Chapter 342

My mouth turns down in a desperate frown, because even if he’s relieved…

God, but I love being an Espionage Cadet. I don’t want to be reassigned – I want to study it all.

“I’ll talk with the Captain,” I say, giving an assured nod. “I’ll…I’ll do both tracks.”

Neumann smirks at me and nods. “We’ll see,” he says, quiet and sure. “Upon your return. Now you’d better head out – you have other professors to meet with before you get some rest.”

I hesitate. “Faiza?” I ask, just a whisper.

He smirks. “Don’t you worry about my dashing girl. She will be fine.”

“You haven’t heard from her?”

Neumann quirks an eyebrow at me. “What kind of spymaster would I be if I told you that?”

“A nice one,” I growl, showing my teeth a bit. To my shock, he actually laughs.

“Go!” Neumann says, giving me a little shove on the shoulder. “I have work to do, and so do you.”

I sigh, turning down the hall, my head hanging as I process this sudden news.

“Ariel.”

The name rings out after me and I turn back, meeting my favorite professor’s eyes.

“You stay alive, all right?” he says, clenching his jaw, working hard to keep the emotion from his face.

A tiny grin takes my lips. “Are you being sentimental again, sir?”

“Not at all, Cadet,” he says, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Just issuing my standard orders. You’re very important – to this world, as well as to me. Just…make sure you come back.”

“Yes, sir.” I say, giving him a steady nod.

And then I tear my eyes away and sniff hard, moving down the hall and not letting myself look back.

When I got to Blaze’s gym, it’s empty, all the lights off.

I frown because I’ve never seen it like this – so dark and lifeless. But then I realize that I’m just insanely early for our lesson and cross to the little door in the back, rapping on it softly a few times.

And then harder, a few more.

But there’s no answer and nothing in the room changes. I call for him a few times, louder and louder, but again – no response.

Sighing, feeling a bit defeated, I trudge all the way up through the castle to our room at the top.

Of course, I’m the only one here because everyone else has professors, and an assignment, and things to do. For the first time since I’ve been at the Academy I’m at a loss for how to spend my time, and I hate it, because right now I could really, really use a distraction.

I do my best to keep busy, first stealing Jackson’s strategy textbook and trying to read through the maps, quizzing myself on the little exercises that he sometimes puts me though in the dream state when we study together. But when that fails to occupy my mind, I put myself to busier tasks, straightening up the room and then pulling the little ironing board from beneath Rafe’s bed and beginning to iron a set of each of our uniforms so that we can be pressed and ready for tomorrow.

But that’s agony too – far too much space for my mind to wander.

Eventually I just groan and throw myself on the couch with a packet of cookies, stuffing myself silly and passively watching TV on Jackson’s little DVD player while I wait for everyone to get back.

When the door finally opens hours later, I groan with relief.

“Finally,” I sigh, pouting towards the door as Jackson and Rafe come in, Jesse and Luca on their tail. “Where have you been!?”

“We’ve been getting ready for war,” Rafe says, looking at me like I’m a little crazy and then looking around the room where books and cookies and irons are scattered. “What the hell have you been doing?”

“Waiting!” I moan, somehow managing to glare and pout at them all at once. Jackson comes crosses to me, sitting down and smirking a bit as he senses my discontent and eyes all the cookie wrappers. Luca comes to sit across from me as well as I spill out the story of being reassigned.

To my dismay, none of them look surprised.

“You knew!?” I gasp, staring around at the four warrior-track Alphas.

Jesse grimaces, feeling bad. “The Captain told us this afternoon,” he says. “I mean, it gets you what you asked for, Ari – we’re all going into battle together tomorrow.”

“And it was stupid of them to ever think we’d let you go across enemy lines alone as a spy,” Luca says as a frown. Jackson nods in agreement.

I hold my tongue on that one, not knowing how to respond.

“Wait, what else did you find out?” I ask, looking around at them.

“A lot,” Rafe says, sitting on my other side and dropping his bookbag to the floor. As he begins to pull out maps and schematics, though, the door opens again and Ben comes in, Tony on his tail. We all call eager hellos to them – Luca quieter than the rest of us – but my head spins again when I see a flash of red at the door just before it swings shut.

“Room for one more?” Daphne calls, peeking in. “I don’t want to interrupt.”

“Of course, Daph,” Jesse calls, immediately straightening, color in his cheeks as she slips into the room. Rafe turns his head to our cousin and frowns, watching him.

My stomach sinks further as I look between Rafe and Jesse as Daphne closes the door and crosses to us. She doesn’t do anything special – just settles on the floor at Luca’s side, but still…

The way that Rafe’s looking at Jesse right now?

It’s clear to me by the troubled expression on my brother’s face, even if it isn’t to my cousin, that Rafe is figuring things out. And he is feels deeply, deeply betrayed.

Daphne, however, seems completely oblivious to Rafe’s tension. “I can’t believe you all got called up,” she says, staring all around at us as the three newcomers settle into new spots, Tony surprising me by squeezing in on the floor at my feet and glancing up at me with a little grimace. I reach out and pat his head, making him laugh.

“We’re all shocked,” Luca says, turning to Daphne with a nod. “Does it affect you?”

“Oh, I’ve been sewing my fingers off all day,” Daphne says, holding up her hands to show us that – indeed – her fingertips are all red. “I came up for dinner break but I’ll be sewing all night too – uniform adjustments, making sure that we’re sending you boys to the front in prime condition.”

“Well, I already did that,” I say, gesturing proudly to the folded pile of ironing that I completed earlier.

Daphne does a double take at it, gasping and giving me a glare. “Ariel, what did you do?”

“What are you talking about?” I ask, offended as she gets up and scurries over to the pile, holding up each piece like it’s a great tragedy.

“Oh, Ari, these pants all need front pleats –“

“It’s fine! No one will ever know!”

“Oh my goodness, Ariel,” she murmurs, giving me a glare like I’m hopeless. “Where’s your iron?”

I sigh and gesture towards it at the base of Rafe’s bed and Daphne gets to work, pulling it and the ironing board closer as Jesse smirks and Rafe turns back to the table, spreading out the maps as he was doing before everyone else came into the room.

“Are we getting insider information?” Ben asks, leaning closer with interest.

“A little,” Rafe murmurs. “It’s not widespread knowledge but…worth knowing, for those of us who are going to be in our group. Which is not you, Ben, I’m sorry to say.” Rafe turns to Ben with a grimace, but Ben just nods.

“No, it’s cool,” he says, looking Rafe in the eye. “They already told me that I’m going to be in the command center. I know they’re sending you all elsewhere.”

“Elsewhere?” I ask, a little breathless, looking around at the collected warriors and assassin. “Where…where are we going?”

“We,” Rafe says, pointing around in a little circle that encompasses the rest of us, “are going here.”

He points to what looks to me like a random point on the map, which gives the terrain details of the part of the Atalaxian front where the war effort is currently focused. I lean in closer, studying both the Moon Valley side – which is all smooth plain – and the jagged cliffside that climbs on the Atalaxian front, where they’ve cleverly entrenched.

“So,” I say, a little breathless in the quiet room as we all lean forward. “We really are going to the front tomorrow? We’re going to see war?”

“Yes, Ariel,” Rafe replies. “And if what the Captain says is right, we’re going to be right in the middle of it.”