She chuckled. “Making plans, are we?”
“Hardly, just… It seems unfair.”
“Kills are everything here,” Dori said.
“Oh? And how many do you have?”
“One.” Her eyes darkened, and she shook her head. “I’m more of a backup gal. But Sterling Damascus…he’s a different story.”
His name set my teeth on edge. “Really?”
“He wasn’t sent here at sixteen like the rest of us. Got here a year ago. That should give you something in common.” She had no idea how much we had in common. I gave her a close-lipped smile, and she continued. “Anyway, he flew through classes, aced his grading and combat trials, and made the active Hunter unit within three months. Two months later, he had his twenty-fifth kill, andbam, he’s now in charge of the Phage unit. Caused some disruption from what I’ve heard.”
What had the perfect little blood blade done to get sentenced to Nightsbridge? I should feel satisfaction that his freedom had been taken, but it wasn’t enough. Not for what he’d done.
“Have you worked with him?”
“No. I’m assigned to the Thrope unit.”
“Drayven’s unit?”
“Yeah. The guy is terrifying—and a hardass.”
I hadn’t found him terrifying. “He seemed okay to me.”
Her brows shot up. “Are we talking about the same Thrope?”
“Unless there’s another Drayven here.”
“No, just the one.”
We continued in silence for a minute, in which I gathered the courage to ask the question that had been burning a hole in my mind since I’d woken up this morning. “Are you okay, Dori? The Tamina thing…did the tincture to put her to sleep work?”
“I’m fine. Everything was fine,” she said quickly. “Oh look, here we are. Trinity Tower.”
Dammit. She obviously didn’t want to discuss it, which meant things hadn’t gone to plan. My gut twisted as I warred with keeping my mouth shut or pushing. Fuck it. “Dori, I’m so sorry, I?—”
“Don’t.” Dori gripped my hand. “Please. It’s fine. Being with Tamina is never awful, I just… I know she’s not good for me. I don’t like her, but…”
Comprehension dawned. “You like the way she makes you feel.”
Her cheeks reddened. “Can we agree not to talk about this again?”
“Sure.”
We approached Trinity Tower in silence. It was a beast of a building, comprised of a blue and gray central tower with shuttered windows. Passages jutted off it to connect to three smaller towers.
Dori’s chin lifted in pride, a slight smile curled her lips as she drank it in. Pride and nostalgia.
I nudged her with my shoulder. “Hey, you’ll be back here soon enough.”
“Yeah, not sure how welcome I’ll be, though.”
“So you tried to incite a revolution. Big deal.”
She laughed. “If only Arcanus didn’t walk around with sticks up their asses, eh?”
The door to the main tower opened, and two women and a man stepped out.
