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All because I’d wanted to be part of the stupid war. How selfish was I to put my boyfriend's sister right smack in the middle of danger? I wouldn’t be surprised if he broke up with me when we got to be together again. I wouldn’t blame him one damn bit.
I fell back on my pillow and squeezed my eyes shut, refusing to let the tears be traitors. But the sight of the corpse of Valencia danced behind my closed eyelids, making it impossible to shake anything off. I knew I was going to have to deal with far more than just getting Mallory to dip out and go home before it was too late. I just hoped I wasn’t going to be too late.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
The next morning was difficult to get moving on. I felt like I was dragging my feet through a thick fog. I had to lift each foot high and slam it forward just to move my body forward. The guests were milling about, watching the rest of us, and I felt so out of body. I also felt crummy from lack of sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I could only see Valencia and feel the snake slithering up my throat. I shuddered even now at the thought, my stomach curling.
“Azula McEntire?” a husky voice asked, drawing my eyes up.
His green accents gleamed at me, and dark eyes glowered down. I glanced at Mallory and Carli, who sat right across me at our breakfast table, their eyes wide as they stared at the soldier.
“Yes?” I asked, my heart thumping as I thought back to Valencia and Ezekial, knowing I’d just left them in the middle of the forest.
Had they been found, and questions rose, or had they remembered a lot sooner than I had even guessed they would?
“I will be your soldier companion from here on out. Your forester will be assigned to you shortly as well.” With that, he turned and headed back out of the mess hall, leaving me in stunned silence.
“Companion?” Mallory echoed, her confusion mirroring my own from inside of me.
“Yes,” Carli sighed. “Ezekial warned us this would happen. We’d be assigned into groups. One of a medic, one of a forester, and one of a soldier for when we leave. For obstacles and – well – anything really. It isn’t safe out there,” her voice dipped towards a whisper as I turned to face her, and Carli leaned over the table. “There are creatures and even humans who want us dead. Some because they don’t want us helping in the war, some because we help in the war and they’re on the opposing side. Some humans, just because they’re human, and they see us as monsters and want us dead. A lot of humans don’t realize we’re just trying to help.”
I grimaced. The last bit was no surprise, in all honesty. Of course, most humans didn’t think we were trying to help. When the first vampires and Lycan made themselves known to take over, they attacked and killed thousands of humans. No doubt that memory had stuck with them. Even if their books depicted our kind as fictitious creatures, we were painted as monsters and never just beings with feelings wanting to live and thrive as they did. In their reality, we were nothing more than those same monsters that wanted to rip their heads off and stir them in cauldrons for some witchy stew.
Humans were a confusing bunch, for sure. And stubborn, very stubborn.
As the mess hall door opened and bells tinkled, my eyes flickered to the sight of Valencia by herself. She walked with her head held high and heels clacking against the cement ground. My heart gave three heavy thuds against my ribcage, and my eyes followed her every step until she was right up next to our table, forcing me to turn and face her with my head tilted just slightly back to look up at her.
A sly smile cased her lips. “Did you have fun getting past the spell last night, Azula?”
I balked. “Wh-what?”
Was she really talking about this out loud? Did she not care who heard her? It certainly didn’t seem so as she continued to rattle on.
“It was a test to see how you’d do. You passed; you certainly passed.”
I blinked. “I – I don’t think I understand,” I told her, feeling like a little kid trying to learn a lesson that just wouldn’t click. “Test? It was a…. test?”
She smiled, the iciness of her eyes melting away as they sparkled. “Come by my office after dinner this evening. We have much to chat about.”
With that, she turned on her thin heel and walked off. Heads turned, and voices whispered, no doubt followed with fingers pointed at me, but I ignored them all as I turned back to my friends.
“What the hell was that about?” Carli asked, demanding, but shock riddled her words.
I shook my head and leaned in towards them, lowering my voice so no one else could hear, and told them the tale of the night before. Except for the kissing part. I kept that hidden, not because Mallory was Timothy’s sister or anything, but because I didn’t think they needed to know that part. Well, okay, maybe a little bit of it had to do with the fact Mallory was his sister. I didn’t need her running to him at the first chance she got and ratting me out for something I’d had no control over. In the end, they were as shaken as me.
Sitting back, I turned and caught sight of Olga glaring at me. Her lips were pursed, nostrils flaring, and fists clenched on top of the table as she held tight to a spoon. She sneered as she caught my eye, and my shoulders squared, daring her to do anything at all. After a minute of our staring contest, Olga broke free and turned, whispering something to one of her minions. My eyes narrowed at her, and flaming hatred burned in the pit of my stomach.
I knew Olga well enough to know that she was planning something, and it wouldn’t be pretty. Just exactly what? I had no idea. I wanted to know, though, because if she was going to go after either Carli or Mallory in place of me for any reason, she was going to feel my wrath. I was sure she knew that, and it was probably the only reason she didn’t get up now.
I did once before to her, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Standing up, I discarded my tray and left the mess hall. On the outside, the group of soldiers lined the front. They were camped out, tents dotting the ground and campfires with black smoke billowing upward. Glancing over my shoulder, I noticed that the mess hall probably wasn’t big enough to hold everybody, so no wonder they’d decided to make camp. But again, they were trained for such a thing, so it might’ve just been instinct anyway. As I glanced back at the campsite, my eyes fell on the Lycan who’d approached us. His nostrils flared, but his eyes were strictly on me despite the boy next to him talking animatedly in his ear. Soldier boy had scruffy hair that reached his shoulders and brooding eyes that smoldered when glowering at me. My heart thumped, skipping a beat, and I mentally chastised me. What the hell was going on with me? My heart was taken. I was supposed to only think about Timothy. No other guy was meant to even cross my mind, let alone make me feel all sorts of weird jiggly inside me.
I really hated this place for messing with my heart among other things.
To think about it, though, maybe I deserved this. I kept denying Timothy my hand in marriage, and I had willingly run off, hoping to join the war so I wouldn’t have to sit around like an obedient little housewife waiting for her husband to return from war. Maybe this was a punishment to make me realize what I’d lose if I kept pushing forward.
Because I did love Timothy, I truly did. But I wanted more out of life than the tiny little village where I was stuck tending cuts and bruises. The worst was a rogue Lycan attack. Yeah, there was no reason for me to just stick around that place and die of pure boredom. I deserved this, all of this, didn’t I?
