Lies That Bleed (The Ember War Book 1), page 16
Kohen grinned. I was guessing Onyx said something funny in his head.
“What’s he doing?” Ashendell asked Kohen as her hawk flew from the ground to her shoulder. She was a badass, but she definitely seemed terrified, and had been avoiding looking at our creatures the entire time.
Kohen straightened his back and stood erect. “Nothing, ma’am. Sorry, ma’am.”
Ashendell brushed it off, but Liana used one of her long tailfeathers to smack Onyx in the side of the head. I wondered how old he was, because he behaved like a cocky teenager. Kohen and Onyx were perfect for each other in that way.
“Today we will be practicing using our powers with our creatures. This will prepare us for the mock attack we will have at the end of the week,” she said.
My powers. I didn’t know what they were yet. Other than possibly being immortal, which made me want to vomit just thinking about it, and healing.
Ashendell peered at Alek. “Since we don’t yet know what these two can do…” She cast a glare at Kohen and I. “We will start with Alek.”
She pulled some throwing knives from behind her back and handed them to him.
“Cool.” He picked one up.
Ashendell whistled and her hawk took flight. She closed her eyes, concentrating, and I realized she had the power to see what he saw, a very cool if somewhat common power. He could fly ten miles away and she would see through his eyes.
“Send out your hawk,” she told Alek, keeping her eyes closed.
Alek’s hawk, who I’d learned was named Iniki, burst from his shoulders and took off to the skies.
Alek closed his eyes and mimicked what Lieutenant Ashendell was doing.
I gasped. “You have two powers?”
Alek grinned, making himself look even more handsome than usual. “I do.”
For some reason I felt like Kohen was watching me. I glanced his way to find him glaring. I rolled my eyes and focused on Alek again. He was seeing through his hawk’s sight, which I imagined was such an amazing experience second to flying.
“Now throw the knife, but use your metal-moving power to guide the sword through the woods using Iniki’s sight,” Ashendell ordered.
He winced. “That sounds hard. I can barely move a quarter across the room.”
Ashendell nodded, her eyes still closed. “It will take a lot of practice, but eventually you could kill an enemy from a mile away—slitting their throat in their sleep.”
Badass. But she was right. His power was amazing when you thought about it like that. We stood there for twenty minutes while Alek tried to move the thin blade through the woods using his hawk’s sight, but it fell about ten feet from him.
“Alright, good try. Take a break,” she told him, opening her eyes and calling her creature back.
Then she peered at me. “Are you going to tell us what your power is yet? Otherwise I don’t know how to train you.”
‘Don’t tell her that you don’t know yet what your power is. That will make you sound weak,’ Liana coached, and then stood beside me, bending so that I could ride her.
“I have a little something I can show you,” I told her, processing Liana’s advice.
Was sounding weak in front of Ashendell dangerous? She sort of made it seem that way. And wasn’t being impervious to flame, and possibly immortal, power enough?
‘You have more abilities. They just haven’t shown yet,’ Liana told me.
She seemed so sure… maybe she felt it. I certainly didn’t.
I climbed onto Liana’s back. She leapt into the air as I held onto the handles of her new holster and squeezed her back with my thighs. She went really high.
‘Hold on,’ she instructed.
She dove at that moment and my stomach dropped. Halfway down, she did a barrel roll and let loose a twenty-foot stream of fire that nearly shaved the top off of the trees near us.
“Showoff!” Alek taunted from the ground, and I grinned.
It wasn’t a power display from me, but it showed what I could do with Liana.
When I landed, Ashendell marked something on her clipboard and nodded.
“Okay. That will do for now. Kohen, you’re up.”
She didn’t seem very impressed. Maybe she was hoping for me to display something.
Kohen leapt onto Onyx, staying upright, and I noticed his feet slipped into the hand straps sewn onto a harness Onyx had that was nearly identical to Liana’s. Onyx flew around like a teenager who had drank way too much caffeine and Kohen stayed standing the entire time. They ended their little display with Onyx breathing a ring of fire and flying Kohen through it.
“Talk about a showoff,” I muttered to Alek, who chuckled.
But Ashendell was smiling at the display and I saw her write, battle ready on the top of Kohen’s paper before pulling the clipboard out of view.
Battle ready. In his first few days of training? Did she mark that on mine?
We all had to be battle ready by the end of this month, but seeing him get the nod of approval so quickly made jealousy flare to life in my chest.
When I got back to our room, I found Tetra lying in bed with her bad foot elevated and an icepack on top. Her creature was lying on the bed next to her with her head in her lap.
“You okay?” I rushed inside and knelt before her.
She nodded, but I could tell she wasn’t.
“What happened?” I asked, lifting the icepack to see that her normally pink and crooked foot was black and blue.
“Jace, we were training and—”
I stood angrily, ready to rip that bastard’s head off.
She yanked my arm, forcing me down on the bed beside her. “And he accidently jumped on it. He apologized profusely and even carried me here.”
I growled. “That’s going to put you out of commission for a few days.”
She laughed. “Are you serious? He hurt my already mangled foot. I’ll be fine. It’s nothing I’m not already accustomed to. Pain and uselessness.”
Her words hit my chest like a bomb and my heart fissured. Pain and uselessness, that’s what my best friend was accustomed to?
“You’re not useless,” I told her, but she turned away from me and I saw her wipe at her eyes.
“Tetra, look at me. You are not useless!” I forced her to face me and my heart broke when I saw the unshed tears in her eyes. Her mouth was set into a grim line. “What’s gotten into you? Did Jace say something? I’ll nut punch him right now if he did,” I promised her.
She shook her head. “I overheard one of the instructors saying my power was really valuable but that my leg would get me killed in combat. They are going to bench me, Aisling. I’m going to be a drill instructor after we graduate, right here at the training center. I was so stupid to think I could do this, that I could make a difference in this war.”
She turned back away from me, and this time I let her. Becoming an instructor without any combat experience was frowned upon. It was a known demotion that signaled the Imperial Fleet thought you couldn’t handle real battle. I wanted to argue with her and tell her to show them she could do better, but I also selfishly wanted her to stay here after graduation. I wanted her to be an instructor and live out life in the city and see her mom every day. I wanted her to be safe.
Imagining Tetra in a warzone or sleeping in tents while moving through enemy territory would keep me up at night.
“It will be okay,” I said instead. Because it would. If Tetra was safe, then everything would be okay.
A few hours later, we got ready for our first off base night since we’d gotten here. Tetra assured me her foot would be fine with the cane and she’d ice it later. We were not permitted to wear civilian clothes, so that all of the people we encountered tonight would know we were cadets in training. Tetra and I had, however, found a way around the dress code. We both tied our black Fleet-issued t-shirt into a knot just above our bellybuttons and I cuffed my black pants to just mid-calf, pairing it with my imperial boots and some light makeup that was allowed. For the first time since I’d entered the Fleet, I wore my hair down and free around my shoulders.
“This is so cool.” Tetra smiled as she stroked both sides of my hair.
I grinned. “The triplets loved it.”
Tetra laughed. “I’ll bet they’ve all dyed their hair to match yours by now.”
She knew them well. I missed their feral little hormonal asses very much. Elaine too.
“Elaine would never allow it,” I told her.
“True,” Tetra agreed, wincing as she hobbled.
I lowered my voice. “What about those pain pills I got you?”
I’d had to pull some strings with my father last year but I’d gotten Tetra some pain pills for days when her foot discomfort really flared. The war had put a strain on supplies, and pain medicines were the first to go scarce.
She’d be fine for months and then bam, she’d wake up with her twisted foot hot to the touch and swollen. She was born this way, a deformity that the doctors said was so rare they didn’t really know what to do about it. But the pills were the good stuff that made you feel woozy and forget about everything.
She shook her head. “It’s not that bad yet. I’m saving those for a flare.”
I nodded. “You brought them though?”
She bopped her chin up and down. “Medical cleared me to have them, but I have to tell my drill instructor if I take one.”
I just hoped she would before it got unmanageable. My bestie was known for hiding her pain and not complaining about it until it was really bad.
We exited our room, and I skittered to a stop to keep myself from slamming into Jace.
His fist was poised to knock over our door.
“Oh, sorry.” He pushed himself back to allow us to leave, his gaze running the length of my body. Jace checking me out before would have delighted me, now it just made me pissed-off and sad. He’d ruined such a good thing.
“I’m so sorry about your foot, Tetra. I wanted to offer my family’s driver to take us to the club together,” he said.
The bar was within walking distance normally, but with Tetra’s injured foot, a hired car would be better.
“Thank you,” Tetra said simply.
“Excuse us.” Kohen’s voice came from behind and I spun.
He was standing behind me, looking hot as all hell in all-black Fleet-issued fatigues and glaring at Jace. His hair was slicked back and I spotted a blade tucked into his belt.
Why did I want things I shouldn’t have?
Jace narrowed his gaze on Kohen, unmoving, and I couldn’t take this anymore.
“We can get our own car,” I told Jace, and started to walk away with Tetra hobbling behind me. I slowed, letting her catch up, and then threw the door wide for her, leading us both outside.
I was done with this male pissing match.
Chapter
Seventeen
When we got to the bar, Tetra hopped on stage and started singing one of my favorite songs about late nights and not caring what others thought. She even flipped me off during the best parts and I grinned. She was my ride or die. Even with a bashed-up foot, nothing would stop her from singing and having fun.
The song ended and then the DJ picked up for a bit, playing mostly high vibe dance music.
“Dance with me?” Alek’s voice washed over my neck and I turned to find him leaning forward, inches from my cheek.
Oh. I swallowed hard.
He looked handsome in his black fatigues with rolled-up sleeves showing his bulging bicep.
Was this like a friendly dance? Or something more?
I didn’t see this coming, so I just accepted his hand and allowed him to lead me onto the dance floor, where others were moving to the beat.
I peered back at my bestie and she waggled her eyebrows, causing me to grin.
I hooked my arms behind Alek’s neck, and he placed his hands on my hips as I moved against him.
“Crazy week,” I said into his ear.
He nodded. “But we’re surviving.”
We were.
“Your powers are super cool. I can’t believe you got two,” I said.
He pulled back and cast me a sexy smile. “Says the girl who bonded a Talanagi!”
I tipped my head back and laughed and he pulled me closer to him.
“Stars, I love your laugh.” His voice was husky now, and I swallowed hard.
Alek? I mean… he was hot and I’d known him since we were twelve, but I’d never considered him as—
“Can I step in?” Kohen growled, suddenly looming next to us.
My fingers dug into the back of Alek’s neck, and I could see the muscle in his jaw tic.
“Well, I don’t speak for Aisling, but no. I do not want you to step in,” Alek told him respectfully but point blank.
It was kinda hot that he wasn’t speaking for me, but one look at Kohen told me something was up. He looked pissed and ready to explode. This must have to do with his power, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what power would cause this aggro male behavior.
Which was also kind of hot if I was being honest. I hated myself for loving the alpha male fight over me thing, but dammit, Kohen looked ready to rip Alek’s fingers off of my waist one by one… and I liked it.
But I couldn’t dance with the Imbrian prince. Was he serious?
“Kohen, I can’t dance with you.” I flicked my gaze to the soldiers lining the walls, and watched as pain crossed over his features for a split second before being replaced by a stone-cold wall.
“Understood,” he said, and then stormed off.
“Dude, he’s got it bad for you,” Alek said, and I shook my head.
“No, it’s something else. Our creatures are bonded in a way. He’s been acting like this since then.” Kohen didn’t like me. Right?
Alek gave me a look. “You can’t believe that, right? The way he knocked out an admiral, then taking out Jace for stealing a single French fry. Now trying to break up our dance. He’s claiming you.”
I chuckled. “Claiming me?”
Alek’s face grew serious. “Aisling, I’m not kidding. He wants you. The questions is, what do you want?” He peered at me with a vulnerability I wasn’t prepared for, and I took a closer look at Alek. He was handsome, there was no denying that, and a complete opposite looks-wise from Kohen: blond hair and blue eyes, fair skin. But there was no spark there. No ember to light the fires of passion that I’d experienced with Jace. And if I was being honest, Kohen too. But was there spark potential? Given different circumstances? I was confused.
He was a great guy, someone my dad would like well enough. Someone the country would approve of. But the spark… wasn’t there.
I pulled my hands from behind his neck. “I don’t know what I want. I’m sorry, Alek,” I said, and then bolted for the bathroom.
I hadn’t expected the night to go like this and for Alek to confront me like that. As I passed the bathroom, I heard banging in the storage closet to the left, the same one I’d met Kohen in before. It sounded like someone was punching holes in a wall.
I yanked the door open and found Kohen doing just that. Until his knuckles bled.
“Kohen, stop it!” I slammed the door behind me and yanked him back by the shoulders.
He spun to face me, eyes filled with a mixture of rage and agony. His hands shook as he looked down at me in the soft light.
“I can’t do this, Aisling. I’m not strong enough,” he admitted.
His emotional display scared me. “Do what? What’s wrong?”
He reached up and cupped my face, staring into my eyes and taking the breath from my lungs. Just one touch from him and my entire body was buzzing. There was more than a spark, there was an entire forest fire.
“You’re mine, Aisling. And I can’t watch other men throw themselves at you when I know that you will be mine.”
His words knocked my heart from my chest, and dizziness washed over me.
He knew that I would be his? What the hell did that even m—?
It hit me then. His power. It was unheard of. Not permitted. A power so hard to handle that the few people in history who carried it killed themselves or went insane. If my father didn’t kill them first.
“You can see the future,” I breathed.
He whimpered in relief that I had figured it out and then released my face. “Yes, and it’s a curse because no one around me understands what is coming, or what we will do.”
He shook his head and tapped the side of it with a fist. “I can’t sleep. I just want it to stop. I just want to transport myself to the future when it’s over.”
Holy effing shit. Kohen could see the future? No wonder Liana kept this from Sahiri. He would have been torn apart on the spot. It was a forbidden power to carry. Outlawed by my great-grandfather.
“Kohen…” My voice shook. “My father will kill you if he finds out you can do this,” I said.
He looked at me and swallowed hard. “I know.”
Did he know or did he know?
I couldn’t handle this right now. It was too much. I came here to blow off some steam with Tetra and now I knew too much to go back to my relaxed state of mind.
He reached up and grasped the back of his neck. “Please don’t flirt with Alek or I’ll have to kill him.”
I barked out in laughter at the ridiculous comment, and then stopped when I saw that he was serious.
He stepped forward, locking his gaze with mine, and then leaned into my ear, bringing the heat of his body with him and sending an inferno through my veins that settled between my legs. “Aisling, I’ve seen myself make love to you under a bed of stars, and I’ve heard you cry out my name begging for more. Anything with Alek or Jace would be fleeting. You are mine, and I am yours.”
I stumbled backward, emotion clogging my throat.
His words were crazy. It was too much. I couldn’t make love to the prince of Imbria. My father would kill me. It would be the ultimate betrayal.
“I’ve freaked you out.” He took three giant steps backward and then gave me his back, squatting on his heels and hanging his head in his hands.
