“Wait. FuckingFournierwon the challenge?” Konstantin snarls.
“Our teams were the first two to surface, but you were missing and Mariya went after you,” Lucca explained. That asshole Fournier didn’t get to the finish line until ten minutes later. We’d already gone back in to look for you two. He won just before Mariya pulled you into the cave.”
Kon’s chilly blue gaze turns to me. “Are you telling me that you sabotaged your team’s chance to win by going on what could have been a wild goose chase? What if it had been the asshole who tried to kill me? What would you fight him off with? Your snorkel?”
This is so… my jaw drops and I think I will say something harsh and biting, but nothing comes out.
Lucca frowns. “Brother, how hard was that head injury? Mariya saved your life!”
“Fournier, that weaselly fuck, had five of the newcomers on his team!” Kon yells, “He just cemented their place here at the Academy! Why the hell do you think the Dean made that challenge so dangerous? She was trying to wash out the suspicious ones.” His baleful gaze turns back to me. “You just ran off and lost the challenge for Lucca? For Athena, and all the others who risked their lives to win?”
I just stand there like an idiot, my lips moving soundlessly.
“How would any of that matter if you’d died in there?” Tatiana looks like she’s ready to rip out all his tubes and unplug his monitor. And maybe strangle him using his hospital gown as a noose. “Do you hear yourself right now?”
“Someone else would have found me,” he snaps, glaring at me again. “I can’t believe you lost the challenge for Lucca.”
“What? She didn’t!” Lucca says, leaning closer, nearly nose to nose with Kon. “She saved your life,stupido bastardo!”
“You…” I can’t think of anything cruel enough to say to him. Nothing that would match what he just said. “You should set your alarm to make sure you wake up every hour tonight because I won’t be here. Fuck your concussion. And fuck you.”
I know Tatiana is following me as I speed-walk out of the clinic. I think she might be saying something but I can’t hear it over the buzzing in my head.
Konstantin…
“You’re lucky you’re lying in a hospital bed because it’s the only thing keeping me from punching you in the throat right now,” Lucca says. He’s very calm, which is usually the case when he’s planning acts of violence. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that she wandered away from your team and lost the challenge for you. You could have taken it so easily, especially after winning the second task.”
Lucca’s staring at me like I’m that six-legged calf in the circus sideshow. Like he can’t believe what he’s seeing. What the hell is wrong with this asshole? I am angry onhisbehalf. I asked him to recruit Mariya, and she lost the challenge for him.
“Is this the concussion speaking?” he asks, “Was that genuinely stupid stunt a result of blunt force head trauma because that is the only thing that makes sense right now.”
“Are you forgetting the part where she left your team to go off on what could have been a wild goose chase?” I snap, “What if she ran into the bastard who tried to kill me?”
“Is that what this is about?” His brow clears a bit. “This is just a knee-jerk, dumb shit reaction to realizing that Mariya could have been hurt?”
“No!” I shout, wincing as the noise rattles through my head. “She didn’t follow the instructions of her team leader! She lost you the challenge and that fucker Fournier won!”
“Several scenarios are running through my mind right now trying to explain how you could turn into such an asshat,” Lucca says heavily, “it’s sad that I’m hoping the logical answer is brain damage. Look…” he checks his watch. “Try to get some sleep. I’ll wake you up in an hour.”
“You know I’m right about-”
“Go to sleep!” he snaps. My head and side hurt so much that it does seem like a good idea.
So, I do.
Dr. Giardo is standing over me when I wake up finally feeling human again, he’s wearing his usual pinched expression.
“What time is it?”
“Around noon,” he says, flashing his penlight in my eyes. “Mr. Toscano stayed here last night and reported that you were coherent when he woke you. I’m going to run another head and chest x-ray and if they come back clear, you’re free to go.”
Walking back to my place gives me a chance to take a quick inventory of all the damage I sustained during the challenge. None of it is debilitating, those four ribs are going to slow me down for a while, but they’ll heal.
My friendships might take a little longer.
Lucca dutifully stayed with me overnight, but there were no more details about the challenge, no easy conversation, or dirty jokes. Tatiana is too loyal to speak to me until I apologize to Mariya and that will never happen. I’m not wrong, she never should have come looking for me and I don’t care if she’s pissed at me. That woman can hate with the heat of a thousand suns, a deep, blistering dislike that’s ebbed and flowed over the years since we were engaged.
