Page 14 of Shadow Warrior
Henrich looked from Brady to me and then back again. “Grief can make us act out of character. I understand that. You’re relieved of duty early, Justice. You can start your half term now.” He smiled thinly. “Pack your bags and head back to the Academy. Take some time to grieve and I’ll see you after the break.”
His words barely registered. “I want to see Harmon. I need to say goodbye.”
“His body was shipped back to his family this morning. I’m sorry.”
The rage inside me cracked, and sorrow flooded me. My knees buckled, but Brady held me firm and steered me from the room before I could break down.
Harmon was dead.
He was dead, and I hadn’t gotten to say goodbye.
Hot tears blurred my vision, and then a ragged sob broke from my throat. Brady wrapped his arms around me and held me together while I broke.
* * *
I droppedmy pack in my room at the Academy and stood hands on hips. Half term was around the corner, and my shifts were over thanks to Henrich’s order. Brady would be coming to see me before he left. We’d planned to spend the day together, just the two of us.
In the meantime, I needed to speak to Brunner about getting these cuffs off. I needed to find Kash and ask him if he had any intel on Payne. I needed to do whatever it took to ride out the pain in my heart over the loss of Harmon. But the sun was about to come up, and the Academy residents would be asleep. I’d gotten so used to being up during the day that my body was wide awake.
Did Thomas know about Harmon?
Fuck this. I couldn’t even get a message to him. I hated the impotence of my situation.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Larkin said from the doorway.
I couldn’t even summon the energy to be pissed at him for reading my mind again. How could I be mad at him for doing what came as naturally as breathing to him?
“I don’t know what to do, Larkin.” I turned to him, blinking back the fucking tears. “I’m not a crier. This sucks.”
“You need a distraction. At least until you can take action on that long to-do list running through your head.”
“What do you suggest?”
He seemed to consider the question for a moment and then ran a paw over his coiffed hair before tugging on his ear. “Come with me.”
He ducked out of the doorway and into the corridor beyond. With a sigh, I followed. But he wasn’t heading to the main foyer, he was headed the opposite way, to another door at the far end of the corridor—the one that led to his quarters.
He opened it and vanished into the gloom beyond. “Come on, I don’t bite.” His head appeared around the door again, and he grinned, showcasing his sharp, pointy teeth. “It’s against the rules.”
Gooseflesh broke out over my skin, my body warning me that something extraordinary was about to happen. Right now, extraordinary sounded just peachy.
I stepped through the door and onto a narrow flight of steps. They seemed to go on forever, and there was no sign of Larkin.
“Hey!” I stood with my hand braced on the wall. “Larkin?”
“Come on, slowpoke.” His voice drifted down to me as if from a great distance.
What the fuck?
I started to climb the steps. The world tilted, my wrists burned, and then I was stepping into a circular room surrounded by huge, arch-shaped windows. Gauzy drapes blew in the breeze. But something was wrong. It took a moment for it to register, but when it did, my breath came out in a gasp.
The light of dawn was in front of me, to my left were the orange and purple hues of twilight, and to my right, the silvery light of the moon.
I turned on the spot. “How is this possible?”
Larkin peered at me from his spot on a cushy sofa, and I noticed his outfit for the first time … Wait a second, there was no way he’d been wearing purple silk pajamas all this time … Had he?
Larkin smiled. “Should have been paying attention, shouldn’t you? And to answer your previous question, this room exists in-between.”
