“Let’s go. Move it,” Jackson barks.
He takes off running and no one falls behind as he commands them with the confidence of a leader. I’m glad that he’s gotten his head out of his ass and learned a lesson. He’s a good team with Sara and leaving them in charge of training while we’re gone gives me a small bit of hope that we can be ready when the time comes for battle.
“Thank you,” I tell Sara. “Give them hell while I’m gone, yeah?”
“Oh, absolutely. They have no idea what a drill sergeant I can be when I need to be.” Sara’s grin is malicious.
“We need to get to the war room and then out of here.” I glance over my shoulder at the others who are all nodding.
“This is more important than babysitting adults who clearly need adult supervision,” Raven says.
“A lot of them are your brothers,” Jayden says.
“Brady is never going to live down that sucker punch.” Raven grins.
“You won’t let him.” I chuckle.
“That’s what happens when you play stupid games.” Raven ducks and a tree branch barely misses her head.
“They win stupid prizes.” I giggle. “Kind of like you with the dryads.”
“Whatever.”
“Seriously, they are just fucking with you because you insulted them. When is enough going to be enough, babe?” Greyson asks.
“They started it,” she grumbles.
A giggle sounds from the trees and I jump to my right as a low-hanging branch tries to swipe my feet out from beneath me.
“What did I do?” I shout to the dryads.
“Guilty by association or maybe just a casualty of this war they have with Raven.” Jayden lifts me from the ground as a vine attempts to trip me.
“I was trying to get her to apologize and this is the thanks I get?” I throw my hands up.
“They aren’t logical, Beth,” Raven says. “They’re deranged.”
“Stop it. I’m tired of getting caught in the crossfire.”
“Look, the armory is just over there.” Jayden squeezes my hip. “We’re almost out of the war zone.”
I glance over at Raven who jumps to avoid another vine that attempts to wrap around her ankle. She glares at the vine before looping her arm through mine and rushing to the clearing where the armory is looming before us.
I place my hand on the scanner, opening the door to the war room. Kira paces around the room with Dax attempting to calm her down.
“Princess,” Dax says. “It’s okay. We will fix this.”
“It’s not okay, Dax. There is nothing okay about people dying in fiery plane crashes we could have prevented.” She throws her hands up.
“What’s going on here?” I ask slowly.
Kira is usually so composed that seeing her so frazzled is disconcerting. Even when we were expecting the volcano to erupt and annihilate the entire academy, she wasn’t this freaked out.
I glance at Thad and his eyes widen in disbelief. She is scaring us all.
“We have some major problems, Beth,” Kira says, shoulders slumped.
“Yeah, we usually do, but what’s the problem now?” I ask.
