“Oh, yeah?” he shot back. “And how much more information could you have gathered if you weren’t distracted by your boyfriend here?” He kicked Nate’s boot.
Heat crept into my cheeks. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
Derek smirked. “But you want him to be. I saw the pictures of you and him at that ridiculous banquet where they paraded you around like a debutante. Don’t forget, there was a time when I was on the receiving end of those starry-eyed gazes.”
I wanted to deny his assertion, but even if I could be convincing, I knew arguing would get me nowhere. “What’s the plan here, Derek? Does Liza even know you’re here? What would she say?”
His lip curled into a sneer. “I’m done taking orders from Liza. She doesn’t have the will to get things done. I’ve outgrown her.” He nodded toward Canaan. “We’re playing for a new team, now. People who can actually change the way things are.”
“A new team?” I echoed. “What are you even talking about? Who?”
Canaan scoffed. “That’s not for you to know. Relics like these are important. But Blade Keepers are worth more than weapons.”
Derek raised the barrel of his tranq gun. “Just not you.”
I sprang at him, but before I could close the distance between us, a stab of pain shot through my chest. Everything turned black as I careened face-first into the forest floor.
Chapter Eighteen
“I think she’s coming to.”
Although I was laying flat on my back, my body jostled with an inconsistent rhythm that made my stomach lurch. My brain was foggy, but something nagged at the edges of my consciousness. I was forgetting something important.
“Eden?” The girl’s voice was gentle, but with an edge of urgency. It was a friendly voice, belonging to a nice person. My sluggish mind pulled up her heart-shaped face before it provided her name. Clio. And the guy who spoke before—that was Bridger.
I struggled to open my eyes, the lids scraping like sand paper as they drew upward. The glaring overhead light forced an involuntary squint, and I turned my face to the side, searching for darkness.
“How are you feeling?” Clio’s cool fingers pressed against my forehead.
I opened my mouth, but my throat was too dry to allow for speech. As I closed it again, I tried to make sense of my surroundings. Clio and Bridger crouched on either side of me, and although I couldn’t see past them, I had the sense of both being enclosed and surrounded by other people.
“We’re almost to the academy,” Clio said in the same steady tone. “We’ll be safe there.”
Safe. My muddled mind fought to recall the danger. I remembered sensations—my soaked uniform clinging to my body, the slickness of the grass beneath my feet. And pressure around my chest. Someone grabbed me and squeezed me until I thought I might pass out, and then…
“Nate,” I rasped, trying to sit up.
Bridger’s hands were on my shoulders in an instant, pressing me back down to the cold, metal floor. Things began snapping into place. We were in the truck we’d traveled to the stronghold in. I was just waking up because I’d been tranqued. Derek had tranqued me.
“Where’s Nate?” The words scraped against my throat like broken glass, but I couldn’t wait to ask.
Clio and Bridger exchanged glances, and I got the sense they were carrying on an entire conversation through facial expressions.
Several seconds elapsed before an exasperated sigh sounded from nearby. “They took him.”
I struggled to sit up, and this time, instead of pushing me back down, Bridger helped me to an upright position. Sitting by my feet with his back pressed against the storage chest was Thor, who had a nasty cut above his eyebrow.
“A guy snatched you,” he continued, his expression grim. “I tried to go after you, but they must have had it planned because two guys came after me as soon as I tried. I caught a glimpse of Nate dashing into the forest, but by the time the smoke cleared and all the demons were gone, you were knocked out on the forest floor and Nate was nowhere to be seen.”
Bile stung the back of my throat. “Where’d they take him?”
“If we knew that, we’d be there and not here,” Thor snapped.
Clio shot him a sharp glance. When she turned back to me, her expression was soft once more. “We’ll find him.”
I didn’t understand how she could be so optimistic. She had no idea who had taken him or why. I knew the answer to one of those questions, but the why was enough to twist my insides into knots. Clio and Nate had a long history. They were engaged, for crying out loud. But here she was, comforting me when I was partly to blame for his abduction.
The corners of my eyes prickled as I wrapped my arms around Clio’s shoulders. I wanted to tell her I was sorry, but the words wouldn’t come.
Our embrace didn’t end until the truck turned and slowed. Only then did I survey the damage surrounding us. Bryan’s upper arm was wrapped with white gauze, but a gathering dark spot revealed the bandage hadn’t entirely stanched the bleeding. Rina leaned so far forward I couldn’t make out much past the screen of her muddy, knotted hair. Wyatt and Ramiro were both laid out on the benches that stretched out on either side of me. Ramiro’s head was cradled in Shonda’s lap.
I took a double-take when I spotted Shonda. A deep gash ran along her cheek on the right side of her face, and a bandage wound around her left thigh.
The vehicle decelerated before trundling to a stop. A few moments later, the door swung open. The back of the truck cleared out slowly. Nurses in dark green scrubs held umbrellas and stood at the ready with wheelchairs for the badly injured. When I tried to follow the line of students making their way up the stairs to the Kalmin Hall, Clio, Thor, and Bridger stayed my progress and all but forced me into one of the chairs, insisting the medical staff needed to check me out.
But I didn’t want to sit through an examination. I needed to get to my room so I could contact Liza to figure out what was going on. Had Derek even told her about the possible threat to the distribution hub? He said he wasn’t working for Liza anymore. I wondered if she had any idea who he might be taking orders from now.
By the time the nurse wheeled me indoors, I was working through the most likely ways to convince the staff to discharge me quickly—but all my thoughts screeched to a halt when I glimpsed the man standing in the middle of the grand foyer.
Isaiah Kingston—surrounded by Headmaster Kemp, Anders, Colonel Zagar, and several other people in uniforms—looked positively livid. Blotchy redness marred his usually calm expression as he growled his displeasure at those standing around him.
His presence struck me as odd. Surely the chancellor was too busy to oversee day-to-day military missions—even ones that involved Blakethorne students.
But then the truth hit me. Kingston wasn’t here about a botched mission—he was here about Nate, his son.
The nurse pushing my wheelchair cut down a hall to the left. Immediately, an alarm sounded—shrill and high. My stomach plummeted. Had they installed some anti-demon barrier? After what just happened, I doubted the people in charge would give me time to explain myself. With people injured, weapons missing, and Nate kidnapped, they would all be looking for someone to blame.
The noise died down, only to renew itself a second later. The nurse stopped pushing me and I gripped the armrests of my chair. I was relatively certain I could push myself to my feet, but my head still felt a little dizzy. If I managed to run, it wouldn’t be very fast—and since I’d have to go back through the foyer to get out, there was barely a glimmer of hope I could avoid capture.
“Um, Eden?” Clio—who I hadn’t realized was following me to the infirmary—tilted her head as she studied me. “Are you… ringing?”
I stared at her, baffled, until the shrill sound came again. She was right. It wasn’t an alarm, it was an alert. But I possessed nothing that made such a noise.
The other medical staff still in the hall had all stopped, too, and several patients in wheelchairs
eyed me curiously. I patted the pockets on my uniform and discovered a hard, rectangular object in my right pants pocket. I slipped my fingers between the layers of fabric and tugged out a silver flip phone I’d never seen before.
My heart lodged itself somewhere near my throat as I opened the device and pressed it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Good. I was hoping you’d be awake by now.”
Derek’s voice sent a chill down my spine. He must have planted the phone on me after he knocked me out. “What do you want?”
“To get your boyfriend back to you, of course.”
I glanced at Clio, but she gave no indication she could hear Derek over the line.
“Who is it?” she mouthed.
I shook my head. “Where’s Nate? If you hurt him, I swear I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” Derek asked. “Seriously, I’d like to know. You’ve never made a decision without Liza in your ear, telling you exactly what to do.”
The quick shuffle of shoes against the tile floor echoed off the hall as someone nearby dashed away from me, but I didn’t spare a glance in their direction. “I’ll ask again—what do you want?”
Derek chuckled in a cold, grim way that made the hair on my arms stand up. “From you? Nothing. But if my calculations are correct, you’re back at the academy by now. I’d like to speak to someone with authority.”
The quick clip of hard heels returned, along with the shuffling sound of more feet.
“What’s so important you needed to drag me over here?” Chancellor Kingston’s voice was gruff and agitated.
Nurse Nichols nodded in my direction. She must have overheard me ask about Nate.
I cleared my throat as I pulled the phone from my face. “It’s the kidnapper,” I informed the chancellor. “He… He wants to talk to you.” I hit a button on the keypad. “You’re on speaker. The chancellor is here.”
“This is Isaiah Kingston,” the chancellor said in his most commanding voice. “Am I speaking with the terrorist who abducted Cadet Kouri?”
Derek tutted. “Name-calling? Isn’t that a little below a man of your stature, Chancellor?”
Kingston didn’t respond. It took all my restraint to keep from tearing into Derek with a litany of epitaphs myself.
When it became clear the chancellor wasn’t going to speak, Derek continued. “I assume you’d like to know what I want in return for your precious Blade Keeper. It’s simple, really. All Guard presence out of Amberg. You know we have relics now. We could make you leave, but we’d rather make this easy.”
The chancellor fixed the phone with an icy glare, as if he could intimidate the guy on the other end through force of will. “Oh, is that all?”
“Now that you mention it, no,” Derek said. “We also need medicine to combat L-B4. Treatment courses for those who are sick and preventatives for the ones who aren’t yet.”
“No.”
The syllable hung in the air like a bomb primed to explode. I gaped at the chancellor, but his gaze was fixed firmly on the wall across from where he stood.
“No?” Derek sputtered for words. “I don’t think you understand. If you don’t meet my demands, I’ll kill him.”
“And I don’t think you understand,” the chancellor said, his voice like the blade of a knife. “I do not negotiate with terrorists.”
A collective intake of breath from the assortment of people in the hallway seemed to pull all the oxygen from the air. My head spun. That was it? I don’t know why I expected anything more from Isaiah Kingston. Giving Derek what he wanted would show weakness—and the chancellor always had to project strength. Even if it meant sacrificing Nate.
“You can’t mean that.” Clio’s voice was so quiet I could scarcely make it out. She fixed her eyes on the chancellor’s face. “You can’t let him kill Nate.”
“The girl’s right,” Derek chided. “That’s cold, even for you.”
A muscle in Kingston’s jaw jumped, but he said nothing.
“I’ll give you a little while to mull it over,” Derek continued. “Wouldn’t want you making any rash decisions that might turn your supporters against you. Keep this phone close. I’ll call again in an hour.”
Three beeps rang out through the room as the call disconnected, each one like a stab through my heart.
“Sir,” said Colonel Zagar. I hadn’t noticed her approach during the call. “How do you want to proceed?”
For a long moment, the chancellor said nothing. My whole body tensed with apprehension as I waited for his proclamation.
After what felt like an eternity, Kingston dropped the still-open phone to the floor and stomped it with his leather wingtip loafer. “There’s no way in creation that psychopath is getting anything he asks for.”
The pronouncement shattered my heart into jagged chunks that mirrored the phone’s plastic casing. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the callousness of the response. I already knew that the lives of innocent demons meant nothing to the man, but I never imagined his heartlessness would extend to his own son.
Before anyone could react, he turned with military precision and marched down the hall toward the foyer. After a beat, Clio rushed after him, followed closely by Bridger and Thor.
I used what little strength I could summon to push myself out of the wheelchair. The bafflement in the hall was such that no one made a move to stop me.
The chancellor crossed the foyer and walked down the hall opposite the one we’d come from. By the time he twisted the handle of the first door on the left, Clio and the guys had reached him. Ignoring the wooziness in my head and the tenderness in my ribs, I limped faster, afraid they might lock the door before I arrived.
Clio’s voice reached me as I entered the hallway. “… can’t be serious,” she said, her voice shrill with panic. “How could you just break the phone like that? What if he tries to call back?”
I braced my hand on the door jamb as I rounded the corner. I must have looked about as good as I felt because as soon as Bridger spotted me, he left Thor’s side to offer me his arm.
“I thought I was clear,” Kingston said, his voice monotone. “The senate has a very firm policy in situations like these. Negotiating with the people like him never ends well.”
“The senate has a policy,” Clio spat. I’d never heard her voice so laden with venom. “You’re the chancellor. That guy said he’d kill Nate if we don’t give people medicine. That’s hardly the request of a madman. He sounds like a desperate man.”
“Are you hearing yourself?” The chancellor’s face twisted with something like disdain. “Giving in now would embolden others to make less altruistic demands.”
I shuffled forward, my eyes fixed on Kingston’s stern, detached face. “So, not only are you going to let the people of Amberg die, you’re going to let your son die, too?”
Chancellor Kingston leveled his gaze at me. “Cadet Jensen, shouldn’t you be in the infirmary?”
“Shouldn’t you be doing everything in your power to save your son from the guy who took him?” Clio demanded.
He squared his shoulders, surveying each of us shrewdly. “You all should understand just how dangerous your path will be. I’m sorry if your time at Blakethorne has made you feel safe. As Blade Keepers, you’re called to a life fraught with peril. It’s your job. Now, if you’ll excuse me—I need to see to mine.”
Clio sputtered and Bridger called after the chancellor, but it was no use. He strode past the four of us and disappeared into the hallway.
I turned to Clio. “How can he abandon his son?”
Her gaze dropped.
“He’s a cold bastard, that’s how,” Thor growled.
We stood in silence for a long time. Thoughts chased themselves through my mind, from the kidnapping itself to the chancellor’s reaction to Derek’s demands to the fact that this was all because of me. Because no matter how I spun today’s events in my head, it all came back to that. If I hadn’t told Derek the details of the field mission, none of this w
ould have happened.
Bridger cleared his throat. “We should probably get you to the infirmary.”
I started to protest, but when Clio and Thor descended to help walk me there, I realized they weren’t going to let me leave without being checked out. As I hobbled down the hall and through the foyer with Bridger on my left, Clio on my right, and Thor walking a pace behind me, an odd feeling seeped into the core of my being. They cared about me. When I woke in the back of the truck and saw the anguish on their faces, I assumed it was because of Nate’s capture. For the first time, it occurred to me that their worry had also been for me. Had one of them found me unconscious in the woods? Thor, perhaps? Had his heart stopped for a moment as he considered the possibility that I was dead?
Just days ago, I would have been sure such concerns were beyond Thor’s emotional capabilities. He was so silent and stoic most of the time, it was easy to assume he didn’t feel much. But now I wasn’t so sure.
Once we entered the infirmary, Nurse Nichols spotted me and forced me into a wheelchair almost immediately. She shooed Clio and Bridger out before sending Thor off with another staffer. With apologetic glances, Clio and Bridger left.
My exam was quick, but thorough. Canaan squeezed me so hard he bruised my ribs, and a large, tender bump had formed on my shin where I kicked a tree when he was dragging me into the woods. Nurse Nichols gave me medicine for the pain and discharged me with a warning to take it easy. I forced a smile as I told her I would, knowing even as the words passed my lips that they were a lie.
I would get Nate back. I had to.
Chapter Nineteen
Campus was mercifully empty as I made my way to the girls’ dorms. Somehow I expected there to be students everywhere, pestering everyone they could for details about what had happened. But as I shambled across the grounds, I wondered how many of them had any idea that anything had gone wrong on the field experience. I doubted the headmaster was eager to inform the cadets demons had attacked their classmates and abducted one.
Flickers of Flame Page 14