Shadowblade academy 2 da.., p.25
Shadowblade Academy 2: Darkness Rising, page 25
Charli giggled behind me.
I shot her a glare over my shoulder. “That is not my nickname.”
“Sure thing, buttercup.” She winked.
I turned my scowl on Venn, who had a stupid, crooked grin on his stupid, pretty face. “We’re going to talk about that.”
“Okay. Meeting first.”
“Right. Meeting first.” I tossed a wave over my shoulder, exited the room, and closed the door behind me. Once we were down the hall and out of earshot from anyone, I asked, “What can we expect?”
“Wrist Hudson said we can expect guests.”
“Guests?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, hun.”
“And I noticed you’re calling him ‘Wrist’ again.”
Venn scrubbed a hand over his face and let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t even know what to call him anymore.”
“Right. Just don’t let Sunny hear you say it.”
“Sunny can kiss my ass.”
I chuckled. Good. It seemed like things were starting to get back to normal around here.
When we reached the lobby and pushed out into the bright afternoon, I flapped my lips.
“What?” Venn asked.
“You said we’re expecting guests.”
“So?”
“I’m getting real tired of unexpected guests.”
Chapter 36
Coralia
SO FAR, NO UNEXPECTED guests had made an appearance. I stood in the conference room at Fort Nocturnus—a room I frequented entirely too much for my liking. Opting not to take a seat, I stood near the round table in the middle of the room.
My Glovemates surrounded me, also standing. Sunny had his arms crossed over his chest. The other three just looked awkward and blank. Only our resident vampire had any sort of nasty attitude written on his face, but that was to be expected.
Jace Hudson stood halfway between us and Alaric Cane, raking through his newly-trimmed beard. The headmaster faced us on the other side of the table. He wore a long black robe that emphasized his wizardly stereotype, and his sweeping white beard reached his belly.
The gaunt headmaster of Shadowblade Academy steepled his fingers, tapping them together. Then he sat down. “The prodigal students have returned to grace us with their presence.” His voice was pinched, and the look on his face was one of annoyance.
So it’s going to be like that, huh?
I said, “Good to see you too, Headmaster.”
“Don’t get snippy with me, young lady.”
I furrowed my brow. “All I said—”
“The five of you just think you can do whatever you like without repercussions at this establishment. Is that it?”
I gulped and shook my head. “No sir.”
“It sure seems that way. What, did winning the Shadowball tournament give you lofty aspirations? A free pass to go gallivanting around the country? Other students have been punished severely for simply leaving campus grounds. Which, as you know, is forbidden.”
“Other students didn’t rescue two missing students from a demonic prison and give you an inside look into the plague of Asberald City,” Sunny blurted, drawing every eye in the room his direction. “You would think that might grant us a bit of . . . leniency . . . sir.”
Headmaster Cane’s thin lips disappeared into his mouth. He blinked at the vampire, probably shaken at his insubordination. “Leniency, perhaps, Mr. Conway. But not leverage. Don’t think your exploits during last term’s final gave you a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
“So, is that what you have in store for us, Headmaster? Another stay in the initiation cell perhaps? Will it be seven days this time, or maybe longer, so we learn our lesson?”
Holy shit, I’d never seen Sunny push back so hard to his superiors. To the superior! I mean, he’d always been anti-authoritarian, but this was next level. I was expecting Headmaster Cane to explode on him at any second, and send him to the gulags.
Instead, Alaric took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. “I can tell something is grating you, Sunder. Out with it.”
Sunny put his hands behind his back and clasped his wrist. “All right, Headmaster. I suppose it’s the salt-and-pepper-bearded elephant in the room that’s getting under my skin.” He nudged his chin at Jace.
“Ah.”
“Yes. Ah.”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you, Sunder Conway. You are a student. I am your headmaster.”
Dax cleared his throat. “Wrist Hudson promised to make it make sense.”
“Did he now, Mr. Kilmeade? As I understand it, you were the instigator of this little foray into the Appalachian rainforest. Is that true?”
Thrown off-balance, Dax clamped his jaw and nodded curtly. “Yes sir. I’ll take full respons—”
“We all followed him for the sake of the Academy,” I said, cutting him off before he could get all Law & Order on us. “If you are going to punish Dax, then punish all of us. It was our own decision to make.”
Dax turned to me with admiration in his eyes.
“How exactly were your actions ‘for the sake of the Academy,’ Miss Hargrave?” Alaric tilted his head. “Do tell.”
He was having fun with this, which was infuriating. I hated that he held so much power over us.
I adopted a rigid stance similar to Sunny’s. “We received word a kinsman of Dax’s had been killed by poison. As it turned out, that poison was Umbralmera, which—”
“I know what Umbralmera is, Phantom.”
I hesitated. “Yes, well, we felt we needed to act. If Umbralmera is out there in the wild, it must have come from here.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Because Umbralmera is only found in the Unseelie Court and—”
“Here. Because you crafted it during your Ghost midterm, with the help of Donovenn Gable.”
“Yes sir.”
“And you believe this Umbralmera to be from the very same tincture you crafted in your Alchemy class?”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Because I saw someone leaving an alchemical storage facility shortly after our Shadowball victory. A hooded figure, moving stealthily.” That little tidbit had sort of been a secret, but I wanted it out. I was tired of secrets.
Alaric’s chin wrinkled as he nodded in an impressed way. “Sound detective work, Miss Hargrave.”
It surprised me he wasn’t flying off the handle. Which made me think deeper about it . . . and the light bulb went off. He knew. He must have. Or else he’d be pissed. He knows about the shadowblade—and probably who it is—and about everything that went down in Waichee.
For a drawn-out moment, my mind worked. I came to the grisly realization Headmaster Cane was leading us like mice, perhaps to some grand conclusion. Or he was just fucking with us, prying us for information so he could craft some more schemes. It was what he did best.
Now I was starting to get annoyed. I suddenly found myself on Team Sunny. “Sir, if you’re not going to punish us, then might I suggest we move beyond this dance so you can tell us what we’re really doing here?”
“I was told there’d be guests,” Sunny added.
The headmaster leaned forward, hands folded in a pyramid on the table. “Very well, students. I’ll tell it to you plain: You won’t be punished for your transgressions, because you are more valuable to me as active shadowblades than as confined penitents. Even if you don’t hold the official title of ‘shadowblade’ yet.”
There it was—that word “penitents”—his word for prisoners of the Academy.
He continued. “When you snoop around and act as a team, you clearly know how to get things done. That is one of the primary principles of this Academy: teamwork.”
It felt good hearing him praise us, especially from a man who could be so callous and cutthroat, but I knew he was partly blowing smoke up our asses. We didn’t figure out shit in Waichee. Does he know that? Our detective work wasn’t finished.
“That being said”—Alaric swept a bony hand to his side, to Jace Hudson—“I have given Professor Hudson liberty to explain what’s been going on. Your actions in Appalachia nearly cost us a great deal, and we can’t have that happening again with you five flying blind.”
Jace crossed his arms over his chest. He stared at each of us in the face, one by one, his thick eyebrows creased with consternation. “It’s true, Glove, I was never fired from Shadowblade Academy. It was a ruse to bring me to Applachia and the village of Waichee. Being ‘fired’ enabled me the freedom to travel undercover. To do my reconnaissance.”
The Wrist perched on the edge of the table, striking a leisurely pose with one knee lifted and his foot on a chair. “Here are the facts, gang. Waichee Village has been smuggling Oblyx Steel from an unknown source, using Luciano Rockford as a middleman and broker. Luciano has then been transporting those goods to humans, as well as the demons we call Leatherwings. The four parties seem to be in cahoots—Waicheean smugglers, Luciano’s pack, human bureaucrats, and Leatherwings. They appear to have a complex system, or alliance, in play.”
When he finished speaking, he turned his gaze on Dax, who I assumed had the most questions.
Sure enough, the panther shifter spoke up. “How long has Luciano Rockford been dealing with my clan?”
“A long time, Dax. Since before you came to the Academy.”
“I know that. I recognized him from my Ghost-year final as having done business with my kin.”
“Then you might know more about him than we do.”
“I doubt it. What I meant is: How long has Luciano been dealing with my clan in Oblyx Steel?”
From over Jace’s shoulder, Alaric said, “Also since before you were a student at Shadowblade Academy, Mr. Kilmeade.”
Dax nodded slowly, mulling that over.
Alaric likely noticed we were all restless, shifting our weight, and needed more. “Hudson’s Glove, minus Coralia Hargrave, was ordered to kill Luciano Rockford for your Ghost-year final. To break the supply chain, we had hoped. But you failed.”
My guys’ faces dropped, Venn and Quentin looking down at the floor. Sunny and Dax stood their ground, heads held high and still clearly not having a good time.
“Once that happened, we had to improvise.” Alaric stood from his chair. “Luciano became too well-protected to harm. He also has countless connections with powerful humans across the globe, which makes him essentially untouchable. The last thing we want at the Academy is to start a war with the humans.”
I bit my lip, knowing what was coming next.
Jace did the honors. “This is why the human deaths during your debacle in the woods strikes so harshly, Glove. We’re skating on thin ice.”
“You can thank your mystery shadowblade for that,” Sunny murmured.
“No humans were supposed to die.”
The vampire shrugged. “Mistakes happen.”
“Shadowblade Academy cannot be seen making mistakes!” Alaric bellowed, moving to the side of Jace where he could be seen easier. His eyes bulged and he thrust a skeletal finger in our direction. “Your Glove is not ready for things such as this. Clearly.”
I desperately hoped he wasn’t about to pull a “you can’t handle the truth” on us. His ire was scary, because he was a powerful individual. None of us wanted to let down the Academy, either.
The headmaster continued once he had calmed down and took a few deep breaths. He folded his hands in front of his robe. “The parties involved in the Oblyx Steel trade seem to be suited to a darker purpose, students. Do you see? We don’t believe any of them are working for the betterment of their people—or even under the command of their people.”
I said, “What do you mean, sir?”
“There seems to be a wicked power at work here. We saw it in Asberald City with the Leatherwings. Now, we see it in the place called the Forbidden Orchard in Appalachia. But we will cover that more in a bit.”
I cocked my head. The swiftness with which he had shut himself down was alarming, especially when he was spilling so much classified intel.
“For the sake of this meeting,” he continued, “just know the Oblyx Steel getting into demon hands is bad news. Very bad. Which is why Shadowblade Academy has actively—though covertly—been trying to disrupt the trade between Luciano and Waichee.”
Dax stepped forward, his midnight face highlighted on one side by sunlight streaming in through a window. “If no humans were supposed to die during that meeting . . . and Luciano is untouchable . . . then what was your shadowblade sent to achieve, Headmaster?”
I blinked. Dax had come to a realization quicker than any of us, probably because he’d been thinking of his people. My heart hurt for him.
Alaric adopted the first look of vulnerability I’d seen yet, his eyebrows arching sadly. He shuffled in front of Dax and put his hands on the shifter’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, my boy. This will be hard to hear. But remember, you are a shadowblade. You are a member of this Academy, and you always will be.”
“What are you saying, Headmaster?”
His naivety, if that’s what it could be called, made a knot of anguish coil in my stomach. I felt physically ill.
Alaric turned, took a step away, and cleared his throat. His hands were behind his back when he faced Dax once more. “If we cannot stamp out the recipient, and we don’t know who the supplier is, then we must cut out the middleman. Originally, Luciano was our middleman. But Waichee Village became our middleman when we had exhausted all other options. The Waichee smugglers were the ones liaising with Luciano and keeping this operation going.”
I drew in a sharp breath. Dax’s shoulders slumped.
“The target was Cyrus Kilmeade.” Alaric frowned. “And his ilk. Chieftess Fionne, if it comes to it. Whatever it takes to keep the Oblyx Steel from getting into the wrong hands.”
Dax’s mouth fell open, but he quickly clamped it shut. He didn’t want to show weakness in front of Headmaster Cane, but it was written so plainly on his face that it pained me to see. His eyes were broken. The man he had placed all his trust in had been trying to eradicate his people all this time.
Hell, after hearing Dax’s story of how he came to Shadowblade Academy, I had to wonder if his acceptance here had been a ruse for Alaric Cane to have a beat on Waichee Village. To stay close and watch them.
Dax said, “My entire Academy experience has been based on a lie. Forged from deception.”
For some reason, that was the phrase that set the headmaster off. Head lurching back, he snapped, “Don’t be melodramatic, boy! ‘Forged from deception’? This Academy is deception!” He slapped a hand on the tabletop next to him. “We are fucking assassins!”
My breath hitched in my throat, startled from his sudden pitch in volume and his slap on the table.
“With the Waicheeans out of the game, Luciano can’t get his Oblyx shipment because he has no connection to Waichee’s supplier. None of us do. Spirits save me, boy, if Luciano did have access to the Oblyx supplier, he would have killed your people already!
“It has never been our intention to commit genocide on your kin, Dax Kilmeade. But the rotten apples have to go. That’s all there is to it.”
A moment after he finished, Dax said, “Let me talk to them. Please, Headmaster.”
“What?”
“I can convince them to throw aside the Oblyx Steel trade if they know you are coming after them.”
Jace said, “You are exiled from the village, Dax.”
“I’m still Chieftess Fionne’s son. She will meet with me in secret. I know she will.”
“And you expect your words to make a difference?”
“Yes.” He said it with such certainty, even I was convinced he might be onto something.
Alaric seemed to think about it, eyes narrowing. Then he shook his head rapidly. “No, boy, I’m afraid not. With dead humans muddying the waters, your village is on life support. The humans will want revenge—retribution for their kind getting killed. Your people will be seen as terrorists after this.”
“No!” Dax shouted. He slammed a fist against an open palm. “I won’t allow it. We can alter the course. I will give myself to the humans if it means keeping my people safe. I will take the blame.”
I wanted to rush forward and hug him, to keep him close and make sure he didn’t sacrifice himself for the sins of his people. Hell, not even sins, but simply trying to get by. Who knew what kind of money Cyrus and his gang were making off the trade? It could have been life-changing stuff, and probably seemed harmless enough.
Until an establishment like Shadowblade Academy came along to crush them.
I felt ashamed. Shocked at what I was hearing.
Dax was right: There had to be a way to stop this.
Sunny stepped forward during the brief moment of silent tension that settled in the room. “How do the Waichee people get the Oblyx? That’s my question. It’s from the dragon realm, right? Do they go there and procure it? Meet with someone?”
Headmaster Cane bobbed his head left and right, cracking his neck. He took a few more breaths—the outrage and yelling was probably not good for his old heart. “Well, that seems like a perfect segue. Mr. Conway.” He shuffled to a closed door on the other side of the room and put his hand on the knob. “I would like to introduce our honorable guests to discuss this issue further. Perhaps we can come to some sort of understanding together.”
When he opened the door, my eyebrows jumped at the sight of the person who walked through.
She was tall and physically imposing for a woman, with bare, wiry biceps and skin the color of sun-bleached sand. Shimmering silver hair swept down her shoulders, framing her beautiful, angular face. Bright violet eyes, even more radiant than Venn’s lilac irises, stared back at me, a full-lipped frown on her face. She wore a suit of armor like something out of a medieval fable, glittering silver—almost comical to see in modern times.
The woman strode into the room with the confidence of a goddess. I couldn’t help but wilt at her utter regality and gracefulness. Whereas last term’s visitor, Dawn Rose, had been unassuming and plain until throwing aside her cloak and speaking to us, this woman struck a very different chord.
