Inferno (Talon #5)(27)
He stopped short, blinking in surprise as he spotted me and Ember in the center of the room. I met his gaze, feeling a ripple of shock and recognition go up my spine, seeing the instant he recognized me, as well.
He hadn’t changed much since the time we’d last seen each other. It had been a couple years ago, and only in passing; I’d made certain to avoid him whenever I could. Since then, he’d gained a few inches, and that scar across his bottom lip was new. But everything else, from his hard blue eyes, to the set of his jaw, to the way his mouth twisted into a sneer when he saw me, was exactly as I remembered.
“Well, well,” Peter Matthews said, his voice that same smug taunt from when we were new recruits trying to scrape by at the Academy. “Look who it is. The lizard-loving traitor himself.”
“What do you want, Matthews?” I asked steadily, ignoring the instant flare of anger that shot through my veins. Not for his words; I’d been called far worse of late, by both friends and enemies. Nothing he said could anger me. I’d heard it all before. It was Matthews himself, the long years of torment and abuse, the competition and mutual hatred we shared for each other.
He doesn’t matter, I tried to tell myself. We were no longer in the Academy, competing for approval, trying to prove our worth. I was no longer eleven years old, trying to defend myself from being pummeled in the bathrooms. We were both soldiers, and he was no longer someone I needed to fear.
But something was building inside, a simmering heat that flickered through my lungs, rising in intensity. Heat and anger and a savage, almost primal urge to protect the girl beside me. I breathed out slowly, and the air in my throat felt scalding hot.
“Lieutenant Ward already left,” I told the other soldier, and jerked my head toward the exit. “You’ll probably catch him if you hurry.”
Matthews didn’t answer. His cruel gaze shifted to Ember standing beside me, and the sneer twisting his face turned even uglier. “And that must be your little dragon whore. I can see why you’re so infatuated—she’s almost cute. For a soul-sucking lizard. Tell me, Sebastian…” He shot me an evil grin, baring his teeth. “I’m curious. Does she take it from the front, or the back?”
The heat in my veins exploded. Fire roared through me, searing and furious, turning my vision red. I felt myself moving forward, muscles tensing, intending to drive my fist all the way through Matthews’s sneering mouth and out the back of his skull.
“Garret, don’t!”
Something caught my arm from behind, jerking me to a stop. “Don’t fight him,” Ember said, eyes narrowed and angry as I glanced back. “That’s what he wants. He’ll take any excuse to draw us out, to make everyone see that we’re violent and can’t be trusted.”
I took a deep breath, controlling the heat and the fiery rage that came with it. She was right. I couldn’t let Matthews draw me into a brawl now. Too much depended on everyone working together. One scuffle could ruin any chance of dragons and soldiers getting along. Ember knew that. I knew that.
Matthews, however, didn’t.
“Don’t give him too much credit,” I told Ember, straightening and casting a hard look back at the other soldier. “He can’t plan that far ahead. There’s no ulterior motive here. He’s just an asshole.”
Ember blinked, perhaps more stunned by my hostility toward the other soldier than the use of the word itself. I couldn’t blame her. I usually let insults roll off my back; life in the Order—where polite obedience was expected even if your superior officer was screaming in your face—taught you to take nothing personally. Words couldn’t hurt you; as long as you didn’t believe them, they meant nothing.
But Peter Matthews could get under my skin like no one else. There were too many memories, too many years of mutual dislike, that simmered into resentment and loathing. Too many incidents where Matthews did his best to threaten, harm or humiliate me. Graduating the Academy had been a relief on many levels; I could start killing dragons as I had trained to do my whole life, but it also meant that I had finally escaped the constant torment of Peter Matthews.
But now, it wasn’t about me. I had something more important to protect. And the whole Order would burn to the ground before I let him lay a finger on the girl at my side.
“Oh, what’s the matter, Sebastian?” Matthews said. “Still afraid of me?” He smirked, blue eyes glittering. “You were always a squirrelly little shit, even in the Academy. Still can’t look me in the eye, even now. Or does your dragon bitch not want her toy broken?”
A growl, faint but audible, rumbled deep in Ember’s throat, and the pupils of her eyes went razor-sharp. Despite her resolve, Matthews was treading on very thin ice right now. And he was either too arrogant to know the dangers of poking a dragon, or he was stupidly hoping something would happen. “Come on,” I told Ember, taking her hand and stepping away, toward the back door. “Let’s get out of here.” Before we both do something we’ll regret, and that idiot ends up in the infirmary with a shattered jaw. Or his face burned off.
“That’s right, run away, Sebastian,” Matthews called as we fled the room, his mocking voice following us out the door. “Just like you always did. Still the pissant little coward, huh? Even when you have a lizard to hide behind. That’s okay.” We slipped into the hall, but his last threat still echoed behind us. “I’ll find you. You and your lizards. Count on it.”