He turned away from me then, and within my veins, my blood began to boil. Before I gave it much thought, I ran after him, raising my katana in an attack. Darius, as if expecting this move, brought his sword back, blocking my blow in a clang of metal. He stopped, holding there, as if awaiting my next move, but I hesitated. Twisting around, he forced my katana away. His eyes were bright and fierce, and my heart was rattling with fury. The blade of his sword was pointing down, and as he backed away, he maintained his grip on it, as if he were ready for action. He looked at me pointedly and I could tell that his patience was wearing thin. His tone meant business. “We’re done.”
“No, we’re not!” I whipped my sword around and brought it up, then down toward his head in another attack.
Darius countered by bringing his katana up just in time. Our bodies were intimately close, my skin on fire with anger. I wanted to fight, wanted to train harder, faster, longer, until I got it right. He moved his right elbow hard in, catching me in the mouth. Pain exploded on the side of my face, and blood trickled from my lip, only infuriating me more.
I slashed my sword at his neck, not aiming to kill, just to wound, just to stop him from controlling my actions. The way the headmaster controlled them. The way Protocol controlled them. Darius raised his sword again in a block, his face flushing with color as he struggled to control his own rising anger. No sooner had he thrown me off than I came at him again, this time from the side. With his blade singing through the air, he stopped my advances again, but just in the way that I was hoping. As my blade fell from his block, I swung the katana around, so hard and so fast that I could barely see the metal swinging through the air. Darius ducked to the side just in time. Recovering quickly, he spun around, nailing me in the side. I stumbled forward, but as I planted my foot to recover, I spun around, sword raised. And that was when I noticed that Darius was swinging his katana too, right for my head.
Our blades stopped short just of one another’s necks, our chests heaving. We could have killed one another.
Without another word, Darius dropped his weapon to the side and moved up the hill. Only when he’d crested the hill did he return his katana to its saya. Guilt seizing me, I called after him. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
But I didn’t know if I’d see him tomorrow at all. Or ever again. I’d crossed a boundary that I knew not to cross. I’d attacked him against his instruction. And we’d ended in a draw.
Slowly, I gathered my things and made my way to the gate. Alone.
The sun was already setting by the time I entered the rose gardens that evening. It had been a long day, but uneventful, apart from my usual inability to keep my mouth shut around Instructor Baak whenever she was talking about the glory of being a Barron and the duty of being a Healer. I was pretty sure she was suffering from delusion, because she was crazy to think there was anything wrong with being a Healer. We could heal Barrons with our medicinal skills, and heal Barrons we were Bound to with a single touch of our hand. All of that was pretty amazing in my book. And glorious. So I kind of told her to fak off. Which didn’t really matter anyway. We both knew I was going to have extra duties for one reason or another.
Trayton had missed Protocol class to run some errand for Headmaster Quill, but he was waiting for me near the toolshed now, with a smile on his lips. “What was today’s gem?”
“I told her to fak off.”
“Charming.”
“I try.”
We exchanged smiles before Trayton said, “Mr. Gareth wants you to start on the far north side applying plant food. He said it’s getting cooler, so we need to make certain the plants are ready for a change in weather.”
It amazed me how quickly it had transitioned from I to we, with Trayton spending almost as many hours tending the rose gardens as I did. Not that he ever had extra duties. He just came to keep me company and, I suspected, to lighten my load a bit. Little did he realize that I’d grown to enjoy my time among the roses. It was hard work, but paying off with every bloom. Besides, it was quiet there. Not to mention blissfully Melanie and Instructor Baak free. But if Trayton preferred to while away his hours at my side in the dirt, who was I to argue?
“Not a problem. Help me carry supplies?”
“Of course.”
We loaded up the wheelbarrow with large containers of plant food and, once it was full, Trayton pushed it to the far end of the garden. “How was your day, anyway? Staying out of trouble? I didn’t see you at lunch.”
“That’s because Darius took a few of us out to patrol the perimeter outside the wall.”
At the mention of Darius’s name, I held my breath a bit. Truth was, Darius had been on my mind all day, and I was desperately hoping for a chance to apologize for attacking him the way I did. “Don’t you get scared out there?”
He set the wheelbarrow down next to a particularly large rosebush and began unloading a few of the containers. After removing the lid from one, he handed it to me and opened the next. The plant food smelled a bit too much like rotten vegetables. “To be truthful, it is pretty frightening at times. But not like the Outer Rim. Now there’s a scary place. Graplars are relatively thick in numbers along the Outer Rim. And something about the way they move out there says that it’s their territory. They seem tougher. Larger. More in control. Patrolling the wall’s perimeter? Much easier.”
Crouching by the base of the first rosebush, I dug my hand into the container and scooped out a handful of plant food. I tried my best to sprinkle it on, but the consistency was a bit moist and clumpy for that, so I ended up flinging big globs of the smelly stuff at the base of the plant.
Nobody ever said I was delicate.
In my mind, I wasn’t mulching rosebushes, but instead creeping quietly from tree to tree, hiding from the Graplars as Darius and I left the Outer Rim. My heart thumped loudly at the memory. “So why go to the Outer Rim at all? Why patrol an area that’s overrun by Graplars?”
Trayton gathered a handful of plant food in his hand and gingerly tossed it around the base of the second rosebush, as if he’d done it a million times before. “It’s important. If we can keep them out past the Outer Rim, it lessens the chances they’ll get close enough to assault the gates.”
So far, Darius and I had been lucky enough to avoid any Graplars during our training sessions. But that didn’t mean I didn’t have nightmares about them sneaking up on us while we were training. “Which gate is the most vulnerable? I mean, which one stands a bigger chance of Graplars overrunning the area around it?”
“The north gate. That’s why we use the south gate as much as possible. It’s just safer.” He knelt in the earth beside me and got to work feeding the next plant, but I could tell that something was on his mind. After he’d finished what he was doing, he sat back and met my eyes. “Listen. I want to talk to you about the other day. About your curiosity when it comes to katanas.”
I reached back into my container and flung some more goo on the base of the next plant. Some of it landed on the roses themselves, and I had to admit I had a pretty terrible aim. But the plant food was only a minor distraction from Trayton. “And if I told you that my curiosity had been contained…?”
He smiled, but there was no joy in it. “We’d both know that was a lie.”
It surprised me how well he knew me already. And what’s more, he was right.
“There’s nothing wrong with being curious.”
“You’re right. There’s not.” He held my gaze for a moment. After screwing the lid back on his container, he dropped it inside the wheelbarrow with a thud. “Actually, I’m pretty grateful for your seeming inability to follow the rules.”
I raised a suspicious eyebrow at him. “You are?”
“Absolutely.” He stood, brushing the remaining plant food from his hands so he could move the wheelbarrow farther down the row. “Because if you didn’t tell Instructor Baak off every day in class, I wouldn’t know so much about the care and cultivation of rosebushes.”
As he
helped me up, we both chuckled, and I playfully smacked his shoulder with my plant food–covered hand. It was after we’d moved down the row and started on the next plants that I remembered Melanie’s threat. “Actually, Trayton, I have something I need to talk to you about too.”
“Would this be anything to do with Darius?” My heart shot into my throat. He reached for the container of plant food and met my gaze, shrugging. “Melanie told me that you were alone with him in the courtyard the night those Graplars attacked. She said some other things, but I wanted to get your side before I jumped to any conclusions.”
“Melanie is…” A particularly nasty adjective flitted through my mind, but I kept it to myself. “…trying to blackmail me into switching places with her Healer.”
His eyes widened. “She left that part out. Why would she do that?”
“I’m not sure I follow the logic in it, but I know it has something to do with how much she likes you.”
“There is an enormous difference between the word like and the word covet.” A dark, brooding light filled his eyes then. One that made me wonder about his and Melanie’s history. But it passed just as quickly as it had come. “So what about being alone with Darius? Where was Maddox?”
For the moment, I went with the truth, knowing that I could only reveal so much of it. “I snuck out without Maddox to confront Darius. He’s been such a dek to me since the day I got here. I wanted to know why.”
“And did you find out?”
Slightly irritated that I hadn’t, I flung a particularly large glob of plant food onto the base of the rosebush in front of me. “No.”
Trayton wore a small smile. “Want to know a secret about him?”
He didn’t know the half of it. Darius, it turned out, was full of secrets. “What’s that?”
Trayton leaned closer, cupping his hand to his mouth, as if we were sharing some grand secret. As he whispered, it tickled my ear. “Darius is like that to everyone.”
Laughing, I nudged him away with my shoulder. “Not to you.”
“He was for a long time.”
“What happened?” I couldn’t imagine a time when Darius wasn’t so…well…grouchy. Maybe he’d been nicer before I’d come to Shadow Academy. But it seemed like his attitude was simply part of his genetic makeup.
“I don’t know.” He turned to face me, his eyes full of wonder. “It was like one day he just started trusting me. Ever since then, we’ve been all right. I stay out of his business and he stays off my case.”
I wiped my hands off on my leggings, my thoughts a million miles away. “Do you trust him?”
“Completely.” He sighed heavily and sat the container down between us, as if he tired of feeding the stupid roses. “I just wish he didn’t seem so drawn to Graplars.”
C H A P T E R
Twenty-four
Of course, twenty years to the day after the battle at Wood’s Cross, a second large-scale battle would take place in the exact location—known as the second battle at Wood’s Cross—though no one can seem to identify exactly why two identical battles would take place in the same exact spot two full decades apart. In fact, both Shadow Academy and Starlight Academy are still recovering from the echoes of that battle, which ended just three years ago.” Mr. Ross scribbled the titles of each battle on the board as he spoke. With each word, I sank further in my seat, not wanting to hear about the battle that had stolen my parents’ Soulbound Healers away, or about a repeat of that kind of horror. I would have napped all through history, but my body was too tense. I blamed the subject matter.
“There are theories, of course—that Darrek is searching for something at Wood’s Cross, that Wood’s Cross naturally draws evil to its center, etcetera—but none have been proven. In fact, King Darrek himself may not have any cause to fight with such fury in that location. Perhaps this is a case of fate, and nothing more.”
Stories of fate and locations of immense evil, and this was what passed for education around here? I’d learned more about the second battle at Wood’s Cross from my brief field trip with Darius than I would in ten years of Mr. Ross’s lectures. I blew out a snort, drawing the eyes of several classmates and Mr. Ross. “Something you’d like to add, Kaya?”
Dropping my eyes to the tabletop in front of me, I said, “I have nothing to say.”
“Are you sure? After all, your father, Patrick, was the leading general at the initial battle at Wood’s Cross. Perhaps he shared some tales with you about what took place?”
All eyes were on me now, but my eyes were on Mr. Ross, and I was wondering if what he’d said were true. My father was in charge of the raid? He’d never mentioned it, had only barely mentioned Wood’s Cross. I had no idea he’d been such an important, integral part of the fight. Quieted by my awe, I shook my head, vowing to ask my father about it the next time I saw him…if I ever did. “No. Nothing. Please…go on.”
It was the first day I made it through History class without falling into a coma. But that alertness only barely followed me from one class to the next.
Hours later, as I sat in Instructor Baak’s classroom fighting a spontaneous nap, she walked back and forth in front of the class. Her hands were clasped behind her back, her spine rigid. She looked a bit like an evil dictator. Strangely enough, it suited her. “Today you will write a five-hundred-word essay on what you would sacrifice in order to support your Barron. Would you give up time? Sleep? Would you sacrifice your very life in order to save that of your Bound or Soulbound Barron? Just how far are you willing to go, how loyal are you to the cause?”
At the mention of sleep, I rested my cheek against my upturned palm and let my eyes droop. It was difficult enough facing Mr. Ross’s lecture in a conscious state. I couldn’t be expected to roll through Instructor Baak’s blathering without at least a short break.
“Every single person in this classroom is related to someone who served in the war. How many of them were Healers who lost their lives? Kaya.” I jumped slightly at the sound of my name, and only just barely resisted the urge to yawn. She stopped pacing and faced me, her nose stuck slightly in the air. “As I understand it, your parents served in the first battle at Wood’s Cross, yes? Which is the Healer, your mother or father?”
It was a natural presumption for her to make, but that didn’t mean that it hadn’t stung a bit. Glancing to my left and right before answering, my voice came out softly, as if I was embarrassed, even though I had nothing to be embarrassed about. “My parents are both Barrons.”
Instructor Baak pursed her lips, as if the very idea of two Barrons coupling had sent a wave of nausea over her. “And their Healers?”
“Their Healers both died in that battle.”
She snorted. “A prime example of Healer sacrifice. Your parents should be proud. As I am proud—my own daughter perished in the second battle of Wood’s Cross.”
I shook my head, unsure of what I should take away from her insinuation that anyone dying for any reason could be a good thing. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Why? I’m not angry. I’m not bitter. My heart isn’t completely broken.” Her eyes were wide and crazy looking again, the way they’d been that day in Instructor Harnett’s class. And something else—Instructor Baak was lying. It was written all over her face. She was still mourning the loss of her daughter, but it seemed like she was pushing that pain away, just for appearance sake. For a moment, I felt immensely sorry for her.
Then the sadness left her eyes, replaced quickly by something ugly. On its edges burned anger, but I wasn’t convinced that it was aimed entirely at me. She leaned closer and narrowed her eyes at me in a glare. “What will you give when the time comes? Will you die for your Barron? I doubt it.”
Before I could say anything—not that I had anything to say to that—she snorted again and went back to pacing. I returned my cheek to my upturned palm and waited for class to be dismissed. Only this time, I didn’t fight the yawn.
C H A P T E R
Twenty
-five
The next morning, I slipped my mask on over my face and walked around the building toward the south gate. There weren’t many guards out this morning, but my attention wasn’t focused on them anyway. It was on the distinct, undeniable absence of my instructor. My nerves bundled into a tightly coiled ball at the pit of my stomach. I scanned the area around the gate, but he wasn’t there. Then, just as I was about to turn around and head back to the dorms, a hand fell on my shoulder. I jumped slightly, but relaxed immediately, knowing it had to be Darius.
But when I turned around, I saw that it wasn’t. It was Raden. “You’re the one getting extra training from Darius, right?”
I nodded, but didn’t speak. Mostly because I couldn’t. That ever-present fear that I’d get caught tickled the base of my spine.
Raden frowned, as if he were about to deliver some bad news and didn’t want to be put in the middle of anything, but was forced to. “He showed up earlier, told me to tell you he’s canceling today’s session. Maybe tomorrow too. Maybe for good, he hasn’t decided.”
My heart sank. With sagging shoulders, I started to turn away, but paused, turning briefly back to Raden. “Thanks.”
As I walked away, he called after me. “From what I hear, you don’t need those sessions anyway, Barron.”
Walking away, I couldn’t shake Darius from my thoughts. Where was he? Had our draw really been such a big deal to him that he’d actually walked away from training me? Wasn’t I supposed to develop enough skill to match my instructor? If I was doing what I’d set out to do, what Darius had set out for me to do, then what was the problem exactly? Why would it end with him walking away without another word and not a congratulatory handshake? I didn’t get it.
Or maybe I did. Maybe my assumption that Darius hated me had been a hundred percent correct after all. And maybe my attacking him had just solidified his reasons for disliking me. My stomach was in knots as I crossed the campus, slipping back behind Darius’s cottage to the armory where Maddox was waiting. As I opened the door, she looked up, confusion filling her features. “What happened?”