Bonds of Brass (The Bloodright Trilogy #1) - Emily Skrutskie Page 0,17

I want to be wrapped in this night forever. We have only so many of them left to go.

“I can’t believe we have class tomorrow,” Rin groans, clinging to my waist with one arm as she tries to steady herself. “I’m going to vomit on the drill field.”

“I’ll be right there with you,” Hanji cackles from her other side. “What about you, Ettian? You feeling strong?”

“Oh, I’m feeling strong.” I slide my arm around Rin’s shoulders, and she tucks her head against my ribs.

“How strong are you feeling?”

Hanji doesn’t realize what she’s handed me. I grin, trying my best to look like I’ve just had the idea. “Feeling like I could streak the officers’ quarters.”

There are some words that have a little magic in them. Some words you have to be careful tossing around because they dig into people’s consciousness in such visceral ways. Some words you know are dangerous, especially on a dangerous day like today.

I’ve said some of those words.

A hush falls over the people packed around me, and Ollins wobbles on his table. “You’re ruttin’ kidding me,” he says. “You would actually—”

“Wouldn’t you?”

“Hell yeah, I would! Bet I’d get farther than you too. Bet I could go all the way up to the head’s door and back.” Murmurs and laughter rise from the cadets around us.

I tip my glass at him. “Let’s do it. Let’s all do it.”

For a moment, Ollins stares at me. Then he hoists his glass high and screams, “HELL YEAH.” The crowd roars along with him, and the officers in the back slump lower in their seats, clutching their drinks tighter.

I down my polish in three quick gulps. Partly because with all eyes on me, there’s no avoiding it. Mostly because I’m going to need all the courage I can get.

* * *

—

We gain people as we go. The thirty in the cantina are drunk enough to accept the notion immediately, but as we make our way to the barracks, they start recruiting from whoever’s passing by. We’re a chaotic, shrieking herd of animals, whooping and hollering as we stumble through the halls, and we’ve swollen to a number I can’t accurately count.

Somehow I have to dislodge myself from them, but that means dislodging Rin from me first. She’s still got her arm snaked around my waist, and it feels like I’m the only thing keeping her upright. Every time I try to slip her grip, she only holds on tighter. She stopped saying words that made sense around the time we stood up from the bar.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I grab the hem of my shirt, and predictably enough, she lets go immediately, shrieking in delight.

“Damn, Nassun’s going for it!” Hanji hollers behind me as I pull my shirt off and throw it aside. And like that, the chain reaction’s off. Not to be outdone, Ollins is already staggering out of his pants. Rin yanks her tank over her head, and as the tidal wave of haphazardly disrobing cadets rounds a corner, it’s too easy to slip away.

I didn’t anticipate losing my shirt, but with the rate the drunken crowd is moving, there’s no time to go back for it. I duck out through a side door, cursing as the chill of the night hits me. Overhead, the sky is clear, the distant lights of roving transports tracing lines between the stars. With nothing but open plains surrounding the academy, the vast dark of the universe seems monstrous.

No time to admire it. I haul ass along the barracks to the rows of poorly maintained hedges that decorate part of the green. My head’s buzzing from the polish, and it takes me several extra seconds to figure out which one has my bag in it.

The whoops and yells inside the dorms are growing louder. Lights flicker on in the officers’ quarters. There’s a distant, muffled crash.

I sling the bag over my shoulder and take off running again, fixing my eyes on the uppermost floor of the officer barracks. The top brass sleeps up there, and