Page 13 of Shadow Master
Right now, we were defenseless.
While the weavers worked their mojo to create an alarm barrier, while Orion and the council prepped the students for what was to come, my cadets gathered on the fortress grounds behind the ruins.
Dead bodies lined the earth like a twisted offering to the sky. The cadets had retrieved what they could from both the ruins and the mist. Bits and pieces, arms and legs. Too many body parts waiting to rot and smell. I crouched by Carlo. He looked unmarred and peaceful in death. His skin was too pale in the moonlight, lips slightly parted, as if he’d wake up at the slightest nudge. I reached out to touch his cheek, cold like marble that had never been kissed by the sun.
“I love you, Carlo. I’m gonna fucking miss your face.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek, ignoring the sweet smell of death. “I promise I’ll get Brady back. I promise you I’ll make them pay for what they did to you. Goodbye, babe.”
“Justice, it’s time.” Lloyd placed a hand on my shoulder and gently tugged me away.
I joined the troop, Hyde, and Harmon by the forge.
The smell of gasoline stung my nostrils as the cadets doused the bodies. The scratch and flare of a match was followed by awhooshas the bodies ignited. The night was lit up in orange as red sparks made for the skies.
We stood silent, watchful, reflective as our comrades burned.
We’d lost too many men today, and the fomorians would pay.
* * *
The first waveof trainees arrived at the fortress grounds, and the shadow cadets split into troops to train them in combat. The moon was shrouded in clouds now, but nightblood vision meant we didn’t need too many fire sconces to train by.
My mind wandered to Kash. He’d wanted to come with me, but I’d promoted him to troop leader and left him in charge of organizing the weaver cadets. Even though I’d wanted nothing more than to bring him with me, I needed people I could trust out in the field.
I’d sent Hyde to sort out the moonkissed and the feyblood students. As a master, he had the skills needed to organize them into troops and keep morale up. Harmon had opted to help with training, give the cadets an idea of what kind of shit they might be up against. Lloyd had found him some joggers, but they only came to his calves and hung way too low on his hips. Even in beast form, he was a sight to behold, all muscle and ripped abs.
He was still Harmon, but now his physical body matched his huge presence.
Down at the barracks, another lot of students were being shown how to fix AM posts. It would be like this for the next few days, wave upon wave of students being trained in the use of weaponry and the maintenance of feytech.
Armor would have to be adjusted for the females, but we no longer had a forge master to modify it. They’d have to make do with what we could cobble together.
My brain ached, and my heart hurt. I needed a minute, just a minute to myself, but up here in the hive of activity wasn’t where I’d get it. There was only one place to go.
I made my way down to the stables. The building was intact, but no Jemima came out to greet me. No one ran around pushing barrows of meat to feed the hounds.
Oh, fuck.
Of course, they didn’t. The fey who ran the stables had probably all been at the fortress when it exploded. They were all dead.
The hounds were locked up. Unfed. I broke into a light jog down the rise. We’d need to allocate cadets to feed the hounds and exercise them.
Shit.
It was manpower we didn’t have.
Unless … The fucking tutors could do it. They weren’t doing much else.
I entered the gloomy confines of the stable. Fresh hay and a musty, shitty smell mingled. Yeah, stable smells all right. Orion cleaning hound shit? Ha, I had to see that one.
Althos stood as I opened his pen door. His gaze flicked from my face to the spot over my shoulder.
Brady… He was looking for Brady. My throat pinched, and a sharp pain lanced through my heart.
“They took him.” My voice cracked. “The fomorians took him.”
The tears I’d been holding in, all the emotions I’d been tamping down, came rushing up to choke me. I took a stumbling step toward the hound and then reached for him, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my cheek to the side of his huge head.
The tears came silent and hot, grief and anger tearing at me like rabid wolves eager to feast. Brady’s face filled my vision. His expression as he’d walked away, the goodbye in his eyes. He was waiting for me to find him and bring him home, but I was stuck here on management duty.
