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“Are you saying you were wrong about them?”
He folded his arms across his chest. “I still do not believe that females belong on the battlefield, be they human or Drexian.”
“But you are willing to join a mission with humans to rescue a female pilot who was fighting against the Kronock?”
His eyebrows pressed together in a scowl. “We must retrieve the female from the enemy. If it was up to me, her sister would not join the mission, but it is not my decision.”
The idea that Ariana would sit out on the mission to save Sasha was laughable. I was on the verge of asking him how he had become part of the mission at all, but I spotted a blue tower of hair bobbing through the crowd. Reina! She was close with Jess. Maybe she would know where she was.
I reached for the Vexling’s slender arm as she passed. She blinked her large eyes at me, breaking into a grin when she finally recognized me. “You are the cadet who went through the maze with Ariana and Volten and many of the human females.”
“I am.” I hated that Commander Vyk was still standing there, but I had to know. “Have you seen one of those humans, Jess?”
If it was possible for her eyes to flare wider, they did. “I was just coming to tell the admiral that I just saw her with the cadet who they’re searching for in the Restless Sea. They were walking toward the steps that lead downstairs to the dungeons.”
Icy tendrils of fear curled around my heart. “You are sure it was him?”
“I never forget a face. Besides, he was soaking wet. It looked like he’d swum back.”
Vyk’s gaze sharpened. “The missing cadet is not missing?”
“He was never missing,” I said, before pushing past both him and Reina and running for the door. Dom had only faked going into the sea, and now he had Jess.
Chapter
Seventy
Jess
“Idon’t understand.” My feet fumbled on the stone steps, as Dom led me down the stairs. “I thought you took a boat into the sea.”
His wet uniform pressed into my back as he held me close to him with the nose of a blaster jammed into my ribs. “I did, but only to make everyone think I was gone. I was always going to come back for you.”
“For me?” I was confused. Had I given this guy the wrong idea at some point? Was this all because I’d talked to him as we’d walked through the forest? “We barely know each other.”
His grip on my arm tightened. “That will change. You can be happy with me. I know it.”
Okay, now this guy sounded seriously delusional. “Where are we going?”
The sounds of the banquet were long gone and there were no voices coming from the corridor below as we reached the bottom of the stairs. “We cannot stay here. No one understands. They have it all wrong.”
My pulse fluttered. As far as I knew, this was not the way out of the academy. “We’re both cadets in the academy. We can’t just leave.”
He leaned down and his warm breath skimmed my ear. “Who will stop us? The entire school is celebrating. No one knows I am alive, and no one will notice that you are missing until it is too late.”
I hated that he might be right. I tried to slow my pace, but the Drexian jerked me forward. “Why take me? You can leave faster without having to drag me along.”
He choked out a dark laugh that held no warmth as we moved farther down a dimly lit corridor I’d never encountered before. “You were Torq’s. The arrogant high-born risked himself to find you and save you. He would not have bothered to lift a single entitled finger if he did not care for you. But what was his will now be mine. His family stole from me, and now I am stealing from him.”
I remembered what he and Torq had fought about, but I still didn’t understand what had happened and why Torq needed to pay for it. “Whatever crime his family committed shouldn’t be his to pay. It wasn’t his fault.”
“No?” He poked the blaster harder into my side. “You believe those born into elite clans should be allowed to abuse and kill anyone they want without fear of retribution? Maybe Torq did not kill my brother, but maybe after this other high-born families will think twice before they evade punishment.”
I tried not to panic as I processed what the Drexian was rambling about. “Someone killed your brother?”
“He didn’t tell you?” He choked out a pained, strangled laugh. “He is still protecting his brother’s honor, not that the Drexian has any.”
My mind raced as we walked farther. Torq’s brother had killed Dom’s brother? That explained the hostility, but it seemed wrong that Dom’s rage was focused on Torq, who had done nothing. Not that I dared say that.
