Page 10 of Warrior's Reign
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Reign stumbledback as the gray cowled male disengaged, leaping smoothly away. He settled into a waiting stance as a brush of awareness feathered over her spine. Reign blinked, shaking her head. She’d recognized the higher level Forms, master level sequences she’d only just begun to learn.
Gray Yna Ipaluk robes, trimmed in white, the highest level besides the silverAdekhyuntrim. The garb, the stance, the silent waiting—the combo slapped her in the face and it took a moment longer than normal to regain her breath. Numar’s student, alright. Reign was one of the few who didn’t drape herself in the shades of gray robes graduates were entitled to wear, and only because it brought too much attention. A human graduate of Yna Ipaluk? Right. That had gotten her into some brawls.
Raking the still male with a brief glare, Reign spun and stalked towards Ibukay, grabbing her by the arm.
“Inside, now,” she snapped, realizing part of her edged nerves were because his tall, broad shouldered form reminded her of another male who relentlessly, and Silently, put her through her paces.
Reign still didn’t know whether to hate him for abandoning her just when she’d begun to master Silence, or to hunt him down. So she tried not to think about him at all.
Her knee throbbed, and she’d have to find a bone sealer and finagle the bruise on her ribs. Ibukay’s medtech should have one in his or her kit. Now that adrenaline was fading, pain made its usual appearance, along with anger.
The male had been toying with her. Her mind ran through the fight as they approached and entered a private lift of transparent material, the asshole slipping inside with them, remaining as far from Reign as the space would allow.
He could have taken her with any of those master level Forms any time he’d wanted. He’d been testing her, drawing her out to put her through her paces. He had no fucking right.
On the heels of that thought was a sigh. Of course he had the right. It was a goddamn job interview from hell.
“Do you want to introduce your guy?” Reign asked when she was certain her voice was even. If Vykhan was Silent, any show of messy anger would only sink his assessment of her. “One of Numar’s, you said?”
Ibukay cleared her throat. “Vykhan, this isAdejahnaReign Obe’shan.” He’d have her file and Ibu had already mentioned he’d thoroughly researched her anyway. “Reign, may I present Vykhan Rhyksai, my FirstAdekhan?”
“Charmed,” Reign said.
Ibu smiled in a determined kind of way. “He likes to surprise attack his team members. He says it’s training.”
“Does he speak for himself?”
The First remained silent, the chill emanating from him making it very, very clear Ibukay’s decision to pull an old human friend onto the security team hadn’t gone over well.
Petty anger surged at his refusal to speak. “You know what? I’ll take the job. I don’t even care what the package is. Haeemah be praised.” She even managed to say that without sarcasm.
Screw this elitist asshole. If he was an acolyte of Haeemah, he was about as Silent as a spaceport. Or he allowed her to feel his disdain as a subtle form of insult, refusing to mask his emotions as he would for an equal or an enemy he respected.
Asshole rubbed her the wrong way, and how dare he put her through her paces, as if he was testing her fitness to serve. Son of a—
She cut off her internal swearing, mentally whispering a chant for calm, emptying her mind of heat.
The lift slid open, announcing the level in a cool contralto voice, the required security clearances, and consequences if one stepped a single foot outside the lift without said clearances.
“I’m not cleared, Ibukay. Will I set off any alarms?”
“I already had your genetic imprint coded in.” TheBdakhunhurried out of the lift while Reign stared after her. Where the hell had Ibu gotten. . .shit. Vykhan, taking care not to brush shoulders, strode past Reign after the princess.
Reign moved, catching up in ten seconds flat. “Ibu, we need to talk.”
Ibukay’s hand rested on a palm plate in front of a door. The hall was wide enough for three people to walk down shoulder to shoulder, elegantly appointed in muted colors and expensive accents. This wasn’t the wing for vacationers on a budget.
“Of course,” Ibukay said as the door slid open. “I’ll order room service. My penthouse is a floor up, this level is where my staff and security stay when I’m in residence. There’s a restaurant two levels down.”
Reign prowled the suite, more from habit than anything else, checking the exits, peering out windows and searching the suite’s devices for cameras and explosives. She turned to find Ibu and Vykhan watching her, the latter standing with his arms crossed, the former grinning.
“This will work out nicely,” Ibukay said, rubbing her hands.
“It takes more than a basic sweep of a room any novice is trained to perform to make a guard for aBdakhun,” Vykhan said.
Reign seized herself before she could twitch, giving her startled reaction to the deep, cool voice away. She’d expected something nasal and prissy. Not the sonorous, cultured tones coming from beneath the hood. Something tugged at the back of her mind, and she filed it away to examine later.
