The commotion wakes the girls.
I glance back at the heavy roots where I left them.
Lola sits up and rubs her eyes, looking profoundly bored. To her, the rebellion isn't a betrayal. It's just an annoying noise that interrupted a perfectly good nap.
Rhayne is a completely different story.
She knows human cruelty intimately.
I watch as she stands up in silence. Without a single word, she reaches down and pulls off one of her heavy, industrial leather gloves. She falls into step right behind me, a walking void capacitor ready to detonate.
If anyone tries to make a move, she will drain them dry before they can draw a blade. I don't need to ask. The look in her eyes says everything.
I give her a single, approving nod.
I bypass the cadet with the shattered jaw. He can't talk, and the agony in his eyes tells me everything I need—he didn't choose to stay. He physically couldn't leave, but he knew it.
I stop squarely in front of the second "generic" cadet.
