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Kort glanced at me over his shoulder, his brow furrowing. “Are you sure you are fine?” He slid his gaze further into my room. “There isn’t—?”
I strode forward and threw my arm over his shoulders. “There is nothing I’d rather be doing than scaling the forbidden tower with my fellow Blades.”
Now that was a massive lie. I’d rather be doing a thousand different things to Jess instead of sneaking out of the academy and hoisting myself up a rope, so I could scale the side of a treacherously slick and unstable tower. I only hoped Jess would forgive me for leaving her alone in my room. I hoped she would understand.
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
Jess
My heart pounded and my knees ached, as I finally stood from where I’d been cowering in Torq’s bathroom. They were gone. It wasn’t hard to know since the Blades had entered with no lack of noise and chaos, and now the room was enveloped in silence.
“Fucking Blades.” I twisted my back to release the tension from crouching on the hard stone and walked into the bedroom, which showed no traces of the loud Drexians who’d stormed in, dressed Torq, and then dragged him out.
I’d heard every word since the bathroom door had been partially open, so I knew exactly why they’d come and where they were taking Torq. I shook my head, partly in disbelief that scaling a tower was one of the unofficial requirements for cadets, and partly because I was relieved he wouldn’t feel the need to fulfill that particular requirement with me.
Going into the underground tunnels had been enough for me. I didn’t need to visit the dungeons or scale a tower to prove anything, and I was certain they’d let me graduate without those notches in my belt.
“If you don’t get kicked out first,” I said to myself, remembering that I was currently standing in the quarters of a Drexian cadet, and I was out of my tower after hours. I had no clue how long Torq would be gone, and I had no intention of hanging around to find out.
I was already second guessing why I was in Torq’s room, why I was risking my place at the academy, why I was willing to throw away everything I’d worked for just for a few moments of fun.
More than fun, I thought. My pulse tripped as a familiar rush of pleasure and power suffused my body at the memory of taking Torq’s cock in my mouth and feeling him lose control. For the first time in my life, I understood why girls ended up doing stupid things for boys, why they lost their ability to think straight, why they fell for bad boys who didn’t deserve them.
After everything I’d achieved and after all I’d done, I’d ended up in the same place as the dumb girls in my hometown who fell prey to guys who only wanted one thing. I’d ended up sneaking around just so I could get laid, which made me no better than the giggly girls I’d scoffed at back then.
I tried to tell myself that Torq was different. He wasn’t a bad boy. Not anymore. But was that wishful thinking? Had I convinced myself that the Drexian had changed because I needed that to be true? Was I fooling myself because otherwise I’d have to admit that I’d fallen for a fellow cadet who was nothing like me and nothing like anyone I should like?
“Stop overthinking it, Jess. Sex is sex. You had to do it someday.” I crossed to the door and hesitantly put my hand to the side panel, holding my breath in hopes that it would open. If not, I was trapped inside with nothing but my dark and swirling doubts. “This was never supposed to be something real or something permanent. This was always a fling, and there’s no one better for a meaningless fling than someone you should never be with.”
I’d almost convinced myself that I was in control of the whole situation and that I was being rational and reasonable, when the door slid open to reveal the dimly lit, ominously quiet corridor. I peeked my head from the room, swiveling it back and forth to make sure no one would see me emerge from Torq’s room.
“Yep, these are definitely the actions of a woman in control.” I stepped into the hallway and scurried toward the staircase as quickly as I could. The wall sconces sent shadows writhing across the ceiling, which did nothing to stave off the fear clawing at my throat. What would I say if I was caught? I was nowhere near the Stacks and not even close to the School of Strategy. I could always feign ignorance and claim that I’d gotten lost.
And look like a total idiot who hadn’t learned the layout of the academy after a full term. Even if someone would believe that an Assassin wouldn’t have memorized the floorplan of the school, I would rather have them know I was sneaking around to see a guy than believe I had crap memory. Unless it meant being sent away and losing everything I’d worked for. In that case, I’d grit my teeth and play the ditzy female card.
I had to make it down the winding staircase, across the main hall, up another flight of twisting steps, across an open bridge between towers and then into the female tower—all without being seen. What had I been thinking going to the cadet dorms so late? There were no straggling cadets leaving the dining hall or drifting from the Stacks or dragging themselves from the sparring gyms. It was only me and my quick footsteps tapping as I practically ran down the stairs.
I reached the bottom and speed-walked across the main hall, but before I could start up another flight of stairs, a figure appeared from the shadows. My heart lurched as I stifled the urge to scream. What was the security chief doing lurking in the shadows?
“What are you doing out after hours?” Commander Vyk towered over me, looking every bit as menacing as he always did, even though I found him marginally less frightening after learning that he hadn’t gone along with the High Command plan to eliminate all the cadets during the trials. But it wasn’t enough to return my heartbeat to anything close to a normal rhythm.
I ran through all the possible excuses in my head, trying to determine which I should use on the tough, grizzled Drexian. Should I lie and hope he’d believe I wasn’t too sharp, or should I tell the truth and hope he’d cut me a break. But telling the truth would be throwing Torq under the bus as well, and that seemed unfair since he wasn’t here to speak for himself.
“She’s with me.”
I hadn’t even decided my strategy when a striking, dark-haired woman in a flowing blue dress appeared to float toward me. Her dark eyes locked on mine, silently telling me to go along with whatever she said. I recognized her as Noora, the Academy Master’s wife, probably the only woman in the place who got a free pass for almost anything.
Vyk swung his gaze to her, his stiff stance remaining rigid. “This cadet is with you?”
“She’s part of the team working on the rescue plan into Kronock territory, which means she puts in late nights in the Stacks.”
“She wasn’t coming from the Stacks,” Vyk growled.
If Noora was intimidated by his gravelly voice, she didn’t let it show. “She probably took a break to stretch her legs. Researching possible Kronock prison sites is tedious work.” She gave the Drexian a sweet smile. “I’m sure you can understand.”
“I didn’t know that there was a rescue plan being put together.” He stroked one hand down his short beard that was shot through with gray. “Has the admiral authorized the use of force to retrieve the prisoner?”
