Page 52 of The Incendiary

“Gods,” I breathed, covering my mouth with my hand. Shifting the body had violently stirred up the stench of sour, rotting meat, and it was an effort not to purge my entire dinner.

“It’s a miracle there’s anything left of him at all,” he grumbled, seeming just as disgusted by the sight as I was. Still, he bent closer, because shifting the body had also exposed a soiled note tucked inside the pocket of the man’s jacket.

“Shit.” He grabbed the note and found it was covered and hardened by dried blood. Impossible to read. “How do I know you didn’t do this, Fera?”

I turned on him. “You think I did this?”

He shrugged. “I asked you why you were out here. You didn’t answer. Going beyond the Barracks’ walls is one thing. Being out past curfew is another.”

It was an effort to hold back Helios’s fire simmering in my veins. “How often do your soldiers patrol the Barracks’ outer perimeter, Commander Winterton?”

“Multiple times a day.”

“And how long do you think this corpse has been lying here?”

His nostrils flared in annoyance, but he surveyed the body again. “A few days,” he said, humoring me. “Five, maybe six, by the bloat and discoloration of his hands.”

“Hmm.” I nodded. “And six days ago, I was still in my cell. So, maybe you should be less worried about what I do when my nightmares keep me awake and more concerned that your patrols missed a corpse lying so close to your fortress walls for nearly a week.”

I expected a snarky retort, but one never came. He stared at me hard before pinching the bridge of his nose, grumbling under his breath, and ripping the covering off the man’s head.

“Did you know him?” I asked when I felt like the silence was eating me alive. The man’s face was bloated and pale with a green tint, just like his hands. His slit throat was more visible along with purplish-red bruises scattered around his collarbone. “I think there was a struggle.” But Elias had paled and fallen silent. “Commander?”

His throat bobbed with a swallow. “You came here to earn my favor and prove yourself worthy of fighting in my army.”

“Yes,” I answered warily, fearing he was going somewhere unsavory with this. Those women in his room sure seemed eager to earn his favor.

“Here’s your first chance.” He gestured to the dead body. “I need to know I can trust you, that you aren’t going to return to my fortress and tell your peers what you stumbled across tonight.”

Anxiety hammered at the walls of my stomach. I wouldn’t tell anyone other than Shera. “You can trust me. Only two of my cabinmates will talk to me, anyway.” I laughed, thinking it was funny. Based on his unamused, exhausted glare, he did not. “I can keep secrets, Commander,” I insisted, wishing I didn’t so desperately want to prove myself as a cadet and fighter, to him specifically. “In fact, I think I have already earned your trust.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Is that so?”

“I could’ve had Insidions out here waiting to ambush you. You’re smart enough to anticipate that, aren’t you?” I waited for him to deny it. He didn’t. “Yet, you came with me anyway. You must trust me to some degree.”

Elias faced me. “You’re making quite an assumption there, Fera.”

“Am I wrong?”

His jaw ticked. “My instinct told me you were being honest, and my instinct is usually correct.”

I shrugged through the agitated silence. He could deny it, but he lit up with intrigue around me. Tonight though, he rubbed his exhausted eyes with his non-gloved hand, and I felt a rush of empathy for him. He was young for the amount of responsibility he carried. Of course, he would want to trust someone he saw as separate from that life.

“No more cadets unsupervised beyond the walls,” he sighed. “I’ll give the order in the morning. And despite the thorn in my side you insist on being, cadets includes you.”

“We should bury him,” I suggested. Leaving him out here alone didn’t feel right.

“We? There is no we, Fera.” Elias thrust the torch’s base into the ground. “I’ll deal with this.”

“I can help⁠—”

“Go,” he urged, pointing south toward the fortress. “It’s an order, Cadet.”

I gritted my teeth, contemplating whether or not to obey.

“I’ll watch him and report back,” Shera assured me.

“Will you make sure he doesn’t… die out here?” I held Elias’s demanding glare.