Perhaps I should have my guards add a few more stripes to your back. Help you remember your place.
I swing a fist without thinking. His head snaps to the side. I can feel his surprise, but now I’ve got the advantage. I pin his arm before he can swing a dagger this time, and I draw back my fist again.
“Tycho.” A hand catches my arm. “Hold.”
It’s Grey. I’m panting, my arm straining against his grip. The sky isblue and the air is warm. Below me, Jake has blood on his lip, and his jaw is already reddening. “What the hell, T. I said Iyield.”
I stare at him for a moment. It looks like I’ve hit him more than once. “Jake. I—I’m—”
“It’s fine. Let me up.”
Grey lets me go, and I get to my feet. I put out a hand to Jake.
He spits blood at the turf—but he takes my hand. “What got into you?”
“I don’t know.” My side aches where he punched me, and my hand is tight and sore. I flex my fingers. Itfeelslike I hit him more than once. I don’t know what made me so angry. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” He studies me, then claps me on the shoulder. “Gave them a good lesson on being cocky. I thought I had you.”
He nearly did, but I don’t say that.
“Find your units,” Grey says to the gathered recruits. “We’ll run drills in ten minutes.”
My insides are a jangled mess. My emotions won’t settle anywhere. I don’t know how I went from lighthearted sparring to slamming my fist into a friend’s face.
Grey is studying me.
Oh wait. Now I know.
I slide my weapons into their sheaths. I haven’t met his eyes yet.
“I have messages for you to take to Rhen,” he says. “They’re bound and ready.”
That gets my attention. I look up, my irritation forgotten. “Of course,” I say readily. Relief floods my veins. I haven’t failed. “I can leave this morning.”
“Good. Jake will go with you.”
The breath I’m inhaling turns to ice. I’m not sure what expression takes over my face, but it must not be good, because Grey holds my gaze.
I don’t know if I take a step or make a sound or just look like fire, butJake hooks an arm around my neck and begins to pull me away. “Come on, T. We’re going to have a great time.”
I let him drag me.
The alternative is getting into it with the king of Emberfall in the middle of the training fields, and I don’t want to do that.
But he’s watching Jake drag me, and I’m sure he can read every thought I’m not voicing.
“Let me go,” I say to Jake.
To my surprise, he does—but he throws an arm across my shoulders instead. “I know that look. Keep walking.”
I grit my teeth and do it. “You knew,” I say. “You knew when you came out here and asked if I wanted to spar.”
“I did,” he says. “But Grey wanted to tell you.”
I say nothing and stomp alongside him. Now I want to punch himagain.
“I told him I wanted to see my sister,” Jake says. “It’s not a punishment.”
