Let them allhearit.
“Fuck you,” he gasps.
God, his ego’s a black hole.
Fine. This time, I don’t wait. I twist, muscle tensed, shift my weight, and drive my elbow straight into his temple.
His body goes slack.
I let him drop.
He’s not dead. Not even broken. Just unconscious, and tomorrow, he’ll wake with a headache and a dent in his pride, but he’ll be fine. The crowd shifts with him. Where before they were loud—cheering, hungry to see me bleed—now the noise dulls. Not silence, not exactly, but the sharp edges have gone.
I block it out anyway because when I look up, I only see him.
Talen.
Still standing on the sideline, arms crossed, still looking far too pleased with himself.
I don’t think, just move. Shoulders tight. Threads still humming like they’re not done yet.Boots slam against stone as I storm toward him.
“What the fuck was that?”I shove him, hard, right in the chest, but he doesn’t move. Solid as stone. “For someone who says they want me alive, you’ve got a funny way of showing it.”
Moving my weight, I go to shove him again, but he catches my wrist and steps in, close enough I can smell the sweat and salt on his skin.
“I’m all for foreplay,” he murmurs, voice low against my ear. “But if you keep shoving me like that, people might start to think you don’t like me.”
I look around. The room’s thinning out, cadets drifting toward the exits, but not fast enough. A few still watch from the benches, pretending not to.
Talen keeps hold of my arm, holding me there while his infuriating, infectious smile spreads across his face like he hasn’t done a single thing wrong.
“Anyway.” His shoulder lifts. “I thought you’d be grateful.”
“Grateful?” I jerk my arm back. He lets go without a fight, like he was done anyway.
“I knew you’d take him, just like I knew you would take down Ryven during your first Demonstration. And I figured you wouldn’t mind a little payback, for Ezzy. I saw the way he set her up. You just needed someone to give you a little...push.”
Wait. Ryven? I thought he put me against him to kill me.
I want to push back—snap, shove, throw something. Anything. But I don’t. Because my Threads are stirring, fingers twitching, one wrong move will set them off. And I’m too close to getting out of this place. Too close to risk blowing everything now.
“You should really figure out how to control that.” Talen’s gaze drops to my hand. “I keep telling you, the duck won’t save you every time.”
Then he steps in close, and holds something out. My pack. In all the drama, I didn’t even realise I’d left it behind. I force my hand to still, and take it from him.
“Let’s go, Goldie!” Lucien calls, already halfway to the doors.
Talen barely reacts. Just lifts his chin like he’s finishing a conversation I was never really part of. “Have fun on your training assignment tomorrow.”
I manage to speak. “I doubt it. Knowing my luck, I’ll get paired with Ryven and his twisted crew.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” he calls over his shoulder as he walks off, easy as anything.
I don’t move right away. Can’t.
My skin’s buzzing, Threads shifting under the surface, pressing harder now that I’m alone.
So I crouch down, drag the flap open. Fingers move inside quick and close around the duck. I hold on.
