Chapter 297

Tony smirks at me and sketches out a deep bow. “Your highness,” he murmurs. “Your utter shock is both offensive and gratifying at once. I thank you for it.”

I laugh and stumble towards him, throwing my arms around his neck and giving him a big hug. “That is amazing!” I gasp. “How did you do that!?”

Tony wraps his arms tight around me for a moment and gives me a quick, laughing spin before putting me back on my feet.

“Oh, you know,” Tony says with a casual shrug, ignoring the fact that Luca reaches for me when I’m back on the ground, wrapping a hand around my upper arm and giving me a jealous little tug towards him. I grin up at my mate, wrinkling my nose, liking him jealous but knowing that it’s totally unnecessary. “Just…clever footwork,” Tony continues, “Right place at the right time. That sort of stuff.”

“Oh, whatever,” Rafe says, coming over to us while Jesse and Daphne head to the dumbwaiter. Ben passes out copies of the ranking list and we all bend our heads over it. “Seriously, Tony, you killed…1/3 of the people on the field! How the fuck did you manage that?”

“And Ariel basically got another third,” Tony says, grinning at me and evading the question as he taps at my name on the list in my hand, showing me that it’s listed just below his with a very gratifying gold medal printed next to it. “Well done, princess.”

“Thank you,” I say, glancing up at him and preening. But then I cock my head to the side. “But why did I get the gold medal and not you? And why does yours say…” I lean closer, peering at the tiny print, “DQ-FF?”

“Because,” Luca says, slipping an arm around my shoulders and turning me away towards the living room, smirking at Tony as he does. “What he’s not telling you is that he wantonly murdered our nearly our entire team the second we set foot on the ground.”

A delicious gasp bursts through the room and Tony’s face bursts into a wild, self-pleased grin as we all walk over to the living room area, where Jesse and Daphne are laying out a series of delicious-smelling trays.

“Oh my god,” Jesse says, standing straight and beaming at Tony, clearly delighted, “that’s why there was no one in Wright’s camp when I got there!”

“I didn’t kill everyone,” Tony says, standing in front of the coffee table and running a bashful hand through his hair. “A couple escaped, and I let Luca survive.”

“You killed me!” Ben says, laughing.

“Yeah, you were an accident,” Tony says, turning towards him with a little grimace. “I got a little trigger happy. Sorry man.” Ben gives him a smile and a little shrug, showing him that there’s no harm done.

“No seriously, though,” Luca says, looking Tony up and down with a slight air of reverence. “You guys should have seen it – it was…impressive. I’ve never seen someone rapid fire like that – half the team was dead before anyone even knew what was going on.”

“But why?” I ask, mildly breathless, sinking down onto the couch next to Daphne as Luca settles himself on the arm next to me and Jesse and Rafe move to their armchairs. Ben and Jackson sit on the floor on the other side of the coffee table and Tony follows suit. I toss him a throw pillow, wanting our newest guest to be comfortable.

“Because,” Tony says, catching the pillow and sending me a wink before tucking it beneath him, “a certain Princess said she’d owe me a favor if I killed Wright. I figured I’d just take out the entire team, see if I could get two.”

“You did it for me!?” I squeak, delighted, pressing my hands to my chest as I beam at my friend, a huge smile spreading across my face.

“Oh, come on,” Tony says, giving me a smirk and leaning back on his hands, “men have done a lot more for a smile like that.”

I burst out laughing as Luca growls, letting Tony know to back off the charm a little bit. Next to Tony Jackson just smirks, not caring if Tony pretends to hit on me. There’s nothing there romantically between us and we all know it. Luca, I’m sure, will catch up in time.

“Wait, then who took you out in the end?” Jesse asks, shaking his head in a bit of awe.

“Suicide, baby!” Tony says, pointing at himself and laughing. “I wasn’t sticking around waiting for one of you three hunt me down – I came back to the Castle and spent the afternoon relaxing.” He looks down at his arms and begins to roll up one of his sleeves. “Laid out in the sun, worked on my tan.”

I nod appreciatively, noting that he does look like he got some sun. Luca narrows his eyes at me, not liking at all that I’m looking. I just laugh and smack him on the knee.

“Seriously,” Rafe says, leaning forward towards Tony with a grin. “Beyond just being nice to Ariel - why’d you do it?”

“Because Wright’s a dick!” Tony says, smirking and snatching a big chocolate chip cookie from the table. He focuses his eyes on me. “We all know what he did to you at the Examination, Ari – and trust me when I say that the vast majority of Cadets think he shouldn’t have been allowed back. He deserves every bad thing that comes his way, big loser bully.”

I beam again at my friend, sitting back against the couch with a gratified sigh. “Good, I’m glad you won,” I say, nestling back into the pillows. “And I hope Wright is stinking mad about it.”

“Oh, I didn’t win,” Tony says, taking a big bite of his cookie. “You did. I got disqualified for friendly fire.”

“Oh,” I say, my eyes going wide as DQFF suddenly makes sense. “Really!?” I gasp, delighted. “I won!?”

A big cheer goes up in the room and I laugh, delighted as Luca bends down and opens his bookbag, pulling out not his homework – as I expected – but two bottles of whiskey and some tiny paper cups that he begins to fill and pass around.

“Luca!” I gasp as everyone cheers again at the sight of the liquor. “This is contraband –“

“Oh, no one’s checking,” he says, laughing and handing me a little cup. “Besides, we deserve to celebrate! To Ari, champion of the day!”

Everyone begins to cheer again but I shout out to stop and raise my glass to Tony instead, insisting he take the honor. The cheer goes around and I give my friend a wink as we both salute each other and take deep sips from our cup. And as we lock eyes, I hope he understands that I really do owe him that favor. He nods deeply, letting me know that he accepts it and that he’ll call it in, whenever he’s ready.

“Wait, Tony,” Ben says, laughing and leaning forward towards him. “Aren’t you afraid of the consequences of this?”

“What consequences?” Tony asks, putting his empty cup back on the table with a shrug.

Jesse just shakes his head at him. “Our professors value loyalty and trustworthiness above all things – it’s not going to look good on your record, if you’ve got a history of defying your Commander and killing your comrades, even in a mock battle like this.”

“Ah,” Tony says, closing one eye and peering devilishly at Jesse. “See, that’s where your mistaken, Sinclair – because your professors value loyalty and trustworthiness. Mine, however…” he shrugs. “Value a different set of equally admirable qualities in a Cadet.”

“Tony,” Rafe says, leaning towards him, curious. “What are you talking about? What track are you?”

“I’m sort of…between tracks.” Tony says cagily, though he’s unable to keep the smile from twitching at his lips. “No big deal. Let’s talk about Ari instead – so did you snipe all of those Cadets or –“

“No way,” Jesse interrupts, grinning at him and shaking his head. “We’ve got the three tracks of the Academy represented here,” Jesse continues, pointing at Ben, and then me, and then around at all the warriors in the room. “And you’re not in any of our classes but magic. So? What do you do all day?”

Tony just shrugs, clearly pleased that we don’t know his secret and not planning to give anything away.

Which is why it’s a surprise when Daphne breaks the silence with her low, throaty laugh.

All eyes turn to her.

“You think you’re so clever,” she says, leaning back against the couch cushions and grinning at Tony as she crosses her arms over her chest. “You’ve got all of them fooled,” she says, gesturing around the room at the rest of us, “but you didn’t count on me, did you?”

Tony’s grin deepens as he flicks his gaze to Daphne, perhaps for the first time. “And who the hell are you, gorgeous?”

Rafe and Jesse go rigid in their chairs.

“Oh, I’m no one,” Daphne says, her grin matching Tony’s as she leans forward, her shining blue eyes locked on Tony’s grey ones. “Just…you know, the person who sewed all of those little secret pockets into your uniform, stitch by stitch.”

Tony’s mouth drops open as he gapes at her in delight. “No way,” he whispers.

“Yup,” she says, her grin deepening as she flicks a finger at him, pointing directly at all of the places where I we can now assume that she’s done some extra work on his clothes. “Which is how I know that you’re a member of the very elusive, very secret fourth track here at the Academy.”

Tony sighs and shakes his head at Daphne, even as he smiles at her, clearly impressed. “Well go on,” he says, raising a hand towards her in invitation. “You earned it, lady detective – go ahead and spill.”

“I don’t know,” Daphne says, taking a deep and satisfied breath, “I would think there were some consequences for outing a secret…assassin.”

A collective gasp goes through the room as we all snap our heads towards Tony, delighted and shocked.

Tony’s shakes his head at Daphne and heaves a sigh. “Damn it, it’s always the pretty ones who break your heart and spill your secrets.”

Daphne grins back at him, I think thrilled to have figured it out, but my eyes shift to Rafe and Jesse, who both sit back in their chairs and narrow their eyes.