rise to my feet and say sweetly, “I’ll come back another time, Katy. I hope you’ll consider talking to me then.”

I hear the clunk of the door lock opening once more, and I back out of the room, keeping Katy in view the whole time, never turning my back on her.

Inside, though? I’m seething.

“You actually got her to say something,” Lyssa says, surprise coloring her voice. “More than Scarlett or I have done. Decent work.” The praise should feel like victory, but somehow feels hollow in the wake of Katy’s warning.

“I meant what I said in there—I want to come back and see her again. She just needs some time to get used to talking.” I wait, heart beating faster and faster, until Scarlett nods.

“I agree. Ariadne should come back.” My name sounds wrong in Scarlett’s mouth, lacking the recognition it carried in Katy’s voice, or the casual acceptance it had in Sunny’s. “At least Katy seems inclined to saysomethingto her. But right now—” she turns to me “—you need to come with us and tell us every damn thing you know about her.”

I barely know a thing. Katy was in a cohort well ahead of me—I remember her only because she was part of the regular beating crew in the beginning. Her hand striking my face, her kick in my ribs, her voice whisperingThis is kindness, Ariadne. This iswhat prepares you for the world. Then she disappeared. One day there, the next gone without explanation.

I’d assumed she was dead.

But I nod eagerly, the perfect student, the perfect soldier. “Yes. Let’s go and talk. I’ll tell you everything I can remember.”

But as we head back toward the main body of the house, I can’t help replaying that thin laugh in my head.

If you think these people are doing anything but using you, you’re a fool.

CHAPTER 6

Sunny

I’m neverlateto training, but I’m frequently the last one in the room. It’s like that today, so that when I jog toward the training room to grab my stuff from my locker, I’m only a few moments ahead of Lyssa and Scarlett.

I’m retying my shoelaces—bright yellow against my purple sneakers—when I hear them talking quietly, just outside the locker room door. The chattering of the recruits is loud and echoing in the large training area, which means they also have to raise their voices a little to be heard as they murmur their plans for the day to each other.

I pause and prick up my ears, because I’m wondering if I’ll get another chance with Ariadne. When I catch Lyssa saying the word “sparring,” those hopes rise even further, a flutter of anticipation warming my chest.

But then my heart stops dead as I hear a snatched phrase from Scarlett: “...trafficking ring operating out of the south side…”

For a split second, the words freeze me mid-motion, my fingers still tangled in my laces. Then I move silently to the open doorand press up against it, listening as hard as I can. “…hired to shut them down. Hadria thinks it would be a good starter mission for?—”

There’s a noise behind me—a clearing of the throat—and I jump about fifty fucking feet in the air, only to whirl around on landing to see Ariadne behind me.

“What are you doing?” she asks, her voice low and flat.

“What areyoudoing?” I demand right back, heart still racing—though now it’s for a different reason. At this close distance, her scent is wafting into my nose, clean and sharp, like winter air.

She gives me a long, cool look. “I was refilling my water bottle,” she says at last, holding it up in my face. I resist the urge to slap it away.

“Iwas eavesdropping,” I tell her. Because it was pretty obvious what I was doing.

“Hear anything interesting?”

I think this is the longest conversation I’ve ever had with this woman. Her full attention is both exhilarating and unnerving, like standing too close to an electric fence. “No. Maybe. I don’t know.”

She just makes a small, contemplative noise—something between a hum and a sigh—and sweeps past me. A few seconds later, with a sigh of my own, I head out too.

Lyssa and Scarlett have moved away from the locker room now, but they’re still conferring with each other, fair and dark heads close together. I feel a twinge of envy. Must be nice having someone like that in your life. Someone you can trust, who cantake care of themselves as much as you can, but who’s there for you if you need a soft place to land…

I shake off the weird mood building up in my gut and remind myself of what’s at stake. If what I heard means what Ithinkit means, then I need to quit coasting and start proving myself. Make sure I stand out as a viable option for this starter mission.

I smile and nod at the others as I jog over to a padded training bench and start stretching out my legs, bending slow and low to make sure they’re nice and loose. And then I feel a prickling sensation at the back of my neck, the unmistakable feeling of being watched. I glance over my shoulder, scanning the room.

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