Page 48 of Resurgent

My phone starts to vibrate on the table. My therapist.

“Hunter, you’re late! You should already be headed to class.”

He shrugs as though being late for the class he instructs is no big deal, but other than on orientation day, I’ve never seen him late before.

Answering my phone, I quickly verify my name and date of birth for the receptionist while Hunter puts our empty dishes in the sink. I can’t help but admire how he moves around the kitchen with a stealthy grace; something I’m sure was learned from his years of sneaking around battlefields.

Before heading to the door, he pauses beside me—close enough that his heat radiates against my skin. His fingers brushing against my arm, and despite how quickly they vanish, a shiver races up my spine and steals my breath.

“I’ll see you in class in a bit,” he says, voice low so I can still hear the other end of my call. “Please don’t push yourself too hard today.”

He doesn’t wait for my answer. Turning on his heel, he jogs out of the room, leaving a lingering warmth on my arm and the sound of his footsteps fading down the hall.

“Ms. Corvin, are you there? Hello?”

Shit.

“Hi! Yes, I’m here!”

Over the next hour, I spend far too much time talking through how I’m feeling about my first day back in classes, my new recurring nightmares, and what my goals are moving forward. Every conversation with the therapist gives me new tools to handle the bouts of anxiety and self-blame that sneak up. She says they are all normal reactions, and that with time and practice, I’ll be able to move forward.

For now, I let the knowledge that Web and Platt are dead give me comfort.

Every time my mind tries to tell me that I should have done more, fought harder, I remember that I outsmarted them. I killed one and made the other one suffer through the last minutes of his life before Hunter ended him.

I kept them from taking it any further. And though I had to be saved in the woods, I didn’t need to be saved from my piece of shit attackers.

Chapter seventeen

Annalise

“Woah! Slow down there, Tiger. This is still formation you’re rushing to.”

“You try being on house arrest for a month, and then you tell me you’re not excited to see people again.”

The courtyard hums with the same restless energy it always has. Recruits rushing between buildings clutching their coffee cups and laughing with their friends between classes. Dragons fly in the distance, taking advantage of the breeze before they have to land for afternoon class.

Normal. Everything is perfectly normal.

Walking beside Matt toward the parade grounds, his shoulder brushes mine every few steps, his silent reminder that I’m not alone.

We’re only a few steps away before eyes turn to me and the conversations quickly die. As the crowds part, laughter turns to too-loud whispers.

"That's her. The recruit who survived the rockslide."

"I heard they found her unconscious."

"I heard she almost died, and it took six healers to bring her back from the edge!"

Matt's jaw tightens, but I keep walking. I expected this.

“I heard her dragon lost his shit when she got hurt. A few people said they practically went deaf from his roar.”

"She isn’t even scarred."

That one almost makes me laugh.

Not scarred.