Chapter 343

“They’re positioning all of our year of Academy Cadets here,” Rafe says, tapping the map again with his finger. We all lean forward, studying it – even Jackson, who I know was in on the meeting with Rafe and saw this all before. “With our little group in the center of it.”

“Wolf pack,” I murmur, nodding.

“What?” Tony asks, looking over his shoulder at me.

I blush slightly. “Something Neumann called it,” I respond, refocusing on Rafe as he continues explaining, either not having heard me or ignoring me.

“I don’t hate it,” Tony replies, giving a shrug and turning back to the map.

“The whole point of calling us up is sheer numbers,” Rafe explains, drawing his finger now across the entire line of Moon Valley troops. “Roger wants a big assault on this cliff-side entrenchment, says we’ve got to get the Atalaxians out of there and on flat ground, either in front or below it.”

“He’s not wrong,” Jackson adds, giving a steady nod.

Rafe nods too, continuing on. “So it’s a big assault. The problem is, every time they’ve considered or tried it before the Atalaxians see it coming and route the forces from behind. So we’ve basically got to surround them in a semicircle so they have no way to get around us. Then we tighten in, like a fist.”

He uses his own hand to demonstrate. I gulp.

“Academy Cadets are in the least important strategic position,” Jackson says, leaning around me to tap at our location on the map again. “We’re unlikely to be the focus of the attack – and the hope is that the Atalaxians don’t notice all the fresh faces and terror in our eyes, so they won’t know we’re vulnerable there. We’ll just be troops like all the others.”

“Oh,” I say, sitting back a little, feeling better.

“Yes, the hope is that we’ll just be bodies,” Rafe says, quite serious, looking around at all of us, his eyes pausing on Daphne as she keeps her eyes on the ironing, her mouth firmly set against whatever it is that’s pounding in her heart. “That we won’t see any big battle and we’ll be back at school in a few days.”

“Okay,” I say with a sigh, sitting back against the cushions. “That…that sounds like it could be worse.”

The group all nods with me, even as the dumbwaiter bell rings, signaling the arrival of dinner.

But even as I say it…something in me makes my wolf turn with anxiety. Because it can’t be that easy, right?

As the hour grows late and the boys start to pack up their bags, heading back to their room for the night, Jesse keeps an eye on his girl. How could he not, after all? Daphne – she’s gorgeous, and lovely, and concerned, and his.

“I’m going to get some fresh air,” Jesse says with a sigh, pushing up from his arm chair and deliberately not looking at her.

“Fresh air, Jess?” Rafe says, looking up at his cousin like he kind of doubts it. “I once heard you say you wish you had a personal air conditioner and filter that you could carry around in front of you, blasting you in the face at all times.”

“Yeah, well, I get allergies,” Jesse murmurs, heading for the door. “Besides, the night before he goes to war a man wants to…smell a tree. I don’t know. Don’t think about it too hard.”

He slips outside the door but doesn’t go far.

Doesn’t need to, not really – Daphne is out the door not two minutes later.

And when Jesse drops his shadows from where he stands in the corner by the stairs, leaning against the wall, her face bursts into a smile that only lasts a second before her eyes fill with tears.

“Daphne, don’t,” Jesse begs, holding out his arms to her. Daphne rushes to him, pressing herself against his chest, tucking her head beneath his chin. Jesse cradles her close, letting one hand get lost in her hair, his fingers tangling in the long red strands, the other stroking comfortingly up and down her back. He pulls his shadows up so that they have a little secrecy in case anyone else comes out of the room.

“How can I not!?” Daphne groans, sniffing hard against her tears as she attempts to obey. “Jess, you’re going to stupid battle tomorrow –“

“Where I will win great glory and victory in your honor!”

She lifts her head to glare at him. “Don’t use that ‘honor and victory, baby, it’s all for you’ speech on me, Sinclair. I want you here, safe.”

“You sure?” he asks, twisting his lips with doubt. “I could bring you war spoils. I could bring you gold, and diamonds. An Atalaxian general’s head.”

Daphne’s expression is one of great disgust, which makes Jesse burst out laughing as he holds her tighter, loving her a great deal in this moment.

“Just bring yourself home,” she murmurs, resting her forehead on his chest. He lifts his chin, resting it on her head, holding her close and silently memorizing the way she feels against him.

“Don’t doubt it for a second, Daph,” he murmurs, earnest in a way that he’s usually not. “You’d be too pretty a widow for me to go and die now. You’d look great in black – and then someone would snap you up and you’d forget all about me – “

“A widow,” she scoffs, sufficiently distracted from her worries and snapping her head up to glare at him. “What are you talking about? We’re not –“

“Oh, didn’t you notice?” he asks, sliding his hand from her back and slipping it against her left palm, lifting her fingers high. “I married you, last night. I mean, you were asleep, but I’ve been very busy and I was in a rush –“

Daphne glances down at her hand and then bursts out laughing when she sees the little shadowy ring sitting there, in human fashion, on the ring finger of her left hand. “Oh you idiot,” she growls, shoving him even as she leans herself more fully against him. “If you’re going to marry me then I’m at least going to be conscious when you do it.”

Jesse grins at her, dropping her hand and stroking his knuckles down her cheek. “Is that a yes?”

“Jesse don’t joke,” Daphne murmurs, dropping her eyes slightly so that her dark lashes drift over her cheeks.

“I’m not joking,” he sighs. “Not really. But I take your meaning, Daph, and I promise you that this whole battle tomorrow is just going to be a little exercise. That I’ll come back safe and sound and we’ll talk about doing that for real. You know. When you’re awake.”

“Are you serious?” she asks, raising her shocked eyes to his. “You want to…with me?”

“I’m dead serious,” he says quietly, stroking her face again. “But I understand if you’re not there yet. Still – you should know that I am.”

Daphne studies him for a long moment, her love for this strange and beautiful boy shining in her eyes, and then she stands on her toes and kisses him. Jesse wraps her up, warm and neat, and kisses her until they both forget all about it – forget that the war and tomorrow even exist.

Or, at least they come close. The door to the room opens and they both go quite still, hiding in the corner with Jesse’s shadow cover as Tony walks past and jogs down the stairs towards his own room, his face quite serious and lost in thought.

“These are very useful,” Daphne murmurs, reaching up and stroking a hand over the shadows that arch over them – a move that makes Jesse shiver. She notices and turns to him with a grin. “You can feel that?”

“They’re part of me,” he says with a shrug.

“So then this…” she looks down at the little shadow ring on her finger.

“Little piece of my soul for you to keep,” he says with a sigh. “A placeholder while I’m gone. I’ll get you a real one later.”

She grins up at him but then hesitates. “People are going to notice if I start wearing a ring, Jess.”

He sighs, and neither of them mention which particular person they don’t want to notice – at least, not yet. Not while things are so fresh, and so new, and so good.

“Something else, then?” Jesse asks, taking her hand again and turning it over in his palm, making the shadow around her finger dissipate in the air and then reform into a tiny kitten, just large enough to sit in her palm.

“Mittens!?” she gasps, laughing and looking between Jesse and the tiny cat. “I can keep Mittens while you’re gone?”

“He’s a good substitute, isn’t he?” Jesse asks, reaching out and stroking the cat’s head for himself. “Though…don’t get freaked out if he disappears. I have no idea how long he can stick around when I’m gone. Or how far away I can go from him.”

“Okay,” Daphne says, still laughing a little and holding the kitten close to her chest.

Jesse slips a hand soft around the back of her neck and gently tugs her closer for another kiss, which she willingly gives, melting against him a little bit until the little kitten mews in protest at being squished. They both look down at him and laugh, surprised.

“I’ll be keeping an eye on the horizon,” Daphne murmurs, looking up into his face. “Looking for you coming back.”

“I’ll be there soon,” Jesse promises. One last kiss seals the deal.