Page 19 of Power of Draken

“The commandant, Kyrian.”

“The commandant isn’t going to do anything.” Kyrian rocks back on his heels. “This will be Grayson’s show.”

“From the frying pan into the fire. He is the one who called the mast.”

“Because that arsehole ye call your boyfriend will have reported everything to the commandant before breakfast anyway.”

Collin? No. He wouldn’t have.

Kyrian catches my cheek in his hand and tilts my face up to meet his gaze. The pressure of his thumb against my tight jaw consumes my senses for a moment, reminding me how it felt being between him and Kai last night. That false sense of absolute security, that came before the pain.

“Grayson will not let you bleed at the post,” Kyrian says softly, “if that’s what has you in knots. I’m certain of that.”

I snort without humor and try to pull away, but Kyrian holds fast.

“Of course he will,” I tell him. “Why do you think they moved the mast up? The commandant wants to send a message on discipline, start the year off on the right foot.” I swallow. “Plus have you met Grayson? The way he killed last night? The man can’t tell the difference between blood and oxygen.” For that matter, I’m not sure Kyrian or Logan can either, so this may be a moot point. In fact, this whole conversation is surreal.

I suddenly recall the look Kyrian gave me last night, the quickly concealed assessment of an enemy, and step away from him. Hard.

Kyrian drops his hand away and knocks on the closed door. “You will not be flogged today, chaos,” he says quietly over his shoulder. “Not because Grayson is kind—he is not—but because you don’t deserve to be.”

“Chaos?”

“If the name fits,” he says just as the door to the office opens.

Two heartbeats later I’m once again standing in front of the commandant’s desk, though this time colonels Leeroi and Dra’ash flank my mother on either side. Kyrian, as my direct superior, is behind me and Kai stands to the side, the third point of the doomsday triangle.

“Well?” The commandant asks. The only part of the woman sitting behind the desk that is my mother, is the part that worries about how my behavior might reflect on her. “What’s happened, Commander?”

“Cadet Lexington snuck out into Doverly last night,” Kai says evenly. He has his arms crossed over his chest as if this whole mast is an imposition on his schedule, and one that he’d like finished sooner rather than later. “I found her there personally. She is charged with being absent without leave past curfew.”

"Explain yourself," the commandant orders me.

"No explanation, ma’am," I say, which is what's expected. I don't even understand why she bothers to ask the question.

“Given the situation—” Kai continues, but the commandant cuts him off. I’d give Kyrian the I told you so look if he wasn’t standing behind me. That, and if my heart wasn’t pounding loudly enough to replace marching drums.

“- I would like to obtain a better understanding of this situation, Commander,” she says, ignoring the way shadows snap out around Kai, leaking like deadly ink to the floor. Her face swings toward me, her gray eyes as hard as the metal they echo. “Cadet Lexington.”

“Ma’am?”

“I’ve reports placing you in the middle of a treasonous riot, one you yourself may have started. So I am going to ask you again. What were you doing at the Wishing Well Inn, if not instigating treason?"

Well, when put that way, the truth seems pretty good in comparison. "I was distributing a cough elixir I made to civilians, children mostly,” I say quickly. My mind spins, wondering what reports she is talking about. The only other Spire people at the inn, besides me and the azure twins, were Ellie and Trish. The girls would never say anything, and neither would Collin. So who’s left? “I was there when the riot broke out, ma’am, but I certainly didn’t start it.”

The commandant leans back in her chair and tents her fingers. "So you stole medical supplies, abused your access to the Spire’s workshop, and misused your position as an enchanter trainee all to run an unsanctioned project that ended in rioting civilians.” It’s not a question. “Where would we be now if Commander Grayson hadn’t pro-actively dispatched the officers to the area and Squad Leader Chambers hadn’t been there to settle the rioters?”

Wait. The only thing Collin settled was an upturned bucket. My jaw tightens. Coud Kyrian be right about Collin talking?

The addition of insult to injury stings that much more. Collin is the one person who’s always been there to guard my back, to stand between what the gods dealt me and my family’s expectations.

The walls of the commandant’s office seem to widen away from me, leaving me alone and exposed in their center. I say nothing. There is nothing to say.

“Let us try a simpler question,” the commandant says. “Who else was with you?”

My pulse spikes so high that it cuts off my breath, and it takes a moment to summon my voice. “No one, ma’am. I was alone,” I say, not daring to look Grayson’s way. Please don’t have noticed Trish and Ellie, please don’t have noticed Trish and Ellie.

My mother’s brows narrow on me.

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