A ripple of anxiety moved through the assembled cadets. The obstacle course was brutal on a good day. With full gear and weapons, it would be torture.
Perfect.
It was just what I needed.
Twelve minutes and forty-three seconds later, I collapsed at the finish line, lungs burning and legs shaking. Morek had naturally finished first, beating me to it by at least a minute if not more. Codric crossed five seconds after me, and Shovia finished at fourteen minutes and twelve seconds, which was exceptional for a female, but she still looked irritated for not being among the first.
"Not bad," Captain Odinah said, once she stopped the timer at precisely fifteen minutes. "Half of you made it. The other half needs to do better."
I was proud that the four representatives of our quintet who'd participated in this challenge had all made it in under fifteen minutes, but I noticed that other cadets were giving us sidelong glances. Some friendly, some wary, a few openly hostile. Ever since the attack, our quintet had become simultaneously revered and feared.
"Do you feel it?" Shovia asked quietly, following my gaze. "The way they look at us now?"
"Like we're different," Codric said.
"We are different." Morek's face twisted in a grimace. "Saphir marked us as such when he took us below the temple grounds and sent the others back to the Citadel."
"We were also targeted by assassins," Codric pointed out. "And we're armed while the other cadets are not. But what differentiates us the most is that we are close friends of the Hero of Elucia. After the dream that saved Podana, Kailin gained a nearly mythological status, and since we were in her inner orbit, some of it rubbed off on us."
That was a very astute observation from my cousin.
"I hate it," Shovia said. "I miss when we were just ordinary cadets like the others."
"We were never just cadets," I said. "We were always destined to be more."
From the moment Saphir had identified us as part of the prophesied seven, our path had diverged from everyone else's. We couldn't go back to being the way we had been before, whether we wanted that or not.
I didn't like it any more than Shovia and the others did.
It had been so refreshing to be treated like everyone else without having to worry if people sought my company because they liked me or because of my supposed status and position. As the fifth son of the king of Catonia, my position had never been overly important or influential, but as a prince, I had always been treated with deference. People had never been comfortable around me, and I detested the sycophancy.
After lunch with Kailin, I felt strange about heading out to flight training without her. Right now, I would have been happy to see her flying off with Ravel even though my gut twisted with jealousy every time I saw him sitting so close behind her, touching her…
I knew the Commander acted professionally and wouldn't do anything inappropriate, and I was confident that Kailin loved me. There was nothing between them except training and mutual respect. And yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was more going on between them, even if they couldn't admit that to themselves.
I pushed the thought away and focused on the exercise. Banking left, climbing in formation, diving in matched descent.
After landing, I lingered on the platform and looked at the distant peaks where Ravel usually conducted Kailin's training sessions. No one was there now, but I could picture them, Kailin on Onyx's back, Ravel behind her, too close, his hands on her waist.
"Come on." Codric clapped me on my back, startling me. "Darma told me this morning that there would be something good for dinner. Some kind of roasted bird."
"Do you ever think of anything other than food?" I asked my cousin. "I don't know how you don't get fat."
Codric smiled. "Fast metabolism."
Kailin was already in the mess hall when we got there, sitting at our usual table in the corner. The position gave us clear sightlines to the main entrance as well as the one leading to the kitchen.
Given the two assassination attempts, vigilance was not optional.
"How are you feeling?" I leaned to kiss her cheek.
"Rested and better." She patted the spot next to her. "And bored out of my mind. I don't think I could have survived another day of that. Thankfully, I can attend classes and training tomorrow, but I'm excused from conditioning until after bonding."
"Be grateful," Shovia said, taking the seat on Kailin's other side. "Odinah is getting more sadistic with each passing day." She turned to me. "Did you tell her about the conditioning this morning? It was brutal."
"I gave her the highlights over lunch."
Morek grinned from across the table. "I won."
