Elemental Rush

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven:

“This is your whole report?” Belfast asked, looking up from the desk in his office.

“Yes, sir,” I said, staring straight ahead. I’d repeated the report so many times, I didn’t need to look at it to get all the fabricated details right.

“Airmaster Shane Mendelson killed his own Firemaker?” Belfast’s scrutiny of me was beginning to erode the mask I so carefully wore.

“Yes, sir. Smothered him right in front of me.”

He leaned away, my peripheral vision catching him as he folded his arms. “Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know, sir. Have you asked him?”

Belfast shot to a standing position. “You dare to instruct me in how to handle prisoners? Of course I have asked him.”

I ignored the drops of spittle that landed on my hands. I didn’t move, not even a twitch. “Then you know why he killed his Firemaker.”

I knew what the report said. I just didn’t know why everyone on Reggie’s Council was going along with the lie. Shane had admitted to murdering Reggie, claiming that they’d all wanted to complete the orders to kill the Unmanifested in Trenton—all except Reggie.

So when they’d been caught, Shane decided to take matters into his own hands, killing the only person who’d really disobeyed. They’d fled after the murder, only to turn themselves in, claiming they wanted to return to Tarpulin for the opportunity to find a new Council, a new Firemaker, one who would follow the Supremist’s orders.

“I hear they have registered to be selected in the field trials,” I said. “As per the negotiations Commander Gillman orchestrated in Hesterton.”

Belfast didn’t grace me with an answer. He simply glared at my report like it was false. I listened for his mind and found him thinking exactly that. I just don’t know how to prove it, he thought.

I contained the smile I felt growing inside.

“And then you left your squad in the middle of the night?”

“It was dawn, sir,” I said. “And I felt that Felix was in trouble—which he was.”

“Yet his report does not detail anything he was unable to handle. How exactly did you help him?”

I hadn’t exactly helped him, but I had saved Cat from a terrible fate. I hadn’t exactly detailed that in the report, though. In fact, nothing that had happened in Cornish was official. No one knew; not Felix, not Cat, not anyone. And I was determined to keep it that way.

“Mr. Gillman?” Belfast asked.

“Well, he didn’t exactly need my help, but I was there just in case.”

“Then you got caught in the storm.”

“Yes, sir.”

He glared at me thinking, There’s something not quite right, but I don’t know what it is.

I kept my attention on the wall, refusing to give him anything he could use to fan the flames of his thoughts. Because he was right, and the last thing I needed was him paying more attention to me.

“You’re dismissed,” he finally said, sweeping my report into a drawer.

I left quickly, without looking back. I didn’t feel safe until I made it to my quarters. Even with the door bolted, I couldn’t settle down. It wasn’t until I stepped onto the balcony and called to the sea breeze that I felt like I could actually breathe.