Page 22 of War Hour

When Lord Drytas had said the Trial was destroyed, I assumed it had caved in. This is something else altogether. Behind the rubble, the tunnel is filled in with a combination of stone and dirt.

Sifting among the destruction is Ardis. Standing with a growl of frustration, he runs a hand through the top of his hair, cursing.

“Looking for something?”

Ardis flinches at my voice, a piece of the door falling from his hand and shattering into shards at our feet. Before I can react, Ardis whips around, withdrawing his sword from the sheathe at his hip, and leveling it at my throat, all within a second.

I don’t dare exhale as his wild eyes search my face, his arm lowering when he recognizes me. He steps back, tension draining from his body as he slouches against the wall. We breathe heavily for a moment before Ardis shakes his head at me.

“Do you have a death wish?” he asks, staring at me incredulously.

Opening and closing my mouth, I struggle for the right response. “How was I supposed to know you’d react like that?”Pointing into his chest, I glare back at him. “Why are you digging around the Trial entrance?”

When Ardis doesn’t answer, I raise an eyebrow in his direction. Ducking around him, I shift to where I can see what he’d been working on.

Most of the larger shards have been placed into their original shape, outlining not only what was once the door, but the broken handprint at the center of it. He’d been putting them together on the floor.

Letting my gaze drift back to Ardis, I examine his nose. Despite the fact that I’d broken it only a week ago, there isn’t a bump, scrape, or bruise anywhere on his face. I narrow my eyes, stepping forward to look closer.

I’ve seen a few broken noses in my day, and none of them looked the same again. But his looks exactly as before—not healed but as if it were never hurt in the first place.

Could his shifting abilities hide injuries? If Ardis notices my sudden attention, he ignores it, instead questioning me in a gruff voice.

“What do you want?”

“You’re supposed to be training me.” I cross my arms, a frown marring my face. “I haven’t been able to track you down all week.”

“And I will.” Ardis brushes past me, leaving the glass pieces behind.

“No, you need to do it now.”

He continues to shuffle down the hall, and I chase him.

I will not face Lord Drytas again without being able to protect myself.

Before, I barely escaped. I couldn’t leave my life to someone who might try to strangle me on a whim because he was having a bad day.

“Why can’t you figure it out on your own?” Ardis says over his shoulder. When we reach an intersection, he looks both ways before looking at me next to him. “You’ve already done it once.”

My face burns, heat creeping over my ears and down my chest.

“You don’t think I would’ve tried myself before coming to you?”

Ardis shrugs before continuing.

Of course he wouldn’t care.

“I can’t get anything to happen.” The words come out quieter. My cheeks are surely a bright red now, as I admit my struggle—my weakness. “And Lord Drytas expects results sooner than I expected. . .”

At the mention of Lord Drytas, Ardis stops cold in his path.

“What did he say?”

Tension laces his tone, and a new wariness settles over him at the name of the Court of Valor’s lord.

Pivoting where he stands, Ardis’s eyes sear into me, and I blink slowly before averting my gaze.

Could he read my mind without me knowing?

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