Page 7 of Shadow Master
He reached for me, but I cut him off with a wave of my hand. “No. Don’t. I would rather lose you as a lover than lose you completely, do you understand me?”
His throat worked, and he took a shuddering breath. “Fine. I’ll walk away. I give you my word, but only after I’ve accompanied you into enemy territory, only after we have Brady back home. After that, I’ll back off. Those are my terms.”
Fucking hell. I wanted to throw my arms around him. To kiss him until I couldn’t breathe. Instead, I nodded curtly and turned away.
“Agreed. Now, let’s get this meeting sorted.”
I picked up the pace and ran up the Academy steps, pushing away all other thoughts except tactical ones. Nerves swirled in the pit of my stomach, because having the cadets at my back was one thing, but getting the Nightwatch Council onboard would be another.
“They’ll have to assist,” Archer said. “This affects us all.”
I didn’t ask how he could know what I was thinking. My emotions were probably scrawled all over my face in permanent marker.
He gently gripped my elbow to stall me and turned me to face him. The sun was dropping in the sky and setting it on fire, so he was bathed in oranges and reds. His dark hair gleamed with streaks of gold as he looked down on me.
“You’ve got this, Indigo,” he said. “Henrich never did anything lightly. If he gave you that pin, then he saw a leader in you.”
And it was time to prove him right.
I made to push open the door just as a crack like lightning split the sky. The world went white for a split second and then was filled with a cacophony of sound. Shouts and exclamations.
“Indigo…” Hyde was staring at something behind me.
I turned slowly to see a wave of eager bodies climbing out of the fountain. A sea of faces greeted us. Old and young, nightblood, moonkissed, and feyblood, and there, amongst them, was a face I’d hoped never to see again.
The face of the man who’d raised me.
Baron Justice.
Four
I’d barely locked gazes with Baron Justice, the man I’d known as my father all these years, when another figure cut past him and caught my attention. Tall, powerfully built, with shoulder-length hair so blond it was almost silver, the man cut through the crowd of bodies and toward the Academy doors as if he owned the place. A breeze blew back his hair to expose his ears. They were pointed. Feyblood maybe? But then his scent hit me—otherworldly and intoxicating.
Oh, God, was this—
“Mr. Winterlock,” Hyde said stiffly. “What’s going on?”
Winterlock, as in Orion Winterlock? Motherfucker.
Orion arched a dark brow, which was totally at odds with his silver hair, and then glanced behind himself as if only just noticing his entourage.
“I’ve initiated Protocol Haven,” he said.
Hyde sucked in a sharp breath.
“What?” I looked up at his suddenly pale face. “What is it?”
It was Orion who answered. “An evacuation protocol for essential personnel should the mortal world be breached by an unfathomable entity.”
Wait, what? “Breached? What do you mean?”
He looked down his nose at me, taking me in for the first time. His attention dropped to my armor. “Miss Justice, I presume. The female shadow cadet. Or are you a knight now? Did she graduate, Hyde?”
Hyde took a deep breath. “Mr. Winterlock, we need to talk.”
* * *
Classes had been suspendedand students ordered to remain in their dorms. Winterlock and his essential personnel, which turned out to be the Nightwatch Council and their families, were gathered in the ballroom.
