Page 62 of Great Falls Cadet
The girl drops to her knees beneath the pressure. A scream escapes her as she tries to free herself from my hold. One flailing attempt at a strike bounces off my thigh. The next—
“Arisha!” My warning lands at the same time as Katita’s wild leg sweep. It misses me entirely but catches Arisha midstride as she rushes to my aid.
With a gasp, Arisha windmills her arms for balance, the books and papers in her hands flying into the air before scattering across the cobblestones. Papers with drawings of sclices and Yocklol trees and fae. Papers so dangerous that I made Arisha bring them with us to drop off at the library for her own safety—all fluttering open in the chill breeze before the princess of Ckridel. My heart stops.
16
Lera
Arisha’s face pales. She scurries to collect the fallen documents, tripping on her own billowing pants in the process. When Tye trots over to help her, the pictures laid plain before him turn his scent from concern to utter, unfettered fury.Challengers have been barred from the Prowess Trials for lesser reasons than meddling in fae craft,Tye had told me in the stable. He’d not wanted to so much as discuss Rusty’s injury, much less be caught consorting with fae sympathizers.
Beneath my hold, I make out Katita’s gaze likewise tracking the documents through a glaze of pain. The entitled cruelty in the princess’s eyes freezes, morphing slowly to a very different type of hatred.
“Fae craft.” Katita hisses at Arisha as Tye jams the remaining books into my friend’s chest and backs away. “I knew you were poison.”
“Katita—” My voice is breathless, my pounding heart making it hard to think. To come up with an explanation. A plea. Anything.Stars.This isn’t how my staying clear of magic was supposed to go, with others pulled into the line of fire.
“I will see a noose around her neck. AHH!” Katita howls over a soft snap that I feel as much as hear beneath my hands. My preternatural fae strength rearing its head right when I least needed it.
Gasping and releasing the wrist I’ve just accidentally broken, I step away from the princess, who is now curled around her hand. The blood rushing through my ears is as loud as a waterfall. From the corner of my eye, I see the guards running toward us, hear someone shouting for help. I can feel the stunned, quiet courtyard around us as our commotion ripples through the crowd, the somber faces pressing in from all sides.
“Fall into parade formation, all of you,” one of the instructors shouts to the mass of perfect uniforms, the other picking up the call to form the cadets into lines. Keeping them busy despite the glances they try to steal our way. When Tye takes a step to join the lines, Katita bares her teeth at him.
“You stay,” the princess says, nodding to a guard who cuts off Tye’s path. “You are a part of this too.”
For a second, my instincts roar for me to bolt, but then a pair of iron-hard hands grips my wrists from behind, Coal’s metallic scent informing me that I am not going anywhere.
“Get Commander River,” Coal snaps at one of the approaching guards. “And Shade.”
“And Headmaster Sage,” Katita says, raising her face. “I’ve a matter for him. Please tell him I invoke a tribunal.”
Within minutes,we’re crossing the courtyard in front of two hundred sets of heavy, curious eyes and climbing the wide, flaring steps to the keep. A procession of instructors and guards and us. Coal walks beside me as if ready to tackle me to the ground at the slightest misstep, an ironic echo of our march through the woods four days ago.
My mind tells me I’m in trouble—very real trouble—even as my heart whispers that it isn’t so. Can’t be so. My males are here, they know me in their cores, they’ll recognize me when it matters most.
One step ahead, Arisha sobs, the breaths heavy from the mix of fear and the never-ending climb up the steep twisting stairs to the top of the tower. I wish I could comfort her somehow, touch her hand, anything, but we’re separated by a cluster of tall armored bodies. Katita, having refused to be taken to the infirmary at once, is pale but holds her back straight while two guards gently keep her steady. Tye is silent.
The passing minutes are punctuated by nothing but racing thoughts and heaving breaths as a dozen sets of feet climb to their destination. At the head of the group, Sage coughs into his handkerchief, stopping on several of the landings to clear his lungs before proceeding. Upon reaching the final floor, a pair of guards steps forward to swing open the double door into what must be the Academy’s equivalent of the throne room.
In contrast to River’s neat, practical study, with its wooden paneling and small crackling fire, Headmaster Sage’s office showcases tapestry-covered walls, intricately carved gold-gilded chairs and a heavy desk so polished that it reflects the torchlight sconces bathing the room in shifting light. Sitting behind his desk, Sage points to a worn spot on the carpet, where Arisha, Katita, Tye, and I are supposed to stand.
When Tye doesn’t move, Coal shoves him to the carpet. Giving me a cold gaze, Tye steps as far away from me as the space allows. As if it’s my fault that he is caught up in all this. And maybe it is. If I’d not turned my back on Gavriel, I’d have known what Arisha was researching. Kept it out of our room. Taken care of the damn Yocklol tree.
River jerks his head at the guards, clearing the room of our escorts. Coal leans against the door, arms crossed over a broad chest. His chiseled face is hard. Cold. River steps back to stand beside Sage’s chair, his stormy gray eyes and beautiful sculpted face as implacable as ever. To them, I’m just another unruly student—perhaps the most unruly they’ve ever had the displeasure of contending with.
Before anyone can speak, a confident knock sounds twice against the doorframe. Shade lets himself in at Sage’s bark of acknowledgment. The healer has a satchel slung over his shoulder, the gold of his dress uniform bringing out the sun-kissed bronze of his skin and length of his dark lashes that are too beautiful to be on a male. Shade’s glistening hair is plaited back, his yellow eyes somehow adding warmth to the room without even trying.
“With your permission, Headmaster Sage,” Shade steps around me to lay a gentle hand on Katita’s shoulder, “I would like the girl sitting down while whatever this is about rolls out.”
“Of course, do take care of the princess,” says Sage in his pinched, wheezing voice. “However, as she is the one to have invoked a tribunal, I will require she speaks.” He shifts in his seat to better address Katita, who is now trying to refuse Shade’s insistence that she sit on an ottoman. “Princess Katita. It is most…unusual…to have a cadet request such a meeting. I, of course, have nothing but the greatest respect for King Zenith and his throne. How might I be of service to his daughter?”
River shifts his weight, the movement nearly unnoticeable except for the waves of displeasure rolling off him. “If I may,” he says, his voice even, “it appears that two cadets had an altercation just now, which led to the injury we see. An unfortunately not unique incident amongst youth. For the consistency of Academy discipline—and to avoid the appearance of special treatment that students from other kingdoms might read into this meeting—may I propose that I oversee the matter?”
“My request has nothing to do with the squabble, sirs,” Katita says quickly, shrugging at her broken wrist as if it were hardly material to the matter at hand. “I’ve discovered that Leralynn of Osprey meddles with fae craft and appears to have co-opted Arisha of Tallie and Tyelor of Blair onto the same path. I ask they be turned over to the authorities in Grayson for further investigation.”
My breath stops. Beside me, Arisha gives a strained sort of gasp. Sage sputters into his handkerchief for so long, I’m certain he is buying himself time to think. Only River’s face remains utterly devoid of expression as he clasps his hands behind his back and stares down at Katita. “Your proof?” he says levelly.
“My initial suspicions were roused four days ago, when Leralynn of Osprey claimed possession of a medallion with what appeared to me as fae-crafted runes,” Katita says smoothly. “I dismissed the notion at the time, as you, Commander River, seemed to have recognized the disk.”
