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Fyn motioned for me to walk ahead of him to the four school instructors waiting at the base of the large staircase. I zeroed in on the Assassin instructor, pausing in front of him and extending my arms to reveal the stone.
His face brightened. “You found it. Well done, Assassins.”
I wanted to ask if we’d won but that seemed crass, although something told me the Drexians didn’t consider competition and wanting to win a rude thing. I squared my shoulders and channeled my inner cocky Drexian, telling myself to act like Torq when he was his most obnoxious. “Are we the first school to return their stone?”
“You are the second.”
A breath whooshed from me as if I’d been deflated. “The second?”
“The Irons outsmarted us all.” Morgan walked up to me, looking almost as disheveled as me. A leaf was stuck in her blonde hair, and dirt smudged one cheek. “I think it was Drexian techno magic.”
Fiona laughed as she came up behind Morgan. “The Irons were not allowed to use their devices, but they did manage to orchestrate their search mission like a well-devised engineering project.”
“How fast did they find their stone?” I’d recovered from the initial disappointment and was now just glad to be back in the academy and that much closer to a hot shower and food.
“Our guys only brought it in an hour or so before you,” Britta said as she joined us. Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and the silvery strands glinted in the light.
That made me feel better. Even if we’d run full speed back to the academy—which no one on my Assassin team had wanted to do, even though we did break into a jog at times—we would not have beaten them. I was proud that we’d found the stone—that I’d found the stone—and that we had been the second team to return it successfully.
Morgan took a moment to look me up and down. Then she leaned closer and took a whiff. “Why do you smell like mildew?”
“I took an unexpected dip in a pool at the base of a waterfall, and my clothes got soaked.”
Her brows popped up. “That started out intriguing and then took a turn.”
“That pretty much sums it up.” I didn’t want to go into details with everyone standing with us, so I changed the subject. “What happened to you?”
“I might have been the cadet voted to climb a tree to get a better view.” She gave a mournful glance at her dirty uniform. “It was easier going up than coming down.”
I sensed eyes on me and turned to see Torq walk in with his friend. There were no other Blades with them, which told me they had not rejoined their team. For the first time since we’d emerged from the cave, I wondered where Dom had gone. Had he come back to the academy, or had he tried to join a search team and pretend like nothing had happened?
But what had happened? He’d tried to kiss me, but he hadn’t tried to hurt me like Torq was convinced he would. Should I tell someone, or should I let Torq deal with it?
As if he knew I was thinking about him, Torq pivoted his head to meet my gaze. I felt a jolt as his eyes locked on mine and all the sensations of the night before rushed back to me—the heat of his mouth, the power of his hands as he gripped my hips, the rigidness of his cock as I sank onto him. My face flamed with heat, and I jerked my gaze away.
Morgan’s smile was wry as she leaned close to me. “You are holding back on me. I know something else happened out there, but don’t worry. I’m patient. You can tell me later over some Palaxian wine.”
“Whatever happened means nothing,” I told her. “Nothing has changed.”
She patted my arm. “You keep telling yourself that, and maybe one day you’ll believe it.”
I opened my mouth to protest but I clamped it shut. She was right. Who was I fooling? Not my friend and not even myself, if I were being honest. As much as I’d wanted to be able to have meaningless sex and forget about it, I couldn’t. My body ached for him, my skin craved his touch, my lips missed the way his claimed mine.
I gave my head a rough shake and swiveled so that I couldn’t see Torq. I did not need any more reminders that I couldn’t rid myself of the Drexian, and that he had burned himself into my soul. I just needed to keep my distance and try to forget him—again.
“Because that worked so well the first time,” I mumbled under my breath.
Britta glanced at me. “What worked well?”
“Nothing,” I said quickly. “Just thinking about strategies for next year’s battle of the schools.”
“I’m just glad it’s over and no one died.” Morgan looped an arm around my waist and leaned against me. “I’ll take this over the trials any day.”
“We don’t know that no one died.” Reina said as she bustled up and shot a furtive look over her shoulder. I sensed she might be telling us something that wasn’t common knowledge. “One of the Blade cadets apparently set out across the Restless Sea.”
Morgan jerked upright, as if jolted with electricity. “Why would he do that? The stones were all hidden in the mountains, weren’t they?”
Reina shook her head slowly and her upswept blue hair tipped from side to side. “One cadet on the sea is suicide.”
