Page 77 of Shadow Warrior
Twenty-Four
Dawn sunlight streamed into the fortress tower dorms as I joined Carlo, Devon, and Aidan in the lounge.
“You nervous, Justice?” Carlo asked.
I adjusted my holster and threw him a grin. “Quietly shitting myself.”
He chuckled. “I think I’m gonna puke.”
“Good,” Lloyd said, striding into the cadet lounge. “Take those nerves and channel them into surviving. I don’t intend to lose anyone today.”
He looked recovered, strong. Two lots of nightblood blood had obviously helped, and then he’d topped up on feyblood blood courtesy of the medic.
He was in fighting form. Just as well because we were going to have to bring it today.
“We’re a team,” Lloyd said.
Brady emerged from our room … Our room. Weird.
“I’m ready to graduate,” Carlo said. “Knights’ quarters have thicker walls.” He shot Brady a sly smile.
“Fuck you,” Brady growled.
Carlo fluttered his eyelashes. “Oh, Stonewall, we can’t, not anymore, not now that you have a mate.”
Devon snort-laughed, and Lloyd bit back a smile.
“Insubordination …” Brady mumbled, but there was a twinkle in his eye.
The trial kicked off in an hour, and I was so ready.
Lloyd held out his hand. “Bring it in, guys.”
We all laid our hands into the huddle.
“We stick together, we have each other’s backs, and we cross that finish line together,” Lloyd said.
“Together,” we all echoed.
“Okay. One. Two. Three. Let’s go.”
Excitement and nerves writhing in my stomach, I followed the guys out of the dorm.
* * *
We gatheredon the border of sector three in teams of six. The mist was thick and cloying. I stifled a cough. Shit, it was bad enough in sector two; what would sector three be like once we got inside?
A couple of knights on hounds bounded up and down the line, taking a headcount, no doubt, checking to see if we were all here.
They separated to flank us, and then a voice boomed out through the mist.
“Five hours, cadets. That’s all that lies between you and knighthood. Follow the route plotted, collect the flags, and get back to base. Good luck.”
A sharp crack like a gunshot ripped through the air, and we were off. Barreling into sector three like our lives depended on it. The course was mapped in my head. Five hours to traverse the length of the sector. From the edge closest to the Academy, all the way to the outer edge, then back, headed to the fortress. They’d given us coordinates and compasses, but we had no idea what the terrain would be like.
The mist curled around us, bringing visibility down by almost fifty percent. Fuck, how did the knights work in this? Brady yanked me to the left, so I narrowly missed slamming into an AM post. Fuck.
“Slow down,” Lloyd said. “We need to be careful. We don’t know what lies ahead.”
