The ringleader corrected fast. He barked a command, and the pack tightened around me. Fists rained from three directions. I had my back to the wall, nothing behind me, but that only funneled them in closer.
A punch caught my cheekbone. Pain bloomed hot across my face. I retaliated with a straight right thatconnected somewhere solid—jaw, nose, I didn’t give a fuck—and heard another satisfying crunch.
“How is he so fucking fast?”
“He’s a trained warlock spy, you idiots!”
“All I’m hearing is warlock and spy.” I spat blood. “My ears are bleeding from boredom and your stupidity.”
The ridicule only enraged them.
“Put him down now! It can’t be that fucking hard!”
They attacked. I countered, but a few punches scored—my ribs, my kidney, and one landed on the left side of my head.
My vision flickered.
Shit.
I hit back as hard as I could with every opening, making each one count. Thanks to years of swinging heavy tools in confined spaces, my arms knew how to deliver force.
But it wasn’t enough. I was alone, and they were a pack.
Four of them seized my arms, two on each side, and more hands grabbed my legs. The mob wrenched me against the wall and pinned me like a spider under glass. I thrashed, but they held tight.
“Are we just going to teach him a lesson, sir?” one of them asked, breathing hard. “Black eyes, broken ribs, shove his head in a toilet?”
“We’ll kill him.” The leader’s voice went flat. “And be done with it.”
The rest of the barracks fell into tense silence. Hundreds of cadets gathered, watching the violence unfold. Not one of them moved.
“Are we all in agreement?” the ringleader shouted to the room.
“Stop!” A figure shoved through the crowd. I recognized him—the cadet with wheat-colored hair who’d barked at me to wash. Up close, he looked less like a bully and more like someone who understood where the lines were drawn. “This is murder, Cadet Sergeant Slade!”
Some cadets traded uncertain looks.
“It’s not murder.” Slade’s eyes stayed on me. “It’s an execution, Corporal Thane. We’re removing an enemy from our ranks so we can all sleep without a knife at our throats.”
“You don’t even sleep here, Cadet Sergeant.” Thane didn’t back down under Slade’s hard stare. “You’re a senior. You shouldn’t be here hunting for blood. Let the new cadet go before this goes to shit. The heirs placed him here. They vouched for him.”
“General Drakken didn’t vouch for him.” Slade’s voice carried the certainty of a man repeating what he’d been told. “The general condemned this warlock. That’s good enough for me.”
“You dare go against the majority vote of the heirs?” Thane demanded. “The Zodiac Covenant is ruled by the council, not by one man’s grudge.”
“The other heirs might want to give this warlock a chance, but he’s obviously deceived them.” Slade’s lip curled. “Bewitched them, even. We serve under Drakken. He understands warfare better than anyone. It’s our duty to deliver what he wants.”
“You can’t do this!” Thane shouted, even as three of Slade’s men blocked him. “There are rules.”
“Watch me,” Slade said. “I’m making a field call. Shut your mouth and step aside.”
“There will be consequences!” Thane strained against the men holding him back. “It’s not too late to let him go.”
Slade swept his gaze across the room, taking in his followers. “This is justice. When it’s done, we say the warlock ran. Anyone who rats us out ends up in the river with him.”
Slade turned back to me and stalked forward, savoring this moment like a man savoring a promised lay. I’d make sure he didn’t get it.
“Pretty face won’t get you far now, freak.” He stopped an arm’s length away, his small eyes like a snake’s. This was personal for him. Maybe he’d lost someone to witches, or maybe he was just the kind of small man who needed someone to hate. Plenty of those around. “I’m going to ruin that face. Me and my men will take our sweet time doing it.”