“Every convict is approved by General Kannan before they’re sent to Ravencross for the exact same training we received,” Dian answered.
“So, is that a no, then?”
Kirst leaned forward, grinning as he added, “I’m not saying they’re dangerous, but I am saying that you’d be their biggest target.”
Wakefield’s nose flared. “What? Why me?”
“Because you’re too obvious,” Kirst continued with an air of solemnity, as if he were empathetic to Wakefield’s fate, but resolved to it, “You’re clearly lacking confidence and brimming with anxiety. Not to mention...these are criminals, you get me? Locked away from other people for who knows how long, starved of human attention. They’ll sniff out your soft, virgin body as easily as a dog smells steak,” Kirst lowered his voice, “I’d advise you keep a knife under your pillow.”
“Enough.” The entire room sat in raptured silence as Dian slammed the folder down on the table. “Kirst, sit back and keep your thoughts to yourself. Wakefield, nothing is going to happen to you. They’re petty thieves, not murderers or rapists.”
“Sir, I have a question,” Ayell asked, with a slight lift of her hand. She was possessed of pretty round features, the kind of face easily forgotten, where if he looked away he wouldn’t be able to recall a single detail. “Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that something were to happen. What do you advise we do if we find ourselves in unwanted confrontation with these criminals? Is lethal force allowed?”
Dian stared at her, wishing she hadn’t voiced that question aloud. Every head turned to him. Jesiah shifted uncomfortably next to him. Dian sighed. “Lethal force is always, always a last resort,” he started, “If you find yourself in a confrontation, I would expect you to handle the situation the way you were taught. Disarm and restrain.”
Wakefield’s hand shot up again.
“That’s all we need to discuss for now. You’ll be briefed on the mission details tomorrow. We will rendezvous at Ravencross by midday. Dismissed.” Dian swallowed, waiting, and then releasing his breath once they were gone. Only Jesiah lingered.
“Well.” Jesiah crossed his arms, a smile ghosting his lips. “That was...that was something.”
Dian rubbed at the beginnings of a headache in his temple. “Yes it was.”
“I’m sure it won’t be as bad tomorrow. They were caught off guard being called in like this, pulled from their day, I’m sure Kirst wasn’t lying about his being off-duty. And Ordessa, well, he didn’t say a word so from here that looks like a positive.”
“I appreciate your attempt to put a positive spin on this, but it’s not going to work. Here,” Dian slid the folder toward him, “Read for yourself.”
Jesiah read, nodding to himself, then he smiled and said, “The most unbelievable thing in here is that Kirst is the medic.”
Dian raked his fingers through his hair. “Medics don’t require medical degrees, Jesiah. He was taught first aid. If we’re lucky he knows basic resuscitation and how to bandage a wound. I doubt it, but we can hope.” He was exhausted. His mind was running through a million things at once, the roster list, impressions on his new soldiers, the mission details, how in Vall’s name he would pull off any sort of success in Meraton, and why—of all the possible criminals enlisted into the Legion—did it have to be her.
“Do you really not know why we were picked for this?” Jesiah’s face lost its humor. “This is the kidnapping of an Ambassador by Free Chanters. Sounds outside our pay-grade.”
“I said the same thing. Kannan pulled me out of a Relay Station earlier and handed me this assignment herself. She didn’t say why.”
“Kannan found you? Herself?” Jesiah shook his head, “Forgive me, but what the fuck is going on?”
“Jesiah, if I can pull this off, if I can manage even a margin of success, I’ll be set. I’m on Kannan’s direct radar. If I wanted to make Colonel in the next five years, this would mean doing it in half the time. Not to mention being given the sort of command I deserve.”
“Man, what happens if you fail? Miserably? As, judging by this crew, is entirely likely?” Jesiah returned the mission folder, shaking his head, “I get it, you’re ambitious. And if I didn’t know you as well as I do, I’d tell you you’re losing sight of what’s important here. This mission isn’t about your career.”
“If you know me well enough not to say it, then why did you?”
“Just in case.” Jesiah gave him a half-smile. “You were looking a bit crazy-eyed. Thought you may need some grounding.”
“Look,” Dian rotated his shoulder to relieve the tension building in his muscles, “Why don’t you head home? Get some sleep. One of us needs to.”
“You’re going to stay up all night reading that thing, aren’t you?” Jesiah laughed. “I don’t envy you. Have a good night, man.”
“You, too.”
Dian returned to his apartment late. It was sparsely furnished and lacked any personal touches that might suggest a human lived there. He set his keys on the empty counter and hung up his jacket. He sat down on his couch and started to read.
He would work out a course of action before morning. He wouldn’t be able to sleep without having a plan with him when he got to Ravencross. Meeting the enlisted members of his unit had been jarring enough, there was no way to predict how convicts would react. How ones that knew him, possibly had a reason to hold a grudge against him, would react. He hated uncertainty.
The only food kept in his home was junk. Outside, he made the effort to eat healthily, but he didn’t care for cooking. He searched the cabinets for anything sweet or chocolate. Enough food to require two trips to the table. He hovered over the mission folder between spoonfuls of cookies crumbled into chocolate pudding.
CHAPTER TWELVE
LET’S PLAY LUST OR LOATHING?
1
Jade had become the queen of demerits. She was skating the line of being kicked out of the Legion. In the few weeks of training she had run more laps, done more push-ups, and cleaned more toilets than the other recruits combined. She was miserable. She was losing spirit. Whitaker zeroed in on every misstep or muttered comment. That woman needed to get laid or Jade was going to die here.
Her salvation arrived with her posting orders several weeks early or she may not have lasted. Jade, Liam, Gandry, and Minoza were being pulled from training and shoved into their unit ahead of schedule. No one would say why and Jade didn’t give a flying fuck. Today, she was free.
“Wipe that smile off your face, Avaris. I still own you until your new commander arrives.” Whitaker stood guard while Jade and the rest of her new unit gathered their personal belongings. Clothes, books, and even their weapons were being returned—once the weapons were registered and their enchantments approved. The Legion did not allow overly violent or cruel enchantments.
Jade returned her pistol to her holster. She hugged her sewing box and her tattered copy of The Sovereign Thief. Her hands brushed longingly over her clothes while the starchy, stiff threads of her Legion uniform robbed her hips and chest of their splendor. Jade warmed at the pure hatred written over Whitaker’s face as she left her barracks behind for good. It took all her self-control, the last she possessed, not to wave goodbye with her middle finger as her and the others were ushered into an unused classroom to wait for their new commander.
Gandry hovered near the back with his sidekick. Minoza was constantly up Gandry’s ass. Even when Gandry lashed out, Minoza was heeled at his side. It was sickening to witness, Jade thought as Liam hovered near her shoulder. Minoza, at least, provided a voice of reason to the insane, psycho-dick that was Rydell Gandry. In their short time together Jade had learned only that Gandry was rich—was rich meaning his family owned the money and now he didn’t—and that Minoza had met him a few years ago. For whatever reason, they’d been buddies ever since.
“It figures, doesn’t it?” Gandry said, casually and surprisingly devoid of venom. He crossed his arms and sat on the edge of a desk. �
��That they’d stick us together.”
“More time for us to get over this enemies to lovers thing, since you’re never going to tap this,” she motioned down her amazing body, if she was any judge, “No matter how much you clearly want to.”
Gandry sneered, as if that suggestion was the lowest possible hell he could conceive, and went back to silence.
They had been up since before dawn. Fatigued, missing breakfast to wait for their new cattle driver, with minutes passing so incredibly slowly Jade was going out of her mind.
“So,” Jade drawled, “What’s the deal with you two, anyway?” She ignored Liam’s sigh. To be fair, he could sit in silence and do nothing for hours. He couldn’t appreciate the struggle of waiting.
Minoza’s eyes snapped to Gandry, a touch of red coloring his cheeks.
“We’re friends,” Gandry said, “What’s the deal with you?” He gestured to Liam. “Grow up in the same whore house?”
Jade scoffed. “Very original, Gandry. Though, I would like it known we grew up in the same alley. We’re street urchins, not poor orphans. If you could get your slurs right I’d appreciate it.” If she was going to share the real story of how she met Liam it would not be with this douchenozzle. It wasn’t the sort of circumstances one shared easily. Childhood trauma and abuse were not shared in polite conversations with people you didn’t trust.
Though, this conversation could lead her somewhere. If she could get him to be even remotely civil then maybe they could survive being together. “Listen, I have a crazy suggestion. We put aside our mutual loathing for the sake of not getting kicked out and sent to prison.”
He locked eyes with her, affirming that there would never be any sort of truce. “I’m not here to play nice with anyone. They can send me where they want. Prison. Mines. I don’t give a shit.”
And that was what made him so horrible. He had given up. A man with nothing to lose was capable of anything. “Who did this to you?”
Gandry rolled his shoulders and strolled to the door. “I gotta piss.” He left.
It was the crudest thing he’d ever said. Jade turned on Minoza, now that his buffer was gone.
“Seriously, what happened to him?” She asked.
Minoza shook his head, crossing his thick arms. “It’s not my place to say.” He was the exact opposite of Gandry in every way. Thick limbed, instead of lanky. Short. Built. Dark. Tolerable.
“Look,” Jade inched closer, hopping onto a desk near his, “I’m just trying to figure out some things if we’re going to be spending time together. It might help with the friction.”
Minoza laughed, a dry, hollow sound. “I doubt it. Gandry is...he’s beyond help.”
“Yeah, I’ve picked up on that,” Jade said.
“And I agree that getting along would be for the best. It’s just not going to happen.”
“Why do you hang around with him if he’s such a colossal jackass?”
He shrugged. “Gandry saved my life.”
Jade blinked, unable to fathom Gandry being capable of something so...selfless. Saving a life required humanity and from what she’d seen, he had none left.
“I was...I lost everything,” he gestured to his hands, and for the first time, Jade noticed that the bones weren’t quite right, like they were broken and hadn't healed properly, “I’d given up too, but in a quiet way, a defeated way. Gandry talked me down, so to speak. I don’t think he even did it intentionally. But I owe him for the second chance all the same. At that point, he had nothing, too. So I stepped in.”
Jade glanced at Liam, exchanging a silent conversation before returning to Minoza. “Liam saved me. Rather, we saved each other, but Liam did most of the work ...I was next to useless back then. We were just kids.”
Minoza nodded. “Then you get it.”
“I get it,” Jade returned, just as the door opened, “I still think he’s a dick.”
Minoza chuckled and they all turned to see the last person Jade ever expected to see again walk through the door.
The legionnaire from the pirate fiasco strolled into the classroom. She recognized him instantly. The rigid posture of his shoulders, to the straight line of lips evidence suggested was incapable of a smile. Dark brown hair all neat and tidy, begging to be ruffled. His eyes met hers and her annoyance spiked.
“Welcome to Cobalt, recruits. I’m your new commander, Major Dian Faer—”
Jade spit out a laugh. She took a chair and kicked her legs up on a desk. “Hey there, brown eyes, it’s been a while.”
Dian’s jaw tensed. Liam’s head fell face-down on the desk next to her.
“Private Avaris, this is not the time for a personal chat—”
“I hope that shirt wasn’t too expensive,” she grinned with wicked glee. God, she was so deprived of a proper target it was almost worth getting kicked out of here. Liam shook his head back and forth on the desk.
Dian’s stare was direct, focused. His mouth was perfectly straight and disapproving. He spoke with a crisp, firm tone, “I’ll ask you to refrain from random outbursts from now on, Private Avaris. I understand the transition to the Legion is a challenge, especially when it’s not entirely by choice, but the grace period will only last so long and my patience less so.” He tore his eyes away from her, once again addressing the room, “I apologize to have pulled you from training so early, but we’ve been given a time sensitive mission of the greatest importance. Once the rest of the unit arrives I’ll brief you all on the situation.”
The room lapsed into silence. Gandry returned to brooding in the corner and the law abiding portion of their unit still hadn’t shown. Jade started to chew at a finger absently. She couldn’t take her eyes off Dian. Commander Faer. Major Serious. Whatever he went by now. He stirred emotions in her. A tempestuous storm of annoyance, anger, and that fine, fine ass. Her gaze returned to his face and their eyes met.
Dian crossed the room toward her. He stopped close enough for them to talk and maybe not be overheard. He still smelled like a goddamn pine forest.
“Miss Avaris—”
“Ew. Never call me that again.” Her feet fell back to the floor. “If you’re going to skip the military phonetics, then it’s just Jade.”
He was quiet for a second, jaw tense. “Jade, then.” He swallowed. “I’m not thrilled with this situation either. To be honest, I can’t imagine a worse scenario, but it’s the one we’ve been handed. However, any...resentment you have towards me has no place in this mission. There is too much at stake. I’m requesting that we remain civil, professional, for the duration of this mission.”
Jade stared at her hands, responding deadpan, “You could just order me to behave. Sir.”
He sighed, tracing his lips with a finger. “I’m hoping I don’t have to. I thought maybe approaching this without hierarchy would achieve more results than barking commands.”
Her eyes swiveled toward him. Mischief lighting her eyes. “Then you should have said ‘please.’”
His hands clenched. “What exactly did I do? This misplaced hatred can’t all be because of a coat—”
“Yeah, and if it is?” Her voice rose, nostrils flaring. Not that keeping their conversation secret mattered. Anyone in that room with working ears could hear them if they wanted.
He looked baffled, losing his poise and grandeur. “It’s...a coat. I thought your life would be the higher priority.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, obviously I didn’t want to die for a coat. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t important to me and yet you tossed it away without a thought. You do understand ‘sentimental value,’ yeah?”
He blinked. Clearly he didn’t.
“Figured as much. Look, I don’t have to like you, do I? I just have to follow orders or whatever? Yes, sir. No, sir. I promise to be on my best behavior if you just stop talking.” She stared straight into him, waiting for the return. He matched her stare and if he planned on a response, he didn’t use it. The rest of the unit arrived before he could say another
word. He stood and returned to the front of the classroom.
The soldiers who were not paying their debts to society filed into the room. They all sat in the front like good soldiers. Sat up straight. Cared. Jade even recognized the tall, bearded man as Dian’s friend from the Maiden. He bent close to Dian so he could whisper something and then left again.
“Now that we’re—mostly—all present I’ll get right to it. A few days ago the Ambassador from Rosewall, Laine Kura, along with a Vacuan councilman were taken by Free Chanters.” There was a murmur from the soldiers, hushed whispers. The convicts were silent. The news meant nothing to Jade who barely grasped the politics of her own country, let alone this one. She couldn’t be bothered to care about a man she never met. “Cobalt has been given the task of collecting intel for the Legion on the Free Chanter’s base and to derive its exact location. Special Response unit intel has narrowed that location to the city of Meraton. We’re to infiltrate the city and find out what we can.”
One of the soldier’s hands shot into the air.
Dian hesitated for half a breath, before responding with forced patience. “Yes, Wakefield?”
“Sir, are we not conducting a rescue?”
“If the situation presents itself, then I’ll make the call, but it is not our goal. Listen, I’m going to level with all of you, I’ve already questioned every part of this assignment with very few answers. But these orders come from the Queen, so there’s no negotiating. And yes, that means we’re going undercover.”
Jade perked up. Her body scooting forward in her chair. “So, that means no uniforms?”
Dian avoided meeting her eyes. “That’s correct. We’ll enter the city as civilians.”
“Thank ‘Meria.” Jade threw her hands in the air. “I knew my prayers would be answered. The gods are merciful.”
“Psst, Jade,” Liam leaned closer to her, and whispered, “Shut the fuck up.”
“I’m still working out the details of how we’ll approach this mission. I’ll have more finite orders when we arrive in Rookswood. A member of the Roseguard will meet us there, another aspect of this mission we’re not to question,” Dian’s brief pause made his feelings on the Roseguard’s presence clear, then he continued, “There’s an airship leaving in two hours. Everyone get changed,” Dian’s eyes flicked to her and, if she wasn’t mistaken, he was blushing, “You can each carry one shoulder bag of supplies, but anything else stays for now. We’ll meet outside when you’re ready.”
Catalyst (The Second Cycle Book 1) Page 15
