Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I tossed that idea aside easily. “She would’ve been happier to have never met me. I don’t doubt that.”
“You don’t doubt it,” Calix said, making himself at home on my bed again. “But it damn sure makes you mad. This one’s gotten under your skin.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Ajax sighed. “All I know is if you spend another second talking about this girl, Sirena will sense it and burst in here to take all our heads off. Cool your obsession around her.”
“I’m not obsessed. Aella Galanis is nothing. She is less than nothing. But I was forced to take responsibility for her since I commuted her sentence. If she runs off like she’s clearly still planning to do, it’s on me. Her sentence will be my sentence.”
I wished I could say I was exaggerating, but such was the law in Olympia. One time—just one—a tale of woe convinced a border watcher to free her charge and help her across the border. The council immediately passed a law stating that whoever was in charge of bringing a traitor in, would meet the same fate if that traitor got away.
In any other circumstances, this law, like the rest, wouldn’t apply to me. But my father sent word that morning that I shouldn’t look his way for any hope of leniency. He was less than pleased with me for reducing the sentence of a traitor who murdered a guard—on top of publicly firing one of his favorite spies. I wasn’t supposed to leave Trono City at all, let alone spend the summer causing trouble for him.
I asked myself what Aella would do if she knew she held my life in her hands. Redouble her efforts to escape.
Suddenly, the rest of what Ajax said penetrated. “Hold on, why would Sirena care about me and Aella?”
I gritted my teeth. Me and Aella. Why did I say it like that?
“Are you kidding? If anyone’s obsessed with anybody, she is with you. That woman will be the one who marries you and has your babies if she’s got to kill every female on the planet to make it happen.”
“Nonsense.” I promptly dismissed every fool word out of his mouth. “Sirena and I have known each other since we were in swaddling. You just can’t conceive of a man and woman being friends without that relationship eventually leading to sex. It’s one of your many failings as a man.”
It was my turn to take a boot to the head.
“Xander?” Knock. Knock. “Are you in there?”
Sirena pushed in without waiting for a reply. “There you are.” Running over, she popped a kiss on my cheek. “I was looking for you guys. A bunch of us are heading out to the river for a moonlit swim. You coming?”
“Can’t,” I said. “I’ve been on the road for weeks. Tonight, I’m finding a training room and getting in a proper workout.”
“Come on, Xander. Don’t be boring.” She squeezed my arm. “You’re really going to pass up skinny-dipping with me to play with a plastic sword in a stinky old training room?”
“Bet he would if Aella Galanis was there,” Ajax muttered.
Galen winked exaggeratedly. “Just to make sure she wasn’t up to something, of course.”
Idiots.
“Who?” Sirena demanded. “Who’s this Aella?”
“No one important.” I slipped out of her hold. “I’m getting some training in, but I’ll see if I can meet up with you guys after.”
I left, and was in search of a training room. That I would also search out Aella’s dorm room on the way was out of necessity. I had to know where she was at all times.
I would vouch for her power. I would get her off a murder charge for a corrupt soldier’s death. I would even save the silly clod from herself and refuse to grant her death wish.
But one thing I would not do for a traitor... is die for her.
Aella
“This isn’t so bad.” Theron tossed his stuff on a bed and then himself after it. “If I can’t have my own room, at least I’m sharing with you guys.”
If his wish was to share a dorm with his friends, fate smiled on him like it never did for me. Ionna, Tycho, and Theron were all placed in Sisyphean.
“Might just be the six of us too,” Ionna spoke up. “This year’s novice class is a bit... thin. I bet there are more beds than bodies.”
“Fine with me.” Nitsa was already set to work making her alcove cozy. Drawings of her family filled her shelves where the books were supposed to go. Drawing out a knit blanket, she set the starry night sky over our plain white sheets.
Daciana stretched on the couch, looking wholly relaxed and at home with this close-knit group. “Is it rude to ask people what their powers are?”
“No,” Tycho said. “Not rude at all. It’s the first thing strangers ask after ‘what’s your name?’”