Page 119 of The Incendiary

“It is,” Mavic agreed. “I’m fairly certain the Sharpe brothers started the whisperings after you took them down on the day you arrived.”

“Fragile egos,” Mina added. “Do your best not to let it get to you. The commander himself knows it’s hogwash, and that’s what matters. And let’s not forget you can set them on fire or strangle them with a vine if you really need to.” She fixed a few loose strands of my braid before patting me on the shoulders. “All right, off you go. Before you’re late.”

I was equally disgusted as I was uneasy, but I forced both emotions aside and put on a brave face. Showing my nerves and letting them know it bothered me would only add fuel to their fire.

I bid the twins farewell for the evening and crossed the courtyard toward the same building for the second time today. The dusk-lit sky was still bright, and it wasn’t yet curfew, so cadets were milling about. A few sparring, mostly playfully.

When I reached the small meeting cabin, the door swung open before I could knock, this time revealing Otis Stoll with a scowl on his face.

He was the first guard who’d caught me while on patrol the day I arrived.

Stoll ground his teeth together, saying nothing.

“Look.” I sighed, palms up in surrender. “I never wanted any trouble. I’m on your side.”

His green-eyed glare didn’t falter.

“No hard feelings?”

Still nothing. Tonight was off to a great start.

“Okay.” I motioned past him. “That’s fair. May I please come in, at least?”

Unenthused, he retreated slowly and let me pass. The room was brightly lit and warm enough to make me regret wearing a sweater, with a roaring fire beneath a hearth and tall lanterns in the corners. It was even stuffier than this morning, and the scent of liquor was heavy.

“Fera, welcome.” Elias motioned to a seat on the opposite end of the table. “Please, sit.”

One of the blondes I recognized from the night that I’d stumbled upon his “threesome” sat in his lap. He wore her like an accessory, and she seemed perfectly content with that.

Valda wasn’t my favorite person, so I surprised myself by being disappointed by her absence. Other than the blonde in Elias’s lap, I was the only woman.

And the only spot available was next to the Sharpe brothers.

Lovely.

I already wanted to be back with the twins playing cards or hearing more stories about Caz, Marin, and their families, and what it was like growing up in the Caves, but I took the seat next to a quiet and kind-faced soldier. His glass rested on his lips while he peered at me with dark eyes that glinted in contrast to his olive skin.

“Drink?” Micah Sharpe offered me a glass of brown liquor from my other side.

“No, thanks.” Mavic’s warnings had put me on guard, and I specifically remembered Gavin’s written instruction to never, under any circumstances, accept drinks from people that I didn’t trust. Especially men in large groups.

I withdrew my canteen of water out of my small bag and set it on the table. Elias saw and quietly laughed at me while the woman in his lap muttered something to him. I focused on the others as they went around the table and introduced themselves, per Elias’s command. I stayed mostly quiet, not out of fear but because listening was one of the best ways to learn. People showed you who they were if you let them talk enough.

Keeping up with multiple conversations at once in a stuffy room wasn’t easy. The sound of gold coins on the table as they gambled with cards added to the clamor of rising voices and made it hard to focus as third and fourth rounds of liquor set in. It was at least an hour before one of them addressed me.

“Why so quiet, Fera?” I could smell the rum on Hendrix Sharpe’s breath as well as I could feel insincerity oozing out of him. “Unlike Stoll, we forgive you for beating us, and we don’t bite.”

“According to Draven Finch, she does,” said Micah. “What do we have to do to earn that treatment?”

“Do you ask all your female peers questions like that?” I challenged them. “Like Valda Hoss?”

Hendrix violently shuddered. “You don’t threaten Val unless you want your cock sliced off in your sleep.”

“I can do just as much damage as she can, if not more. I suggest you hold your tongue.”

Their eyebrows raised. Micah opened his mouth to retort but was distracted by a voice from across the table.

“Heard you set Molochai’s beasts on the young ones this year, Commander,” one of the other men said to Elias.