Page 46 of Veiled

His gaze slips to me, and he winks.

Lin’s mouth twitches, but her voice remains even. “It’s not common for dragons to choose Ghost Walkers, but also not unheard of. As you all have been told, they can sense who you are and what you want, so many will not want this life.” She glances around the room. “Anyone else want to be a dragon rider before today?”

A few hands shoot up at once, mine among them.

“Noted,” Lin says, her tone measured, almost clinical. “We’ll be keeping a closer eye on each of you in the coming weeks. Remember, every track exists for a reason. Every skill you develop serves a purpose for a Ghost Walker.”

The weight of her words settles over the room: nothing here is meaningless, and nothing is without consequence.

A brunette girl who arrived after us raises her hand, “If we make it through, what happens at the Track Gala when our tracks are announced?”

Well, shit, I didn’t even think about that.

“You’ll be announced as one of your other tracks to your family and friends, just like everyone else…” Major Halden pauses, scanning the room, his tone taking on a darker edge. “You’ll continue with that class and this one until graduation, and then, you’ll disappear from that track list after graduation.”

No one speaks. This means that all year long, we will always have one more class than everyone else. A class that we have to take in what little spare time we already have, because no one can know what we’re doing.

“Alright, you have the next week to decide if this is where you want to be before we really get started. This life isn’t for everyone, which will be obvious when some of you are inevitably kicked out.

“You’re dismissed,” Major Halden says before he and Lin walk away, fading into the shadows like they were never here at all.

For a moment, no one speaks. The weight of what we’ve signed up for shrouds us like a cloak we can’t shake off.

“Gods,” Matt mutters, pushing himself up from his chair.

“Right?”

“Who knew our military had secret ninjas?” He jokes, breaking the tension.

“I don’t know if I could kill someone,” Sasha says, her voice quiet. “I’m not a monster.”

Her words hang in the air. She’s right. Sasha is kind and compassionate. She wants to heal, to make the world a better place. She isn’t the kind of person who would feel relief when they thought they killed someone, like I did.

“You could if you had to.” Matt’s voice is firm. “When it’s between you and them, you have to pick yourself.” He says the words to Sasha, but his eyes are on me, knowing where my mind went.

“Oh my gosh, I didn’t mean you!” Sasha rushes out. “I’m just not sure if I’m cut out for this life. Lying to my parents forever? Trying to pretend to be someone I’m not? Or worse, actually becoming someone else. I can’t fight. I can’t…” Her voice trails off, uncertainty thick in her words. “I guess I just need to think about it.”

I hear what she is saying, and looking at her, it’s clear where her heart leans, and I can’t blame her.

“What are you thinking?” Matt looks at me, brows furrowing. He’s asking about Ghost Walking, but I know he is reading me like a book.

“I’m not sure yet,” I say, but the words feel like a lie as I say them. “I was leaning towards Dragon Riding and Vanguard, but this could be like the best of both worlds.”

“Yeah, it feels like we have to at least give it a shot, right?”

“What about your families?” Sasha asks, completely baffled. “You have to have people other than your dad.”

“Yeah, I have Mattey. He’s my family.”

Sasha looks like she’s about to respond, but she stops herself, chewing on her lip as if she’s trying to process it all.

Sasha heads straight to her room when we get back, only breaking the silence to let us know she needs to think and is going to grab dinner on her own.

Unlocking my door, I look at my best friend. “So, what now?”

“Now we take five minutes to breathe. Then we’ll go pick up dinner and come back to your room. We’ll talk it all out, and maybe, we’ll even get some sleep before the madness starts all over again tomorrow,” Matt says with a half-smile, trying to lighten the mood.

When we get back to my room, we have four carry-out boxes packed with dinner, enough drinks to get us through an evening of trying to predict what the future has in store for us, and another container with an array of desserts that Mattey deemed necessary.