Page 17 of Obsession

Ten

Kann

My gait was sluggish as I trod from the School of Battle. I shouldn’t be so weary after a day of classes, even if I’d had to deal with a first year falling from the climbing wall and a pair of second-years getting into a brawl on the gauntlet. That was all in a normal day at the academy, especially with Blades. If we weren’t brawling, we weren’t trying hard enough.

But it wasn’t my cadets who had me rubbing my forehead and wishing for a glug of Noovian whiskey. Well, it was a cadet. One cadet. One very pretty cadet.

I hadn’t been able to shake the feeling from the morning when Britta had shown up at my door, spoiling for a fight. I wasn’t sure if it was that she was so beautiful when she was angry, or if it was the memory of her warm flesh on my chest, but I had been able to think of nothing else for the entire day.

“Which is probably why you missed seeing the cadet lose his grip on the wall and the two second-years start to grapple.”

I knew I’d been off my game—in more ways than one. A female touching me should not be having such an effect on me. I’d been touched by more than I cared to admit, and in much more seductive places than my chest. Then why was Britta’s touch so unsettling?

She’s different.

I growled at the voice whispering in the back of my head. “Of course, she is different. She is a cadet. She is a friend.”

I had never even glanced at a friend the way I looked at Britta. Not that I had ever had female friends. How would I when I was surrounded by Drexian males?

As I passed under the stone arch with the curved blades carved into it, I glanced up to see Volten walking toward me. The Drexian’s shoulders were back, and his smile was broad.Grek,sometimes I wanted to punch my best friend in the mouth.

“Kann!” He jogged the last few steps to join me. “How was Battle?”

I forced myself to give him a false grin. “No deaths or injuries.”

He chuckled. “So, a dull day?”

Before I could observe protocol and ask him how his day teaching flying had been, sharp, urgent footsteps made us both look up.

Even though Commander Vyk was no longer the terrifying figure he’d been last year, I still jerked to attention when I saw him approaching us as if he were on a mission. His silvered hair was brushed off his face and his dark uniform was pristine, but his regimented appearance could not make me forget that he’d been Inferno Force before he’d been named security chief of the academy. There was a renegade beneath the stern facade.

But it was not the rule-breaker who addressed both of us. “Lieutenants, I would like you to join me with Admiral Zoran.”

“Join you?” Volten spoke first, his expression telling me he was as confused as I was. “For dinner?”

Vyk’s brows quirked. “No, but the admiral requested you both for a meeting in his office.”

I released a breath but tried to temper it. I did not want the commander to know how relieved I was that we were not being invited to dine with two of the more intimidating Drexians at the academy. Volten might be related to the admiral, but I could see in the drop of his shoulders that he hadn’t been eager to dine with the older Drexians, either.

Vyk whirled on his heel and started walking toward the stairs leading to the admiral’s office. “Try to contain your disappointment that this is not an invitation to dine.”

Volt shot me a look, as if I’d been the one to show obvious relief. I lifted my shoulders and shook my head just as Vyk glanced over his shoulder.

“Are you coming, or do you need a moment to scold each other?”

Then he turned again and resumed walking, which meant Volt and I had to run to catch up.

I made a point not to look at my friend again, but I was certain his face was as red as mine. The commander might be dating Fiona and be part of the group who’d spent time together over the break. He might also be a fixture in our card game. That did not mean he still couldn’t make me feel like a cadet again.

The stairs were relatively empty, but that was because the vast majority of the cadets were in the dining hall. As we passed the wide-open doors, the din swelled. I inhaled the savory scents wafting from the massive hall, and a small part of me wished I was on my way to dinner, even if it had to be with Vyk and Zoran.

But we kept walking, turning down a long corridor that ended at the academy master’s door. Vyk paused in front of it,but before he could press his hand to the side panel to announce our presence, the door slid open.

Tivek stood inside, his expression giving away nothing as he granted the security chief a curt nod and stood aside to let us enter. Vyk walked in first and then Volten and I followed.

I nodded to Tivek as I passed, meeting his gaze, and remembering what he’d told me when he’d come to request to be part of the ground team going after Sasha. Did he know something that I didn’t? Had there been a development that had prompted him to act?

My stomach tightened, but it was not from fear. It was the anticipation of a mission that made my fingers tingle and heat churn in my belly. It had been too long since I’d engaged in battle, and the prospect of confronting the Kronock over their abduction of a human banished all other worries.

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