Flickers of Flame Read online

  A scrap of information floated to the surface of my mind. Recently, Liza mentioned that Farrin Enslow had set up a medical supply distribution hub in Stone Hollow. Was that why we needed the Blades? To take down Farrin?

  Nate reached his hand through the space between us and pressed his pointer finger to the spot between my eyebrows. “Don’t worry,” he said, his half-smile tilting the edges of his mouth and revealing his dimple. “Whatever they have planned for us, we won’t be in danger. Can you imagine the paperwork involved if cadets got hurt on a school-sanctioned activity?”

  He pulled his hand away, but the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach remained.

  Chapter Fourteen

  By the end of the day, I was such a bundle of nerves that I could only pick at my dinner of garlic mashed potatoes, caramelized broccoli, and grilled steak. I couldn’t wait for the meal to be over so I could head back to my dorm room and contact Liza. If there was going to be a raid on the distribution hub, I needed to warn her as soon as possible.

  Relief swept over me when the servers began removing our plates from the table. But as the polite volume of the dinner chatter began rising, Colonel Zagar made her way to the front of the room.

  “I’m sure you’re all eager to return to your dorms and get a good night’s rest before tomorrow’s field experience, but there is one last thing to attend to before you’re free to leave.” The colonel nodded, and two thirty-something nurses in dark green scrubs strode to the front of the room, each holding a metal tray. I craned my neck to see what was on them, but to no avail. They set their trays on a table behind Colonel Zagar, and it was impossible to see them from my angle. “This will only take a minute,” the colonel continued. “Your safety—both inside these walls and beyond—is important to both Blakethorne and the Guard. This is just one further precaution in addition to the ones we discussed during today’s training.” She glanced back at the nurses. The one closer to my table—a woman whose dark brown hair hung in an angular bob—gave a curt nod. I recognized her from my trip to the school’s infirmary after my fight with Shonda. Nurse Nichols. “All right, cadets. Line up.”

  I expected someone to raise a hand and ask for more information, but to my surprise everyone complied automatically. Under the colonel’s watchful gaze, I stood and joined the queue behind Thor. From my position, I couldn’t see what Nurse Nichols was doing, so I looked to her coworker at the front of the next line. The short, slender man had his back to Shonda, who had taken the first spot in her line.

  “Roll up your sleeve,” said the nurse as he spun to face Shonda. In his hand was a syringe.

  My stomach clenched.

  Shonda winced only slightly as the needle penetrated her skin, but that was her only sign of discomfort. In a few seconds, it was over. She offered a small smirk as she left her line, sending my stomach into another spasm.

  The nurses moved swiftly, and in almost no time, I found myself at the head of the line.

  “Staying out of trouble, cadet?” Nurse Nichols asked as she busied herself at her tray.

  A jolt of surprise shot through me as I began rolling up my sleeve. “I didn’t expect you to remember me.”

  The nurse offered a bemused look as she turned to face me. “Believe it or not, I don’t get many puncture wounds in the infirmary.” Her gaze dipped to my sleeve, which was only halfway up my forearm. “Care to speed that up?”

  Her companion chuckled as he pulled his needle from the arm of the last cadet in his own line. As he packed up his belongings, Colonel Zagar turned her attention to my nurse. “Are you good to finish up here?”

  Nurse Nichols nodded without glancing in the colonel’s direction. As soon as my sleeve was up on my bicep, she swiped at a patch of skin with a damp cotton pad. The spot felt cold when she pulled her hand away, and the air filled with a sharp, acrid scent.

  I watched as the colonel and the other nurse exited the room before turning back to Nurse Nichols. “What’s this all about?”

  Her brow furrowed quizzically as she froze, her hand holding the syringe with its needle pointing toward the ceiling. “Protection,” she said as if it should be obvious.

  But when she made a move toward me, I twisted away. “Yeah, I get that. But protection from what?”

  Her gaze flicked to the door, and she released a sigh. “Yeah, I suppose your schedule doesn’t allow for a lot of free time to sit around watching the news.” She shook her head. “This is just more of a precaution. If you want my opinion, it’s the academy being a touch overzealous in covering itself from parental concerns. There’s been a resurgence of a particularly nasty strain of Languo. And even though you’re not going anywhere near the city it’s tearing through…” She lifted her needle.

  I sucked in a breath. “Is this for LB-4?”

  Her eyebrows hiked upward, but she nodded. “Yes. This strain has been dormant for about the last decade, so it’s not anything you would’ve been treated for at a routine checkup. Now, let’s get this over with.”

  I barely shifted toward her when she grasped my arm just above the elbow. In one swift, practiced motion, she stabbed the needle into my flesh and pressed the plunger on the syringe.

  “See? All done?” She removed the needle and deftly dressed the prick with a small, rectangular bandage. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  I shook my head mutely before turning and heading out of the meeting room. I was still having trouble processing what just happened. They inoculated ten cadets against a virus we had a slim chance of encountering on a twelve-hour mission outside the academy grounds. Wouldn’t these doses of medicine have been of more use in Amberg?

  As I walked across the academy grounds, anger bubbled in my stomach. What made these cadets’ lives more important than the lives of Amberg’s citizens? If supplies were critically low, they wouldn’t have spared these doses for us. That must mean that there was a surplus—enough to inoculate everyone in Amberg—but it wasn’t being distributed.

  It was good that no one stopped me on my way back to my dorm. I wasn’t sure I could suppress my rage at the unfairness of it all. And worst of all, I was part of it now. I was one of the few fortunate enough to be protected from a dangerous virus. Not that my immunity would do anyone any good.

  Once I reached my room, I retrieved my comm from its hiding place and slipped into my closet. Contacting my team from there was more out of habit than actual fear of discovery. The dimness and close quarters, coupled with the voice of my aunt, made this place feel almost like home.

  I tucked myself into a corner and pressed the comm into place. “Liza? It’s a little early for our check-in, but if you’re there, pick up.”

  It wasn’t my usual call time, but I still hoped she would be near enough to her end of the communicator to hear me. I wasn’t sure I could wait until our scheduled time to talk about everything that had happened today.

  After a few minutes, I tried again. “Liza? Are you there?”

  “Hey there, stranger.”

  My breath caught as Derek’s voice washed over me. Our last conversation replayed in my mind. I could recall with aching clarity the desperation in his eyes when he asked me to stay in the bunker and not leave to live among the angels.

  “Derek,” I breathed. “I… I didn’t know you were back home.”

  “Home,” he repeated, and my heart twisted. Liza said when he returned from Amberg, he didn’t reclaim his old room. Did he even think about the bunker as his home anymore? Did I?

  Derek sighed. “I’m just holding down the fort. Marco spiked a fever last night that Liza couldn’t get under control, so she took him to the clinic.”

  My stomach lurched. I’d only been to the Summerhill facility once, and calling it a clinic was being abundantly generous. The operator, Doc, a consistently harried former med student who was run out of school when it came out she was from a fallen lineage, saw patients in the basement of an abandoned office building. Medical equipment was always in low supply, and it
wasn’t uncommon to be stuck in the waiting room for up to two days. But for demons, nephilim, and fallen angels with marks on their record, avoiding the Guard was worth dealing with the drawbacks.

  And if it wasn’t for a conversation I overheard at my welcome banquet, the clinic would’ve been shut down weeks ago.

  “She called to ask if I’d man the comms board,” he continued. “In case any urgent requests popped up. She mentioned you were due to check in. How’s life among the blessed treating you?”

  I gulped. His voice was cool—chilly even. He hadn’t liked the idea of me coming to Blakethorne. He warned me not to trust the angels. Despite his question, I doubted he really cared to hear about life at the academy. “Liza told me you were in Amberg.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “The things I’ve seen… You wouldn’t believe them unless you’d seen them firsthand. They blockaded the city, so healthy people can’t leave. The Guard is in the streets, forcing everyone to stay in their homes. Doctors are making house calls—but only to the ones who can pay. I’ve heard story after story of demons trying to leave their house to get medicine just to make the infected comfortable being dragged away to social rehab. Things are happening the way they always do: angels with the right lineage get all the help they need, and they leave everyone else to beg for scraps.”

  I picked at the bandage on my arm. I couldn’t argue, not when I’d seen that exact scenario play out just minutes ago.

  “Liza said you might have some actionable intel?”

  I shivered. When I originally told Liza about the field experience, I had assumed that it might involve useful supplies of some sort. But after what Nate had shared, I wasn’t so sure. “The first part of the mission is in Stone Hollow. From there, we move to Westerwilde before heading back to campus.”

  “What’s the objective?”

  I bit my lower lip. “I don’t know. The colonel made it sound like we’d be transporting something. But then Nate told me they’re bringing our Blades.”

  Derek snorted. “Nate told you, huh?”

  The sound of Nate’s name on Derek’s lips made me shiver. He spoke it like an accusation. “He’s the leader of the Keepers. I guess the colonel felt comfortable telling him that piece of information.”

  “Leader of the Keepers,” Derek echoed. “I wonder how hard that job was to come by as the chancellor’s son.”

  His words hit me off-center. Had Derek been researching Nate? If so, he was doing a more thorough job than Liza, who never mentioned the familial connection. Before I could say anything, Derek was talking again.

  “Did leader Nate share this tidbit with all your fellow Keepers, or did he just pass it along to you?”

  While I had no way of knowing if Nate had passed along the detail to Clio, Thor, or Bridger, my gut told me he probably hadn’t. “Why does it matter?”

  Derek was quiet for a long moment. “Nothing. So, you think they’re moving supplies. But if that’s the case, what do you need the Eternity Blades for?”

  “I wondered the same thing. But then I remembered that Farrin Enslow just got his distribution hub off the ground—in Stone Hollow. What if… What if it’s connected?”

  Rustling of papers filtered through the comm. I could imagine Derek unfolding one of Marco’s many maps of cities and towns within the kis. “Your second stop is Westerwilde?”

  “Yes.”

  He cursed. “There’s a societal rehab facility on the outskirts of that city.”

  Bile stung the back of my throat. “You think that’s it, then? They’re going to take down Farrin and whoever he’s working with?” The question that had plagued me for hours bubbled out of me. “Why would they bring cadets on a mission like that?”

  “Maybe they need the Blades for something,” Derek said, sounding distracted. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “You’ll contact Farrin?” I clarified.

  “Yeah. He’ll be fine.”

  It was clear from Derek’s tone that he’d already disengaged from the conversation. He was probably looking through Liza’s binder to find Farrin’s contact information. As nervous as it made me, things were in Derek’s hands now.

  After giving him the approximate times that the dossier listed, I bid him goodbye and ended the call. When I tucked the comm back into its hiding place, I crouched by the vent cover for several minutes, my mind spinning. I had to be wrong about tomorrow’s field mission, but the pieces seemed to fit. The only question was why our Blades were so important.

  I was afraid to find out.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The morning dawned dreary and gray. Ominous dark clouds bunched together so thick on the horizon that the sunlight barely penetrated.

  What little sleep I scrabbled together was laced with nightmares. Flaming swords sliced through stone walls. Red blood soaked lush green fields. Shouts and screams overlapped, creating a horrific symphony of anguish. And Derek’s eyes, which oscillated between pleading and enraged, watched everything unfold.

  But dreams were only dreams. I was all twisted up from the unexpected talk with Derek last night, along with fears about what bringing the Blades could be all about.

  Tucking away my anxiety, I dressed in the camouflage uniform provided for the mission and made my way to the main steps of Kalmin Hall, where Colonel Zagar had instructed us all to meet. She had told us we would be moving out at seven; still, it surprised me to see four people lingering on the bottom stairs when I arrived just before six thirty. Shonda stood front and center, talking to Ramiro. Off to the side lounged Nate and a grumpy, half-asleep Bridger.

  Nate’s eyes lit up when they landed on me, and my skin tingled at the attention. What I wouldn’t give to fold myself up into his arms and have him tell me everything would be all right. But how could he? Even if the two of us were alone, I couldn’t explain to him the source of my worry. Doing so would reveal my true loyalties, but that wasn’t the only reason to keep things to myself. Nate was an angel; there was no way he could sympathize with the work of people like Farrin Enslow—or Liza and Marco. Most of the time it was easy to let myself believe that since he was kind and we got along, we must agree on everything. I wasn’t prepared to face the truth that we saw the world very differently.

  Nate held out a paper cup as I approached. “Some coffee to help wake you up.”

  I relieved him of it, watching a swirl of steam escape from the small hole in the lid. “Thank you.”

  “Coffee’s a lie,” Bridger grumbled. “They say it’ll wake you up, but it doesn’t.”

  I cupped my hands around the cardboard cylinder, soaking the warmth in to my palms. “What’s his problem?”

  Nate shook his head. “He’s already had two cups. Bridger’s not a fan of early mornings.”

  I snorted. “This is barely earlier than breakfast on a normal day.”

  “Barely earlier is still earlier,” Bridger whined.

  Nate waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t try to logic him when he gets like this. And speaking of breakfast, there’s food over there.” He nodded toward a long folding table set up at the top of the stairs.

  Although my stomach was a little uneasy, I figured it was smarter to have some food in me than not. I mounted the stairs and pulled a domed silver lid off the nearest tray to reveal a pile egg and cheese sandwiches. After nabbing one, I made my way back to Nate and Bridger.

  As I descended the stairs, another figure emerged from around the corner. It took a moment to recognize who it was, and no sooner did I than Rina Tivey quickened her pace to join up with Shonda and Ramiro.

  “How are you feeling about today?” Nate asked, pulling my attention back to him.

  In a word, I was terrified. What if Derek couldn’t get in touch with Farrin? Or what if they needed to flee so fast they had to abandon all the medical supplies they’d been able to gather? But even those fates weren’t the ones twisting my stomach into knots. I feared the role I would be forced to play if the Guard arrested Farrin—my friend—s
imply for trying to help people. How would I be able to live with myself?

  I forced a smile. “Nervous, I guess.” The understatement burned my throat and left a metallic tang in the back of my mouth. “You?”

  He studied my face for a long moment. “Me, too. I always am before something like this. But better to be a little on edge than overconfident, right?”

  I tried to smile, but when the expression didn’t stick, I took a sip from my cup, welcoming the burn of hot coffee.

  By quarter to seven, one more of Shonda’s teammates had arrived, but Clio and Thor hadn’t appeared yet.

  “This isn’t like Clio,” Nate said, glancing toward the girls’ dorm. “She’s the kind of person who thinks being on-time makes you late.”

  “Do you want me to run back and see if she’s still in her room?” I offered. “Maybe she overslept.”

  Nate didn’t seem to hear me. “I knocked on Thor’s door before I left this morning. There was no answer, and I figured he was already up. I thought he’d beat me here.”

  As he finished speaking, two figures appeared around the edge of the building. I recognized Clio immediately and assumed the other figure was Thor. But the second person wasn’t as tall and broad-shouldered as our third guy—he was shorter with less fluid movements. Wyatt Horne, from Shonda’s group.

  Clio broke off from him and sprinted to where the three of us stood. “I’m so sorry I’m late,” she said, her cheeks pink. Nate gave me a conspiratorial smile. “I was meditating and time got away from me.”

  Bridger edged closer, looking incrementally more awake than he had when I arrived. “Meditating, huh?”

  Her brow furrowed as she accepted a paper cup of coffee from Nate. “Yes. You know it helps me clear my head.”

  Bridger nodded slowly but said nothing more.

  We waited, sipping our coffees, the only sounds the early morning calls of birds and the occasional murmur from Shonda’s group. Nate kept shifting his weight, glancing at his watch. At six fifty-eight, about five minutes after Clio’s arrival, Thor finally appeared. His hands were stuffed in his pants pockets and he shook his head curtly when Nate offered him a coffee.