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Whoever was texting her had sent threats. Maybe Corvus was right and it was all talk, but what if it wasn’t?
On a whim, I dipped my fingers into the pocket of Ava Jade’s jacket on the hook by the door, digging for keys. I pushed past a thick piece of paper and heard them jingle. Drawing them out, I tossed them in the air and caught them, stepping out of the shared apartment and locking the door behind me.
I pocketed the keys and thumbed a quick message to Ava Jade.
Rook: Going outside for a smoke. If you hear the door, it’s just me coming back in. I locked it behind me.
She didn’t reply, but the message showed asreadafter a second and that was good enough for me.
I hustled down the stairs and out the back door, stalking towards the basketball court protruding from the back of the academy. Automatic lights flicked on and I grimaced at their ridiculous brightness, lighting my smoke for a long drag as I leaned against the rough brick beneath the basketball net.
The academy grounds were quiet at night and everywhere outside of the ring of white security lights appeared so dark I couldn’t see more than a few feet into it. Frowning, I moved away from the lights and settled myself just out of range from where they would detect me.
The dark swallowed me up again, and I waited for my eyes to adjust, the orange glow of the cherry on my cigarette now the only light as far as I could see toward the north lawn and gardens.
I scanned the trees, my fingers twitching toward the knife in my right boot. Corvus wouldn’t let me bring a gun, and maybe that was for the best. Especially if Diesel chose tonight for her next trial.
Normally they were more spaced out, just long enough between them to make you start to get comfortable. Start to get complacent. But he was known for running a few back to back, just to mix things up.
My Ghost would pass the surprise attack with flying colors. Fuck, she almost hadmethat night out behind the apartment buildings. If she hadn’t panicked, I had no doubt she’d have gotten free of my hold, too.
I rubbed out my smoke on the brick and walked back to the door, satisfied to have seen no threats lingering in the trees outside.
The keys jingled in my pocket and I plucked them back out as I neared the back door to the academy, but my arm jerked when I tried to open it.
I tried again, but it wouldn’t budge. Locked.
Someone locked it.
Rook: Did you fucking lock me out? Really?
No reply. No read receipt.
My stomach twisted.
Diesel.
It was fucking Diesel.
Or rather, whoever he sent after her. They knew I was a loose cannon at the best of times. They wouldn’t want me interrupting her trial, and I gave them the perfect opportunity to lock my ass out.
I chuckled darkly to myself, heat making my leather jacket unbearable. I slung it off, discarding it onto the concrete as I rounded the building, picking up speed.
She can handle herself.
I believed it. Really, I did. But I didn’t like being locked out. Chained up. Held back.
I wanted to see my Ghost go full poltergeist on their asses. I wanted to watch. I needed to be therejust in case.
If she somehow failed the trial and was taken out, Corvus and Grey would blame me. Rightly fucking so.
It took me only a minute to find what I was looking for; the slim half-window at the base of the building on the west side, leading down into an old file storage room in the basement of the academy. A regular meeting place for Mrs. June and me before they cleared it out and added a space for the teachers’quiet reflection.
I bent and threw my elbow into the glass, sucking in a breath at the sting of air on a fresh cut. Licking my lips, I twisted, booting out the rest of the glass with the sole of my boot before pulling myself through.
I shouldered through the locked door to the filing room and stalked down the hall, taking the stairs up to the main floor three at a time.
“Hey!” Mick, the round-bellied security guard who was absolute shit at his job shouted as I rounded the corner into the main atrium, making for the stairs. I was surprised he’d even left his office, but by the disheveled look of him I’d woken his ass up from his one a.m. nap with the window breaking.
