Page 76 of The Song of Sunrise
The same new recruit that Vega is charging at:me.
Leaf shifts his large body, blocking my view.
“That Watcher wannabe bard is a distraction!” Vega yells.
My chest tightens. What could I have possibly done?
Vega continues to yell, not caring that the entire cafeteria is listening. “Our team is going to fail because you cannot get your head out of your pants, Castor!”
My cheeks flush at the insinuation. I haven’t been with many men, and certainly not Castor—at least not yet—but why would she be so upset anyway that this is ruining their… team?
I peek around Leaf at them. Castor, Vega, and Pictor. A third-stone, second, and first, with only one thing in common: champions for the Elders. Castor for Elder Hightail, Vega for Elder Davenpath, and Pictor for Elder Bourroughs. The soup I was enjoying suddenly turns heavy in my stomach.
“Leave Akemi out of this! I told you I was going to warn her. She deserves to know.” Castor raises his voice back.
At the sound of my name, heads glance in my direction, eyes like moths on my skin, itching and crawling until I can no longer stand it.
“I got this,” Ramona says so low that only Leaf and I can hear. “Leaf, take her to our room.”
Leaf grabs my arm, dragging me through the cafeteria and corridors like I’m a prisoner. Only when we are right outside my room do I finally manage to break away from his grip.
I round on him. “What was that all about?”
“Vega is someone you don’t want to cross. I was saving you from a storm of trouble.”
“I don’t need saving!” I practically yell as I throw open the door to my room.
“I’m sorry, I’m just—”
“—doing what Ramona says, what Castor says?” My voice sounds cold and harsh. “Why don’t you do something of your own accord for once.”
The room is suddenly too small. I ignore Leaf’s wince. I know he doesn’t deserve my fury right now, but after dragging me to my room with no real clue as to why, I’m fuming.
The door opens and Castor barges through, Romona on his heels.
“Akemi, I’m sorry,” he says, reaching for me.
I step backward. “What is this all about? Why was Vega yelling at me?”
Castor’s expression hardens into his usual mask of indifference. “She was mad because I wanted to tell you about the Summit. What’s happening next.”
Castor knows the next Summit task?I look at Ramona and Leaf for support. Both are inspecting the thread count on the rug. Like they know whatever is going on and weren’t planning on telling me. What. The. Fuck.
“It’steams.” The words rush out of Castor. “The next Summit task. It’s going to be in our sponsor teams. That’s why I’ve been training with Vega and Pictor.”
“We wanted to tell you sooner, but our sponsors swore us to secrecy!” Ramona justifies. “You’ve been in the infirmary and only out for a little while… we didn’t want to cause you any more stress.”
I want to laugh, cry, and scream into the cracks that are forming in my perfectly melded exterior. My friends were keeping this from me. I try not to let my hurt show on my face.
“Fuck secrecy,” Castor says, pleading for forgiveness, the deal as clear as the blue skies of his irises: I warned him about the first task, and now he tells me about this one.
We are even then.
“What is the task?” I ask, putting aside my hurt to dissect another time.
“It’s going to be a race with challenges along the way, we think. Physical obstacles that are designed to be strenuous. Then you finish with a logic test, a riddle of some sort,” Castor explains.
“We think it’s happening next week,” Leaf says quietly, the usual merriment in his tone absent. If I wasn’t too numb and hurt, a part of me would feel bad for taking out my anger on him earlier. But they were keeping this from me. All three of them!
