I pulled the new shirt over my head and said, “The fact that you’re a Barron and telling everyone at Shadow Academy that you’re Unskilled.”
Without asking if I was dressed or not, he turned to face me. “It’s…complicated. I really don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why not?” I pulled my shoes back on and shoved my clothes inside the small bag.
When I stood and looked at him, he seemed to pale before my eyes. “Because my Healer died three years ago at the second battle at Wood’s Cross. It’s a rather painful memory, and I’d rather not discuss it.”
An image filled my mind, jolting me. It was the image of a small red crescent against Darius’s bronze skin. “But…your Trace is red. That means your Soulbound Healer is alive.”
“I don’t know what you think you saw, but my Trace is black.” He slipped his shirt over his head, and I struggled to keep my attention on his Trace.
He was right. It was black.
I shook my head, not understanding. I could have sworn it had been red. “I’m so sorry. I thought—”
“Let’s just get back to the academy.” He picked up the spare katana and headed up the hill without another word. I watched him take several steps before I followed, slipping my face mask on.
What kind of person insists on dredging up the past when someone else says they’d rather not talk about it? My curiosity had clearly brought to mind an experience he’d rather forget. Guilt weighed my steps all the way back to the armory.
As he was reaching for the door, I hoped my bumbled apology would ease any tension I might have caused. “Darius? I really am sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up. It’s none of my business anyway. But…I have to ask you something.”
He looked at me, and I could tell that he’d built a wall around his emotions. There was no feeling in his eyes, no reaction at all. Just impatience and the urge to get this conversation over with.
I shuffled my feet a bit before speaking. “How does no one here know that you’re a Barron?”
“Because I trained at Starlight Academy, and the two schools only ever interact in full-scale battles. So no one here knows what I am, and no one there knows what happened to me.”
“Oh.” I had a million more questions, but something told me if I started asking them, Darius wasn’t going to be very giving with answers.
As if in response to my thoughts, he nodded wordlessly, and opened the door. As I stepped inside, he turned to me, the subtle hint of a smile on his lips. “Wear the outfit you’re wearing right now tomorrow, so you don’t have to keep getting naked in front of me, okay?”
As positively obnoxious as Darius was, he had an intriguing charm about him that I admired. I smiled as my new instructor walked away, relieved I hadn’t completely fakked everything up.
I entered the armory with answers to a question that had been bugging me since the day that we had met. Darius was a dek much of the time because he was hurting from the loss of his Healer. And he was hiding away from the world under a guise of secrecy because of whatever had happened at the battle of Wood’s Cross. Of course he was. Who wouldn’t? When I learned I’d lost my Barron, I was heartbroken, and I hadn’t even known him. Clearly Darius had cared very much for his Healer, and had been left deeply scarred by his or her demise.
Darius disappeared around the corner, leaving me alone to greet Maddox. She was seated on a stool as I entered, looking more bored than I’d ever seen her. I tried to hide my smile, but the look in Maddox’s eyes said that I was the worst liar in Tril. Furrowing her brow, she said, “What’s this now? What happened?”
Stepping inside the armory, I closed the door behind me, sealing us away from the world outside for the moment. “It was amazing, Maddox! I learned how to hold a katana properly, and how to swing it. And I did so many push-ups, I almost passed out!”
She looked as if she were questioning my sanity level, so I tried desperately to stop my smile from turning into a grin. And failed.
She raised a sharp eyebrow. “You almost passed out and you’re happy about it?”
“Oddly, yes.”
“Will we be back here tomorrow?”
I didn’t even have to think about my reply. “Definitely. And every day, until Darius deems me fit for a Graplar encounter.”
“You really hate those things, don’t you?”
“It’s not that.” At that moment, an image flashed through my mind. An image of teeth and blood. My leg began to throb, right where I’d been bitten. “I mean, it’s not just that. Maybe it doesn’t bother you, or maybe you just never really took notice, but Maddox…it really kills me that Healers are expected to stand around and wait to be rescued. It really troubles me that we’re not viewed as equals with Barrons.”
Maddox shrugged, hopping down off her stool. “I noticed. I just don’t see the point in rallying against something we can’t change. And I’ve never heard a Healer be so bothered by it before you, Kaya.”
We made our way outside again, where the cool evening air was giving way to the warmth of morning. Waves of guilt lapped at my heels. “Maddox…are you sorry I got you mixed up in this?”
“Are you kidding?” She snorted, relieving that guilt—or at least lessening it some. “In case you haven’t noticed, the headmaster is a total dek.”
C H A P T E R
Eighteen
Again.” Darius brought his blade across his body and I did the same, stopping just short of the metal hitting in midair. My shoulders felt like they were on fire, and my back had cramped twice already. “On your own now. Go until I say stop.”
I brought my blade up again and then down in a hard slash. Darius circled me slowly, his eyes burning holes in my every fault. “Bend your knees. Straighten your back.”
I did as instructed, trying hard to ignore the threat of another cramp—this one in my side. He barked, “Again. Swing harder. You’re not getting it.”
Using all of my strength, I swung the katana forward, snapping it into position. As I ended the slash, the muscles in my side cramped hard and I cried out, dropping my weapon to the ground and clutching my side. As I stood there, doubled over in pain, Darius said, “Give me fifty push-ups and you’re done for the day. Unless, of course, you can’t hack it.”
Dropping to my knees, I gritted my teeth against the pain and pressed my palms into the soft ground, stretching out my legs behind me. I dipped down, counting off the first push-up, and swore that I wouldn’t let a little pain frighten me away from the training I desperately wanted. Just forty-nine more push-ups and I could go have breakfast with Trayton.
As I left the dining hall later that morning, I felt a bit lighter, though my muscles were terribly sore. Dining with Trayton was fun, even if every word I said was followed by the knowledge that Melanie had yet to enact her hateful plan, and every other word out of Trayton’s mouth was something about how I should be behaving in Mr. Groff’s class. Still…Trayton’s smile gave me reason to trudge forth to my Botanical Medicine class, despite the fact that all I really wanted to do was lie down in a hole somewhere and pretend the outside world didn’t exist anymore.
But once inside Instructor Harnett’s class, I found my second wind. “Today, Healers, we will discuss the remedy for aching muscles.”
Relaxing some, and thanking whatever omnipotent force had sent Instructor Harnett to teach at Shadow Academy, I flipped open my notebook and prepared to take detailed notes. Instructor Harnett smiled pleasantly and began her lecture by writing several ingredients on the board. “Now, something that I want you to remember at all times is that a Healer’s life is just as important as a Barron’s. Perhaps more so. After all, if King Darrek had his way and rid the world of Healers, where would our dear Barrons be without us there to heal them and tend to their wounds? Your life is valuable. To your Barron, to your fellow Healers, and to you. Despite what other instructors might say.”
The obvious dig at Instructor Baak instantly raised my respect for Instructor Harnett by t
wo clicks. But the classroom door opened, interrupting my inner celebration.
Instructor Baak stepped inside, her hair wild and the whites of her eyes showing in a manner that made me question her sanity. It also made me wonder if she’d been eavesdropping through the door for some crazy, possibly paranoid reason. She crossed the classroom to Instructor Harnett, her long finger pointed and shaking in a chastising manner. “How dare you! How dare you. You can’t do that. You can’t spread lies and insult fellow faculty members. It’s against Protocol!”
Instructor Harnett folded her arms in front of her and spoke calmly, as if she were used to these kinds of outbursts. “To what section of Protocol are you referring exactly?”
Instructor Baak’s face turned purple. I was beginning to wonder if she’d stopped breathing. “Lies! You’ve lied to these students!”
“About what, Shara?” Instructor Harnett eyed her closely for a moment, and when Instructor Baak could only respond with sputtering, she said, “Perhaps you should take this up with Headmaster Quill.”
“I will!” She spun around, leaving the classroom just as quickly as she’d come, slamming the door behind her.
After taking a cleansing breath, Instructor Harnett smiled pleasantly. “Now that we have that out of the way, Healers, let’s discuss how to ease muscular pain.”
I didn’t think that I could possibly like Instructor Harnett more than I did at the onset of that class. But I was thrilled beyond belief to be proven wrong.
C H A P T E R
Nineteen
Ascream woke me that night, permeating my dreams and twisting them into something that I feared would stay with me, but when I opened my eyes, the images were gone, and I lay there, wondering whether or not the scream had been real. Then I heard it again, just outside my window. Jumping out of bed, I flung open the window and looked down. Maddox was standing in the courtyard, a haunted expression on her face. Just as I was about to ask her what all the screaming was about, she screamed again at the hulking mass that was moving ever closer to her in the shadows. Without thinking, I stepped onto the ledge and jumped, tucking and rolling as I fell on the soft grass below. My left hip screamed from the fall, and I knew I’d be bruised, but I had to get to Maddox, had to help her in whatever way I could.
Something dark and fast whipped by my right side and I turned my head toward it. As I did, it moved by my left. Swift shadows that I knew had to be made of substance. Maddox flew through the air toward me, landing in a heap. The crackle of the torches was drowned out by a horrible screech—one that I recognized instantly. Another Graplar had gotten inside the wall.
Instantly, I opened my mouth to call for help, to yell in hopes that someone in the dorms would hear me, but I snapped it closed again. I couldn’t scream, couldn’t cry out. Sounds would only attract the Graplars. The smartest thing I could do was stay still and silent and try to figure this out on my own. I could count about fifty paces to the armory, and it would take another twenty paces to get around to the armory door. Which meant that it might as well have been on the other side of Tril. Which meant that I was without a katana. Which meant that we were dead meat.
Maddox moaned from where she lay on the ground. As slowly as possible, not wanting to attract the Graplar’s attention, I inched over to where she lay and squatted beside her. Blood was pouring from the bite wound on her neck, coloring the ground an inky black in the moonlight. I ripped a large rectangle of fabric from my sleeping clothes and pressed in into the wound, trying to stop the blood from coming. Maddox was hurt badly and needed immediate medical attention. And without a Healer Bound to her, I wasn’t sure she could survive this—not even with the Master Healer’s assistance. But I had to try, had to get Maddox to the hospital wing as quickly as possible.
A figure was moving from torch to torch, dousing them, and when my eyes focused in the darkness, I was relieved to see both a face I knew well and a katana on his back, but I couldn’t believe that no one from the dorms had heard the commotion. “Raden! Hurry, there’s a Graplar inside the wall!”
He looked about and found me quickly. When he ran over to where I was holding Maddox, he didn’t miss a beat. “What direction? How many?”
“Just one that I saw. It ran west, but it bit Maddox.”
His eyes scanned the darkness. “It won’t go far. They prefer to feed rather than injure. Stay here and stay still and quiet. I’ll get it.”
He took off at a sprint, but I could barely make out the sound of his footfalls. Tears rolled down my cheeks and dripped from my chin to Maddox’s hair. After a long silence, a horrific screech filled my ears, ringing through me. Raden returned a moment later, a triumphant look in his eyes, and scooped Maddox into his arms. As we hurried to the hospital wing, I swore that I would figure out how the Graplars were getting into the school, and I swore silently to Maddox that I would stop it from happening ever again.
C H A P T E R
Twenty
Iawoke the next morning in a chair beside Maddox’s hospital bed, my head lying on her blanket. Maddox’s neck was covered with a thick white bandage, her face pale. When she saw me stir, her eyes brightened. I glanced around the room, happy to find that we were completely alone. “Maddox, how are you? Do you need anything?”
She started to shake her head, but then winced at the pain the action had caused her. “I’m fine. Really.”
“What were you doing outside? I thought you were confined to the parlor at night.”
“It’s stupid.” She sighed, but I could tell she was holding back her movements. She must have been in a great deal of pain. “I heard the dining hall was open late and serving fruit pastries.”
I threw her a disbelieving look. “That is stupid. How’s your neck feel anyway?”
“Sore.” For a moment, the Maddox that I knew was gone, replaced by someone who seemed softer, more fragile. She looked at me, and lowered her voice to a mere whisper. “I’m so scared, Kaya.”
I flicked a glance at her bandage, uselessly hoping to get a look at her wound and see how it was healing. “You don’t need to be scared, Maddox. Raden killed the Graplar that bit you.”
“That’s not it. I mean, that’s part of it.”
“So what’s the rest of it? What are you afraid of?”
Her eyes looked haunted, as I had never seen them before. The sight of them frightened me. “I don’t have a Healer, Kaya. And I’ll probably never have a Healer. And I have no idea what I’m doing with a katana. I’m scared that I’m going to die. Maybe not now. But the next time I encounter one of those things.”
My voice caught in my throat as I shook my head again. “You can’t think like that, Maddox.”
Maddox sat up in bed, her expression hopeless. “Why not? It’s true, isn’t it? All of it’s true.”
It was hard to imagine what it was like to live in a world full of people who knew that they could be healed by the touch of a hand, but that you couldn’t. I reached out and squeezed her hand. “When you get better, I’ll teach you everything I know about how to kill Graplars.”
A small ray of hope returned to her eyes then, and I was grateful to see it, grateful to see a glimpse of the girl that I’d come to care about. But guilt came crashing down hard all around me. I should have offered to show her what I’d learned before. If I had, she might not be lying in bed, injured right now. “Thanks.”
Hours later, at the Master Healer’s insistence, I finally exited Maddox’s room in the hospital wing. Maddox didn’t need me there. Her wounds had looked far worse than they actually were, and now she was well medicated and cleanly bandaged. The Graplar’s bite had been treated to the best of the Master Healer’s ability, and when the Master Healer wasn’t looking, I’d retreated it with some of Darius’s amazing healing cream. After that, it was a matter of waiting. All I had really been doing for the past three hours was holding Maddox’s hand and apologizing for something which I had absolutely no control over. So, with needless guilt weighing down my every ste
p, I let go of Maddox’s hand and moved into the hallway.
Trayton was waiting for me in the hall—for that, I was truly grateful. Despite the fact that he hadn’t been in the courtyard when I’d needed him. He stood as I approached and cupped his hand over mine, intertwining our fingers. His eyes were locked on mine, as if he were trying to gauge my well-being. “How is she?”
My heart was so heavy I could barely speak. “They say she’ll be back in action in two or three days.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. But where were you?”
A flash of guilt crossed his face. “It’s not always easy to hear through the dorm walls. Believe me, if I had kn—”
I cut off his sentence with a look and sighed. “This is exactly why Healers should know how to fight, Trayton. If I’d had a katana in my hands, I could have protected her.”
Shaking his head, he did his best to sound reassuring—and failed miserably. “Don’t beat yourself up wondering what might have been. And don’t forget that Maddox is a Barron. Even if she’s not trained in the art of fighting, she has a natural ability that far surpasses anything that even a well-trained Healer could accomplish.”
I shot him a look. “And why wasn’t she trained exactly? She is a Barron, after all.”
Trayton looked past me down the hall. When he met my eyes again, he lowered his voice, as if what he was about to say were a secret. “The headmaster thought that if she had training, she might eventually use it in an effort to leave the academy.”
Disgust filled me. “So instead of teaching her a skill to defend herself and risking her running away, he’d rather keep her ignorant and ensure she stays here? That’s ridiculous.”
“It may seem ridiculous, but it’s for her own good.” He shrugged, and then went back to looking down the hall toward Maddox’s door. “Besides, like I said, Maddox has a natural ability. With or without training, she could defend herself in a dire situation, I’m sure.”