Omega Academy by Lily Archer

Author:Lily Archer [Archer, Lily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lily Archer
Published: 2019-07-31T05:00:00+00:00

14

Ceredes

She sits beside me in almost all our classes for the rest of the day. Each breath she takes is a distraction, each moment spent with her like the pull of a dark star. My blood roars through me, and I can’t stop thinking about what it would be like to feel the circle bond with her.

Jeren already has it. I can tell by the way he gently touches her shoulder, her back, her arm. She leans into him, their bond completely natural. In the years I’ve known him, he’s never been like that with anyone. But now, his ease with Lana is starting to eat away at me. Because I want the same thing.

Once the day sessions are over, we return to my dorm. Well, now it’s our dorm. As commander of the Alphas, I choose the living arrangements, so I swapped out my roommates for Jeren and Kyte. The entire Alpha Academy is perplexed by our sudden friendship, but it doesn’t bother me. Let them talk. If anyone wants to challenge my leadership, I’ll happily destroy them in the dueling ring. It would be a good way to ease my tension.

“I want to see her again. Just the four of us.” Kyte strips his shirt off and tosses it to the laundry chute. “If we can complete the circle, then we’ll know. But we have to do it somewhere away from the academy. Somewhere private. If the Council of Regents were to find out …” He sits on his bed.

“What would they do?” Jeren checks his knife stash. It’s a habit.

“I don’t know.” I’ve been pondering that question from the start. “But it might not be good. Circles are sometimes seen as a bad omen. They might try to break us up.”

“That would be stupid.” Jeren begins carving his dresser. “If circles are called in times of great conflict, wouldn’t they want us fighting for them instead of tearing us apart?”

Kyte sighs and looks out the window toward the Omega dorms. “Sure, but what if they think that the circle forming is the reason for the conflict? It happened last time. Some of the Regents wanted to break the circle.”

“That’s dumb,” Jeren says.

“I wouldn’t put it past the council. They’ll do anything to protect the fleet.” I rub my temples. “And the rumors about the expanding Sentient threat are probably true. They’re ramping up attacks on settlements in the sparsely patrolled portions of the galaxies. If they’re taking prisoners and melding them with cyborg technology—they’ll have an army large enough to destroy the fleet and take over the galaxies.”

“Let’s say all that’s true.” Jeren stops carving. “Let’s say the Sentients are about to open an all-out war against the fleet. What in the Pillars are we—” he waves his knife around the room, then points it toward the Omega dorms, “—supposed to do about it? We’re four cadets. She’s human. Did you look up how short their lifespans are? How easily they’re killed?”

I swallow hard, and Kyte shifts on his bed.

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