Page 26 of The Tree of Spirits
“And then today you ditched your team at a critical junction?—”
“Critical junction? We were collecting dinner knives!”
“—and took an unsanctioned trip into a restricted district,” he pressed on. “Where outlaws attacked my soldiers. Outlaws who were later joined by Rebels.”
“I think you’re twisting the truth, General.” I crossed my arms. “The Rebels helped the Watchers fight those outlaws.”
“Hearsay,” he said with a dismissive flick of his hand.
“It’s not hearsay. I saw it with my own eyes.”
A cold, calculating smile curled his lips. “So you’re admitting that you went off on an unsanctioned mission?”
Fiddlesticks. I’d walked right into that one.
“What were you doing in the Park, Miss Winters?” the General demanded.
I tried to think of a response that wouldn’t make everything worse.
“Why were you at the battle site?”
“I sent her.”
The General and I both snapped our attention to the door. Kato was standing there, looking pretty formidable in his awesome white armor. His helmet visor was open. Magic snapped and smoldered in his blue diamond eyes. It was seriously freaky.
Even the General looked unsettled. He cleared his throat before he spoke. “You sent Miss Winters into a fallen district?”
“I did,” Kato replied, not blinking. His lie was so convincing, even I nearly believed him.
The General cleared his throat again, and that seemed to help him recover his composure. “You have no authority over Apprentices, Kato.”
Kato’s smile was small. “You gave me that authority when you made me a Knight Commander.”
“Miss Winters isn’t your Knight to command. She’s not in your Tribe. And she’s not even a Knight, for that matter.”
“In an emergency, a Knight Commander has the authority to recruit any Apprentice Knight.”
“This wasn’t an emergency!” the General said stiffly, falling back into his chair.
“Are you sure about that?”
The General followed Kato’s gaze to the TV, which was now showing footage of today’s battle between Watchers and commandos. And the Watchers were totally getting their butts kicked.
“You couldn’t have known that would happen.” The General flinched when one of his SUVs exploded.
“Couldn’t I?” Kato’s dark brows peaked.
The General frowned, but he didn’t seem to have an answer to that.
“I sent Savannah into the Park because I suspected outlaws were hiding there.”
Kato’s voice was so smooth, so convincing, that even I almost believed him—and I knew he was lying.
“And I was right,” Kato added as another SUV blew up on screen. “I would have gone myself, but you’ve kept me busy chasing after Rebels.”
“If you were really chasing after Rebels, you would have been there when they appeared in the Park.” The General pointed at the video playing out on the TV; the Rebels had just arrived on the scene.
Kato watched them coolly. “The Fortress is a big place, General. And there are a lot of Rebels out there.”
