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His expression sobered. “Thank you. He did not deserve it.”
Before I could stop myself, I blurted out, “I was terrified when I thought it had been you.”
He stepped closer, his gaze intense. “It was supposed to be me.”
“What do you…?” My question faded as louder voices came to us through the water. Someone was out there. Someone had found us.
Then I looked at Torq in nothing but his underwear, and panic arrowed through me. This did not look good.
Chapter
Sixty-Three
Torq
Jess’s face was stricken as the voices grew louder. She looked pointedly at me, and I glanced down. Grekking hell. How had I forgotten that I wasn’t dressed? This was what Jess did to me. She made it impossible for me to think or reason. She even made it difficult to breathe.
I rushed to my clothes lying on the floor and dressed as quickly as I could, yanking on my pants and shoving my feet into my boots. I jammed my arms into my shirt, realizing that the fabric was still slightly damp and that it smelled murky. I ignored this as I buttoned it and tucked it hastily into my pants, knowing that I still looked like I’d gotten in a brawl and fallen down a waterfall.
Jess was lacing up her boots when someone called into the cave. “Hello!”
She locked eyes with me and an understanding passed between us. We would never speak of what had happened. We would never tell anyone about our night in the cave. It would remain between us always. I gave her a sharp nod.
“In here!” Jess yelled back as she started walking from the cave along the narrow ledge.
I followed her, choosing my footholds carefully. I was soon shielding my eyes from the outside light that seemed bright even though it was barely peeking through the omnipresent thick, gray cloud cover. Droplets of water sprayed up from the cascade pouring from overhead and speckled our boots as we made our way from under the waterfall.
“Grek!” A Drexian on the bank of the pool ran a hand through his hair when he spotted Jess. “We have been searching for you all night.”
“Hi, Fyn.” Jess continued across the ledge until she reached the ground, and I walked behind her. “Good to see you.”
There were two more Drexians with the tall one, and all of their eyes widened when they saw me.
“What are you doing with this Blade cadet?” Fyn asked, his body tensing as if he might need to defend the honor of his fellow Assassin.
I gave a small wave but waited for Jess to explain.
“Torq tried to save me when I fell off the overhang.” She pointed to the rock ledge high above us. “We both ended up falling into the pool and getting drenched. It was almost dark, so we found shelter so he could recover from almost drowning.”
Her explanation did nothing to change their shocked expressions. They all slid their gazes to me again.
“Your fellow Assassin is a strong swimmer. She pulled me out and resuscitated me.”
They still said nothing, so Jess held up the stone. “Look what I found while he was recovering.”
That got a reaction.
“Is that the Assassin stone?” The tallest Drexian strode toward us, his eyes glittering.
Jess bobbed her head up and down. “It was in a cave near the stream. Actually, it was in a cave under the stream.”
The other Assassin cadets gathered around Jess, patting her on the shoulders and eyeing the stone, which was still in her hands.
Fyn, who was also clearly the team’s leader, cleared his throat. “We should get this back to the academy.”
“No other school has returned with their stone yet?” Jess asked.
One of the underclass Assassins twitched one shoulder. “We don’t know. We have been out here looking for you. But they would sound the horn if the battle was over, wouldn’t they?”
