Page 113 of Silver Elite

Adrienne looks annoyed. “There’s five more weeks left. Turn it around.”

I nod. But I have no idea how I’ll convince Cross that now, out of the wild blue, I’ve developed a sincere interest in excelling.

Her eyes meet mine, and then I feel a tickle in the back of my skull. An invitation to link.

I accept it.

“Declan will be your handler. Orders will come from him.”

Her voice fills my head. I’m startled, because it’s one of those rare instances when her head voice sounds almost identical to her speaking voice.

“But just know he’s not calling the shots. Everything comes from the top and gets filtered down to you. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“Have a good night, Darlington.”

She turns and disappears into the tunnel.

I stand motionless for a moment. Then I rub my forehead, wondering what I’ve gotten myself into. I could stay the course, try to fail out. Hope that Cross decides not to send me to the stockade or to face the Tribunal and lets me go back to my ward.

But what is there to go back to?

The ranch is gone. My village is being watched. People like Betima are being executed by an eighteen-year-old prick who’s scared of her. Because that’s what it comes down to. They can spew all the horseshit they want about our blood being toxic and how we’re abominations who shouldn’t exist, but the truth is, they fear us. That’s why they’re trying to get rid of us.

I won’t let that happen.

I won’t watch anyone else I care about get executed.

So. Silver Elite, it is.

Chapter 26

We’re shooting guns in the desert today. Sniper exercises. In other words, my chance to turn things around.

When we ran ops in the city, we took hover-helos, but for the desert we board a speed jet. It’s my first time flying in a plane, which surprises my friends.

“Really? You’ve never been on a plane before?” Lyddie says from the seat next to mine.

“My uncle and I never had the Lux credits to spend,” I admit. “We took the train if we ever needed to travel far distances.”

“Eh, flying’s overrated,” Kaine says from my other side. “You haven’t been missing much.”

“Have you flown a lot?” I ask him.

“A handful of times. My mom liked to use her leisure passes to take us to Heath’s End,” he explains, referring to a small island in the southwest corner of the Continent, near Ward V. “You can only get there by air since there’s nowhere to dock.”

“You’re so lucky. I’ve never seen the ocean,” Lyddie tells him. “My parents like to leisure in the mountains.”

“I love the ocean,” Kaine says. “Although the first time I flew overit, I got the most intense motion sickness and threw up all over my mother.”

I snort. “Sexy.”

He bends toward me so he can whisper in my ear. “Sneak into my bed tonight and I’ll show you sexy.”

A shiver runs through me. Oh boy. It’s been a few days since my grief-fueled visit to Kaine’s bed, and other than the morning after, this is the first time he’s bringing it up. I don’t think he told anyone, because I haven’t heard any whispers or received any questions. Me, I didn’t breathe a word of it, not even to Lyddie. She would tease me relentlessly if she found out I made out with Kaine. In the barracks, no less.

I can’t say I’m against it happening again, but not in a roomful of other people. And certainly not as a way to forget that one of our friends was killed.

---