Harmon and Thomas exchanged an uncomfortable look.
I guess now wasn’t the time to call them out on all the shitty stuff said to me over the last two months.
I threw up my hands. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”
“Of course you are.”
I looked over my shoulder to see Oberon descending on me, wrath blazing in his eyes.
“You took it. You took my mark.” He grabbed my shoulder, fingers digging into my flesh, and swung me round to face him. “Give it back.”
He lunged for the neck of my top but didn’t make it because Harmon’s fist was kissing his face. Oberon stumbled back, clutching his nose.
“Back off, man.” Thomas planted himself between Harmon and Oberon. “Trust me, you do not want to piss Harmon off.”
Harmon was positively vibrating with rage, but my attention was fixed on Oberon. Cool, calm, collected Oberon who had in the space of a few hours turned into a raging, paranoid lunatic.
He met my gaze, and the crazy sheen in his eyes ebbed. His shoulders slumped. “It’s over,” he said. “I failed.” He walked away without another word.
Thomas turned to me. “Way to take things personally.”
“He’s an idiot,” Harmon said. “He actually wants this shit.” He made a sound of disgust deep in his throat.
“Are you okay?” Thomas asked me, and yes, that was genuine concern on his slender face.
“Why are you being nice to me?”
He blinked sharply in surprise and then had the grace to look sheepish. “Because things are different now. We’re in this together, and the rest of the world … what they think … It doesn’t matter.”
“It shouldn’t have mattered in the first place. Funny how it takes a death mark for you to decide to start thinking for yourself.” He ducked his head, and my anger melted. “Forget it. Look, I’ll see you in a bit. I need to … to say goodbye to Minnie.” My throat tightened.
Harmon nodded. “Okay. I’m going to dump my stuff in the new digs then come back to check on Lottie. She didn’t make it to the ceremony. Probably getting into some shit somewhere.” His gaze roved over my face, probing. “If you’re still about when I get back, I’ll walk back with you.”
Harmon Black was offering an escort. I can’t say I wasn’t tempted. I wasn’t worried about Oberon showing up and trying to get a look at the mark on my boob, him I could have handled if Harmon had given me a chance. It was more that stepping into the shadow wing alone didn’t appeal. Also, Thomas and Harmon being nice to me was too much change too quickly. This empathy, this understanding. It was alien, and it made me want to scream.
I grit my teeth. “I’m good. Thanks.”
Harmon’s jaw tensed. “Fine. See you later.”
They strode off, and guilt stabbed at me. Maybe I should have accepted Harmon’s offer. It was too late now, though. Best to just get this exit over with.
Minnie leapt off her bed as I entered. “What the heck happened?”
Harper perched on the edge of the bed, curiosity painted across her neatly made-up face. Even though I knew she cared about Minnie, and yeah, I felt bad about possibly coming in between them, right now, I needed to be alone with my friend.
I kept my attention on Minnie as I spoke. “Harper, can you please give us a minute?”
Harper had the grace not to argue. “Come knock for me later,” she said to Minnie. There was a confidence in her tone that had been absent the last time we’d spoken.
She knew she’d won. She knew that I was being forced out of Minnie’s orbit.
The door closed softly behind her.
“Indie?” Minnie nudged.
I stood hands on hips. “I don’t even know where to start.” It was too much, too quick. Too many revelations. “I have to pack. They’re moving me to the shadow cadet wing.”
“What?” She took a breath to steady herself. “No. Of course. You have the mark.” Her eyes were filled with questions. “How? How can you have the mark?”
“Because I killed my brother in the womb.” The words came out in a rush.
“You what?”
I pressed my lips together and grabbed my suitcase from under the bed. “I absorbed him.” I flung open my wardrobe. “And that’s why my parents hate me. I’m not a son, and I’m the killer of their son.” I piled clothes into the case. “This mark belonged to him.”
Minnie gasped. “His genes … You have his genes.”
“Yep.”
“Do you feel … different? I mean more shadow knighty?”
Shadow knighty? I stopped with my favorite jeggings clutched in my hand. Did I feel different?
Amidst all the commotion and disclosures, I’d blocked out the changes in my body. But now that Minnie mentioned it, there was a new energy thrumming through my veins. No … Not new. It was familiar—the surge I got when I was running, the golden adrenaline rush of a fight. This energy was an old friend, but one who’d been cloaked until now. Now it filled me. It completed me.
“Indie?”
“I feel … stronger. Better.” God that sounded weak. “I can’t explain it.”
“No. Neither could Lloyd.” She smiled softly. Sadly. “You’re one of them now.”
She walked over to my wardrobe and grabbed a pile of clothes. “You have to fold them, or they’ll crease.”
Yeah, I was not a folder.
I hadn’t brought a lot, and it took minutes to pack up, and then we stood facing each other and the enormity of what was happening hit me hard in the solar plexus. This, us, was over. I was being confined to the shadow camp, to a life of servitude to the shadow knights. No option to leave. No option to decline. I might have escaped execution, but I’d been thrust into a life sentence that, more often than not, ended prematurely in a painful death.
And Minnie, my friend, my lifeline here, was being taken from me.
She scanned my face as if reading my thoughts. “No. Na-uh. We’re friends, and just because you have to live in the shadow wing and do shadow shit doesn’t mean we can’t still hang out.”
“We won’t have any of the same lessons.”
“So, we meet up at lunch and after class.”
“Do the shadow cadets even get to have downtime?”
Her expression said it all. My stomach felt queasy.
“We’ll make time. We’ll find a way.” Her expression was earnest, and hope bloomed in the despair.
Maybe we could still see each other. Maybe things didn’t have to be so … serious. “Yeah. Yeah, fuck it. This is not the end.”
She hugged me. “Maybe … if you let it. It could be a beginning.”
A shiver skated up my spine at her words.
She pulled back. “Come on. I’ll walk you to the east wing.”
* * *
The temperature dropped as we reached the shadow wing, and Minnie’s grip on my hand tightened.
Before coming here, I’d never had a friend to hold my hand. The most physical contact I’d had was when I’d been beating on someone or grappling with them in a wrestling match.
Minnie had turned me soft.
The archway that led to the shadow wing was closed off by sturdy oak doors. I tried the handle and rattled it to no avail. Locked. An intercom sat snug in the stone wall beside it.
I pressed the buzzer and waited.
“Name?” The voice was male and sounded slightly bored.
“Indigo Justice.”
“Ah. Yes. The anomaly. Do come on up.”
The door clicked, and when I tried the handle again, it opened easily.
“So, I guess this is goodbye for now.” Minnie pressed her lips together, and her eyes glittered with tears.
“I swear, Min. If you cry …”
“Fuck that!” She waved a dismissive hand. “See you at lunch tomorrow?”
We hugged, and then I slipped through the door and into the shadow wing.
* * *
A stone staircase lit by electric wall sconces led up to th
e floor above. The walls were bare gray stone too, and a heavy chill pervaded the air, but thanks to my nightblood constitution, it didn’t really affect me. In fact, my body was pleasantly warm.
An effect of the activation of the shadow knight gene, maybe?
Did it affect the feyblood shadow cadets the same? It would have to for them to cope with these arctic temperatures.
I reached the top of the staircase and stepped into a huge foyer area. Three doors led off it. One was unmarked, the others had copper signs marked cadet quarters and master quarters.
Master Hyde had said I’d be staying in the tutor wing, so maybe … I reached for the master quarters’ door just as it swung open, and a figure stepped through. Four-foot tall, with pointy ears, slanted cat’s eyes, and strange tiger stripe markings slanting down from his hair line across his forehead, the creature was unlike anything I’d ever seen. And that hair … Impressively gelled and funky. The strange-looking man-creature looked up at me and then let out a purr.
I backed up.
He stepped into the hallway and canted his head to study me curiously. He was dressed in dark purple velvet trousers and a black shirt, and his hands were paw-like and hairy. Shit, was that a tail curling over his shoulder?
I locked gazes with his eerie slit-pupiled one. “What are you?”
He advanced, and I held my ground.
“Well, that’s a fine way to address your dorm master, isn’t it?” he drawled, circling me. His tail flicked about distractingly. “Yes, yes, you certainly have the scent of a shadow knight.”
Feyblood maybe? I’d never seen anything like him.
He canted his head. “And you won’t.”
“Wait? What? Did you just—”
“Read your mind? Yes. Yes, I did. An unfortunate side effect of you thinking too loudly. Tone it down.”
I had to think of something else, anything else but how much like a cat he looked. A cute kitty cat with … with a human face. Oh, God. This was too weird.
He blinked slowly at me. “I do not look like a cat. Cats look like me.”
“Okay, stop that.”
“You’re the one broadcasting your thoughts. You need to calm down. Rein in your confusion.”
I took a deep breath and exhaled.
“Good … very good. I can’t hear your thoughts at all now.” He smirked.
“You’re lying, aren’t you?”
“Undoubtedly.”
“Larkin?” Master Hyde stepped through the door. “Has Justice—” He caught sight of me hovering by the staircase. “Good, you’re here, and you’ve met Larkin, the dorm master. He runs the shadow wing, so if you need anything you can—”
“Find me in the turret room in the masters’ wing.” He did one final circle around me, and this time, his tail brushed the back of my neck, and then he was headed for the stairs.
“Too yummy, Archer, much too yummy.” He purred.
Master Hyde’s jaw tensed. “And a cadet.”
Larkin glanced over his shoulder. “I am the epitome of morality.” He dropped me a wink and then leapt forward onto all fours and bounded up the stairs.
I stared after him.
“Close your mouth, Justice,” Hyde snapped. “Ignore what I said earlier. If you need anything, you come to me.” He turned his broad back on me. “This way.”
Another damn staircase and another floor.
“What is he?”
“Larkin? An Otherworlder. He’s old. Not sure how old he is. He’s been part of the Watch forever.”
“He looks … feline.”
“And he hates it. So, don’t bring it up.”
“Too late.”
“Hurumph.” He pushed open a door at the end of a hallway. “Our quarters are through here.”
There was a narrow corridor and two doors facing each other.
He indicated the door to the left. “This is your room. Key’s inside. Linens in the closet. Make yourself comfortable. There’s a sink in your room, but the bathroom’s down the hall. It locks. Training begins at nine p.m. sharp, and we meet in the lobby at eight-thirty p.m. sharp.”
“I can do sharp.”
He arched a brow and raked me with his strange blue-green cocktail eyes flecked with gold. Cyan was the closest color to what his eyes were, but even that didn’t describe the shade adequately.
“I’m sure you can,” he said. “But being a shadow knight isn’t like jumping into a pit fight, Justice. Being a knight takes discipline, graft, and heart.”
He knew about my pit fights? Well, then he needed to know the rest. “You think pit fighting doesn’t require discipline and heart?” I glared up at him. “I’m a trained boxer. I can wrestle, I can fence, and I’m perfectly at home using a variety of swords and daggers. I may not have trained in some prestigious establishment and picked up medals and certificates, but I can hold my own in a fight. I don’t go down easy. When I finally get into that mist, those fomorians better watch out.”
His eyes darkened a fraction, and then the corner of his mouth curved up in half a smile, and I was suddenly, acutely, and painfully aware that we were standing almost chest to chest in a gloomy enclosed space. There wasn’t enough oxygen in the air or enough saliva in my mouth.
And I was staring, just fixated on his lips. Shit. I tore my gaze up and got caught in the hunger in his eyes. He blinked, and it was gone.
He stepped back. “Get some rest, cadet. You’ll be taking your oath tomorrow, and then we’ll be headed to sector one for orientation.”
“Sector one?”
But he was already disappearing down the corridor, leaving me internally gasping outside my new dorm room.
“You’re thinking too loud …”
The voice drifted down the corridor. I reached behind me, twisted the handle, and tumbled into my room, slamming the door shut behind me.
It was time to get off the emotional rollercoaster.
* * *
My new room was smaller than the dorm room I’d shared with Minnie. Bare wooden floors. A single bed in need of sheets and a barred window. Nice. A dresser, small wardrobe, sink, and mirror completed the room.
I got the impression this room would simply be a place to crash after training. From what I’d heard, the shadow cadets didn’t get much downtime.
I dropped my bag on the floor and headed to the wardrobe to grab the sheets. Half an hour later, the bed was made, and my clothes were put away. The clock winked at me, showing it to be two a.m. Three hours till dawn. Time to put on my sleep shorts and ratty T-shirt.
Minnie and I would have been snuggled in bed by now, whispering about our day before falling into slumber. God, I missed her.
A sharp rap sounded on the door.
“Justice.”
Master Hyde? I opened the door to find him dressed in dark combat gear. “Is something the matter?”
His gaze fell to my bare legs, and he took a step away from the doorway. “We have a missing student.” He handed me a bundle of dark clothing. “Get dressed, and be in the foyer in five. We’re organizing a search party.”
He made to turn away.
“Who is it? Who’s missing.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “A student named Lottie Black.”
Fourteen
The clothes were too big, obviously made for a guy. I tucked and tightened best I could, shoved on my boots, scraped back my hair, and made it into the foyer in less than four minutes.
The space was already filled with bodies and the urgent buzz of conversation. I caught sight of Harmon’s tousled dark head and shoved through the crowd to get to him. Shocked glances were thrown my way.
“What’s a woman doing here?” someone said.
I guess not all the cadets knew about my arrival.
“Hey.” Someone grabbed my elbow.
I turned on the guy with a scowl to find Lloyd looking down on me with a concerned frown. “Indigo, what are you doing here?”
I grabbed the collar of my ribbed
top and pulled it down to reveal my mark. “Got conscripted earlier.”
Shock sparked in his icy blue eyes, and then he released me abruptly. “Back up. She’s one of us.”
“What?”
“The fuck?”
Disconcertion rippled across the room. But the crowd parted to let me through, and Harmon’s cocoa gaze fell on me as I approached. “I couldn’t find her earlier,” he said. “I should have known something was wrong. I just thought she was fucking about as usual. I should have reported it earlier.”
“She’s probably ducked out with some friends,” Thomas said. “Smoking poppy seed cigarettes, off site.”
“Everyone else is accounted for,” Harmon said through gritted teeth. He shot Thomas an irritated look. “We wouldn’t be organizing a fucking search party otherwise.”
“Maybe Redmond lost another youngling, and the cadet ended up being its supper,” someone to our left said.
Harmon growled and lunged at the second year, who blocked him easily before shoving him back. “Watch it!”
I stepped between them. “It’s his sister, okay. The missing girl is his sister.”
The second year glanced at me, then back at Harmon, and then his body relaxed. “I’m sorry, man. I’ve got a big mouth. We’ll find her, okay.”
Harmon’s chest heaved, but he stood down and nodded.
“Listen up!” Master Hyde’s voice cut through the hubbub. “We take the tunnels, and we split up into three groups. There’s a shirt being passed around that belongs to the girl. Moonkissed, take a whiff. Faraday, Toller, take the newbies. Spinner and Goyle, split the rest. Faraday, comb the southeast and southwest grounds. Goyle, the outer forest, and Spinner, northeast and northwest grounds. Got it?”
“Yes, Master Hyde,” the cadets said in unison.
“Newbies, get your arses over here.” Lloyd held up a hand, and the crowd began to shift.
Harmon, Thomas, and I followed the new cadets to stand around Lloyd.
“The tunnels are a maze if you’re not used to them, so stay close,” he warned.
“What tunnels?” one of the new cadets asked.
Shadow Caster: The Nightwatch Academy book 1 Page 9