Page 5 of Shadow Warrior
Thomas went very still. “You’re torturing him, aren’t you?”
There was movement at the periphery of my vision. Knights headed toward Thomas.
“You can’t do this!” Thomas stepped out of line and into the aisle. “I want to see him. I want to see Harmon!”
And then two knights had flanked him, and he was being hauled backward, away from Henrich and toward the far exit.
“Shit.” I tried to push past Carlo to follow Thomas, but Carlo gripped my arm and tugged me back.
“Don’t.” He shook his head sharply. “Trust me.”
And then Thomas was gone.
Henrich remained at the lectern, but now his face was a mask of sorrow as he looked toward the exit that Thomas had been taken through. “It seems the virus has left lasting damage to some cadets.” He grew stern. “There is no place for emotional outbursts in the shadow knights. We survive because we are driven by logic, not emotion. We do what we must to ensure the safety of the mortal realm, whatever the cost.”
“Whatever the cost,” the knights said in unison.
Whatever the cost? The cost of my friend’s life? The cost of Thomas’s place here?
Fuck that. I tugged my hand from Carlo’s grip. I had to say something. Do something.
An arm snagged me around the waist, and Brady’s familiar cedar scent soothed the rage building inside me.
I looked up at his profile, pale and tense. His attention was on Henrich as the Shadow Master vacated the lectern, for real this time, and fucked off. The room began to empty out around us.
Brady relaxed, and his weight settled against me.
I quickly wrapped an arm around his waist to hold him up. “What are you doing here? You’re not strong enough to be out of bed yet.”
He gave me a flat look. “Stopping you from doing something stupid.”
Aidan leaned in around Brady. “I went and got him. When Thomas started to lose it, I knew you might jump in to help.”
“And I wasn’t enough?” Carlo rolled his eyes, but there was humor in them. “I get it, Brady has the bigger arms.”
“We need to get you back to bed.” I led Brady out of the assembly hall.
Devon joined us as we hit the main foyer. “They took Thomas outside. He was shouting and yelling at them. The dude’s lost it.”
Panic flared in my chest. “What are they going to do to him?”
Devon shook his head. “They’re going to give him an assessment, but they’ll conclude emotional breakdown. It’s happened once before. Emotional instability is the only way out of being a knight, but no supernatural wants to fake that shit. Once you’re branded with it, you live life on the outside as a pariah. Supernaturals aren’t as accommodating as humans when it comes to mental health issues.”
There is no place for emotional outbursts in the shadow knights.Henrich’s words came to mind. Is this what he’d meant? To get rid of Thomas altogether? Being a shadow knight was Thomas’s dream.
“We have to stop them.”
“No,” Brady said. “Don’t. It’s better this way.”
“For who?”
“Thomas.”
What was he talking about?
Carlo opened his mouth to reply but snapped it closed as two shadow knights passed us. “Yeah, wonder what’s for dinner,” he drawled. As soon as the coast was clear, he leaned in. “Don’t go up against Henrich. No one goes up against Henrich.”
He sounded … scared. “What are you saying?”
