Page 68 of The Stone Initiation
I took the seat and waited.
“Okay. Done.” She looked up with a smile. “If I don’t jot things down, I forget half the time. Such a busy day today.” She paused and studied my face with a wince. “That looks painful.”
I resisted the urge to touch the bruise. “It’s fine. I’ll be fine.”
“Yes…about that. I heard what happened in training class. That blow could have killed you.”
Chlobe had said the same thing. “I’m onlyhalfhuman. I can handle it.”
“Maybe this blow, but what about the next. What about a nastier encounter.” She clasped her hands and rested them on the desk, leaning forward earnestly. “Miss Walker, I admire your tenacity in coming to the academy. Your quick thinking helped you pass the entrance test and saved your life, however, you know, as well as I, that you don’t belong here.”
Hearing her say it so blatantly made my stomach ache. “I knew what I was getting into when I applied.”
“Did you?” She gave me a stern, pointed look. The kind of look meant to root out lies. “The tests, the trials, the training, none of that is public knowledge so you won’t know that we lost four gargoyles in the last six months. Cadets,notguardians. Two during basic training and two during initiate. Pure blood gargoyles died in training.” She let that sit. “And you wish to continue?” There was an edge of exasperation to her tone but it barely registered because she’d just given me the opening I needed.
“You left out the elite who died.”
She blinked sharply. “Sorry?”
“The elite? Romi Basque was it? He died recently, didn’t he? Accident they said?” She looked away and my stomach dropped. I’d been right. It wasn’t an accident. “I was just confused as to what kind of accident could kill an elite.” I gave her my wide eyed confused look.
“A terrible accident,” she said. “The details of which are in a closed file, and nothing for you to concern yourself with.”
Closed file. Confidential…
Dammit. “I’m not leaving here.”
“I strongly advise you to reconsider. The longer you stay, the more chance that you’ll be seriously hurt and the less chance I can get you out.”
“Why do you even care?”
She tutted. “Because I’m human, and because you’re part human. I can arrange for you to leave first thing tomorrow if you want. You can go back to your life. You’ll be safe.”
She meant it. She wanted me gone that bad. But was it really because she was worried about me? “Do you offer this deal to every halfblood that walks through those doors?”
“You’re our first,” she said. “And frankly there should be a law against letting you in. It isn’t safe for you here.” She threw up her hands. “But despite the human governing body’s efforts, halfbloods are under gargoyle claim.”
Shewastrying to help. Maybe even do the right thing, and if I had what I needed, if I felt they weren’t lying to me about Romi, then I’d take her up on her offer and get the fuck out of this place, but I couldn’t do that because everything in me screamed that they were covering up the truth. So, I slapped on a little indignation.
“You think it’s safe out there? With the tulpas, the shifters and the vamps. You think anywhere is safe while the graynites press in on our borders?”
She gave me a wry smile. “Right now, for you, out there is safer than in here, and you know it.”
I kept my expression smooth. “Thank you for the offer. But I’m good. And if that’s all then I’d like to get back to class.”
She held my gaze for several beats, her warm brown eyes begging me to reconsider. I looked back at her unmoved.
“Fine. You’re dismissed. But if you change your mind, then come and see me.”
I would as soon as I had what I needed.
And I knew just where to find it.
I walked slowly past the file room with the metal door and the palm scanner. What I needed was inside that room. Now all I had to do was find a way to get inside.
CHAPTER30
Class was over by the time I got back. The cadets all gone. I could have gone in search of them, but my timetable was empty for the rest of the evening, and I’d had an overload of peopling for the day, so I headed back to the dorm, popped on some sweats ready for a jog and almost bumped straight into Varsa the caretaker on the third floor steps.
