Page 5 of Shadow Master
Just us, a ragtag group of cadets who hadn’t even graduated yet. In his last moments, Henrich had slapped on the shackles. My heart urged me to run, to drop the seal and fucking run after Brady, but my head warned me to stop. Think. Even if I got to Brady, even if I saved him, what would we have to come back to? If I left now, like this, if I didn’t fortify our stance, what world would I be coming back to?
“Justice?” Lloyd prompted again.
I could feel all their eyes on me. Feel the weight as it settled on my shoulders like a deadly shroud. I closed my eyes and summoned Brady’s face. I was going to find him. As soon as we rebuilt our army. As soon as we fortified, I would find him. I’d avenge Hyde’s death. I’d—
“Justice!”
My eyes snapped open, and my pulse went into a full-blown gallop. That voice, that fucking voice. I found him running toward me across the barren, dusty land, through the crimson-tinged air. I saw him, and yet my mind refused to believe it.
How could this be?
How could he be alive?
But then my heart took over, and I was running across the ground toward him.
“Hyde!”
Three
We met in an embrace, lips crushing together in a kiss desperate to affirm that yes, this was real. This was us. Together, unharmed. He breathed me in, his hands cupping my face hard, his body crowding mine in a welcome invasion.
Voices filtered through the rush of blood in my head, through the heat that flooded my body, and then Hyde pulled away, just enough to look into my eyes. Enough to whisper, “You’re alive.”
“I thought you were dead.” My voice cracked, and I swallowed the sudden rush of relief and grief that surged up my throat. “I thought they got you, too.”
“We saw the smoke and heard the explosion. The earth trembled with it.”
“We?”
“I was in a meeting with Brunner that ran later than anticipated when it happened. Garnet and Latrou were there, too.” His expression was shell-shocked.
Yeah, he was getting it now… How lucky he’d been. How he’d survived by the skin of his teeth. He could have been in the fortress. The delay had saved his life.
The thud of boots signaled the arrival of some of the cadets. I needed time to process, to take Hyde in, to hold on to him, to kiss him again, but there was no time. The clock was ticking fast. The fomorians could still be in the mist. They could be damaging the AM posts as we spoke. The dead needed to be buried, families notified…Carlo…I needed to say goodbye properly. There was too much to be done. Panic bloomed hot and liquid in the pit of my stomach. No. No time for that shit. I gripped Henrich’s pin tighter to ground me, reveling in the sharp edges that dug into my palm. He’d believed in me. It was time I did the same.
I stepped out of Hyde’s embrace. “All the knights are dead. The fortress is gone.” I stood taller. “We need to fortify. We need more men and women in the mist.”
The cadets drew abreast of us, and Hyde’s gaze flicked up to them and then back to me.
“Is this all that’s left?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, there are some more back up the rise at the ruins, but I think that’s all. The fomorians murdered a troop in the mist; they could have gotten to more. The rest may have been picked off by the mist creatures. We need to assume this is all we have left. We’ll need more men and women if we’re going to keep the mist safe.”
“There are no reinforcements,” Hyde said. “We don’t get new cadets till we get a new batch of recruits at the end of the year.”
There was a murmur of unease amongst the cadets who’d joined me at the bottom of the rise.
I clutched the pin tighter. It was my job to take charge. “Then we use Nightwatch agents.” I raised my chin. “We use whoever we can. The mist needs to be patrolled, or the fomorians will use our weakness to take out the AM posts.”
“Fine,” Hyde said. “I’ll see what I can do. The rest of you head to barracks two and three,” he ordered.
No one moved.
Hyde frowned. “What the fuck? Are you deaf?”
No, they weren’t. They were waiting for my orders. For the Shadow Master to tell them what they needed to do. Heat blossomed in my chest. Purpose and something akin to pride.
Lloyd nodded slightly. It was a nudge to do it, to be who I needed to be.
