Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Or could he?
The blood all drained from my face. Of course he could. Otherwise, he would not have made such a threat in the first place.
“And you listen to me, Lorieyn. I can keep you in this academy for as long as I so choose. And I do choose. You will stay here until your scores reflect your skills. You will not be placed at a rank unworthy of your name. What is another year or two, when our lives are ageless?”
I didn’t want an ageless life!
“Reputation and rank mean nothing to me. If I wanted those things, they would be mine already. I have worked so hard to get to this point.” Which was utterly ironic, considering my machinations to avoid the very topic of my skill. “You're right. I manipulated the tests. I have a goal.”
That confession earned his full, snide attention. “Then tell me what you want.”
To disappear into the music outside. “The fog.”
The way his expression slammed closed made it clear the fog would be forever denied me.
I had overplayed my hand and lost.
But I could not stop myself from blathering on. “I want to be a surveyor. There is so much to explore on this planet.”
Had I not known how cruelly the general operated, I might have thought his tone conveyed some hint of apology. But he would not waste such a thing on me. “You may be of age, but you are still naïve. It isn’t safe in the fog, even for someone of your natural skill. Not a single surveyor has served more than fifty years before they’ve been lost.”
It didn’t matter. Knocking at my breastbone, I was passionate to explain. “But they would be my years.”
The familiar closeness he’d subjected me to—before he ripped out my hearts—ended. Taciturn, he moved behind his desk and took a seat, measuring me with disapproval. “No.”
I was in my twenties and had never had the opportunity to make a solitary significant choice about anything in my life. The general had made every single one for me. On a very real level, that was why I resented him the most. Pouring every ounce of hate I’d harbored for the man into a loathsome glare, I made it clear exactly how little respect I had for him.
General or not.
Fist banging against the desk, he barked, “Do not think I enjoy having to act in the role of parent. You’re willful, and it has been quite the undertaking to manage you in the decade since we met. You scheme, you have little faith in authority, undermine the very leadership that is eager to help you thrive. I have report after report of insubordination in the guise of compliance. Not every instructor is as gullible as you seem to think. Instead, they are patient. Because, like you, they too grew up in the academy and understand exactly what it’s like within these walls. You are not the only brilliant student who craved the fog and was denied a foolish suicide.”
I closed my eyes as if that might make him disappear, more tears falling down red cheeks.
General Cyderial was having none of it. “We’re not solely human, Lorieyn. We have been mixed with the apex predator of this planet for a higher purpose. For survival. The primitive vorec live in the fog. Millions of other violent species live in the fog. Do not let your animal instinct override your human sense. Use your thinking mind. What point would it serve to allow you to traipse around in the dark for a few months of fun if it would ultimately lead to your death? There is so much waiting for you here. Furthermore, you should know better than most why unmated females cannot go into the fog. Vorec males do not understand that you are of a different species, or haven’t you noticed it's only males on full display charging right for you?”
“And I kill them all, don’t I?”
“Yes, when there is a city at your back. What would you do surrounded by rutting males ten times your size with no one to keep you safe? What would follow is unspeakable. Is that how you want to die?”
Swallowing, I shook my head, and a shaky exhale rattled out. I needed a moment to formulate a rebuttal. A moment to gather myself and prepare a reasonable argument.
Yet, he ruined that… all by broaching the subject—the inspection, the comments on my appearance—he must have been leading to from the start. “You’ve grown into a beautiful woman.”
And I had been of age for four years. If I couldn’t have the fog… yet, if I wanted out of the academy, there was only one other way.
Humans got to tour the city, go to restaurants, dance, and mingle without armed guards acting under the pretense of their protection. Hybrid females had only a single alternative to graduation.