Page 27 of The Stone Survival
“We are.”
“But I have been wondering what will happen when we’ve stopped the faction.”
Huh? “What do you mean?”
“The alpha isn’t a villain, not like we’ve been led to believe, so once the real villains are taken down, what then? Will there even be a call for guardians? Let alone elites?”
I came to a sudden halt. “Fuck, I never thought of that…”
He shrugged. “Our world will change.” He kept walking, and I jogged to catch up.
“But that means no more tower. No more team…”
“There’ll always be some threat to fight. Order to be kept. The elite won’t be a thing any longer, but we’ll always be friends.”
He sighed dramatically. “Or we could all die horrifically at the hands of the enemy.”
“Not happening. We’re going to win because…because we have to.”
He chuckled. “Well, that’s the best reason I’ve ever heard.”
“Shut up!” I elbowed him, and he elbowed me back. We both burst out laughing.
Maybe things between us would be all right after all.
CHAPTER 13
Iwas flagging by the time dinner rolled around. We’d barely had any sleep between the elite trial and getting back to the academy. And although goyles didn’t require much shut-eye, we weren’t machines. It was worse for me. Being part human meant I needed more sleep than the others.
So while Touron and the twins regaled us with tales from training, I sat beside Serath, elbows on the table, hands propping up my head, eyes at half-mast.
“Then Hawke was like, ‘I’ll shove the damn sword up your ass,’” Touron said.
Everyone laughed, but I’d missed the story, so I laughed a little too late, sounding a little too forced.
Touron’s brows came together in concern. “Cameron, you look like you’re about to pass out.”
I sat up straighter. “I’m fine. I just need coffee and?—”
Derek placed a cup of coffee in front of me before claiming his spot next to Shar. Wait…Was that a pink headband in her hair?
“We should definitely discuss it,” Orix said.
Discuss what? Shit, what did I miss? Focus, Cameron.
Serath shuffled his chair closer to mine and put his arm around me so I could lean against him. The contact somehow sharpened my focus. I took a sip of my coffee. “What are we discussing? Sorry, I zoned out for a moment.”
“Who the faction might be,” Curi replied. “They could be gargoyles or humans. Or a mixture of both.”
“Halfbloods?” Ginia suggested.
“Someone opened the rift, right?” Palia said. “That’s what Ivor said, correct?”
We all murmured a confirmation.
“Okay, so that someone wanted the relics. They wanted power. So they would have known about the existence of this other world and the relics, right?Andthe rift was opened mystically, using magic because it took magic to close it?”
“You think the witches did it?” Shar asked.
