For once, I didn’t have a snappy comeback ready. He was right, and we both knew it. If Fiona hadn’t provided the perfect distraction, if Vyk had opted to work at his desk instead of following his lover to her quarters, we would have been discovered in the most humiliating way possible.
I walked to the door on unsteady legs, checking the corridor carefully before slipping out of the office. I paused at the threshold, glancing back to see Deklyn, his expression thunderous as he watched me go. At least I didn’t have toworry about my inconvenient attraction to him anymore. At the moment, he looked like he wanted to throttle me with his bare hands.
The thought should have been reassuring. Instead, as I hurried down the corridor away from Vyk’s office, all I could think about was how I now owed the cocky Drexian pilot yet another debt. He’d risked his own safety to follow me into that office, had helped hide me when we could have been caught, had probably saved me from a scandal that would have embarrassed me and Ariana.
I could kick myself for giving him a reason to think I was reckless and irresponsible and make him regret getting involved with my quest for answers.
But as I made my way back toward the residential wing, one thought kept nagging at me: he’d followed me into that office. Despite knowing it was dangerous, despite having every reason to wash his hands of my problems, he’d tracked me down and put himself at risk to make sure I didn’t face the consequences alone.
That meant something, didn’t it?
Or maybe I was just reading too much into the actions of a man who’d made it clear he thought my entire revenge plan was a mistake.
Either way, I was back to square one in my search for evidence, with the added complication of knowing that Deklyn was watching my every move.
This was going to be more difficult than I’d anticipated.
Chapter
Ten
Deklyn
Istomped through the academy’s corridors with barely contained fury burning in my chest. The adrenaline from our near-discovery in Vyk’s office was still coursing through my system, mixing with frustration and something else I didn’t want to examine too closely.
I needed to hit something. Preferably something that could hit back.
The twin blades etched into the stone archway above the entrance leading to the School of Battle seemed to mock me as I passed beneath them. Symbols of honor and discipline—everything that Sasha’s reckless behavior had just put at risk. My gut churned as I imagined what would have happened if we’d been caught in the security chief’s office.
Commander Vyk was an Inferno Force legend, a warrior with a reputation forged in battles that lesser men didn’t survive. Having to explain why I was snooping in his office would have been a career-ending conversation at best.
I used to think I was impulsive, but now I thought Sasha might actually be a bad influence on me. The idea almost made me laugh despite my anger. Here I was, a trained Inferno Force operative who’d rushed headlong into countless dangerous missions, getting led around by a woman who seemed to actively seek out trouble.
As I continued down the hallway leading to the Blade classrooms and training areas, I was relieved to hear the sharp crack of practice weapons, the thud of bodies hitting mats, and the heavy breathing of fighters pushing themselves to their limits. The familiar sounds soothed something primal in me.
I ducked through the open door to the sparring rings, my eyes adjusting to the dim lighting. The raised sparring ring dominated the center of the space, a circular enclosed cage where cadets tested their skills against each other under the watchful eyes of their instructors. It was the only part off the room that was illuminated, so that all the cadets waiting to spar lurked around the perimeter in shadow.
“Deklyn!” Kann called out when he spotted me. “Perfect timing. Want to join the rotation?”
I watched the cadets in the ring for a moment, noting their technique, their conditioning, and the controlled aggression that made Drexian warriors so effective. Being in a battle ring was exactly what I needed to take my mind off Sasha and her dangerous schemes.
“Absolutely,” I said, already beginning to strip off my outer jacket.
Within moments, I faced a third-year Blade cadet who looked confident and strong. He had the lean build of a fighter, musclescorded with the strength that came from daily training, and eyes that held the steady focus of someone who knew what he was doing.
Good. I needed a real challenge.
We circled each other in the ring, our bare feet silent on the padded floor. The cadet moved well, his stance balanced, his guard up but not rigid. He’d been taught by excellent instructors and had clearly absorbed their lessons.
But he was still just a cadet, and I was Inferno Force. Before that, I’d been a Blade myself, trained in these very halls. This should be easy.
Except it wasn’t.
The months in the Kronock prison had taken more of a toll than I’d wanted to admit. My muscles felt stiff, unresponsive in ways that betrayed my time spent languishing in a cell. My reflexes were a split second slower than they should have been, my balance not as precise as usual.
The cadet lunged forward with surprising speed, his fist cutting through the air where my head had been a moment before. I sidestepped and countered with a tackle that sent both of us crashing to the mat in a tangle of limbs.
We grappled on the ground, both gasping as we fought for position. His strength was impressive, but experience counted for something, and I had years of combat training he hadn’t even contemplated yet.
