Chapter 22

Chapter

Twenty-Two

With thirty minutes left on the clock, we reached the front gates of the Thunder Cliff Imperial Fleet base.

"They're here!" a soldier called to someone inside the gates as we limped our way inside.

Ashendell and a few of our other drill instructors ran out of a canvas tent with wide eyes. They didn't look as pissed as I thought they would. They looked… relieved.

Liana landed beside me and we began to unstrap the heavy payload from her back. The second we did, she took back to the skies with Onyx. I was learning that she was a bit of an introvert, and I respected that.

"Leaders, report!" Ashendell snapped.

Kohen, Roc, Jace, Summer, and Alek stood at attention and Ashendell waited.

"We were attacked, ma'am! Luskins we think," Kohen said.

Ashendell got up in his face. "How long ago? Permission to speak freely."

She was pissed, seething really. The word Luskin had lit something within her.

"Several hours. We?—"

"Several hours? It would have only taken you a few hours to fly here on Onyx and report the attack. Why didn't you?" she asked, and I realized now she was peering at him with suspicion.

"I… it didn't even cross my mind. I wouldn't have wanted to leave my team behind."

She stared at me. "Same excuse?" She glanced up at Liana as if the firebird should have known better.

"We experienced some trauma, ma'am. I wasn't thinking clearly." It was the truth. My wrist, the dead Luskin girl, so many injured—I wasn't thinking.

Ashendell sighed. She glanced at my wrist and then straight into my eyes. "Next time, call for backup," she snapped. "When you didn't show to our attack point, we found the derailed train and I assumed you were kidnapped. I have half the country looking for the emperor's daughter right now!" She then walked away.

Crap.

My father must be so pissed. I couldn't wait for that conversation.

"We brought the payload! Does that mean we graduate?" Kohen asked.

She stopped and turned around, heaving a big sigh. "That's what you're worried about right now? You get attacked by Luskins and you want to you know if you still graduate?"

Kohen nodded, and Ashendell couldn't help but shake her head.

"Yes, you all graduate."

Cheers and whoops rang throughout our little circle.

"Who should we get this to? It must be important." I tapped the giant steel container we'd pulled off of Liana's back.

Ashendell walked over, produced a key from her pocket, and opened the lock. When she flicked the lid open, I peered inside and held my breath.

"Are you serious?" I asked her.

"Rocks!" Kohen said, peeking over my shoulder.

A giant pile of dull gray boulders sat inside the steel case. It was worthless.

"You think we would trust rookies with something valuable?" Instructor Ashendell asked.

Again, she turned, and this time jogged back to the command tent, probably to get word to my father that I wasn't kidnapped.

Rocks.

A handful of medics ran up to us then carrying triage bags and called us over to a temporary tent that was set up in the east corner of the base. We lined up the wounded in order of most severely injured to least injured, and I took the time to look around at the famed headquarters that stood at The Wall. It was dark now, so I couldn't see the looming stone structure like I would in the daytime. I'd been here before with my father when I was sixteen and he'd begun to train me to take over for him in case he was assassinated. Yes, my father being murdered was something I'd had to contend with at a young age.

At the back-right section of the twenty-acre base were multiple redbrick apartment buildings, where the men and women were segregated. They held about a thousand soldiers in all if I remembered correctly. In the middle and towards the front gate was the command center, where Ashendell was right now. I hadn't been there in a few years, but I remembered it as a giant room with maps and radios and tables and chairs. There was also a mess hall, a gym, and a massive barn for creatures. This was one of the bigger bases, holding a thousand full-time soldiers in all.

Just as I was looking at the barn, about two dozen creatures bolted outside, and then their adjoining soldier bondeds burst out from the door of the command center.

They piled into trucks and then sped off out the open gates.

"Probably going on mission to find the people who attacked us," I mused to Tetra, who stood on my right. Though one was already dead and one got away.

"Can I talk to you, Aisling?" Kohen's voice was like butter as it smoothed its way over me.

Tetra hobbled away to get into the end of the triage line, and I turned to face him.

Stars, he was good looking. He was one of those guys that was so handsome that you found yourself staring at him—like watching a piece of art and finding new beauty in it every time.

"What's up?" I asked, trying to keep my cool.

"Are you going to get in line for your wrist?" he asked. "Because in my vision you had a yellow cast on that arm." He pointed to my splinted wrist.

I frowned. There he was, treating me like I was his girlfriend or something.

"Why do you care what I do, Kohen?" I didn't mean for it to come out like that, but I was sick of this dance. The hurt that crossed his face made me regret my words instantly.

I lowered my voice. "You don't even know me, Kohen. Not really, and you say all this stuff about us in the future. You're so protective… I can't… if your visions are real?—"

"They're real," he growled.

They probably were. I had accepted it at this point.

I nodded. "Then I don't want to know. I want things to play out however they're gonna play out without you telling me first. I can't know," I told him firmly.

His jaw gritted, nostrils flaring. "Fine," he growled, and walked away, taking the scent of sandalwood and cardamom with him.

I felt like the world's biggest jerk, but I couldn't handle him telling me how every step of my life was going to play out. It made me feel like I had no control, no choice.

It took over an hour for everyone to be seen by the medic. Once every last person had been treated, including Tetra, who they were unfortunately not able to do much for since their healer was out in battle on The Wall, I finally took my place in front of the medic. He was young, about my age, and had long brown hair braided down his back.

He removed my splint and hissed. "You have self-healing powers?" he asked.

I nodded and he shook his head.

"You should have been first in line. Rapid healing a bone at the wrong angle means you can have nerve damage and even loss of function."

My eyes went wide and I flicked my attention over to where Kohen was standing just inside the tent, almost looking smug.

Did he know that? I had told him I didn't want to know the future, so I guess that was on me. Great.

"What can we do?" I asked.

The medic's gaze flicked to his buddy, a handsome twenty-something with blond hair, who shook his head. "Hell no, I'm not breaking the future empress' wrist," the buddy said.

I yanked my wrist back to my chest. "What?"

The medic with the brown braid winced slightly. "A controlled break with a cast. It's already started healing wrong. Look at your pinky."

I glanced down at my pinky and was horrified to see it at an odd angle and unmoving.

"Fine. Just do it," I told him.

He shook his head. "I don't do control breaks on rapid healers. He has all the expertise in that area." He looked back at Blondie, who was packing up his medic bag.

I opened my mouth to beg him when Liana landed at the mouth of the tent and stuck her head inside. As she dropped from the sky, the ground shook a little with her weight.

Both medics snapped their heads up to look at her.

"Holy shit, a firebird," Blondie said.

‘Tell him to do the controlled break or I'll barbeque his face,' Liana threatened and I had to control my expression. I wanted to laugh, but I had a feeling it wasn't funny.

"My creature isn't happy with your refusal to do the controlled break. She's making some… colorful threats if you don't," I told him.

The blond dude's eyes went wide. "I mean, of course I'll do it. I'm just nervous your dad will kill me if I screw it up," he muttered, looking away from Liana and then back at me with fear.

I forgot the power my father had over these people.

I waved my good hand at him. "I hereby absolve you of any wrongdoing."

Tetra walked over with her cane and slipped something into my hand then. I knew what it was the second my fingers wrapped around the pill.

The tiny white pain pill I had smuggled in for her bad flare days. "No, you need this," I muttered, trying to hand it back.

She shook her head. "Trust me… you're gonna need it."

The medic's gaze fell to my hand which held the white round pill and he nodded. "If that is what I think it is… your friend is right, you should take it. We don't get the good stuff here."

Rebreaking an already broken wrist that had healed wrong sounded like hell, and we'd already been told we would graduate, so I didn't see the harm in taking the edge off. Without another thought, I popped the pill and swallowed it dry.

We sat around and waited another fifteen minutes until it kicked in.

‘Medicines like that, and even alcohol, won't last long in your system because of your rapid healing,' Liana told me.

Good to know.

My body suddenly felt very heavy. I was sluggish in my movements, walking over to where the bone breaker sat.

I laughed to myself. Bone breaker.

"Okay, I think it's working," Kohen said with slight amusement at my laughing to myself. Everyone else had mostly scattered around the base checking things out but Kohen, Tetra, Alek, and Jace stood around me, watching with concerned expressions.

I pointed to Jace with my good hand. "Why are you still here? You don't care about me."

Tetra covered a snort-laugh and I realized I said that out loud. Crap, this pill was strong.

"That's not true," Jace said with a frown.

"This is going to hurt," the bone breaker said, slowly stroking the skin on my wrist as if he were pinpointing the exact place to break it.

"You don't deserve me," I told Jace bluntly. "So you should probably move on now. It's getting a little pathetic."

Alek's eyes widened at my bluntness just as Jace threw up his middle finger at me and stormed away.

"Maybe half a pill would have worked. I forget my tolerance has built up," Tetra said with a wince.

Oh who cares? Poor cheater got his feelings hurt.

Kohen was watching me like a loyal little dog, waiting to make sure I was okay. "And you!" I pointed to him just as the bone breaker snapped my wrist hard and sent pain shooting up my elbow. I screamed, the agony stealing my breath as I peered down. The bone breaker then made a little jerking motion and I gasped as another wave of hot sharp discomfort rocked me.

"That's good," he said, relieved. "It's straight now."

With agonizing effort, I wiggled my pinky and it did indeed move. The medic then went to work casting my arm. He pulled long wet strips from a package and wrapped them over gauze. I hated the fact that they were yellow. It took about thirty minutes, but by the time he was done my wrist was in a yellow plaster cast and I felt ready for a nap.

"Yank thoo," I said, and then frowned. "Thank you," I said slower this time. My brain felt scrambled.

The medic nodded. "With your advanced healing, that can get cut off in about a week," he said, and then left the tent.

"Alright, everyone gather round!" Instructor Ashendell called outside the tent. "We have a train ready to take you back to campus. We've also cleared the debris off the old tracks and repaired them. And I have a team looking into the Luskin attack."

Tetra and Alek made their way outside and I tried to stand, but then fell over. Kohen caught me, pulling me up against his warm body. It was like I came alive in that moment. Even heavily drugged, I felt every nerve ending in my body wake and respond to him. The pressure on my lower back, the way his hips pressed against mine, the splash of his breath on my face…

I looked up and he was peering down at me with a ravenous hunger.

"A coin for your thoughts?" I said, managing to get the words out in the right order.

He swallowed hard. "I'm wondering if by telling you about our future together, I have somehow compromised it. I'm coming to terms with the fact that it might all just be a dream now, a dream that I will have to live out in my head and never actually know in real life."

His words wrapped around my heart and squeezed.

"A coin for your thoughts?" he challenged.

My heart hammered against my chest as I swallowed hard, staring at his thick lips. "I simultaneously wonder two things, Kohen. One, what you taste like. And two, if you will one day bury a knife in my back like my father did to yours."

I didn't expect the whimper of shock that came from his mouth.

"Ash!" Tetra popped back into the tent.

She froze when she saw us so close together, but moved forward to grab me and pull me away from him. "Ashendell wants to make sure you are okay. Your dad is pissed and everyone is scared of losing their jobs."

I leaned on her offered arm, the one holding her cane, and felt Kohen's hands fall away from me. By the time I made it onto the train, I was loopy as all hell, feeling the weight of sleep pull me under. I rested against Tetra, staring at Kohen and Alek, who sat in front of me, both wearing the same introspective expressions.

Then the slow rocking of the train lulled me to sleep.