“Which was?” Rafe asks, raising an eyebrow at me, not so delighted with my performance as everyone else. “Seriously, Ariel, the Captain’s not going to be happy. You’re going to be in deep shit about this – way deeper than he was.” My brother points at Tony here.“Did you get in trouble?” I ask, blin
Silence rings out in the room behind me but I keep my eyes firmly on the Captains.He straightens up, again looking at me with surprise.If I’m honest, I think he expected a meltdown – expected me to protest, and to yell, and to demand reconsideration. In short, I think – quite frankly – that he exp
I unclasp my hands from behind my back as I speak and calmly raising one at my side, palm up. Whatever words the Captain was going to say get stuck in his throat as he just stares at me, stunned by my claims.But they’re not claims. My wolf howls in my chest, proud and angry, knowing that they’re tr
Jackson walks at my side as we all together troop out of the castle. He doesn’t need to say anything at all for me to know that he’s dead proud of me, and thinks I’m amazing, and eloquent, and finally stepping into my power. No, I can tell all of that simply by the way he stands steady at my side, b
At night, the whole thing is a great deal more powerful and stunning, a red and burning whirlwind that reaches for the sky. I play with it more this time, making it hotter so that we can all feel the heat radiating off of it, experimenting with the brightness and the colors, pushing it this way and
“Hey,” Luca says, giving me a small smile and wrapping an arm around my shoulder as we, too, start towards the castle. “That was insane, as usual.”“Luca,” I say quietly, looking up at him, brushing off the niceties. “What’s wrong?”His face tenses and he looks away from me. “Nothing’s wrong.”I sto
God, I just don’t know if we’re ever going to get there.We spend the evening celebrating a variety of victories – Tony’s top marks, Rafe’s great win, Jesse’s first command, and my continuing enrollment at Alpha Academy by dint of fire tornado. A great deal of contraband whiskey goes around with lot
The next morning I can barely run, I’m laughing so hard.“Jesse!” I shout, tripping over my own feet as I try to keep a bead on him with my paintball rifle. “Quit doing that!”“No way, you’re getting too good!” He shouts back, laughing himself and disappearing again into a cloud of shadows before da