“You need her, Orion,” Hyde said. “Because you need the cadets. They’re the only soldiers we have with experience in the mist. It’s not like you can bring any more potentials from the outside, now is it?”
Orion pouted in thought. He was so not feeling this idea.
It was my job to convince him, to put aside the animosity his presence provoked and rise above it. “Listen. What we need most right now is men to patrol the mists. Men willing to don armor and work with the cadets to keep the AM posts working. If the posts go down, the fomorians will attack in force. We can’t let that happen. There is no time to debate.”
Orion looked me straight in the eye, but his words weren’t for me. “Brunner, recruit all the strongest, fastest students.”
“They aren’t equipped to fight,” Brunner said.
I smiled thinly. “Well, they’re going to have to learn. No one’s coming to save us. We’re on our own. We have no other choice.”
Brunner pressed her lips together. “And what if they refuse?”
She had a point. But the option to volunteer was merely a ploy to let them think they had a say. If we didn’t get enough volunteers, if students refused … “Then, we conscript them.”
Orion’s lips curved in a satisfied smile. “Maybe you do have the stomach for this, after all.”
I didn’t want or need his approval, but having him onboard would make things easier, so I returned his smile with an empty one of my own.
“Maybe I can help?” Latrou joined us with another woman. “Helseth and I were talking, and if the weavers pool our energies, we may be able to put up a temporary barrier to fortify the mist. It won’t stop the fomorians from coming through, but it will act as an alarm and give us an early warning of any intrusion.”
Helseth nodded. “It will allow the cadets a little peace of mind while they train the other students in whatever they need to know to patrol the mists.”
“How long?” Orion asked. “How long can you hold this alarm?”
“Five days … a week, maybe …” Latrou shrugged. “I can’t say for certain.”
It would have to do. “What do you need to make that happen?”
Five
While Brunner hit the intercom system to call an assembly, the gargoyles started placing chairs in rows in the ballroom.
I steered Harmon to the window where the night sky was visible dotted with stars and a neat crescent moon. A spot where we were partially hidden from probing eyes by a thick pillar jutting up from floor to ceiling. God, people were ridiculous sometimes, grown supernaturals gawping as if they’d never seen anyone different before. Made me want to poke their eyes out.
“You mad?” he asked.
“I’m not mad, but I did ask you to stay behind.”
He may have changed physically, but there was no mistaking his signature flat look. “I not one of your cadets. Not anymore. I saved your ass.”
He was wrong. “You’re still one of us, Harmon, and you know I could have handled those guys.”
He nodded slowly. “But it not what you want. Need those guys. Not want to hurt them.”
I sighed. He knew me too well. I placed a palm on his bicep. “Thank you. For coming.”
The sharp green hue of his eyes softened to a mossy color. “I always got your back.”
“I know.” I stepped closer and did what I’d been wanting to do ever since I’d found out he was alive. I hugged him.
His skin felt rough, hard, but it was flesh, not stone. His chest rumbled, and then his huge arms wrapped around me as he returned the hug. It was like being enveloped in a mountain. I laid my cheek against his chest and breathed him in. There he was, his moonkissed scent beneath the strange, indescribable scent of the fomorian he’d become.
We remained like that for long seconds before we pulled away from each other.
“Thomas?” Harmon asked. “Didn’t see him.”
Oh, shit. “They sent him home. When they brought you back and he couldn’t see you, he lost it. Henrich ordered him dismissed.”
Harmon’s jaw tightened.
I touched his arm lightly. “We’ll get him back. Once this shit is over, we’ll get a message to him and get him back. I promise.”
“No,” Harmon said. “Don’t. I can’t … I can’t let him see me like this.”
It was a fully formed sentence, but I could see from the tightness around his eyes that it had been an effort.
There were so many things I could say. Remind him that Thomas loved him, no matter what, and that he wouldn’t care how Harmon looked now. That love didn’t care about the physical, but that would force him to reply. It would cause him pain.
So, instead, I nodded. “We can worry about that once we have the mist in lockdown again.”
He relaxed and looked over my head. “Hyde.”
I turned as Hyde approached. His face was drawn with concern.
“What is it?”
“Orion filled me in on what’s happening out there,” Hyde said.
“Yeah, I was going to ask him about that.”
“It’s a sleeping sickness. It hit the humans first, but it seems to have morphed to affect supernaturals too. It’s taken out the Nightwatch. Most of the agents are down. Only a handful remain unaffected, and they’re working on a solution.”
“And it can’t get to us here?”
Hyde nodded. “This place is warded. It’s cut off from the human world by powerful weaver magic.”
The weavers? Had Kash made it back in time for beginning of term? I hadn’t heard from him. Was he trapped out in the real world?
“What about Mirage Hills?”
Hyde frowned. “I don’t know. I’d expect they would have protection. It’s a weaver hub, after all.”
Okay, so maybe Kash would be okay if he hadn’t made it back.
The volume of conversation in the room rose slightly as students poured into the hall.
“Please, be seated.” Brunner’s voice blasted around the room, amplified by weaver magic.
I scanned faces, looking for one in particular. Kash. Was he here? Had he made it back? I spotted Joti first, and there, right behind her, was the dark-haired Adonis. His attention zeroed in on me immediately, and his face broke into a grin as he made his way over.
“Friend of yours?” Hyde asked dryly.
Yeah, there was some explaining to do there, but right now, the relief at seeing Kash safe and sound was too much. I wove through the bodies, eager to get to him, and then we were inches apart, staring at each other.
“You survived the trial,” he said, relief etched all over his face.
“You made it back.”
His smile faltered. “Indigo, is everything okay?” He looked over at Brunner and the council members at the front of the room. “What the fuck is Orion Winterfell doing here?”
I slipped my hand into his and squeezed. “I’m glad you made it back. Take a seat. I have a lot to fill you in on.”
“Miss Justice, please join us,” Brunner called out.
Kash looked confused.
I gave his hand a final squeeze and then headed to the front of the room. I had an Academy filled with students to recruit.
* * *
Faces stared up at me in horror. There was utter silence as the students absorbed what I’d told them. Yeah, it was a lot to take in even though I’d given them the CliffsNotes version. I spotted Minnie and Harper sitting hand in hand. Minnie looked pissed off, and Harper looked worried.
Yeah, my ex-best friend had always been a feisty thing. A pang of nostalgia assaulted me for a simpler time, one where I’d been the reluctant student, and she’d been the motivator.
How had we gotten to this stage? To me standing up on a podium before the whole Academy asking for volunteers to fight a threat that had only ever felt like a myth to them. One they’d never seen. One that had never affected them.
“You want us to fight?” someone asked.
“If need be, yes. I need you
to be prepared to defend our world. I need you to go out into the mist and repair the posts if the fomorians damage them. I need you to kill if you have to.”
Several gasps filled the air.
These students were no shadow cadets. They didn’t have the gene that brewed aggression and reveled in violence. They didn’t have the gumption for it. But they were all I had. I needed them to stand up and be counted.
No one moved.
Shit.
A chair at the back of the room scraped, and Kash stood. “I’m with you.”
In the movies, his move would have prompted a wave of courage, and people would have stood up one by one, volunteering themselves for potential slaughter. But not in reality.
No one moved.
Silence reigned.
“Seriously?” Kash looked annoyed.
I caught sight of Orion in the periphery of my vision. He sat back in his seat and crossed his arms. He was waiting to see what I’d do now. How I’d handle this situation.
Conscription it would have to be. I opened my mouth to deliver the news, but movement to my left halted me.
Minnie stood and met my eyes. “I’m in,” she said.
“Minnie!” Harper tugged on her sleeve. “What are you doing?”
“The right thing,” Minnie said. She looked around the room. “And so should you all. I mean, you heard what she said. We’re under attack. If we don’t act, then we all die. Our loved ones. Our families.”
“We’re not shadow cadets,” Harper said. “Sit down.”
Minnie frowned. “Are you listening? The knights are dead. We have to do something.”
This was why we’d become friends. This was why we’d connected that first term. Minnie was a fighter. She was brave. The kind of person who’d be scared but do it anyway.
Maybe I could do this without having to conscript. “I know you’re all scared. So am I. But I’m more scared of what will happen if we fail. And without your help, we will fail. Without your help, the mist will dissipate, and the fomorians will enter our world. So, what are you going to do about it? You want to sit on your asses and wait to die, or you want to work at surviving?”
I scanned faces, watching the doubt melt to determination, and then several students stood, prompting more to stand. Ten, twenty, thirty, yes, we could work with this.
“Hell, no.” Minnie shook her head. “Get up. All of you. On your feet.”
Ah, my little soldier.
Harper stood, albeit reluctantly. And then slowly, achingly, the rest of the room came to its feet.
Hyde inclined his head from the back of the hall, a small smile of satisfaction on his face.
I had them. I had them all.
Six
Training the academy cadets would be done in shifts. Dawn for the weavers, the moonkissed, and the feyblood, and sunset for the nightbloods. Unlike the shadow cadet nightbloods, the regular nightbloods didn’t have any strength during the day.
An hour to grieve. That’s all I’d allocated because there was no time for any more.
No time to stop.
Brady was out there.
The fomorians were out there.
Right now, we were defenseless.
While the weavers worked their mojo to create an alarm barrier, while Orion and the council prepped the students for what was to come, my cadets gathered on the fortress grounds behind the ruins.
Dead bodies lined the earth like a twisted offering to the sky. The cadets had retrieved what they could from both the ruins and the mist. Bits and pieces, arms and legs. Too many body parts waiting to rot and smell. I crouched by Carlo. He looked unmarred and peaceful in death. His skin was too pale in the moonlight, lips slightly parted, as if he’d wake up at the slightest nudge. I reached out to touch his cheek, cold like marble that had never been kissed by the sun.
“I love you, Carlo. I’m gonna fucking miss your face.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek, ignoring the sweet smell of death. “I promise I’ll get Brady back. I promise you I’ll make them pay for what they did to you. Goodbye, babe.”
“Justice, it’s time.” Lloyd placed a hand on my shoulder and gently tugged me away.
I joined the troop, Hyde, and Harmon by the forge.
The smell of gasoline stung my nostrils as the cadets doused the bodies. The scratch and flare of a match was followed by a whoosh as the bodies ignited. The night was lit up in orange as red sparks made for the skies.
We stood silent, watchful, reflective as our comrades burned.
We’d lost too many men today, and the fomorians would pay.
* * *
The first wave of trainees arrived at the fortress grounds, and the shadow cadets split into troops to train them in combat. The moon was shrouded in clouds now, but nightblood vision meant we didn’t need too many fire sconces to train by.
My mind wandered to Kash. He’d wanted to come with me, but I’d promoted him to troop leader and left him in charge of organizing the weaver cadets. Even though I’d wanted nothing more than to bring him with me, I needed people I could trust out in the field.
I’d sent Hyde to sort out the moonkissed and the feyblood students. As a master, he had the skills needed to organize them into troops and keep morale up. Harmon had opted to help with training, give the cadets an idea of what kind of shit they might be up against. Lloyd had found him some joggers, but they only came to his calves and hung way too low on his hips. Even in beast form, he was a sight to behold, all muscle and ripped abs.
He was still Harmon, but now his physical body matched his huge presence.
Down at the barracks, another lot of students were being shown how to fix AM posts. It would be like this for the next few days, wave upon wave of students being trained in the use of weaponry and the maintenance of feytech.
Armor would have to be adjusted for the females, but we no longer had a forge master to modify it. They’d have to make do with what we could cobble together.
My brain ached, and my heart hurt. I needed a minute, just a minute to myself, but up here in the hive of activity wasn’t where I’d get it. There was only one place to go.
I made my way down to the stables. The building was intact, but no Jemima came out to greet me. No one ran around pushing barrows of meat to feed the hounds.
Oh, fuck.
Of course, they didn’t. The fey who ran the stables had probably all been at the fortress when it exploded. They were all dead.
The hounds were locked up. Unfed. I broke into a light jog down the rise. We’d need to allocate cadets to feed the hounds and exercise them.
Shit.
It was manpower we didn’t have.
Unless … The fucking tutors could do it. They weren’t doing much else.
I entered the gloomy confines of the stable. Fresh hay and a musty, shitty smell mingled. Yeah, stable smells all right. Orion cleaning hound shit? Ha, I had to see that one.
Althos stood as I opened his pen door. His gaze flicked from my face to the spot over my shoulder.
Brady… He was looking for Brady. My throat pinched, and a sharp pain lanced through my heart.
“They took him.” My voice cracked. “The fomorians took him.”
The tears I’d been holding in, all the emotions I’d been tamping down, came rushing up to choke me. I took a stumbling step toward the hound and then reached for him, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my cheek to the side of his huge head.
The tears came silent and hot, grief and anger tearing at me like rabid wolves eager to feast. Brady’s face filled my vision. His expression as he’d walked away, the goodbye in his eyes. He was waiting for me to find him and bring him home, but I was stuck here on management duty.
I took a shuddering breath, pushing down the frustration and locking away that horrible foreboding that screamed too late, too late in my face.
I released Athos. “I’m going to get him back.”
Athos rumbled again, but this time there was more to that s
ound. Something a hairbreadth out of my comprehension.
My arm ached where the violet-eyed fomorian had branded me with the symbol that allowed me to understand the fomorian tongue, and then words unfurled in my mind.
Let me come with you.
I exhaled sharply and stumbled back. “What? Did you just …”
You hear me? His eyes widened. You understand me.
“Yes … I can understand you. How is this possible?” The mark? I rubbed the brand.
Athos looked down at it. That mark allows you to understand me?
It was a fomorian mark, and Athos was a hound born and bred on this side of the mist. How could a fomorian mark allow me to understand him?
Take me with you, he said again. Brady is my master, and you are his mate. I will protect you. I will help bring him home.
He was talking to me. A hound was talking to me. “Can you all talk? All the hounds?”
Athos nodded. Listen.
I took a step back to the pen door and allowed the rumbles that vibrated through the stables to wash over me.
Rumbles that morphed and changed into voices of all tenors.
What’s happening?
What was the explosion?
Where’s Jemima?
Where’s my master?
Oh, God.
I could hear them all.
I staggered into the sawdust-strewn strip between the pens.
Enough! Athos followed me out of his pen. She can hear you. She can hear us. Now listen.
The hounds fell into silence.
Athos looked to me. Tell us what happened. Tell us what we can do to help.
* * *
The sky was getting lighter as I climbed the rise back to the fortress grounds. But this time, I wasn’t alone. The hounds walked behind me. Twenty huge fomorian hounds, livid at the deaths of their masters and eager for vengeance. We crested the rise to the clang of swords and the bellow of instructions. But the sounds faltered and ceased as we drew near. As the sun rose, warming my back, sword arms were lowered and mouths popped open.
Shadow Master: The Nightwatch Academy book 4 Page 3
