Still, a sinking feeling opened in my chest. “He’s alive. I know he is. I have to believe that.”
“And I hope you’re right. But either way, you need to use your journey to benefit us all. Make a map and gather information. You never know what could come in useful.”
This was why he was troop leader. He was a tactician. He thought with his head, something I needed to remember to do, even when I crossed to the fomorian side of the mist.
I had too many other people relying on me to not be careful. “I’ll do what I can. But first, I need to tell Orion that I’m leaving and that you’re in charge while I’m gone.”
Lloyd stood tall. “I won’t let you down.”
Ten
Athos carried me across the mists, moving so fast the world was a blur. I needed to find Orion and get this over with, so I could gather supplies and prepare for my trip, and Athos was the speediest way across the barren land. We cut through a mist that was eerily silent, as if the creatures that inhabited it had retreated underground. The explosions and the commotion of a week ago may have spooked them temporarily, but they’d be back.
The mist retreated, and then we were bounding across green land toward the imposing silhouette of the Academy. The sun was making its death dive toward the earth. It would be night soon. I needed to make this quick.
We came to a halt by the fountain.
I slid off Athos’s back. “You want to come in?”
There was a rumble like laughter. I’d probably cause a few cadets to shit themselves if I did.
“Point. I’ll make this quick.”
Take your time, I’m not going anywhere without you.
I strode through the Academy doors and into the hallway. Commotion drifted out from the arch to the ballroom, drawing me toward it.
The Academy ballroom had been commandeered by the weavers. Lightning flashed, objects whizzed across the room, and mini explosions rained debris from the high-domed ceiling. I spotted Kash on the raised platform. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest, surveying the weavers. His dark hair had been combed back off his forehead, and he was dressed in black combat trousers and a body-hugging T-shirt. He looked good.
And I guess the female weaver cadets thought the same. Several stood giggling to one side of the room, throwing glances his way. Which was fine. Look but don’t touch, right? But then one got bold enough to climb the podium and get close. She pressed a hand to Kash’s chest, and I couldn’t be entirely certain from this distance, but I was pretty sure she was fluttering her lashes at him. Her face was tilted up as she spoke to him.
Fuck her adoring gaze. I wanted to poke out her eyes. But it was up to Kash to tell her to back off. He frowned down at her, gripped her wrist, and removed her hand from his person. Relief trickled through me, and one word filled my head.
Mine.
He looked up at that exact moment, and our gazes snagged with an electric snap. His frown melted, and his eyes warmed. The weaver girl looked my way. Her lips thinned, and then she reached up to touch his face, to force him to look away from me and at her.
Something inside me snapped.
Jealousy reared up like a poisonous snake, and I was striding across the room before I could check myself. Weavers stumbled out of my path, yelping in shock. I leaped up onto the stage, grabbed the weaver girl’s wrist, and twisted. Not enough to break her bones, but enough to get her to back the fuck off.
She cried out in shock and stumbled away, rubbing her wrist with her hand.
“What the hell?” she snapped.
“What the hell, Shadow Master, to you.” I glared at her until she dropped her gaze.
“And just in case any of you were wondering…” I gripped Kash’s T-shirt, yanked him toward me, and kissed him.
It was meant to be a hard, short kiss. A kiss that staked my claim, but his mouth parted and then his tongue was touching mine, and I was lost in sensation, hands weaving through his luscious locks, our bodies pressed together as best as they could with the armor in the way, but hell, you get the picture. The room descended into absolute silence.
Fuck them, I was kissing my man.
A deliberate cough cut through the quiet. I surfaced, eyes fluttering open as I ended the lip-lock and grazed his beautiful face with my fingertips.
“I understand you wanted to speak to me, Miss Justice,” Orion said.
Ah, the owner of the cough, no doubt. I turned to face him, and my heart sank to see Hyde standing beside him. He was dressed in his armor. Had he been intending to head back to the mist today?
He’d watched the kiss, but his expression gave nothing away.
Hyde couldn’t be my problem. Not if I wanted him to live. I focused on Orion, the man I’d come to see.
“I wanted to let you know I’m leaving for fomorian territory. I’m leaving Lloyd in charge of the cadets. If you need anything, you need to ask him.”
“Oh? And what do you hope to gain from your trip?”
“They took one of us, and I intend to get him back.”
“Ah, yes, Brady Stonewall.” Orion’s mouth turned down in a pretty good imitation of sympathy. “Hyde mentioned what happened. A terrible shame. For all we know, Brady is dead. We can’t lose our Shadow Master too.”
I wanted to slap him. A proper bitch slap that would rock his head back on his neck.
Instead, I climbed off the podium and approached the fey. “Or, he could be being used somehow like Harmon was. Used to find a way to attack us again.” They’d called Brady their salvation. But what did that entail? “We don’t give up on our own.”
Madam Latrou and Brunner had entered the room and stood by the arch looking uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry, I can’t permit it,” Orion said curtly.
Anger flickered to life in the pit of my stomach, and then a calm settled over me. I smiled, but it was an empty smile. A ruthless smile.
“I think you’ve misunderstood my intention, Mr. Winterlock. I didn’t come here to ask for your permission. I came as a courtesy to inform you what the fuck was going to happen. I am leaving, and Lloyd will act as Shadow Master in my absence. I intend to return with Brady Stonewall and as much intelligence on the fomorian threat as I can find. Am I clear?”
Orion’s features tightened. “You forget yourself, Miss Justice. You forget who you’re speaking to.”
“And you forget that you’re not in charge here. Brunner is. Brunner runs the Academy. I’m the fucking Shadow Master, and the cadets and their welfare are my responsibility. You, Mr. Winterlock, are simply a guest here, and my decision to leave is not a fucking council matter.”
To give him credit, the man remained cool and calm. “You’d have no mist, if not for me.”
I took a moment to compose myself. Easy, Indie. Do not lose your temper.
“And the world thanks you, but how about we come to an agreement. I won’t come into your tech company and tell you how to run things, and you don’t walk into my domain and assume to know how to run it.”
His eyes narrowed, and then a slight smirk curled his lips. “Henrich and I were friends, did you know that?”
What? Where was he going with this? “No.”
“No, I guess not many people did. But we were. When you told me he handed you the pin, I assumed he’d done it out of desperation. I was sure that, given the chance, he would have passed it to someone else, but I see now I was wrong. I see why Henrich chose you.”
Shit, was he agreeing with me?
He gave me a close-lipped smile. “What do you need for your trip?”
“Me,” Hyde said. “She’s going to need me.”
My pulse began to hammer hard in my throat. What was he doing?
Orion looked at Hyde for a long beat. What would he do? I doubted he believed Hyde’s story about the petition. He’d be stupid not to see there was a connection between us.
I needed to say something, but my mouth was suddenly dry because it was all very well to go up against Orion wh
en it was my welfare at stake, but when it was Hyde’s life, then it was another thing. Orion couldn’t hurt me directly, but if he hurt Hyde, it would break me.
Did he know?
Did he realize the power he had?
And if he did, would he use it?
“I may not be a shadow knight any longer,” Hyde said. “But I have the skills to keep her safe.”
Orion nodded slowly. “Yes. Our Shadow Master has more chance of survival if you go with her.”
Wait, what? He was okay with this?
Kash leaped off the podium. “I want to help too.”
“You can’t go onto fomorian land,” Hyde said tightly. “You don’t have the gene.”
Was there a flash of triumph in his eyes?
“Maybe not,” Kash said. “Maybe I can’t be there in body, but maybe I can be there in spirit.” He looked to Madam Latrou. “Our threads touched when we battled Rage, and ever since then, we’ve had a connection when we’re with the weave. We can see each other. Communicate.”
Latrou looked surprised. “That’s not possible. No one has ever seen another weaver’s avatar when in the weave.”
“Avatar?” Orion asked.
“It’s a weaver’s energy in a physical representation,” Latrou explained. “It’s been postulated that each weaver has one. It’s how we experience the weave.”
“Well, it’s true,” Kash said. “Can we use that somehow?”
“You think that connection can be enhanced to allow you to communicate across a vast distance?” Latrou clarified.
“Can it?” Kash asked. “Something like the rune we used to amplify the wards?”
“Maybe … Helseth?” Latrou turned to her weaver friend.
Helseth nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, yes. Yes, we can certainly come up with something. A modification on the amplify rune. It would allow you to communicate with Kash, and thus with us.”
“Like a weaver radio?” Orion looked impressed.
“How long will it take to modify the rune?” Hyde asked. Ever the practical one.
“A few hours,” Helseth replied. “We can have it ready for you by dawn if we work through the night?”
“Do it,” Orion said.
Latrou shot him a reproachful look.
“Please,” he added with a smile that was more a grimace.
“Of course,” Latrou said graciously.
* * *
Latrou ordered the weavers to get back to training, then vanished with Helseth to work on the rune.
Hyde remained. “I’ll head back to the ruins with you.”
My heart did a little skip, but my tone was businesslike. “Athos is outside. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
Yeah, I was dismissing him, but I needed to speak to Kash alone for a moment. Hyde’s gaze cut to Kash, and a vein ticked in his jaw.
“Don’t be long,” he snapped in his typical tutor tone.
He strode out of the room, leaving me with Kash and a bunch of weavers shooting bolts of magic at each other.
“I’m sorry.” Kash and I spoke at the same time.
He chuckled. “Great minds, eh?”
“I shouldn’t have said what I did. I didn’t mean it.”
He looked toward the empty arch. “You were pissed at Hyde, weren’t you …? You and him—”
“No.” I cut him off. “There is nothing going on between me and Hyde.”
He studied me carefully. “But you want there to be. You have feelings for him, and from the way he was looking at me just now, he feels the same way about you.”
“It doesn’t matter. It can’t happen.”
Kash’s mouth parted. “Oh, man, so it’s true?”
“What?”
“The rumor that Hydes aren’t permitted to have liaisons outside of their kind.”
My gaze snapped up to his. “There’s a rumor.”
His eyes narrowed. “So, it is true.”
I grabbed his arm and tugged him from the room into a shadowy corner in the hallway.
“Shhh. Yes. It’s true. But it’s a secret, and outsiders aren’t meant to know.”
“Fuck.” Kash ran a hand over his face. “Poor Hyde. Unrequited love is one thing, but requited love that you can’t act on sucks like a bitch.”
Hadn’t I said the exact same thing to Deana? “You don’t mind?”
He touched my cheek lightly. “I mind that it’s causing you pain, but I’d have no problem sharing you with Hyde. I can’t say the same about him, though.” He grinned. “If looks could kill …”
His humor was infectious, and I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, Hyde isn’t the sharing type. I figure it would take a lot of effort on his part.”
“But if the alternative is losing you …” Kash leaned in, so his lips were mere centimeters from mine. “The choice is easy.” He kissed me softly, his pillowy lips cushioning mine. It was too short and too sweet. “Once this is over, I want a weekend away, just you and me, the open road, and the bike.”
His optimism was infectious, too, and the prospect of an afterward, a reward, was a strange and effective fuel.
“It sounds like heaven.”
“Go now.” He stepped back. “Get packed. I’ll see you at dawn when the runes are ready.”
I left him standing by the arch and headed out to meet Hyde.
Yeah. Hyde was coming with me, and honestly, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Relieved, excited, wary.
None of that mattered. I needed to focus on what was best for Brady. What was best for our little mission, and there was no denying Hyde’s combat and tactical skills. Having him on my team was a good thing.
I found him petting Athos, and the hound looked like he was loving the attention. Hyde crooned in a low baritone that had me wanting to melt against him. The hound whisperer, they’d called him. Of course. He had a way with the beasts.
I climbed down the steps, and he turned to face me, the calm on his face shifting into irritation.
“Nice public display with the weaver. Is this a ploy to hurt me? To get back at me?”
Oh, boy. “Kash and I have nothing to do with you. I care about him. I’m attracted to him.”
“And Brady too.”
“I’m in love with Brady.”
“You intend to have several lovers?” He frowned as if he was struggling to wrap his mind around the concept.
“Yes.” I crossed my arms. “Do you have a problem with that?”
Do you want me to bite him? Athos asked.
Hyde’s body tensed, and then he slowly raised his hands and backed away from Athos. “Easy,” he said in that smooth baritone again. “I’m not the enemy.”
I swear Athos rolled his eyes. He senses my intention. He can’t understand me, not like you can.
“You were seriously going to bite him?”
He was being difficult.
Hyde slowly lowered his hands and stared from Athos to me. “Are you speaking to the hound?”
“Yes. I seem to have the ability to communicate with the hounds. Probably something to do with the mark the fomorian cut into my arm.”
Hyde’s brows shot up. “That’s impressive. I’m jealous. I’ve only ever been able to sense their intentions and communicate mine.” Hyde stepped closer to Athos and ran his hand across his flank. “You’re a beautiful creature.”
Thank you, Athos rumbled.
“He said thanks.”
Hyde let out a bark of laughter, his eyes lighting up in wonder, and for a moment, the angst was gone, and he reminded me of an awestruck boy.
I couldn’t help but smile. “His name is Athos. I guess you didn’t get the memo on the developments with the hounds. I’ll fill you in on the way back.”
I climbed up onto Athos. “Is it okay for Hyde to ride too?”
Unless you want him left in my dust…
I held out a hand to Hyde. “Hop on and hold on.”
Hyde swung himself up, and then we were off, back into the mist, back to the r
uins. Don’t think about Hyde’s chest pressed to your back. Don’t think about his arms wrapped around your waist.
He was coming with me into enemy territory, and I couldn’t help but wonder how long I’d be able to keep my distance.
Eleven
The stables were wreathed with shadows as I approached. My blood simmered, and my muscles begged for release. My body was ready to run, to let go and fly. Two hulking shadows emerged from the gloom. Wolves, huge and dark with stormy gray eyes.
It was hard to tell Aidan and Devon apart in this form, but Devon was the bulkier wolf. He chuffed and swung his head toward the fields that led down to the forest.
Aidan padded over and nudged my thigh with his snout.
I ran my hand over his head, sliding my fingers into the silken fur. He made a sound of pleasure. Devon approached and stood in front of me. He was so large his head came up to my chest. He buried his nose in my neck and inhaled, nuzzling me.
My pulse kicked up, and a familiar heat unfurled in my belly. Whoa to that.
I pulled away. “You wanna race?”
The wolves grinned at me.
“Catch me if you can.” I took off in a blur toward the field.
Wind raked through my hair, brushing over my skin and spurring me on. Adrenaline coursed through me, hot and cold at the same time, as my body did what it needed to do.
Let go.
I ran beneath the moon, away from the stress and the responsibility, away from the anxiety and the pain. Trees closed in around me, and then the scent of the earth surrounded me. How far behind were Devon and Aidan?
It probably wasn’t fair of me to blur. They hardly had a chance. I dropped out of blur to regular speed, and the world came into focus. I’d found my way into a clearing. Strange white flowers dotted the mossy ground, and the trees arched inward as if trying to make a domed ceiling to block out the sky. Moonlight lanced through the branches and dappled the ground.
It was beautiful.
Shadow Master: The Nightwatch Academy book 4 Page 6
