Chapter 10
Rowan
ai Grayson is already inside the commandant’s office by the time
Kyrian leads me up to it, as are two other officers who’ve been
summoned to participate in mast. I look down at my clothes, which
are combat black instead of the enchanter red I’m supposed to be wearing,
and the pit in my stomach drops a few more miles. I try to at least iron out
the wrinkles with my hands. These aren’t even dress blacks.
“I doubt your clothes will be a central issue,” Kyrian says, stopping me
a few steps short of the door. He is also wearing training blacks, but on him
they look like a panther’s shiny coat and fit for royalty. Even his tousled
hair appears artfully arranged instead of unkept.
“It won’t be a central issue, but it won’t help.”
Kyrian frowns then studies me, tilting his head like a dog. “You are
terrified.” He says it as if it’s news. And curious news at that.
“Of course I am. What were you expecting me to feel?”
He shrugs a shoulder. “Dread, apprehension, annoyance. Take your
pick. But terror is taking it a bit far in my opinion.”
“What bloody world have you been living in for the past two years?”
the words escape my mouth before I can think better of it. “She is going to
order me to the post. And I don’t imagine anything about what that feels
like.”
“She?”
“The commandant, Kyrian.”
“The commandant isn’t going to do anything.” Kyrian rocks back on his
heels. “This will be Grayson’s show.”
“From the frying pan into the fire. He is the one who called the mast.”
“Because that arsehole ye call your boyfriend will have reported
everything to the commandant before breakfast anyway.”
Collin? No. He wouldn’t have.
Kyrian catches my cheek in his hand and tilts my face up to meet his
gaze. The pressure of his thumb against my tight jaw consumes my senses
for a moment, reminding me how it felt being between him and Kai last
night. That false sense of absolute security, that came before the pain.
“Grayson will not let you bleed at the post,” Kyrian says softly, “if
that’s what has you in knots. I’m certain of that.”
I snort without humor and try to pull away, but Kyrian holds fast.
“Of course he will,” I tell him. “Why do you think they moved the mast
up? The commandant wants to send a message on discipline, start the year
off on the right foot.” I swallow. “Plus have you met Grayson? The way he
killed last night? The man can’t tell the difference between blood and
oxygen.” For that matter, I’m not sure Kyrian or Logan can either, so this
may be a moot point. In fact, this whole conversation is surreal.
I suddenly recall the look Kyrian gave me last night, the quickly
concealed assessment of an enemy, and step away from him. Hard.
Kyrian drops his hand away and knocks on the closed door. “You will
not be flogged today, chaos,” he says quietly over his shoulder. “Not
because Grayson is kind—he is not—but because you don’t deserve to be.”
“Chaos?”
“If the name fits,” he says just as the door to the office opens.
Two heartbeats later I’m once again standing in front of the
commandant’s desk, though this time colonels Leeroi and Dra’ash flank my
mother on either side. Kyrian, as my direct superior, is behind me and Kai
stands to the side, the third point of the doomsday triangle.
“Well?” The commandant asks. The only part of the woman sitting
behind the desk that is my mother, is the part that worries about how my
behavior might reflect on her. “What’s happened, Commander?”
“Cadet Lexington snuck out into Doverly last night,” Kai says evenly.
He has his arms crossed over his chest as if this whole mast is an imposition
on his schedule, and one that he’d like finished sooner rather than later. “I
found her there personally. She is charged with being absent without leave
past curfew.”
“Explain yourself,” the commandant orders me.
“No explanation, ma’am,” I say, which is what’s expected. I don’t even
understand why she bothers to ask the question.
“Given the situation—” Kai continues, but the commandant cuts him
off. I’d give Kyrian the I told you so look if he wasn’t standing behind me.
That, and if my heart wasn’t pounding loudly enough to replace marching
drums.
“- I would like to obtain a better understanding of this situation,
Commander,” she says, ignoring the way shadows snap out around Kai,
leaking like deadly ink to the floor. Her face swings toward me, her gray
eyes as hard as the metal they echo. “Cadet Lexington.”
“Ma’am?”
“I’ve reports placing you in the middle of a treasonous riot, one you
yourself may have started. So I am going to ask you again. What were you
doing at the Wishing Well Inn, if not instigating treason?”
Well, when put that way, the truth seems pretty good in comparison. “I
was distributing a cough elixir I made to civilians, children mostly,” I say
quickly. My mind spins, wondering what reports she is talking about. The
only other Spire people at the inn, besides me and the azure twins, were
Ellie and Trish. The girls would never say anything, and neither would
Collin. So who’s left? “I was there when the riot broke out, ma’am, but I
certainly didn’t start it.”
The commandant leans back in her chair and tents her fingers. “So you
stole medical supplies, abused your access to the Spire’s workshop, and
misused your position as an enchanter trainee all to run an unsanctioned
project that ended in rioting civilians.” It’s not a question. “Where would
we be now if Commander Grayson hadn’t pro-actively dispatched the
officers to the area and Squad Leader Chambers hadn’t been there to settle
the rioters?”
Wait. The only thing Collin settled was an upturned bucket. My jaw
tightens. Coud Kyrian be right about Collin talking?
The addition of insult to injury stings that much more. Collin is the one
person who’s always been there to guard my back, to stand between what
the gods dealt me and my family’s expectations.
The walls of the commandant’s office seem to widen away from me,
leaving me alone and exposed in their center. I say nothing. There is
nothing to say.
“Let us try a simpler question,” the commandant says. “Who else was
with you?”
My pulse spikes so high that it cuts off my breath, and it takes a moment
to summon my voice. “No one, ma’am. I was alone,” I say, not daring to
look Grayson’s way. Please don’t have noticed Trish and Ellie, please don’t
have noticed Trish and Ellie.
My mother’s brows narrow on me.
“I found Cadet Lexington alone, unguarded and ill prepared for the
situation,” Kai says with more than a hint of disgust. “I would hope that had
others been present, at least one of them would have had enough situational
awareness to make wiser life choices.”
The two colonels beside my mother snort softly, and a fraction of my
tension releases into the floor. Whatever is going to happen, Ellie and Trish
won’t suffer for it. Though the way Kai phrased his words leaves me certain
that he knows exactly who my co-conspirators are. Knowledge that he’ll no
doubt weaponize in the future.
For today though, I’ll take the win.
Colonel Dra’ash rubs his long mustache, fighting a smile. “I think you
may be giving twenty-three year olds too much credit, Commander
Grayson.”
The commandant presses her lips together and turns to Kai. “The
repercussions of this incident will set the tone for the rest of the year. I
would like it made clear to all cadets that the Spire addresses all misconduct
immediately and severely, with no special treatment afforded to anyone.
The queen’s niece included. Set the punishment accordingly.”
Here we go. My body freezes on me, my eyes dropping to the floor. My
breath halts.
“I agree with you completely, Commandant,” Kai replies, killing what
little hope I had in my chest that Kyrian was right. Uncrossing his arms, he
drapes them behind his back, his muscles rippling with even those small
motions. “This incident is an important opportunity to clarify expectations
for all cadets involved. Especially those in the positions of leadership.” He
turns to face me, but then his gaze shoots right over my head. “Squad
Leader Sorel.”
Wait, what?
Kyrian steps forward, effectively placing himself between Kai and me.
The way he did at Wishing Well Inn. “Sir?”
“As Cadet Lexington’s squad leader, the responsibility for her
whereabouts and actions falls to you. Your dereliction of this duty last night
led to the endangerment of both personnel and property. As such, you will
personally stand night shift watch outside her quarters every day for the
next two weeks.”
I inhale sharply. Two weeks with barely any sleep, bar what he catches
during the training day? That’s somewhere between barbaric and
impossible.
Kai rotates back to the commandant and inclines his head.
“Additionally, with your permission, I will now be requiring all squad
leaders to submit daily written accountability reports of all cadets under
their command, to be continued until such a time as I’m satisfied with their
competence.”
The commandant’s brow rises. “That will be a very unpopular order,
Commander Grayson.”
“I was unaware that being liked was part of my responsibilities,
ma’am.”
“I see.” She leans forward. “And as for Cadet Lexington herself?”
“Cadet Lexington plainly has too much time on her hands and not
enough discipline to use it wisely,” Kai says with a dismissive tone. “I’m
confident Squad Leader Sorel will now find a more worthwhile activity to
occupy her. For instance, Cadet Lexington may benefit from instruction on
how to not get herself killed the moment she steps out of the school house.”
“Yes, sir,” Kyrian echoes smoothly, as if his own best friend hadn’t just
sentenced him to two weeks of hell.
The commandant looks at the two colonels at her side, who nod their
approval. Kai has read her perfectly, I have to give him that. He handed the
commandant everything she wanted and then some: Accountability.
Discipline. And nothing to mar her legacy. After all, what better way to
ensure that none of my disgrace blows back on the commandant, than to
shift the blame away from the Ainsley line entirely.
Best of all, in my mother’s eyes, Grayson punishing his best friend will
strike terror in the hearts of all other cadets. I doubt anyone will dare to step
out of line after this.
It’s vicious and brilliant. And it works out deceptively well in my favor.
Which is one thing I know better than to expect from the azure twins.
Something more is coming. It has to.
I keep my mouth shut as we are dismissed from the commandant’s
office and clear the stairs back to ground level, Kai and Kyrian walking like
sentries beside me. Then I turn to Grayson. “Well?”
Kai cocks a brow without breaking his stride. “Is there a sentence to go
with that?”
“What do you want from me?” I ask, nearly jogging to keep up with
their longer strides. “Because there is no way in hell you just got me out of
trouble out of the goodness of your heart.”
“Out of trouble?” A chilly smile touches Kai’s lips. “Oh, you aren’t out
of trouble by a longshot. What I got up there is license to do with you as I
wish without anyone looking over my shoulder.”
Fuck.
I realize I said that aloud when Kyrian stifles a laugh. I still don’t
understand why he isn’t more pissed, but maybe he is one of those people
who doesn’t need sleep or something.
“Presumptuous,” says Kai.
Kyrian does laugh at that.
Kai punches his shoulder, which only makes Kyrian laugh harder.
Ignoring him, Kai returns his attention to me, all spots of humor
disappearing from his face at once. It’s as if the sight of me reminds him of
something unsavory. “I promised the commandant to find something
worthwhile to occupy your time.”
“Technically, you said Kyrian—”
“You are going to ensure Logan passes his mathematics exams,” Kai
says, interrupting me. “And he, in return, is going to ensure your next
practical assessment doesn’t read like a clairvoyant account of your likely
demise.”
He brings us to a halt beside a door, and I realize we’ve walked all the
way into the combat cadet barracks. Kai pounds on the wood three times,
then pushes it open without waiting for a reply. Which is extremely
unfortunate because we find Logan on the other side—balls deep inside a
blonde he has bent over his desk. I thank the gods I cannot see the girl’s
face.
“Rut off, assholes,” Logan says over his shoulder, not slowing his
pumping on account of us. The blonde moans loudly.
My face flames and I try to back out, only to hit my back against a wall
of Kyrian’s hard chest. “Shouldn’t we wait until he is… done?” I say under
my breath.
“He is never done,” says Kyrian. “He just takes occasional life breaks.”
“Not inaccurate,” Logan agrees. His britches are mostly on, but the top
of his ass cheeks are visible above the open waistline and they clench in
rhythm to his nonchalant thrusting. “What do the lot of you want?”
“Oh, I don’t want anything,” Kyrian says, retreating back into the
hallway. “I’m just here for the entertainment.”
“I on the other hand am here to facilitate proper introductions,” Kai
says, pushing past Kyrian. “Logan, this is Rowan Lexington. Rowan, this is
Logan. Congratulations. My headaches are now your headaches.”
With that, the bastard leaves, shutting the door behind him.
