Page 48 of Shadow Caster
Aidan threw back his coffee. “Yeah, you’re going to need a full stomach for that.”
They stood as one as if they’d practiced it, and padded toward the corridor to the second-year dorms. It was only as they were vanishing around the corner that their footwear registered.
They were all wearing gray, fluffy slippers.
* * *
The shadow gene binds us.
The shadow gene unites us.
We speak not of the mist and its secrets to anyone but our shadow brothers.
We speak not of our trials and tribulations to anyone but our shadow brothers.
The mist is sacred. Our task is sacred and unspoken.
The oath spilledfrom my lips with ease, and my voice mingled with the male timbres around me. Harmon’s deep baritone united with Thomas’s tenor as we repeated the words Master Hyde led with. The second years had already left for training, and only the new cadets remained.
Ten of us.
Only ten.
Brunner’s statement about fewer shadow cadets being born came to mind. Ten out of a whole year of Nightwatch cadets seemed awfully low, especially when the class was sixty-five percent male.
A tingle passed over my skin with each line spoken. This was binding weaver power at work. I imagined if I tried to speak of shadow cadet stuff to Minnie later, then the words probably wouldn’t come.
We were stepping into another prison, even as we stood in the student lounge in two neat rows dressed in our cadet black and blue.
We repeated the words until Master Hyde nodded curtly.
“Done.”
He paced back and forth in front of us. “You’re here, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll still be here at the end of the year. Cadet training is faster and more intense. Nightwatch has three terms to a year. We have two, and in between, we work at the fortress. This is on-the-job training, and yes, survival rates are low. If you make it to graduation in two years, then you deserve to be here. Until then, consider this your probation. Shadow cadets may live at the Academy, but we operate on fortress rules. Up with the owl, and down with the lark. Got it?” He threw a glance our way but didn’t wait for a response before continuing. This had all the makings of a rote speech. How many times had he given it? “Your first test is in less than three weeks. The shadow trials come in three stages, and each stage takes place in a different sector. Today, you’ll be introduced to the terrain on which you’ll be tested in three weeks’ time.”
“What’s the test?” one of the cadets asked.
Master Hyde fixed his eyes on the speaker and canted his head. “Did I ask you to speak, cadet?” That tone froze the hairs on the nape of my neck.
The cadet who’d spoken blinked in surprise and swallowed hard. “I was just—”
The guy beside him elbowed him in the ribs.
A figure materialized behind Hyde. It was Larkin, and he was perched on the countertop, tail swishing slowly.
I wasn’t the only cadet to balk at his appearance. Someone even cursed loudly. The cat-man had literally materialized out of thin air. He’d been invisible. He could read mindsandbe invisible. Shit. I’d be giving my room a serious sweep every night before bed from now on.
“Oh, come now, Hyde,” Larkin drawled. “The boy doesn’t know the rules yet.” He hopped off the counter and approached the lineup. “Here’s how it is, lads …” His gaze snagged on me. “And ladies. You listen, you learn, and you train. You do the things that Master Hyde asks of you, and you may survive the next year. What you don’t do is interrupt. What you don’t do is ask questions before Master Hyde opens the floor to questions. Got it?”
No one said anything.
Larkin rolled his cat eyes. “That was a question in need of a response.”
A soft chorus ofyes sirsfilled the room.
Master Hyde’s lips curved in a cold, cutting smile. “Thank you for the informative interruption, Larkin.” He turned his attention back to the group as a whole. “We’ll be taking the tunnels to sector one today. Stay close. If you stray and get lost, then you’re on your own. Any questions?”
I raised my hand.
