Stuffing that thought down, I keep climbing steadily upward.
The tower sways like a tree in the wind. I pause, afraid to go any higher. I reach up as far as I can, trying to grasp the fluttering tip of the flag. It dances just out of reach. I feel the material tickling my thumb and index finger, but I can’t quite grip it. My arm isn’t long enough.
I’ll have to climb up just a little further.
I set my foot on the next log up.
Then I hear shouting below, and the tower beings to tip.
I lose my grip and plunge down into its center with all the logs collapsing on top of me.
11
Dean
I hadn’t noticed that they were making Cat scale the tower because I was too fixated on my own work.
Under Leo’s clear direction, and with Ares and Anna’s design, our tower rose straight and sturdy, a marvel of engineering.
It pleased me to see how clean it looked, compared to the pile of matchsticks the Sophomores were throwing up, or the squat square Kade Petrov had commissioned.
Claire’s tower almost matched ours in elegance, until an unlucky log snuck in the mix and set her back by several minutes.
I felt sure we would win.
Winning feels good. Quality work feels good.
For all the conflict I’ve had with students in my own year, I have to admit that the Juniors are unstoppable. We work well together: Leo, Ares, Anna, Chay, Hedeon, Jules, Bram, Kenzo, and me. We’ve got the cream of the crop from the other divisions too: Bodashka and Silas, Ilsa Markov, Pasha, Motya, Shannon Kelly, Gemma Rossi, and Isabel Dixon.
For the first time, I catch the vision of how glorious it would be to be the first team of students to win the Quartum Bellum all four years.
It might even be worth the fact that Leo’s ego will need its own zip code.
I work feverishly to make that happen, until I hear the Sophomores shouting, and the snap and crash of a forty-foot pile of logs tumbling down.
I catch one glimpse of a small, dark-haired figure poised at the top of the pile, before Cat plunges down in the center of the collapse.
“MOVE!” I roar, shoving my way through the mass of students around me.
Despite how close we were to finishing our own tower, I can hear Leo and Ares likewise dropping their work, dashing along after me.
I don’t care if they’re following. I’m shoving everyone out of my way, sprinting to the place where I saw Cat fall.
She’ll be crushed under the mass of wood. I can’t believe she’ll be alive, but I know I have to find her, right this fucking second.
I’m ripping up logs bigger than my body, flinging them out of my way, not giving a damn who they might hit.
I’m digging her out, the flesh tearing off my palms, my every muscle straining as I hurl those logs like fucking kindling.
Leo and Ares are digging too. The only reason I don’t shove them away is because they’re helping.
It’s me who finds her, though—me who sees the small, pale figure huddled beneath two crossed beams, blood covering her face.
Had the logs not fallen in a crossed formation, they would have crushed her. As it is, I have no idea how bad the damage might be. I scoop Cat up in my arms. Her featherlight weight terrifies me, as if there’s no soul inside that body.
“I don’t think you should move her—” Leo starts, but I shoulder him out of the way and start running for the infirmary. Cat’s weight is nothing at all to me—I’m running faster than Leo and Ares can keep up.
Professor Howell intersects us, his silver whistle bouncing on his chest as he runs.
“Keep her steady,” he instructs me.
I’m already doing that, carefully cradling Cat’s neck with my right arm, supporting her legs with my left, using my hand to press her face gently against my chest.
I’ve never seen her so pale and ashen, all the beautiful color bleached from her skin. The blood and dust make it difficult to tell if there’s any movement of her lashes against her cheeks.
I press my fingertips against the side of her throat, careful not to jostle her.
I think I feel a pulse fluttering against my ring finger.
Leo dashes ahead, hammering on the infirmary door.
I expect Dr. Cross to open it with his usual ill-humor. Instead, an elegant blonde woman stands in the doorway. In