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Torq
Blood pounded in my ears as I stormed toward the circuit. I didn’t know who I wanted to hit more: Dom, my father, or myself. So much vitriol flowed through my veins that it was like poison burning me from the inside out, and the only way to purge it from myself was to burn off the energy.
The corridor leading to the School of Battle was bathed in shadows with few other Blades walking with me. They were already in class, which was where I should have been. But being around others would not be good for me or them. Not when I was consumed with rage that was begging for release.
I passed the door to the climbing wall and then the ones leading to sparring rings. I breathed a tight sigh of relief when I opened the door to the circuit and found it empty. Stepping inside triggered the lights, which immediately illuminated the elaborate obstacle course that reached high into the air. Our first-year class had practiced on it a few times, but I had far from mastered the route.
I shook out my hands to release some of the adrenaline pumping through me as I strode toward the start of the course and quickly climbed the ladder to the platform. I should have known better than to do anything that required focus and strategic thinking when I was so angry, but I didn’t care.
I didn’t care if I fell. I welcomed the failure and the pain. Anything to take away the sucking guilt and agonizing remorse. Maybe physical pain would take away the pain that twisted my gut every time I thought of my Blade brother plunging to his death. Now I could add the shame of pretending that Jess was nothing to me. I closed my eyes for a beat but all that flashed in front of my eyelids was her pained expression as she’d realized that I would not acknowledge her in front of my father. I would not let him think she meant anything to me.
“Coward,” I growled to myself, as I stood on the platform and eyed the circuit. “You are a grekking coward.”
My heart raced as I leapt for the first large ring and swung high, letting go at the top and grasping the edge of a hollow cone that rotated. My feet flew through the air behind me, and I savored the rush of air and weightless sensation. I released my grip and landed in a crouch on a suspended disc as it swayed beneath my weight.
I had known that the Drexian Academy would be hard. I’d expected that. I hadn’t expected it to almost kill me. I hadn’t expected to lose fellow cadets pointlessly. I hadn’t expected the human cadets to upend my world.
That’s what Jess had done. She’d upset my total confidence in Drexian superiority and human inferiority. I had grown up knowing that Drexians were the strongest and bravest, and that humans—especially the females—were in need of our protection. They were useful as mates but only because we needed them to continue our species. They were not our equals, and they would never be able to outsmart or outperform me.
But Jess and the other humans had destroyed that truth for me. I’d seen firsthand how smart and brave she was, and that she was worthier than my father would ever be able to admit.
My father. I cringed when I thought of how dismissively he’d talked about me becoming a Blade, how he’d practically sneered at Jess, how he’d asked me if I’d fucked her after she’d walked away.
I’d denied it, but he’d only arched an eyebrow and told me that there was no harm in enjoying the weaker species, as long as I remembered my duty to my clan.
Duty. I almost choked on the word as I jumped to the next wobbly disc that was suspended from two chains. My entire life I’d been told the importance of duty and clan, but neither of those had saved me in the maze. My high-born status had done nothing when I’d fought off deadly beasts sent by our own High Commanders to kill us.
My clan hadn’t gotten me across the pit of lava or flown me from the maze. If it hadn’t been for the humans, I would not be here. And if it wasn’t for Jess, I would not have learned that I cared for more than Drexian status.
These were things my father would never understand. Just like he would never understand that I was proud to be a Blade and did not care that I came from a clan of Wings. I was not the same cadet that had walked through the door of the academy, and I did not regret one bit of it.
I lunged for the next disc, crouching as I regained my balance. Before I could leap for the final disc, there was a thud behind me as another pair of boots landed. I twisted my head to see Dom grinning at me maliciously.
“You have been difficult to track down.”
My pulse spiked as fresh waves of anger slammed into me. “You. It’s your fault he’s dead.”
Dom’s cruel smile faltered. “It was supposed to be you.”
I stood, keeping my knees bent as the disc wobbled. “You would kill over something that happened on the climbing wall?”
He gave a mirthless laugh. “You think I care about your stunt on the wall? You think that’s what this is about? You are as arrogant and blind as I expected you to be.”
What was he talking about? What grudge could he hold against me if it wasn’t for the incident on the climbing wall? Before we’d both been inducted into Blades, I’d barely spoken to the Drexian. Was that it? Was he angry that I had ignored him during first term when I only associated with other high-borns?
“If I am so blind, tell me. Tell me why you want me dead and why you are willing to kill others to take me down.”
He flinched at this. “No one else was ever supposed to die. I am not like your brother.”
“My brother?” I blinked at him, unsure if I’d heard him correctly. What did my brother, who hadn’t even graduated from the academy, have to do with him?
“Yes, your older brother.” Dom’s gaze hardened as we both held our arms wide to maintain our balance. “He and my brother were in the same cadet class. But your brother and some of his high-born friends were offended that my brother didn’t show enough deference to them, so they ganged up on him after-hours in the sparring ring and killed him.”
My blood ran cold. I’d never heard this. I knew my brother had returned home in disgrace after the first term, but I’d always been told it was because he wasn’t able to pass engineering. Even though I wanted to deny this story, my gut told me that it was exactly the kind of thing my brother would do. Now that I thought back, he hadn’t been the only high-born to be expelled from the academy that year, but it was never talked about, never mentioned.
“You wish to kill me to repay my brother’s crime?”
Dom cocked his head to one side. “I did want to kill you. Now I don’t. Now, I want you to know what it’s like to lose something important, something you value, something that cannot be replaced. Now I want you to suffer while I take away what you love.”
