Page 2 of Shadow Warrior
My scalp prickled. “Vet him? What does that mean, exactly?”
Beside me, Thomas had gone very still.
“I don’t know,” Brady said softly.
“Dungeons are off-limits to anyone but full-fledged knights,” Aidan said. “And even then, you need clearance. No one without clearance knows what goes on down there. Not for sure.”
Annoyance made my tone tight. “But they’ve caught fomorians before? Do we have fomorians down there right now?”
“Who knows?” Carlo replied. “But if they do, they probably wouldn’t last long. Their organs would be damaged from the mist, and there’s no coming back from that.”
So, Harmon had been taken into the dungeons to be vetted, which could mean a whole host of things, but the only thing that came to mind was torture.
“There’s nothing we can do,” Lloyd said. “If he’s clean, then we’ll know soon enough.”
“And if he’s compromised?”
Lloyd’s mouth turned down. “Henrich and the seasoned knights will decide what happens. They’ll decide what needs to be done to protect our cause.”
He didn’t have to say anything more. The sadness in his ice-blue eyes told me all I needed to know. Harmon’s life was at stake, and there was nothing we could do about it. Not without compromising our cause to protect humanity and this mortal realm.
There was a deep silence as we all absorbed these unspoken facts. A silence in which I pushed down my rage because it wouldn’t help right now. It wouldn’t get Harmon out of the dungeon because the truth was, it was highly unlikely he’d come back unscathed.
I closed my eyes and took a slow, steadying breath.
Thomas was the first to break it with a plea. “Please.” He looked to Devon. “Can you find out what’s going on? I know I can’t see him yet, but I need to know… I need to know he’s okay.” He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “He has to be okay.”
Devon nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”
He left the room, and Thomas wiped his eyes. “I’ll go get changed. Just in case they let me see him.”
Thomas followed Devon from the room, leaving me with Lloyd, Carlo, Aidan, and Brady.
His optimism never failed to astound me. He’d believed all this time that Harmon would come back. Believed even when I’d begun to lose hope. The shitty friend award goes to Justice. How could I have given up on him like that? I should have had faith.
I looked at the ground, at the grooves in the wooden floor, focusing on the intricate swirls until the stinging at the back of my eyes ebbed.
Only when the urge to cry abated did I look up. “This is wrong. It’s unfair. Harmon didn’t ask to be taken.”
The impotence of the situation grated. The fact that we, as first and second years, weren’t important enough to be part of the decision of what happened to our friend was unfair. We’d fought alongside the knights against the virus, and it was my idea that had helped stop the damn thing. If not for us, the knights would have fallen. We deserved to know what would happen to our friend, and if Harmon was lost, if the fomorians had succeeded in somehow tainting my friend, then we should have a chance to fix it. Only when all avenues were exhausted should we have to say goodbye.
“We need to focus on our duty,” Lloyd said wearily. “As hard as that is, we can’t lose sight of the bigger picture. The fomorians had the balls to take two of our own. They have networks beneath us. They’re getting bolder, and we need to push back. We need to recharge and get out there to protect the mist. The final trials are in six weeks. We need to be ready.”
I threw my hands up. “Trials? Surely we’ve proven ourselves by now.”
“Maybe …” Carlo said. “I overheard a couple of the knights talking earlier. Henrich is calling an assembly later today to address what happened. The knights seem to think he’ll be canceling the trials. The set-up requires too much time, and the shadow knights were saying they feel that we need to be focusing on patrols and the actual job.”
“Well, that’s something,” Aidan agreed. “About time.”
“It doesn’t mean that’s what Henrich will decide,” Lloyd reminded us.
Carlo pulled himself out of his seat and slung one arm around Lloyd’s neck and the other around Aidan’s. “Either way, nothing we can do until we know for sure. So, how about we go forage for some food and leave Justice and Brady to play kissy-face?” He steered them both toward the door. “Be gentle with him, Justice.”
He was diverting the conversation, and maybe that was for the best. We’d talk ourselves in circles otherwise.
They left, closing the door behind them, and just like that, Brady and I were alone.
“Breathe,” he said.
