Nate released me, and another Keeper stepped into his place.
“Trust your instincts,” Bridger said. “The fight is in you.”
My throat constricted. What did that even mean?
“Cadet Jensen?” the headmaster called through the microphone. “We’re ready for you.”
Thor met my gaze and gave a single nod. Somehow, his silent gesture filled me with a measure of strength.
The Keepers parted, and I sucked in a breath. I planted one foot in front of the other, propelling myself toward the chalk circle in the center of the field. Several adults stood by the side of the ring, including the headmaster, Professor Danson, and Lydia Sweeting, the librarian. Lydia smiled kindly as I approached, but the headmaster’s expression more closely resembled a grimace. I knew I was dawdling, but I couldn’t make myself move faster. Shonda eyed me like a predator preparing to attack her prey.
By the time I made it into the ring, Shonda was standing in the center. I called heads for the coin toss, but I could tell from the look on Danson’s face after he flipped it that the call hadn’t gone my way.
“Bo staff,” Shonda said confidently.
I gulped. The only training I’d done so far was with a sword. Well, that and hitting the punching bag. I didn’t know the first thing about fighting with a staff.
Bridger whistled from the side of the ring as Shonda and I moved to pick up our weapons from the long table set up across from where the adults stood. “You’ve got this!”
I tried to smile at him despite feeling the opposite.
Shonda’s smirk remained in place as we took our positions in the ring, bo staffs in hand. My muscles tensed as I waited on the whistle.
As soon as the shrill noise cut through the air, I lunged toward Shonda, swiping the staff downward. She jumped out of the way and I banged myself in the shin with the other end of my weapon. Shonda took a swing and I only barely blocked it.
And so went the fight. Every attack I attempted ended in me completely missing my target or somehow smacking myself with my weapon. Shonda’s hits were precise, many times striking my fingers instead of the staff they held. Shouts rose up from the crowd, though whether cheers or jeers, I couldn’t tell.
I called on every technique I’d learned so far, but nothing translated well from sword to bo staff. When I went for a particularly hard hit, Shonda ducked and swiped my feet out from under me. The wind rushed from my lungs as my back slammed against the ground.
The whistle sounded a long way away, and it took a few seconds before I could get my bearings enough to push myself off the grass. Shonda stood nearby, not offering her hand. She simply watched as I struggled to stand.
The Keepers swarmed me. Nate offered his hand and pulled me to my feet. The crowd in the stadium roared, filling my ears.
“You did great,” Clio called.
“Serviceable effort,” Thor said. But he smiled.
Headmaster Kemp moved to Shonda’s side. “What an exciting conclusion to our autumn competition. Congratulations, Cadet Hailwood, on your success. Would you like to say anything to your fellow cadets?”
Shonda snatched the mic from the headmaster. “Yes, I would. I’d like to ask them a question.”
My stomach clenched as she rounded on me, pointing her finger. “Is this really your Keeper? We may as well have put a bo staff in the hands of an infant for as well as she performed.”
Headmaster Kemp reached for the microphone as the crowd cheered, but Shonda twisted away. “With all five Blades active for the first time in generations, it’s clear to anyone with eyes that something dangerous is approaching. Something that could threaten the lives of everyone you love! Can we really put our fate in the hands of this girl?”
“Miss Hailwood!” the headmaster shouted, again grabbing for the microphone. “This is quite—”
Shonda ignored her, turning to lock her gaze on me. “I challenge Eden Jensen for the Aether Blade!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“What was that all about?” Headmaster Kemp demanded, her focus locked on Shonda.
Only after Professor Danson cut the power to the speakers did Shonda give up her strangle-hold on the microphone. Other teachers fanned out to the stands to dismiss the cadets while the headmaster herded me, Shonda, the Keepers, and a handful of assorted adults to the far end of the field, away from the main part of campus.
Standing behind a set of bleachers, I could still hear the drone of voices as students filtered out of the stadium. I could only imagine what kind of gossip was flying amid the cadets as they made their way to the dining hall for dinner.
Shonda straightened her back, her expression striking a balance between haughty and regal. “I should be the Aether Blade’s Keeper.”
The headmaster released a heavy sigh. “I have tried to be understanding, Miss Hailwood, but I’m at the end of my tolerance for indulging your fantasies. The Blade didn’t choose you; it chose Miss Jensen.”
My throat tightened. The Aether Blade hadn’t chosen me—it had given me a chance to escape detection as a demon. Things had spun out of control from there.
“It chose wrong,” Shonda insisted. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Kemp’s attention cut to another person in the group. I followed her gaze and found Lydia Sweeting at the end. “Is that true?”
The librarian pressed her lips together, shrugging. “It might not be entirely inaccurate. There’s a precedent for a Keeper being challenged for their Blade, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the initial choice was incorrect.”
Nate took a step forward, putting himself between Shonda and me. “If you want to challenge someone for a Blade, challenge me.”
“Or me,” Clio said, taking the spot beside him.
“No one ever challenges me,” Bridger said, moving in on Nate’s other side. “I’m starting to feel left out.”
Wordlessly, Thor slid in beside Clio, completing the blockade between me and the perceived threat. My heart clamped in my chest. The four of them had accepted me as one of their own, but I wasn’t. I could never be. I was a demon, and if they knew that, there was no way they would protect me now.
“I don’t want to challenge any of you,” Shonda snapped.
“Why?” Clio asked. “Because you know you’ll lose?”
Shonda’s lip curled. “No. Because I’m not meant for those Blades. I’m meant to Keep the Aether Blade. Something that you would have found out the day of the trial if someone hadn’t stuck Eden in line ahead of me.”
Bridger folded his arms over his chest, but he didn’t respond.
Sighing again, Kemp looked to Lydia. “What were the circumstances surrounding the other times this has happened?”
“Time,” Lydia corrected. “After the Terra Blade’s Keeper suffered a defeat in battle, his attendant challenged him.”
“Well, there you go,” Bridger said dismissively. “Shonda’s not Eden’s attendant.”
Lydia offered an apologetic glance. “As you know, modern Keepers don’t have attendants. And there’s some scholarly debate surrounding what the duties of those attendants might have been back when they were common.”
“Eden wasn’t defeated in battle, either,” Nate said. “That was a sparring match. And Eden’s had less than a week of training. Being a Keeper doesn’t magically make you a talented fighter overnight. She’s had hardly any time to develop her skills.”
“This has nothing to do with skills,” Shonda snarled. “It has to do with the fact that the Aether Blade should be mine. I feel it in my bones. And either you can honor my challenge, or I can take this up with my mother.”
The headmaster held up her hand. “There’s no reason to involve the general in this.”
My stomach lurched. Shonda’s mother was a general? Well, I supposed that accounted for her sense of entitlement.
“I suppose,” Kemp intoned, “we could look into what a challenge should even look like. I suggest we revisit this topic in a week and�
�”
“No way,” Shonda snapped. “I have a call scheduled with my mother tomorrow. I expect this situation to be resolved by then.”
The headmaster was quiet for a long moment before turning to Lydia. “Then it looks like we should head to the library. Cadets, you’re dismissed. And you’re to speak nothing of this to your classmates. They’ll be told what they need to know when it’s appropriate for them to know it.”
“Of course, headmaster,” Shonda said. But as her eyes slid to me, the smirk on her face sent a shiver of ice through me. She strutted toward our group and looped around us, even though we were standing in the opposite direction of the main campus. As she swept behind me, she slowed. “Tomorrow, everyone will see what a fraud you are.”
And then she was gone.
Although the Keepers tried to cheer me up by speaking ill of Shonda as we walked back toward the quad, none of their remarks did anything to lift my mood.
“Can you believe she pulled the mom card?” Clio asked, kicking at a bright orange leaf that had fallen onto the grass. “She shouldn’t get special treatment because General Hailwood is on the governing board.”
“She shouldn’t,” Thor agreed. “But you can’t blame Kemp for acting out of self-preservation. She doesn’t want to lose her job over Shonda’s temper tantrum.”
I followed the conversation as best I could. Ordinarily, I would file away the information about Shonda’s mother’s connection to Blakethorne, but I doubted it would matter much after tomorrow. For Liza’s talk of playing the long game, my undercover mission was going to be over in less than a week.
Our group made its way toward the dining hall, but when they turned toward it, I didn’t slow. After what happened on the field, I couldn’t face the rest of the cadets. I imagined they were all discussing Shonda’s challenge and assessing my slim chance at retaining my place with the Keepers.
“You want me to bring something up to your room?” Clio asked when she realized I wasn’t following.
I shook my head. “Thanks, though.” Even if I thought I could hold down a few bites, I knew I couldn’t handle whatever attempt she would surely make to help me feel better about the impending situation.
She didn’t try to convince me, for which I was relieved. I continued on toward the girls’ dorm, my mind so full of jumbled thoughts and emotions that I didn’t hear the approaching footsteps until the person appeared at my side.
Nate. Even in my current state, his nearness made my skin tingle.
“How are you holding up?” Even though the others weren’t within earshot, he kept his voice low.
I had no idea how to answer his question. The truth was, I wasn’t holding up. It was taking all my willpower to keep moving one foot in front of the other to make it to the dorm. I kept replaying everything in my mind, trying to figure out what more I could have done. Not just at the sparring match, but since I first stepped foot on Blakethorne’s grounds. Perhaps if I’d been nicer to Shonda, she wouldn’t have come after me like this. Or maybe I should have stood up to her after the dress incident. There was no way to know which course of action might have produced a different outcome. And it was too late to change things now.
After several seconds of silence, Nate chuckled. “That good, huh?”
I stopped in my tracks, turning to face him. “Stop.”
His eyes widened and he took a step back. “What?”
I shook my head. “Look. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but stop. I just want to go back to my room.”
His brow puckered, but after a moment, he nodded. “Okay. But if you need anything, we’re here. I’m here.”
Although I knew I should say something, all responses stuck in my throat. After a moment’s hesitation, Nate scooped up my left hand in his right and gave it a squeeze that sent tingles shooting up my arm. And while his mouth twitched like he wanted to say more, he released me and turned back toward the dining hall.
As soon as I was in my room, I retrieved my comm from its hiding spot and stole into the closet. It wasn’t time for a check-in, but I hoped Liza might be at the communication board. If I’d ever need to speak with my aunt, it was now.
“Liza? Please, please pick up.”
My heart pounded out the passing seconds. Better than anyone, I knew how busy the operation kept her. I knew her work was bigger than me. But right now, I didn’t care about how many other people she could help by securing access to basic medical supplies. I needed her to be there for me.
“Liza?”
A beep on the line sent my spirit soaring. “Well, Liza’s not here. But maybe I can help.”
I inhaled sharply. “Marco? What are you doing out of bed?”
He chuckled, the sound more wheezy than I remembered. “Good to hear your voice too, Eden.”
“I didn’t mean… Of course it’s great to hear you. It’s just… Are you… better?”
“I’m on the mend. Liza says I’m getting ahead of myself, but she’s always been the more cautious of the two of us. She’s out of the bunker today, so I’m on comms.”
He didn’t mention Derek, but I didn’t have the bandwidth to wonder about him at the moment. “I’m glad you are, because I need to talk to someone.”
“Do you have more intel?”
His question took me off guard. “More intel?”
“Yeah. Like your tip about the clinic? Good job with that.”
I tried to decipher his words. “Last time I talked to Liza, she said she hadn’t heard from Doc.”
“Because Doc was busy moving her entire operation and erasing every trace that she’d ever been there. But we got the call today. She got word from a fallen angel contact who was still in Summerhill that the Guard raided the building early this morning. They didn’t find a thing.”
Relief swept through my chest. “Gates prevail. That is good news.”
“All because of you,” Marco said. “If you hadn’t overheard what you did, Doc would be in the pit now. They’d be tracking down all her patients and arresting them for any charge they could make stick. And us? We’d have been hauled away before lunch. You stopped that from happening. And this is just your first week!”
The giddy bubble swelling in my chest popped as the reason for my call came rushing back into my mind. “Actually, that’s why I need to talk. I… I might not be here as long as we’d hoped.”
“What’s wrong?”
As succinctly as possible, I explained all that had happened today. “I guess Shonda’s mom is a general, and it seemed like the headmaster doesn’t want to get on her bad side. So sometime tomorrow, I’m going to face Shonda again. There’s no way I can beat her. She wiped the floor with me today.”
Marco clucked his tongue several times, a tick that annoyed Liza so much she would often demand he go think through a problem in another room. “What are the chances they let you stay on at the school if this girl wins?”
“I have no idea. I’m less worried about whether they’ll let me keep training and more concerned what’ll happen when they realize I’m a demon.”
“But they didn’t find out at the fight today,” Marco said. “There’s no reason to think they’ll figure it out tomorrow. Just keep your cool. Assess the situation and adapt. If you see an opportunity to take her out and keep your cover, do it. If things get too hot, give a spectacular performance before letting her win. And if tomorrow’s your last day, then… we’ll go from there.”
I wished I could share Marco’s optimistic view of the future, but I couldn’t get Shonda’s disdainful voice out of my head. “She said she would expose me as a fraud.”
“If she had any real dirt on you, she wouldn’t be bothering with these theatrics,” Marco insisted. “If she knew who you really are, she would’ve cried to General Mommy already.”
I tried to take comfort in his reasoning, but it changed nothing. “I’m sorry. This was such a great opportunity, and I’ve already blown it.”
“You haven’t blown anythi
ng yet,” Marco said firmly. “When Liza gets home, I’ll tell her what’s happening and we’ll make contingencies in case things go sideways tomorrow.”
I wasn’t sure what kind of contingencies he might mean, and I didn’t ask. My mind would already be too crowded tonight to sleep; I didn’t need to add more to the mix.
“Hang in there, kiddo. We always find a way.”
“We always find a way,” I repeated.
All I could do is hope it was the truth.
Chapter Twenty-Six
A persistent knocking pulled me from my restless sleep.
“Go away,” I moaned, pulling my pillow over my head.
The tapping continued. I had half a mind to sit up, yank open the door, and whip my pillow out into the hall. A projectile to the face would serve Derek right for such a rude wake-up call.
My eyes snapped open and I blinked, trying to bring the unfamiliar shapes into focus in the near total darkness. I wasn’t in my tiny closet in the bunker; I was in my assigned room at Blakethorne. And the person pounding on the door wasn’t Derek.
Groaning, I shoved the blankets off my body and swung my legs onto the floor. “What time is it, even?” I grumbled as I stalked my way across the room. “Clio, are you trying to wake up the whole building?”
But when I pulled open the door, it wasn’t Clio who stood in the hallway. Lydia Sweeting offered an apologetic smile. “Sorry to wake you. Given the… um… dramatic way Miss Hailwood ended the sparring match yesterday, the headmaster thought it would be a good idea if we were all in place before the other cadets started their day.”
“In place?”
She held up a brown paper bag. “Here’s a breakfast sandwich. As soon as you’re dressed, we’d like you to head over to the training field. Do you remember how to get there?”
The last remnants of sleep melted away, leaving behind the stinging realization of what today would bring. Shonda would claim her place as the Aether Blade’s rightful Keeper. The most I could hope for was that they wouldn’t discover my true lineage. If I was lucky, by afternoon, I’d be on my way back to Cameron Heights.
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