Yeah, he was getting it now… How lucky he’d been. How he’d survived by the skin of his teeth. He could have been in the fortress. The delay had saved his life.
The thud of boots signaled the arrival of some of the cadets. I needed time to process, to take Hyde in, to hold on to him, to kiss him again, but there was no time. The clock was ticking fast. The fomorians could still be in the mist. They could be damaging the AM posts as we spoke. The dead needed to be buried, families notified…Carlo…I needed to say goodbye properly. There was too much to be done. Panic bloomed hot and liquid in the pit of my stomach. No. No time for that shit. I gripped Henrich’s pin tighter to ground me, reveling in the sharp edges that dug into my palm. He’d believed in me. It was time I did the same.
I stepped out of Hyde’s embrace. “All the knights are dead. The fortress is gone.” I stood taller. “We need to fortify. We need more men and women in the mist.”
The cadets drew abreast of us, and Hyde’s gaze flicked up to them and then back to me.
“Is this all that’s left?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, there are some more back up the rise at the ruins, but I think that’s all. The fomorians murdered a troop in the mist; they could have gotten to more. The rest may have been picked off by the mist creatures. We need to assume this is all we have left. We’ll need more men and women if we’re going to keep the mist safe.”
“There are no reinforcements,” Hyde said. “We don’t get new cadets till we get a new batch of recruits at the end of the year.”
There was a murmur of unease amongst the cadets who’d joined me at the bottom of the rise.
I clutched the pin tighter. It was my job to take charge. “Then we use Nightwatch agents.” I raised my chin. “We use whoever we can. The mist needs to be patrolled, or the fomorians will use our weakness to take out the AM posts.”
“Fine,” Hyde said. “I’ll see what I can do. The rest of you head to barracks two and three,” he ordered.
No one moved.
Hyde frowned. “What the fuck? Are you deaf?”
No, they weren’t. They were waiting for my orders. For the Shadow Master to tell them what they needed to do. Heat blossomed in my chest. Purpose and something akin to pride.
Lloyd nodded slightly. It was a nudge to do it, to be who I needed to be.
I turned to the cadets. “Gather all the dead that you can find and take them to the back of the ruins. Make barracks four, five, and six your bases. Watch the posts and repair if needed. Aidan, Devon, and Lloyd, set up a control base at six. I need to contact the Nightwatch Council, but I’ll be back soon, and we can honor our dead.” I met Lloyd’s gaze, my mind on Carlo, on the nightblood who’d been such a huge part of my life here. Pain twisted in my gut. “We’ll need to notify families once we have things under control here. We’ll need to set up communication between barracks six and the Academy.”
“We’re on it,” Lloyd said.
“Justice, what the heck is going on?” Hyde looked from me to Lloyd and then to the gathered cadets.
I lifted my fist and unfurled my palm to show him the seal.
Hyde blinked at the pin, and slowly raised his gaze to lock with mine.
“You heard the Shadow Master,” Lloyd said. “Move out.”
Hyde broke eye contact and looked up the rise. His mouth parted in shock. I followed his gaze to see Harmon’s monolith figure silhouetted against the sun.
“What the fuck is that?” Hyde said softly. But he hadn’t drawn his sword. He hadn’t moved into an attack or defensive stance.
“You know, Hyde. I think you know.”
* * *
Harmon had wanted to come with us, but I’d shut him down. It would be hard enough dealing with the Nightwatch and the students as it was; bringing Harmon with us would just raise more questions and require more detailed explanations. Talk we didn’t have time for. Hyde, however, was another story.
There had been no leaving him behind.
He jogged at my side, across sector one of the mist and toward the Academy. I’d expected him to argue with me by now. To try and take the responsibility of Shadow Master from me; heck, a part of me wanted him to. He was a shadow knight, the last one left standing. He was a legend, and he could probably do this job in his sleep. But he didn’t ask, and I didn’t offer. Henrich had passed this to me, and I needed to honor him and the knights by doing this role justice.
As we jogged toward the Academy, I filled him in on what had happened. The trial, the dead cadets, the green fog, and the fomorian with the violet eyes. I filled him in on Carlo’s death and what had happened to Brady. My voice grew choked here, but I forged on, giving him all the details that I could recall.
“They took him?” Hyde sounded reflective. “Why would they take him?”
“They said he was special somehow. That he was their salvation and that his blood was power. Apparently, they used Harmon to create a beacon that would lead them to salvation. They’re the ones who turned Harmon into…into what he’s become.”
He was silent for a long beat. “They wanted Brady all along. Harmon and Venrick were test subjects…”
“Yes, but I’m getting Brady back.”
Hyde glanced at me.
I set my jaw. “Once we have things under control here, I’m going after him.”
“Then I’ll come with you.”
We were on Academy grounds now with the mist behind us. I stopped and looked up at him. The idea of him coming with me was like a safety net, like a hug of reassurance. But it couldn’t happen for more than one reason. I gave him the most obvious, the easiest one first.
“You need to stay here. You need to take over the knights while I’m gone.”
“Like fuck,” Hyde snapped. He was looming over me now. His eyes, more green than blue, blazed at me like an angry ocean on the brink of a storm. “Lloyd can be your second. I’m not letting you go into enemy territory alone. In fact, I’m never letting you out of my sight again, you got that?”
His words lit a fire inside me. They were words I’d been wanting to hear for so long. But it was the wrong time. I’d lost too much to risk losing him too, and even though our world had been turned upside down, the laws still stood.
Orion’s law. One that would get him killed if he didn’t back off. There was no way around it but to give it to him straight.
I lifted my chin and glared at him. “Deana’s dead, you know that, right?”
He exhaled sharply. “What? She told me she would be arriving after the festivities. She… She wasn’t supposed to be at the fortress.” He wrapped an arm around his waist and tucked in his chin. “Oh, God, Deana. This is my fault. All my fault. If I hadn’t brought her here. If I hadn’t…”
“Used her?” I finished for him. “You’re right, this is your fault. She was only here because you invited her. You used her to act as a buffer between us, and it got her killed.” They were harsh words, but he needed to hear the truth. “She knew it, though. She knew what she was getting into with you, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to keep you alive because she loved you. So, you need to stop. You understand me. You need to honor her sacrifice and stop. You can’t petition Orion. You can’t pursue me. Because if you do, you will die, and Deana will have given her life for nothing.”
“Indigo…”
He reached for me, but I cut him off with a wave of my hand. “No. Don’t. I would rather lose you as a lover than lose you completely, do you understand me?”
His throat worked, and he took a shuddering breath. “Fine. I’ll walk away. I give you my word, but only after I’ve accompanied you into enemy territory, only after we have Brady back home. After that, I’ll back off. Those are my terms.”
Fucking hell. I wanted to throw my arms around him. To kiss him until I couldn’t breathe. Instead, I nodded curtly and turned away.
“Agreed. Now, let’s get this meeting sorted.”
I picked up the pace and ran up the Academy steps
, pushing away all other thoughts except tactical ones. Nerves swirled in the pit of my stomach, because having the cadets at my back was one thing, but getting the Nightwatch Council onboard would be another.
“They’ll have to assist,” Archer said. “This affects us all.”
I didn’t ask how he could know what I was thinking. My emotions were probably scrawled all over my face in permanent marker.
He gently gripped my elbow to stall me and turned me to face him. The sun was dropping in the sky and setting it on fire, so he was bathed in oranges and reds. His dark hair gleamed with streaks of gold as he looked down on me.
“You’ve got this, Indigo,” he said. “Henrich never did anything lightly. If he gave you that pin, then he saw a leader in you.”
And it was time to prove him right.
I made to push open the door just as a crack like lightning split the sky. The world went white for a split second and then was filled with a cacophony of sound. Shouts and exclamations.
“Indigo…” Hyde was staring at something behind me.
I turned slowly to see a wave of eager bodies climbing out of the fountain. A sea of faces greeted us. Old and young, nightblood, moonkissed, and feyblood, and there, amongst them, was a face I’d hoped never to see again.
The face of the man who’d raised me.
Baron Justice.
Four
I’d barely locked gazes with Baron Justice, the man I’d known as my father all these years, when another figure cut past him and caught my attention. Tall, powerfully built, with shoulder-length hair so blond it was almost silver, the man cut through the crowd of bodies and toward the Academy doors as if he owned the place. A breeze blew back his hair to expose his ears. They were pointed. Feyblood maybe? But then his scent hit me—otherworldly and intoxicating.
Oh, God, was this—
“Mr. Winterlock,” Hyde said stiffly. “What’s going on?”
Winterlock, as in Orion Winterlock? Motherfucker.
Orion arched a dark brow, which was totally at odds with his silver hair, and then glanced behind himself as if only just noticing his entourage.
“I’ve initiated Protocol Haven,” he said.
Hyde sucked in a sharp breath.
“What?” I looked up at his suddenly pale face. “What is it?”
It was Orion who answered. “An evacuation protocol for essential personnel should the mortal world be breached by an unfathomable entity.”
Wait, what? “Breached? What do you mean?”
He looked down his nose at me, taking me in for the first time. His attention dropped to my armor. “Miss Justice, I presume. The female shadow cadet. Or are you a knight now? Did she graduate, Hyde?”
Hyde took a deep breath. “Mr. Winterlock, we need to talk.”
* * *
Classes had been suspended and students ordered to remain in their dorms. Winterlock and his essential personnel, which turned out to be the Nightwatch Council and their families, were gathered in the ballroom.
A batch of weavers had arrived a few minutes ago and were now in the process of shutting down the ports.
We were trapped, and Winterlock didn’t know the half of it, but from the look on his face, Brunner was filling him in.
He looked up at me as he spoke and then raised a hand and crooked a finger at me. It was the kind of move a tutor would use on a small child or a father on his errant offspring, and damn did it grate on my nerves. My impulse was to flip him off, but he was Winterlock, the maker of tech and the only pure feyblood on this side of the veil. He was the man who could order Hyde executed if he felt there was anything inappropriate between us. So, I inclined my head and walked over to him, keeping my expression neutral.
Hyde trailed after me, but I didn’t look back at him. The less eye contact I made with the man who had a piece of my heart, the better.
“What happened?” Orion asked curtly. “From the beginning.”
I looked to Hyde. “I can’t. The binding.”
“The binding was linked to the fortress,” Hyde said. “There’s nothing stalling our tongues now.”
I was so sick of replaying the events, but it had to be done. Switching off my emotions, I gave him the rundown from the night before, when I’d noticed the shadows in the kitchens of the fortress to the moment when Henrich had handed me the Shadow Master seal.
“Henrich gave you the Shadow Master pin?” His brow flicked up again in an arch that was becoming familiar.
“Yes.” I gripped it tighter.
He held out his hand. “Give it to me.”
I frowned up at him. “Why?”
He rolled his eyes. “Because it doesn’t belong to you. You have no experience, no qualifications to run an army.”
“And you do?”
There was a collective gasp around the room.
Orion’s lips flattened with annoyance. “Maybe you don’t know who I am.”
I looked him up and down. “Oh, I know who you are. But being pureblood fey and owning a company does not give you the right to run a shadow knight army.”
His jaw tightened.
“Miss Justice…” Brunner stepped in. “Mr. Winterlock is…” She faltered for a word.
“What?” I asked her. “He’s what? A fey with money and power? So what?” I met Orion’s gaze levelly. “Unless you’re willing to don armor and go into the mist. Unless you’re willing to get on the frontlines and fight if need be, then you have no fucking right to this badge.”
His eyes narrowed, and his lips curved in a thin smile. “But Hyde does. He can be Shadow Master.”
My stomach flipped because he was right. I’d thought the same thing a little while ago. Fuck, if it came down to it, I’d rather Hyde than this tosser.
Orion was looking at Hyde now with a smug expression, like he’d just played an awesome move in a game of chess.
“No,” Hyde said. “With all due respect, no. Henrich gave Justice the pin.”
“He was obviously delusional,” Baron interceded as he joined us. His smile was smarmy, and I itched to slap it off his face. “Orion, I apologize for my daughter’s behavior.”
Rage bubbled up inside me like lava eager to eat at some nightblood flesh. “I am not your fucking daughter.” I took a menacing step toward him. “Or have you forgotten that your wife cheated on you with a weaver?”
The room was suddenly deathly silent. All eyes were on us. All ears wagging, eager to hear more.
Baron’s jaw ticked in a move I recognized from childhood. The move that told me he was about to lose his shit and lash out. But I wasn’t a kid anymore. I was no longer afraid of him.
I locked gazes with him and, taking a leaf from Orion’s playbook, arched a brow. “Well?”
“Oh, I haven’t forgotten,” he said. “And trust me, your mother is paying for her crime.”
He was watching me carefully, looking for a crack in my armor, some emotion, some concern for the woman who’d given birth to me.
He wasn’t going to find any. When it came to my mother, there was nothing but an empty hole. “Good. She deserves it, and you”—I canted my head—“you deserve to die without an heir.”
“Enough!” Winterlock’s voice was an icy blizzard. “There is a menace in the mortal world that threatens us all, and there is a threat to our haven here. We are trapped for now, and we must work together to survive.”
Well, that was something I could agree with.
“We must make do with the resources we have,” he said. “And I will ensure we are led to victory just as my people did centuries ago.” His eyes blazed in my direction. “You will hand me the pin, girl.”
Several liveried nightbloods advanced toward me.
Fuck this shit. I could fight them off, hurt them, but we needed the bodies, we needed able-bodied men and women to fight the fomorians. Only a fool didn’t recognize when they were outnumbered.
I raised my hand containing the pin just as a roar filled the room. It bounced off
the ceilings and walls and battered my eardrums. Everyone looked toward the entrance, and there, framed in the archway, was my bestie, Harmon.
His torso was bare, gray, and stone-like, and his pants looked as if they were about to rip because they didn’t belong to him. He must have stolen them from someone on the Academy grounds because his would have been eaten away by the mist.
Was there a student running around pantless?
Focus.
He hunched to fit through the arch, his eyes glowing green with deathly intent.
“Touch her and die.”
There was no mistaking what he meant. He stomped into the room, and everyone backed up.
He came to a standstill behind me. “Justice is Shadow Master.”
Orion dragged his gaze from Harmon down to me. “This is the unfortunate cadet, I assume.”
Murmurs broke out among the gathered council members and their kin. They were staring, ogling Harmon like he was a specimen. I wanted to gouge out their eyes.
I stepped closer to my friend as anger tightened my gut. “His name is Harmon, and you can fucking address him directly.” I bared my teeth. “Unless you want your guts spattered all over the floor.”
“Hyde?” Orion flicked a quick glance Archer’s way before returning his attention to me.
Yeah, Harmon had given the magnate pause. He may have a tech empire, but here, cut off from Faerie, his power had limits. He couldn’t hurt me without getting his hands dirty, and he knew it.
Hyde sighed and shrugged, all nonchalant. “Aside from the fact that if you try and take the pin, Harmon will flatten you, you’ll also lose the cadets.” He paused a moment to let his words sink in. “They won’t fight for you. You’re an outsider. You haven’t trained with them. You don’t know their world.”
“But you do,” Orion insisted.
Hyde’s smile was mirthless. “Yes, but they won’t listen to me. They watched Henrich give the pin to Justice. She is their Shadow Master, whether you like it or not.”
“Henrich choose Justice,” Harmon added in his deep, gravelly voice.
Shadow Master: The Nightwatch Academy book 4 Page 2
