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“You must be one of the new human cadets.” He sized me up without hesitation, his gaze going up and down my body. “You are the best your planet had to send?”
It would have been impossible to miss the insult in his question, but I had grown used to Drexians underestimating humans. “One of them.”
He arched a dark eyebrow. “Are you a Blade like my son?”
A jolt went through me. I was looking at an older version of Torq’s features, arrogant sneer and all.
“There are no female Blades,” Torq answered before I could.
“I’m an Assassin.”
Torq’s father stared at me, as if decided whether that was good enough. “But you know Torq?” He pivoted to his son before I could open my mouth. “You did not tell me you had human friends.”
“I do not.” Torq’s voice was sharp, and he didn’t meet my gaze.
I understood why he’d said it, but the rejection still stung. “He’s right. We aren’t friends. We did go through the maze together but that was more of an accident than anything.”
“Yes, the trials.” The older Drexian nodded slowly, his gaze locked onto Torq. “Where you proved yourself to be a capable Blade.”
Bitterness dripped from his words like acid, and I could almost see Torq flinch, but he didn’t respond or look at me. Suddenly, my no-good family didn’t seem so bad. At least they hadn’t objected to the path I’d taken. They hadn’t done much to help, but they hadn’t hurt me. Not like Torq’s father seemed to take pleasure in doing.
For the first time, I got a glimpse of why Torq could be such an arrogant ass. Every bully has a bully, and his was his father.
“I’d better get to class.” I took a step back, making a point not to look at Torq again. I pinned my gaze firmly on his father, challenging him to say something else that would make me want to plot his untimely death.
The Drexian turned his attention from his rigid son, watching me with curiosity that bordered on the disturbing as I backed away. Something told me that he wasn’t the type of guy you turned your back on or took your eyes off.
When I finally spun around, I was almost to the archway leading into Strategy, and I almost bumped into Morgan. My already racing heart lurched.
“Who was that?” Morgan was looking over my shoulder to Torq and his father. “Someone related to Cocky Blade?”
“Cocky Blade?” I refused to look back as I led us under the arch with the mask and dagger carved in stone and down the corridor to the Assassin classrooms.
“A nickname I’m workshopping. So, is it?”
“That was his dad.” Now that I was well away from the Drexian I was beginning to thaw out from his glacial stare. “And now I know why Torq can be such a—“
“Cocky Blade?”
I rolled my eyes at Morgan eagerly finishing my sentence. “Exactly.”
My friend looped her arm through mine. “If he’s such a cocky a-hole, why are you so into him?”
I opened my mouth to protest, glancing around to make sure no one had heard her, but she held up a hand.
“I saw you lose a few shades when you thought he was the one who’d died, and don’t tell me it’s because we went through the maze together because I also went through the maze with the guy, and I don’t look at him like you look at him.”
I sighed. There was no point in lying anymore. She knew. I waited until a pair of Drexian cadets passed us and I dropped my voice to a conspiratorial hush. “Promise me that this stays between us?”
Morgan made a criss-cross motion over her chest with one finger. “Cross my heart and hope to be sent to Irons.”
I laughed at that. The girl really did not like anything technical. “Okay, but you also have to promise not to hate him.”
She scrunched her lips to one side as we paused outside the doors to our class. “I make no promises on that. Not until I hear the whole story. Now spill it, Jess.”
Chapter
Forty-Two
