Page 52 of Shadow Caster
“A supply closet?”
“I’ll get Vince to clear out a room for you to use while you’re on duty here.”
As much as a space of my own sounded great, it felt wrong. “I’ll take a separate changing room, but I’ll bunk down with my team, whoever that may be. I’m a shadow cadet, and I don’t want to be segregated.”
“You’re also a woman amongst a bunch of horny supernatural males.” He closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose as if he’d said too much.
But he had a valid point. “It’s not like I have a choice, is it? If I isolate myself, I stay the shiny new thing. If I become one of the guys, then I lose the whole woman status and become a cadet. I become one of them.”
His jaw flexed as he mulled this over. “Vince will be here all the time. He lives here. So …” It seemed like he was reassuring himself more than me. “I’ll get your armor.”
He left me in the closet and returned a moment later with a set of skins, breast and shoulder plates, and some shin pad things. “The greaves may be too big.” He held out the bundle. “Vince will make you some armor to fit. You’ll have it before the trial. In the meantime, you’ll need to make do.”
I took the armor. It was lighter than expected. And the reality of this situation hit me hard. This was my future, whether I liked it or not. I’d gone with the flow, neglected to dwell, to turn this over in my mind for what it was. My map. My goal. Chosen for me by fate.
This was a fighter’s destiny, so why did my insides feel so twisted?
Doubt stabbed at my chest. What if I was shit at this? I’d learned to fight, to stand up for myself and not back down. I’d survived in the supernatural slums, but all I’d had to worry about back then was me. This was bigger than me. If I fucked up, other people could get hurt.
“Justice?”
I looked up and was caught in the snare of Master Hyde’s gaze.
He sighed. “This has always been a male gig. Your being here is going to stir up shit. And yeah, it’s going to take time for the others to accept you as an equal, to see you not as a woman but as a cadet. But you have just as much right to be here as they do.” He pouted in thought. “I’ll train you myself. One on one.”
My gaze flew up to meet his. “Why would you do that?”
His smile was all sharp edges. “Because unlike those boys in that room, I won’t go easy on you because you’re a woman. I won’t be trying to impress you to get in your pants.”
My mouth was suddenly dry. The thought of him in my pants …
Heat coiled in his blue-green eyes for a moment as if the same thought had just occurred to him too. He sucked in a sharp breath, and the heat evaporated.
“We start tomorrow. An hour before regular training. Are you in?” There was a challenge in his tone.
And despite my doubts as to the wisdom of being alone and sweaty with him, there was no way I’d back down from a challenge.
“I’m in.”
Seventeen
The skin fit like, well, like a skin. Swirling patterns decorated my legs where the almost see-through material clung. I hope they fucking washed these before getting us to wear them. They were so tight they were almost indecent. But then, if this was Winterlock Tech fabric, it was probably self-cleaning. The breast plate was a little too big, and the greaves were too long. It was like swimming in metal, but when I did move, the metal didn’t clank together like I’d have expected. It molded to my limbs, not exactly but enough to not be totally awkward.
I joined the other cadets in the armor room. They were all suited up, and damn, did they look hardcore and impressive in the silver and black armor.
Hyde had slipped into armor too, and if he’d looked impressive before, he looked like a metal monolith now, one I’d have no problem climbing and then polishing with my body. I took a deep breath to dispel the inappropriate thoughts. Thank goodness Larkin wasn’t about.
Hyde’s gaze flicked my way, but his impassive expression didn’t change.
“You okay, Justice?” Harmon asked.
“Yeah, just feeling ridiculous in this getup.” The breast plate was too big and made it difficult for me to see my feet.
Harmon looked me up and down. “You look good to me.”
His gaze was momentarily intense and very unHarmon like. “Um … thanks?”
“Weapons,” Vince said.
