Page 12 of Shadow Master
Several gasps filled the air.
These students were no shadow cadets. They didn’t have the gene that brewed aggression and reveled in violence. They didn’t have the gumption for it. But they were all I had. I needed them to stand up and be counted.
No one moved.
Shit.
A chair at the back of the room scraped, and Kash stood. “I’m with you.”
In the movies, his move would have prompted a wave of courage, and people would have stood up one by one, volunteering themselves for potential slaughter. But not in reality.
No one moved.
Silence reigned.
“Seriously?” Kash looked annoyed.
I caught sight of Orion in the periphery of my vision. He sat back in his seat and crossed his arms. He was waiting to see what I’d do now. How I’d handle this situation.
Conscription it would have to be. I opened my mouth to deliver the news, but movement to my left halted me.
Minnie stood and met my eyes. “I’m in,” she said.
“Minnie!” Harper tugged on her sleeve. “What are you doing?”
“The right thing,” Minnie said. She looked around the room. “And so should you all. I mean, you heard what she said. We’re under attack. If we don’t act, then we all die. Our loved ones. Our families.”
“We’re not shadow cadets,” Harper said. “Sit down.”
Minnie frowned. “Are you listening? The knights are dead. We have to do something.”
This was why we’d become friends. This was why we’d connected that first term. Minnie was a fighter. She was brave. The kind of person who’d be scared but do it anyway.
Maybe I could do this without having to conscript. “I know you’re all scared. So am I. But I’m more scared of what will happen if we fail. And without your help, we will fail. Without your help, the mist will dissipate, and the fomorians will enter our world. So, what are you going to do about it? You want to sit on your asses and wait to die, or you want to work at surviving?”
I scanned faces, watching the doubt melt to determination, and then several students stood, prompting more to stand. Ten, twenty, thirty, yes, we could work with this.
“Hell, no.” Minnie shook her head. “Get up. All of you. On your feet.”
Ah, my little soldier.
Harper stood, albeit reluctantly. And then slowly, achingly, the rest of the room came to its feet.
Hyde inclined his head from the back of the hall, a small smile of satisfaction on his face.
I had them. I had them all.
Six
Training the academy cadets would be done in shifts. Dawn for the weavers, the moonkissed, and the feyblood, and sunset for the nightbloods. Unlike the shadow cadet nightbloods, the regular nightbloods didn’t have any strength during the day.
An hour to grieve. That’s all I’d allocated because there was no time for any more.
No time to stop.
Brady was out there.
The fomorians were out there.
