Puppet {ManxMan}

CHAPTER 40

People stopped questioning my loyalty after Rhett. Even Roman stopped giving me a hard time, going as far as bowing and apologizing profusely for what he'd put me through down in the cells. I didn't forgive him outright, I probably never would, but I acknowledged he was trying to change at least. Unfortunately, in Kailas' situation, it was a bit late for that. He was removed from his position and replaced by one of Jayden's old Air Force partners. Fitting, in my opinion.

What threw me off was when everyone brought up the fact we needed to fill Jayden's spot as military trainer, and when votes for that came up, everyone pointed to me. Initially I refused, then I remembered Jayden's last words and begrudgingly agreed to step in for him, honoring his last words as well as his memory. It was the least I could do.

One of the big issues was Dakota. It didn't register with me at the time, but playing the recording in a room full of the highest ranking Vidroh military probably wasn't going to end well, proven by the fact a dozen of them continued to loiter outside of Dakota's room while he was still sleeping. Luckily I still had a bit of power as an assassin, because all I had to do was tell them to scatter and keep their mouths shut if they wanted to keep their knee caps, and they bolted.

It was nice that they cared, but if Dakota knew they knew, if he knew they'd heard it, then he'd become humiliated and distressed, far more than he was already. I would know. When they found out about me I freaked so badly I sprained my wrist stabbing someone repeatedly. Dakota probably wouldn't go that far, but he might lock himself in his room and starve, which was just as bad in retrospect.

The first thing he asked when he woke up was why I was in his room, then he followed up with asking what happened. I was all too happy to tell him the recorded confession was plenty to incriminate him, catching him so red handed we were able to skip the trial straight to the execution. He didn't seem entirely happy with it, but he did relax a little more.

For the past few days I'd been staying with him to make sure he was alright, occasionally joined by Arthur or Kailas, otherwise we were alone, Dakota staring blankly at the ceiling and me attempting to make jokes and get him to smile. It felt oddly familiar before I realized this was simply a reversal of my own previous situation. Instead of me being laid up with my friends trying to get me to open up to them, Dakota was the one in bed with me making a fool of myself making knock-knock jokes.

"I'm still waiting," Dakota said when we were in a long silence.

I'd been sitting with my knees up reading through a pictured astronomy book, mainly at the dog eared pages that I assumed he liked best. I was on the page talking about the constellation Orion when he spoke, prompting me to lift my head and give him a confused look.

"For what?"

"The I told you so," Dakota clarified and rolled onto his side to face me, hugging one of his pillows against his chest, "You warned me it would be a bad idea, that I could get hurt, and I didn't listen to you."

"You're a silly kid so I'm not surprised," I said, looking back down at the book in my hands, "You're not even nineteen yet, obviously you weren't going to listen to me. I'm not mad at you, and I'm not going to say I told you so. Why make you feel worse? That's stupid, I'm not cruel."

Dakota gave a weird noise that sounded almost like a laugh, and I looked over at him to see he was looking at his hand and the bruise around his wrist, "I should've listened to you," he said weakly, "Now look at me. What am I supposed to do?"

His hazel eyes were glassy as he ground his teeth together, pinching his eyes closed and hiding against his arm, "I promised. I promised I wouldn't ever give up even if the world was crushing my shoulders. I promised but.... I didn't.... I didn't want this."