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The instructor grinned, his teeth flashing white. “It would have been if you’d made it over the wave.”
I exchanged a look with Kort. Was missing a battle on the other side of a huge wave supposed to be a bad thing? Blades were supposed to love a good fight, but I doubted any of us would have loved that.
“The battle of the schools won’t involve the Restless Sea, will it?” Kort asked when he’d stopped inspecting his hands for splinters.
The instructor just grinned at him. “I have no idea, but I make no promises. Past battles have used the sea and the mountains.”
I walked with Kort as the class dispersed through the open holo-chamber doors, aware that most of our boots were making squelching sounds as we walked. So much for the Blades sneaking up on anyone today.
“Torq.”
I turned at the gravelly voice that hadn’t come from the instructor. It took me a beat to recognize the Drexian cadet who’d stabbed me on the climbing wall and knocked me off. I’d only gotten a flash of his face as he’d lunged for me, but I recognized the malicious glint in his eyes.
Kort stopped with me, tensing as he must have also recognized the cadet. “What do you want, Dom?”
I was surprised that my friend was so hostile to our Blade brother. Sure, the Drexian hadn’t checked on me when I was out, but I hadn’t taken that personally. We didn’t know each other, and apologies were awkward.
“I wanted to talk to Torq.”
Kort crossed his arms. “Well, you got both of us, so talk.”
“About that day on the wall,” he started.
“Don’t worry about it,” I told him before he could finish. “I’m over it.”
The Drexian’s gray eyes narrowed. “You’re over it? Who says I’m over it?”
I didn’t know what this cadet was going on about, but he was obviously mad. Had he gotten in trouble for what he’d done? Did he blame me for his punishment?
He leaned closer and pointed a finger at my chest. “You thought you could climb over me like I was nothing. Well, you got what you deserved.”
“You didn’t like that I got ahead of you?”
“You cheated.” He spat out the words, flicking his gaze between me and Kort. “If I were you, I’d watch my back.”
He pushed past us and stomped through the doorway, leaving me in openmouthed shock. “He drove a dagger into my leg, and he’s mad at me?”
“Ignore him.” Kort shook his head as we walked from the holo-chamber. “He’s grekked off because you proved you were smarter than him by using other cadets as climbing holds. Everyone else thought your move was pure Blade. Maybe with a touch of Assassin, but mostly badass Blade.”
I thought of Jess hearing my tactic on the wall and telling me I would have made a decent Assassin. Being tossed around in a violent sea had distracted me enough that I hadn’t thought about Jess for the entire class, but now memories of her naked and beneath me flooded my brain.
“You ready for some makeup work?” Kort elbowed me. “I bet we’ll be the only ones on the climbing wall if we go while everyone else is eating.”
“Great plan,” I deadpanned. “And when do we eat?”
“Don’t pretend that you don’t sneak down to the kitchens for extra food.”
I hesitated. I could not tell him that I had taken Jess there.
Kort barked out a laugh. “I forgot you were a high-born. Have you ever been inside a kitchen?” Before I could tell him that I had—although only a few times in my own house, which was something I wasn’t planning to mention—he gave me a friendly punch in the arm. “Don’t worry. That’s why you need a friend like me.”
Chapter
Thirty
Jess
The lights came up in the classroom, and I blinked a few times as my eyes readjusted from the darkness. The holographic image of the land war diagram faded in the brightness as Fiona sat on the edge of a wooden desk. “The next test will include all the battle strategies from Earth medieval era and Drex Dark Times.”
