Page 45 of Wicked Enemy

“Yeah, no,” I began, still trying to wrap my mind around the fact thatthatwas what he thought had happened. “That’s not…”

“Remember when you failed the preliminary tests?” He gave me a small smile. A smile full of old memories. “Because you couldn’t get your wind magic to move in the right direction?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“You were so angry. You stomped out of the testing area and swore that you would never try it again. That you would never even bother to apply to the constable forces. And then you just took off and disappeared for an entire week.”

My insides twisted with both pain and sadness. I had spent that week in our old tavern. It was someone else’s tavern at that point, obviously, but I had broken into their attic and spent the entire week crying in there because I felt like I was failing my father.

“I was seventeen back then,” I said, trying to swallow past the sudden lump in my throat. “I’m not a teenager anymore.”

Ulric blew out a long sigh. Closing the distance between us, he placed his hands on my shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “I know, kiddo. But you’re still you. And you still react the same way to situations when you feel like you’re failing. I know that being demoted hurt. And that it hurt even more when Chief laid into you at that meeting in front of everyone. But you can’t just disappear when things get rough.”

I had the absolutely insane urge to laugh in his face. Yes, being demoted and then berated in front of everyone hurt like hell, but I hadn’t run away like some kind of moody teenager. I had been kidnapped by a worldwalker and then tortured by his goons.

Just standing there on the floor, I studied Ulric’s face as he gave me a patient smile.

It pained me more than I wanted to admit that he thought so little of me. That he really thought that I had just run away from my duties like some kind of spoiled brat just because the chief told me no. And all I wanted to do was to tell him what had really happened. Tell him about the hell that I had really been through these past three days. But I couldn’t.

That tale contained far too many incriminating parts. For one, I had gone against Chief’s direct order and run to Levi’s Court to warn Gemma. Then I had been held in that cabin because the worldwalker had assumed that I meant something to Levi. And then Levi, the King of Metal and our enemy number one, had actually come to save me. Even if he had only done it for his own selfish reasons, so that he wouldn’t look weak, the fact still remained that he had saved me. Me. A constable. How was I even supposed to explain that to Ulric? Let alone to Chief Anderson?

So instead of informing him that I had been kidnapped and tortured, and not run away like a child, I cleared my throat and gave him an apologetic smile. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

“Good.” He gave my shoulders another squeeze before releasing me and nodding towards the door. “Now, go to your desk and get your colleagues to fill you in on everything that has happened here while you’ve hadfood poisoning.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Even though it wasn’t my fault that I had been absent for three days, I for some reason still felt guilty as I left his office and walked back to the large open room where my colleagues had been working without me for the past few days.

“You didn’t have food poisoning, did you?” Jamila said the moment I walked across the threshold.

Continuing towards my desk, I adopted the perfectly innocent and confused expression that I had honed for months while I worked undercover to screw over Levi. “Yes, I did.” I frowned at her, as if she was being deliberately slow. “We had seafood for lunch that day, remember?”

Uncertainty blew across their faces as they glanced from one to the other.

Then Frank ran a hand over his jaw, a considering look on his face, while saying, “Yeah, you’re right. We did.”

I shrugged as I plopped down in my chair. “Mine must have been undercooked or something. I threw up twice that afternoon.”

Which was true. Except I had done it because White had unexpectedly worldwalked me out into the hills and not because of bad seafood.

“Lunch today was the first thing I’ve eaten in days,” I finished.

Also true. But again, not for the reasons they might think.

They must have been able to hear the truth in my carefully selected words because they all nodded, now thoroughly convinced.

“Sorry,” Jamila said with a grimace. “That must’ve been awful.”

“Yeah, it was.” Adjusting my chair so that I could meet their gazes properly, I gave them my best smile and said, “So, what have I missed while I was gone?”

A strange sense of tension mixed with conspiratorial excitement washed over their features as they all exchanged a look.

“You know that clerk who works on the ground floor?” Jamila began. “Ben Watson?”

I had dealt with him quite a lot. As had we all, since he was one of the closest clerks to our department.

Frowning, I replied, “Yeah?”

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