Page 39 of A Sky of Storms
“Wait, how do you know all this?” I asked.
“Noah.”
“Well fuck me in the blow hole,” I said, then looked around for the invisible bastard. There was still no sign of him. “What made him think to spy on them? Is he spying on everyone? Does he spy on me?”
“I don’t think he spies on you,” Fallon replied as a dude leapt out of the water and crashed into the sand before us.
“Why not?” I reached past Fallon and slapped him on the chest. “Doesn’t he think I’m interesting?” Fallon and Kendra started laughing, the sound almost muffled by the dude groaning in front of us. I glared at him. “We get it dude, you’re injured, but we are having an important conversation.”
“Trust me, no one would accuse you of that, though you do pose a good question,” Fallon replied, ignoring our unwanted guest. “Why was he spying on Mark and Victoria in the first place?”
“Please,” the dude on the sand pleaded, reaching out a hand. “Help me.”
“Maybe he’s trying to get intel on all the major contenders? Know his competition and all that?” Kendra suggested.
“That’s a good point,” Fallon said, pointing out across the lake to where the trainer stood, waving his arms around. “I think Nolan is calling us over. We’d better get back.”
“Take me with you,” the dude begged.
“I wonder what he found out about me?” I mused, jumping up. I grabbed the hand of the dude in the sand and started to drag him back towards the lake. “I’m obviously high on his competition list.”
“Of course.” Fallon grinned at Kendra. “You’d be close to the top.”
“Close?” I asked, looking between them.
“Well, there are others to consider,” Kendra said, following us into the water. “Ace, Flynn, Kayden—”
“Wash your mouth out, Kendra,” I replied, hauling the injured dude onto my back. He looped his arms around my neck and started breathing heavily into my ear. “As if they would be more of a worry than me. Sure, they look mean, but that’s about all you need to worry about.”
We swam back to the other side of the lake and I dumped the dude onto the sand for someone else to deal with. I had more important things to worry about, like the fact my new friends didn’t even see me as a threat.
“AttitheAnt,”aslimy voice said from behind me. I spun, grabbing the jerk by the collar and slamming him against the outside wall of the dorm building. He was shorter than me, albeit stockier, his feet scraping the ground as I got into his face.
“Utter those words again and I’ll cut your tongue off and feed it to you,” I growled, raising my bionic hand and flicking my finger to reveal a blade. The metal shone in the moonlight and the guy’s green eyes darted back and forth between my face and it. “Do you understand?”
“Chill, mate,” he replied with a light laugh, though it was strained and nervous. “Just a fucking joke, yeah?”
I released his collar, gave him another shove against the brick wall, then continued walking towards the entrance of the auditorium for the announcement I was already running late for. My room was full of annoying Potentials who were just asking for me to slit their throats in their sleep, so I’d been hanging out around the dorms. They all spat so much bullshit about how tough they were, how educated and worldly, when really they were just privileged assholes hooked up to the family bank account. Rather than murder everyone in my room, I’d decided to take a breather outside.
Cormac, as leader of the Drakes, would be pissed if I drew attention to myself like that when it could easily get out to the masses. It was bad enough that the brick head from the Crimson Steppes kept getting in my face. Fighting with him was not a good call, but he just rubbed me up the wrong fucking way. There was a time and a place to make a scene and as I needed to break into the House of Ascension, this wasn’t it.
“You don’t remember me then?” the guy said, jogging to catch up. He fell into step beside me, careful not to touch me. “I’m a—”
“Hallow’s Griff.”
“So you do know me then,” he said, chuckling nervously. He should be nervous. Hallow’s Griff was a bottom of the barrel gang, full of the scraps no one else dared touch. They’d sell their own mothers for a couple of credits.
“What do you want?” I asked, rounding a corner. Potentials were still making their way over to the hall so I mustn’t have been so late after all.
“Just thought, us both being from DH, maybe we could team up? Looks like the people from other cities are. Might not be a bad idea.”
“No.”
“Not even going to think about it?”
I turned, his eyes widening as I stepped into his path. Potentials streamed around us, getting a quick look before hurrying away.
“You and I will never work together,” I said, pointing a finger back and forth between his chest and mine. “Coming from the same city doesn’t mean shit. You are a fucking Griff. You’re lucky I’m deigning to speak with you and haven’t sliced you up and chucked you in the lake. Now fuck right off.”
