Chapter Eleven – The Captain’s Warning

  Yellow huffed some, but the captain silenced him. “Shush.”

  Gray went to the window.

  There were three dogs in the streets—well, calling them dogs was generous. They had green scales, no fur, with tentacles on their backs. Their mouths were filled with fangs. They were mostly just mouth.

  “Sloth dogs,” she said.

  “They don’t look very slothful.” Gray didn’t turn from the window. “Have they been there long?”

  “About a half an hour. I think they sense my wards and are wondering what they are protecting. I’m not sure if I’ve seen them before.”

  Again, Yellow let out a single quiet bark.

  “Shush,” Settie said again. “They might try and break through.”

  “Or they might be too slothful.”

  Settie aimed her gaze at him. “You were gone for a long time in the market. I can guess who you saw there.”

  “Who?” he asked, playing at innocence.

  “Emilia Stone. You don’t trust that I can help you. You went to that little bitch. I’m disappointed but not surprised. I gave you your power but I’m not good enough to help you wield.” He looked down and saw a bottle of wine there.

  Either the captain was in a mood, or she was drunk. He couldn’t tell which.

  And she wasn’t done talking. “I know all about Ames’s infatuation with you. Her heartbreak is very sad, yes, very dramatic. Unrequited love makes for such good drama. But we can’t lose focus. You can’t encourage her.”

  Gray had to defend himself. “I am not encouraging her. Rynn and I are trying to be patient and understanding. I think she’s been better recently. She carries a lot of pain around. You wouldn’t happen to know much about that, would you?”

  “Some,” she said. “She comes from an old family, very old. They’ve fallen on hard times, which means they can’t repair their castle on the coast. The Archduke himself lived in that castle thousands of years ago.”

  “So you won’t say his name either?”

  Settie stared at him for a long time. “Malchutt stayed in that castle. He raped elves and created the Quelling. Those stones are cursed as are Ames’s family. They have certain very strange ideas that are complete nonsense. However, Ames’s is very well trained, and she is very determined not to go back to that castle.”

  “She’s not alone.” Gray went and got a chair and slid it over. “Most of your squad can’t go home. I met with Sindara, and she wants to join our squad. She says she knows who killed the dwarf over the summer, and that her life is in danger. That’s part of why she wants to join us. Really, I think she sees her mistake. She wants to be on the winning squad, and we are the winning squad. Everyone knows it.”

  “Was it delicious hearing her beg?” Settie asked. Her core glowed as she got mana. Oh, she could be so smug.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Gray said. “We can’t bring her onto our team. We have to win with five. Which means I need my meridians working. What are we willing to risk to make that happen?”

  He wasn’t going to reveal the Widow Stone’s plan. No, he just wanted to see Settie’s reaction.

  She turned to face him, as if the monster dogs outside were of no consequence.

  Yellow kept looking at them both. It was as if he thought they were both insane for not taking the threat outside seriously.

  “We could use Sindara.”

  “I already have. She has information on Soulshred Week. It was the only reason why I would talk to her. Well, and she is pretty, but pretty girls with lust resonances aren’t that rare.”

  Settie chuckled. “As far as you know. Maybe that’s reason enough not to let her join us. We don’t need another pretty face, tempting you.”

  “I’m not tempted,” Gray insisted. He wasn’t, not by Ames or Sindara, but Emilia Stone? That was a different story. But no, it couldn’t happen. She was still bound to her dead husband and always would be. She was too smart risking permanent damage to her core.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Settie waved him on. “Tell me more. Tell me everything.”

  He went into detail about the whole conversation. Unlike with the Widow Stone, he left nothing out.

  When he finished, the dragon lady sighed. “There are any number of games that Malcon Crewel might use for Soulshred Week. We need to narrow it down. We could invite her in, get all we need from her, and then drop her. Her old team wouldn’t take her back, but I don’t care about that. Not after what she did.”

  “Rynn would forgive her,” Gray said.

  “Have you talked to Rynn about Sindara?” Settie asked.

  “Not yet.”

  Settie’s smile was evil. “Yes, you were too busy doing other things. Forgiveness doesn’t play any part in my life. I don’t ask for forgiveness, and I don’t forgive. I like Sindara’s idea of bringing her on at the last minute. That would be better. Or we secretly train.”

  “Which I think we should do. Here. In Old Town. You still haven’t taken us to the Weeping Well.”

  Settie gave him a withering look. “It’s a hole in the world. It’s dangerous. I don’t want to lose another squad.”

  With anyone else, Gray might’ve asked about her two dead squads. But the captain hated questions.

  “I want to see it, Captain. Let’s run there tomorrow.”

  “Possibly,” the captain said.

  Gray then paused. “Who knows? We might kill a demon. And then, we could harvest the mana. How hard is it to collect mana from demons?”

  “Not difficult.” The captain seemed to catch herself. “But not something that we should be doing. It’s poaching. And if we were caught, we’d be disqualified if not killed. Already, you all living at Ruin Manor is a problem. Crewel must know. Just like he knows who killed the dwarf. He just doesn’t care.”

  “Would he care about poaching?”

  The captain couldn’t help but sneer. “He would have to. The Watchfire families would murder him too for letting recruits break the only rules they truly care about. If anyone went hunting demons, you wouldn’t need to join a kill squad, and they wouldn’t have monopoly on all the mana.”

  “Okay.” Gray wasn’t surprised by the answer. “No poaching. But let’s run to the Weeping Well. I want to see it. I’ve been patient.”

  Settie didn’t respond. “You saw the Widow Stone. I know you, Gray. You might trust me, but you aren’t going to wait around. What did Emilia say?”

  “She stabbed my foot with a needle, and then she had me channel mana down to the needle.”

  Settie grinned. “I thought about doing that. But I didn’t want to hurt you. And yet, you trust her and not me.”

  That made him laugh. “I don’t trust anyone. Except for Rynn. And you. I trust that you will do what is best for you. For now, that means the squad is important to you, but that might change.”

  “Not until we win the Testing. Until then, I am completely invested in you and your future. Let’s focus on the work at hand. You are obsessed with the trayah jalana. It’s ancient magic if it’s real at all. It’s not. There is someone I could ask. It might be worth a trip to lust city. There are academy matches here in a few weeks. It’s their version of First Fields but with a lot more money and a lot more fairies. And their core oaths and all of that. I know someone there. We could see if they know who is paying Miss Thornpinch and her squad. I have my theories, but they are just that. Theories.”

  “You’re not worried about my meridians?” He asked.

  “No,” Settie said. “We won without them before.”

  “But we lost Sixblood. Spectacularly. We were nearly culled.”

  Settie then smiled. “Then we shall have to fix you. I’ve done it once, I can do it again. I must applaud the Widow’s work. The needle was a very good idea. I might need to take needles to you on a daily basis. Would you be willing?”

  “You know I would be.”

  Settie’s eyes were soft on him. “Part of your plan for self-mastery? Or do you want to win?”

  He smiled at her. “Why not both?”

  And suddenly, the soft look in her eyes was gone. “You shouldn’t have gone to the Widow. You went behind my back. Do that too much, and there will be consequences.”

  “Like what?” he asked.

  “Like you’ll be back at Third Barracks, you and Rynn, dealing with the scorpions. All of you will be. I’m only letting you live here out of the goodness of my heart.”

  Gray laughed a little. “Rumor has it, you don’t have a heart. It was all burned up in the fall of Alastria.”

  He meant it as a joke, but he could see his words affect her. She couldn’t be that old, could she?

  The captain smiled, but it was sad. “I have a heart. You of all people know that. But it’s late. The sloth dogs are gone. I feel like I have done a poor job of disciplining you. Don’t confuse my patient understanding for weakness. You must trust me, Grayson Fade. Or at the very least, don’t cross me. I doubt either one of us would survive.”

  It was a warning he knew he should take seriously, but really, he couldn’t. He was the beating heart of Squad 23. She couldn’t win without him, and they both knew that.

  But if she’d murdered her former squads, she might just kill them all and start fresh.

  That was if he believed the rumors, which he didn’t.

  She could see right through him. “I see you have a question for me, my precious Gray. Well, ask it.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Old enough to have seen the fall of Alastria,” she said. “Old enough to see have seen the Wrath Tower fall, though that seems like it happened yesterday.”

  “Have you ever seen an archduke of hell?” he asked.

  She rose to her feet. “It’s late, too late to be talking about such things. Good night, my precious Gray. I do hope you remain precious to me.”

  She left him alone with Yellow, who could finally relax now that the demons were gone.

  He stayed in the chair, petting the dog. “I think I’ll take that as a yes, Yellow. What do you think?”

  The dog barked. Yellow also thought that Settie had seen an archduke, maybe the Troublemaker himself.

  He’d have to learn more about the fall of Alastria, since Settie seemed to have been there.

  * * *

  It was the next day when they heard about Sindara’s death. She’d been found hanging in the stairwell of First Barracks, beaten and bloodied.

  Whatever secrets she’d known, she’d take them to the grave.