Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Cool and collected, as if I hadn’t just signed my own death certificate and gone stark raving mad, General Cyderial ordered me away. “I am placing you under one week of confinement in the women's dorm. Cry if you want to. Shout. Steal another rock from my shelf on your way out, if that’s what it takes. But understand me—you are not going into the fog.”
I could not risk making the mistake of looking at him again. Dignity exhausted, I staggered toward the door. I only allowed myself to marvel over the fact that, for the last ten years, he’d known I stole something right in front of him. I had never been punished for it.
My pretty pink geode hadn’t been a fun secret after all.
This time, there was no haphazard snatching of one of his fancy rocks on my way out. Instead, I took hold of one of his precious display cases and pulled until it fell away from the wall. Pretty little baubles cracked and scattered all over his polished wood floor.
The tiny bit of destruction did make me feel slightly better.
Until I heard him behind me offer a softly spoken, “Goodnight, Lorieyn.”
5
“Why won’t you tell anyone what happened?”
There were not many girls my age still at the academy, most having chosen the mating list in order to escape academy hell. Those born the same year as me? All of them would be graduating in six weeks. When they were gone, I would be the eldest, the last standing recruit aged twenty-two.
And with age came high expectations from the other girls in our secluded family. My mood would set their mood. My relationship with hope would determine their ability to keep faith.
It was an unfair position. At no point in my life had I craved a leadership role. I preferred being a big sister helper to the little kiddos, but the adolescents would come to me for advice. I had nothing of quality to offer the older girls. Like most of them, I didn’t want to be here either.
Nor would I be enthusiastic about directing them toward the list. Not when the fundamental idea of it was so utterly unsettling to me.
“You haven’t eaten in two days, Lorieyn. We’re worried.” My visitor, Maeve’s, voice dropped to a whisper, as if authority might actually be listening to the goings on in my tiny dorm room. “Don’t make me report you. You know what will happen if he finds out you’ve skipped meals.”
He? The general? The only reason he would give a shit was because punishment was his forte.
Sulking, I shut my eyes to her. “Then don’t tell him.”
Maeve joined the academy the same year I had, yet she was far more advanced in ranking. A true testament to her hard work and determination. Head of my year and de facto leader of the girls, the way her mind worked was highly enjoyable. She’d been a good friend and confidant my entire life at the academy. Caring and driven, she had spent two days trying to convince me to get out of bed. Wasted her limited free time between classes and training trying to cheer me up.
Tucked under the covers with me, she’d waited patiently in silence, offering bits of gossip or notes from class, while I sighed and blinked at nothing.
But her trust in me was about to be deeply shaken. Unlike myself, Maeve coveted rank and acclaim. As she should. She had earned hers through hard work and excellent leadership.
If I were forced to give legitimate answers in class, she was about to lose a great deal of standing, and everyone would know how much of a fraud I was.
It might be seen as a threat to her… and others, whose position and life-long assignment would suffer.
Some might consider my whole academic career one dirty trick I had saved in my back pocket to unseat them weeks before their graduation. A contender they had been fooled into considering unworthy of their concern on the academic front.
After all, she and my other dear sisters had not chosen the list. They had chosen military acclaim.
Worse, I would now be in a position of authority over all of them. An assistant instructor. The general might even force me to move from the student dorm to the teachers’ apartments. Upstairs.
Why couldn’t we just lay there and cuddle forever? Never talk about school or male expectations. We could pretend that nothing in the world was amiss and dream the day away.
“Just one more day.” That’s all I’d said, though I did put my arm around her middle to let her know she was welcome to nap with me.
“Even the humans have been asking where you went. Tamsyn took your normal shift standing guard at Field 27. Your farmers don’t like it when you’re not there. They think you’re lucky.”