As I didn't have enough problems, I thought, staring at my unenthusiastic partner by my side. His face was drawn so that I couldn't tell if he was bored, or pissed, or happy. Those yellow eyes of his didn't flicker back to me though I was sure he knew I was watching him.
"So," I started, cutting through the bullshit. Christian Riverane had ripped through the crowd as soon as his speech had been dealt with: twenty futures told me he was going to go straight home. Fifteen of those ended with his wife finally telling him she was pregnant. Five of them he was jubilant. Seven of them he messed her around. Two, he marched off to a whore's den.
One, he strangled her with his bare hands.
"So," Ryder replied, his tone clipped. I wondered if he was annoying him. I wondered if I wanted to annoy him. It might be fun to twist that expressionless face into some other emotion that wasn't dead-pan. Sadly, I couldn't look into my future and check out if he was going to slap me for it. Might be safer to not antagonise my Final Training Partner.
"What do you want to be, then?" I asked him, prodding him into conversation. Now, this would surely get some reaction. Some lied because their answer wasn't what their parents had primed them for. Some gave a boastful answer that they were sure of, that their parents were fine with. And some didn't answer at all.
"You know, the Final Training is what tells us what career path we're going to follow," Ryder informed me almost condescendingly as if poor, little me didn't know what my father had been drilling into my head for years. Asshole. "By answering your question, I think I would be defeating the point of it." Ah, so he was one of those dickheads.
"Bullshit," I exhaled with a smile. "As if you don't know what you're going to be. Most of us do. Most of us know what to say to get there as well. So, let me ask again: what do you want to be?"
He turned to face me but Ryder didn't look annoyed. Just curious as if I had done something unexpected. He smiled, though not exactly a pleasant one. I wondered if he was imagining slapping me until I shut up. It wouldn't be the first time someone thought that. "Has anyone ever told you that you can be a bitch?"
"Being nice gets you nowhere," I pointed out, not really upset Stellaire had deigned to dirty himself to call me names. I leaned closer to him, thinking maybe this would be the pressure point. He tensed: though it didn't seem like he felt uncomfortable as I drew closer - but just more aware. "And if I hadn't asked those questions, I wouldn't have figured out exactly what you're probably going to be."
I leaned back as he stiffened: there's the pressure point. Everyone has one. It doesn't matter how brave you are, how wicked you are - or how much better you are. Everyone has one - and they all know how it feels when they're hurt there. "And what," Ryder questioned me. "am I going to be then, if you know so much, Arrowglass?"
"I watched you, Stellaire." The room was abuzz with noise: the meeting of Final partners was almost a sacred thing in this city - well, as sacred as things got in here. In the corner of my eye, I could see Alaysa playfully pushing Valeryan in the shoulder while Tatianya stood stiffly by her partner - though I couldn't see who it was.
But nothing was as sharp as every emotion blossoming into sight on Ryder's face as he processed my words. It was like pricking a water-balloon and having it all spill out in your hand. It was almost a buffet of emotions like he had been holding them back for this moment just to have the richer spread.
"You watched me?" he stated, his voice rich with disdain.
"Yes," I answered. "I watched you. To how you reacted. If you'd been a soldier, you would be bristling with that adrenaline all you types seem to have. Probably would have hit me by now." He looked up mutinously. It probably crossed his mind. "If you'd have been the healer type, you would have been easy to give up the information, softer to deal with. But instead, you used your words to try and fend me off. Now those are a leader's weapons."
YOU ARE READING
Legacy
Romance"There's a war going on, Katarina," he hissed into my ear. "Remember which side you're on. And know that neither is the right one." This world was built on power, lies and corruption. Our hands were always stained with blood. Our eyes were windows t...
