Fire Breather

41.

I kept my chin high despite my racing heart as we walked across the courtyard toward the dais, Xaden two steps ahead of the rest of us. The gravel crunched under our boots, muffling the gasps from the cadets on our left.

"You're...not dead." Captain Fitzgibbons stared with wide eyes, his weathered face turning pale as he fumbled with the death roll, dropping it.

"Apparently not," Xaden replied, anger in his posture.

Commandant Panchek's mouth hung open as he turned toward us from his seat on the dais, and within seconds, General Sorrengail and Colonel Aetos stood, blocking his view.

Just looking at Colonel Aetos made my veins burn with Nim's power. I could kill him where he stood with the blink of my eyes.

Colonel Aetos's cheeks grew red with every step we took, his gaze skimming our party of nine, no doubt taking note of who was here and who wasn't.

"I don't understand," Fitzgibbons said to the two scribes behind him, then addressed Panchek. "They aren't dead. Why would they have been reported for the death roll?"

"Why were they reported for the death roll?" General Sorrengail asked Colonel Aetos, her eyes narrowing.

A cold breeze blew past—meaning the general was pissed.

"They've been missing for six days!" Aetos seethed, his voice rising. "Naturally we reported them dead, but obviously we should have reported them for desertion and dereliction of duty instead."

"You want to report us for desertion?" My brother walked up the stairs of the dais, and Aetos backed up a step, fear flashing across his eyes. "You sent us into combat, and you're going to report us for desertion?"

"What is he talking about?" General Sorrengail asked, looking between my brother and Aetos.

"I have no idea," Aetos gritted out.

"I was directed to take a squad beyond the wards to Athebyne and form the headquarters for Fourth Wing's War Games, and I did so. We stopped to rest our riot at the nearest lake past the wards, and we were attacked by gryphons," my brother lied easily.

General Sorrengail blinked, and Aetos's brows furrowed.

I walked past Violet and the others, straight up the stairs to my brother's back while trying not to melt Aetos's brain. "It was a surprise attack, and they caught Deigh and Fuil unaware." I pivoted slightly to the wings. "They were dead before they ever had a chance."

The cadets around us murmured.

"We lost Liam Mairi and Soleil Telery," Xaden added, then looked over his shoulder at me before Violet. "And we almost lost Cadet Riorson and Sorrengail."

The general pivoted, looking down at Violet like a mother for just a second as her daughter nodded.

"They're lying," Colonel Aetos accused. The certainty in his voice made my hands curl into fists behind my back. If we were about to die, I would take out as many as I could.

"Why the hell would we lie?" Xaden tilted his head, looking down at Colonel Aetos with pure disdain. "But surely if you don't believe me, then General Sorrengail can discern the truth from her own daughter."

Violet stepped up the stairs of the wooden platform to stand at my side.

"Cadet Sorrengail?" General Sorrengail crossed her arms over her chest.

Violet cleared her throat as I straightened my shoulders. "It's true."

"Lies!" Aetos shouted. "There's no way two dragons were brought down by a drift of gryphons. Impossible. We should separate them and interrogate them individually."