Page 92 of Shadow Master
“Harmon is administering to Balan’s troops now.”
The ashes of the dead could wait. We had wounded to administer to, and we had an army to feed.
“Let’s get to work.”
Epilogue
ONE WEEK LATER
Ipadded into the shadow cadet dorm lounge in my gray slippers and fluffy white gown, rubbing sleep from my eyes. That was the first full night’s sleep I’d had all week. But it had been worth the wait. I adored sleeping with the guys; after all, the extracurricular activity was great, but I’d needed one night with the bed to myself.
The cadets were back at the Academy, and Brunner had restarted lessons. Her reasoning—we needed to get back to normality, even if the port was still closed. There’d been no word from the outside yet, but Helseth and Latrou were convinced it was only a matter of time. The council were making themselves at home in the weavers’ dorms for now, and the cadets had helped Brunner take inventory of food stock. We had another three months of food if needed, but the herbology tutor had already set students to work planting vegetables in the greenhouses just in case.
I yawned and stretched before popping the coffee pot on to boil. The guys would be up soon. They’d been pandering to me for the last two days by making coffee and pancakes in the morning. It was about time I returned the favor.
I started on the batter and was giving it a good beating when Hyde entered the room, bringing the aroma of citrus body wash with him. I grinned. Yeah, I’d been tempted to join him in the shower, but then I’d have been late to make breakfast, and hell, I’d have probably gone back to bed.
“Pancakes?” he asked, wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing my neck. “You should let me do that.”
“Why, because you think I’ll burn them?”
He chuckled. “No, because I like taking care of you.”
“It works both ways. But you can fry some bacon.”
“Our last packet?”
I nodded. “It’ll go off if we don’t eat it.”
He released me and set to work.
The past week had been … different. The barriers between us were down. There was no more pretending. Hyde and I accepted that there was no point fighting what we felt. Orion knew about us, and when he left here, he would do what he wanted. We couldn’t control his actions. But we could make the most of the time we had. With the stress stripped away, Hyde was warm, loving, attentive. All the things I’d known he would be. All the things I loved.
Brady entered the room a moment later, looking grumpy. Hyde poured a cup of coffee and handed it to him. Brady grunted and took a huge gulp.
His face relaxed. “Thanks.”
“You want bacon?” Hyde asked.
“Dumb question, Archer.”
Hyde chuckled.
I was still getting over this buddy thing with these two. Ever since I’d told Brady and the rest of the guys about Orion and his law, their attitude had shifted. I’d thought, what the hell, Orion already wanted me and Hyde dead, he couldn’t kill me any harder, and I doubted he’d be able to kill all the guys and manage to cover that up.
Plus, I was fed up with the whole fucking thing. It felt minute and insignificant in the face of the shit we’d just gone through. I was done with walking on eggshells.
“I don’t like fucking bullies,” Brady had said. “And if he wants to touch you or Hyde, he’ll have to go through me and the guys.”
It was weird, but the threat of the consequences of breaking Orion’s law had brought us together. Made us stronger.
Kash padded in a moment later, his hair all mussed from sleep, lips all pouty and in need of kisses.
“Food,” he groaned. “Please.”
Brady chuckled and plucked a slice of bacon off the plate Hyde was loading and held it up over Kash. Kash tipped back his head and opened his mouth like a baby bird, and Brady dropped the bacon in before ruffling Kash’s hair.
Yeah, that was another development. Brady taking Kash under his wing and playing big brother. It was kinda cute.
