Chapter 43

Chapter

Forty-Three

Vyk

I did the right thing, I assured myself, as I trudged down a winding staircase. I did the honorable thing.

Then why did I feel so rotten? From the moment I’d sent Fiona away, it had been eating at me. Every bone in my Drexian body knew that it was right to push her away, yet every nerve ending screamed at me.

My body ached as if I’d ripped off a limb, and I could think of nothing but how she’d tasted when she’d kissed me. My ears were filled with her breathy sigh, my nose still twitched from the flowery aroma of her hair, and my lips tingled from the touch of her skin.

I growled as I reached the lower level of the academy and the floor angled downward. It was pointless to obsess over a female like this—a female who I’d always thought despised me.

“Then why did she kiss me?”

The gin, a voice in the back of my head taunted me. It was all because of the gin. She never would have touched you if not for the potent drink.

I clenched my teeth, hating the truth in the mocking voice. “It doesn’t matter. You have a job to do.”

Whatever had happened between me and Fiona, she would not be happy with me if I didn’t find the captain. Even if a part of me would have loved to imagine him wandering lost in the hidden tunnels, I could not let that happen.

I strode down the narrowing corridor, feeling the temperature drop as the floor sloped. The dark rocks beneath my feet were damp, and I scanned the space in front of me for footprints. There were none. I glanced behind me, seeing my own distinct bootprints. He had not come this way.

I turned back, relieved that I would not have to traverse tight passageways in search of the missing human. I made a series of turns until the air warmed, and the loamy, damp smell was replaced by pungent, savory ones.

The kitchens. Had the captain been in search of a late-night snack and found his way down here? It was a long shot, but I had to consider everything.

I stopped outside the doors, poking my head inside and spotting the two cooks bent over long, worn tables and rolling out the next day’s bread. “Have either of you seen a human down here? ”

The two alien cooks jumped and exchanged a startled glance. “Human? Not for a few days, at least.”

I grunted and thanked them, resuming my search. Of course, Fiona could have already found him. Since we had last seen the man with the human cadet, there was a significant chance that he was with her.

I could not help but grin. The captain taking up with the cadet would not be such a bad thing. It might even make him more inclined to give the exchange a positive report. And it would ensure that his attention was fully off Fiona.

I finished searching the lower levels, checking the lock on the dungeon gates and walking down every corridor that wound beneath the school. My eyes were heavy as I walked up the stairs, certain that my hunt was a waste of time.

My bed beckoned me, but I decided to make a cursory spin around the main building. It was where the captain had first entered, it was where the banquet had been held, it was where he’d met with the admiral. Of all the places in the academy, he’d spent more time here than anywhere.

I felt relatively secure in the fact that I would not find him in the gauntlet. I choked back a laugh, even though there was no one to hear me. No, I did not need to search the School of Battle. The captain would stay far from there.

I ran my hand along the cool stone of the banister as I walked up the wide, empty staircase leading to the second level of the main hall. The inclinators that normally zipped up and down the interior of the tall central building were still and silent, like sleeping creatures awaiting the return of the cadets who loved to pack into them on their way to classes .

I stuck my head into the banquet hall, but found it deserted. Then I continued down the hallway, passing Admiral Zoran’s office. I turned the corner and stopped abruptly, my breath catching in my chest.

What was Captain Gorman doing outside the door to my office?

I watched him take a few steps away and then turn. I had not seen the door close—and how would he have gotten in, anyway?—but I got the strange sensation that he had not just arrived at my office.

When he saw me, he froze before breaking into a friendly smile. “Commander, I’m so glad you found me. I have been walking in circles.”

“You are lost?”

He chuckled. “Very. I’m afraid I left my hat at the welcome dinner but got turned around looking for the banquet hall.”

I knew that he had, in fact, left his hat behind, but something about his claims rang false. But why would he want to get into my office? What would be the purpose of learning the strategies for keeping the academy secure? We were allies, after all, and the Earth Planetary Defense was well aware of our upgraded security protocols. He would only have to access the records on Earth to know our joint plans for defending Earth and Drex.

There was no evidence that the human was anything but what he said he was, just as there was no evidence that he was not searching for his missing hat. If I did not know of his connection to Fiona would I not see that clearly ?

I gave him an aggressively firm thump on the back. “Your hat is safe. Come. I will take you back to your quarters.”

“You know, you aren’t at all what I expected,” he said, as I led him back down the hall. “Of all the reports I read, yours is the one I think they got wrong.”

A trickle of unease slid down my spine. He had read reports on me? Of course he had. I had been involved in the near annihilation of the human cadets. Suddenly, I was not so sure that the envoy was at the academy to assess the exchange.

He was here to pass judgment on me.