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I wasn’t sure if he was serious or not. From everything I’d seen of Torq so far, his clan—and its status—were important to him. It defined him. He exuded arrogance that was only possible from someone who’d grown up with so much privilege that their innate superiority had never been questioned. The only hint I’d seen that there was something underneath all that entitlement had been in the maze when clan status couldn’t fight off a monster or get him across an open pit of burning lava. Then he’d been different. Then he’d been real.
I cleared my throat, aware that we’d strayed far from the reason I was there. “We should probably get to the Kronock.”
He blinked at me a few times before it hit him what I meant. “Kronock language tutoring. That’s right.” He held my gaze for another moment before he turned to the desk and finished dragging the second chair to it. “Let’s begin.”
For a second, I wondered again if I was really there because he needed help with Kronock. Then I brushed the thought aside. Why else would a gorgeous, elite Drexian need a nerdy girl with a no-account family like me?
Chapter
Sixteen
Torq
“Tell me again why this is your favorite holo-chamber program?” I dodged a flying ape with slashing talons, as Kann pivoted and stabbed it with his blade.
“Volten loves visting Ancarra.” He swiped at his sweaty brow and grinned at his friend. “Is that not right, Volt?”
Volt jumped down from a branch in one of the leafy jungle trees and landed on the dirt with a thud. “What can I say? I love the climate here.”
Sweat beaded across my bare chest and along my upper lip, and rivulets of it rolled down my spine and below the waistband of my sparring pants. “You enjoy this heat?”
“More than I enjoy the apes.” Volten lunged toward an ape as it sailed through the air overhead, dispatching it quickly with his blade.
I shook my head. I was trying to remain flattered that the two instructors had invited me to join them in their weekly holo-chamber simulation, but I hadn’t been aware that their idea of fun was being attacked nonstop in a jungle so hot and humid that I was sure we were being steamed alive. As a Blade, I enjoyed sparring as much as the next Drexian, but I was unaccustomed to doing it with sweat dripping into my eyes.
“This is good practice, Cadet.” Kann tossed his blade from one hand to the other. “Not all battles will be on cold worlds like Drex or sterile battleships. Holo simulations like this will make you a better Blade.”
“I am grateful that you invited me to join you,” I said, which was entirely true.
Volt grinned and wiped his slick blade on his pants. “But you would have preferred the Corvaa Arctic simulation?”
Arctic? That didn’t sound much better.
I tried to focus on the fact that the two instructors had included me, which had been a surprise, but I knew it was due to the unusual bond I shared with Volten since surviving the maze together. It had been a strange path to go from antagonists who’d actively disliked each other to reluctant allies in the maze to something akin to friendship after working together to survive the trials and get the rest of our group out alive.
I remembered my early days of the academy when Volten had glared daggers at me whenever I so much as glanced at Lieutenant Bowman. Now that they were openly together, his hostility made sense. But back then, I’d merely seen him as a low-class upstart who was daring to challenge me. Memories of my behavior made my face heat even more than it already was, if that was possible, and I was once again glad that I’d shed that part of myself. Well, most of it.
There was something about Jess that provoked both the dominant side of me and the vulnerable one. I found myself opening up to her about my family but then demanding that she tutor me in secret and holding a threat over her head.
Because you know you’re not worthy of her. You know she would never spend time with you unless you made her.
I growled, despising myself for my insecurity and weakness. A weakness that my family would have reviled and rejected. They would have told me that she was the one who was not worthy, and that any female should be honored to be with a Drexian of my status.
But I knew that was false. Jess didn’t care about status. She didn’t care about clan. Most nights when she was bent over my desk quizzing me on Kronock verbs, I didn’t think she cared much for me.
“Have you made any progress on finding Commander Kax?”
I snapped my head to Volten, as he caught a smaller ape by the neck and tossed it aside. For a moment, I didn’t know what he meant. Then I remembered what I had promised. I had assured Volten that I could use my connections to locate the Drexian who’d rescued a human from Kronock territory. The only problem was that it involved my father, and he had not responded to me since I’d left word that I had been inducted into the Blades.
I tried not to let it bother me. I tried to ignore the pain of his silence. I tried to tell myself that I was worth more than my school.
“I have not heard back from my source,” I admitted and kicked a curling vine from my leg.
Kann heaved in a breath. “Who is your source?”
I considered lying to them, but that was the action of the old Torq. I wanted to be better, even if it pained me.
“My father is my source. He has known members of Kax’s clan for a long time, and he was close to his father.” I drew in a breath of the air that was so warm it burned my nostrils. “He has been slow to respond.”
