The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy



"Numbers are...fucking off." Rafe growls. "And not a single person from Wright and Blythe's team has made an appearance, except those few across the river that the other team took out."

"What are you thinking?" Jacks murmurs.

"I think they're trying to lure us forward," Rafe sighs. "And that if we don't do it, we're going to be out here for hours. They're waiting for night - when Ari's sight and accuracy are going to be way down."

"Wait, seriously?" I ask, going a bit stiff. "We stay out here all night if someone doesn't win?"

"We stay out here until it's done," Jackson informs me, cold.

"Shit," I whisper. But then movement catches my eye, down by the river, and I curse again, going stiff. "Shit, shit!"noveldrama

“What?” Rafe asks, his voice tense. "Report, Cadet.”

“It's fucking Luca," I breathe, refocusing the binoculars and watching as my mate comes to the edge of the river and then – nimble as a leaf on the wind begins to dodge across it, his feet barely touching rocks and logs before he leaps, about halfway across, into the river itself and begins to wade the rest of the way across.

"Can you get him!?" Rafe barks out.

"I can't shoot Luca!"

"It's a fucking game!"

I snarl but grab my gun, whipping it around so that I peer through the sight, taking aim as fast as I can - but by the time I focus on the area of river that he crossed, all I see is his boot disappearing back between the trees - on our side.

"No, I'm sorry,” I say, guilt running through me. “He crossed the river and I lost him in the trees. But he's on our side now."

"All right," Rafe murmurs. "It's something. We'll go and hunt him down. Can you give us a more precise location, Ari?"

I do my best, using the coordinates on the map to report the place where I think Luca went through the trees. Rafe switches back to the main channel and more voices come on as the boys all concentrate on Luca, taking Rafe's advance team down towards the river.

But as they do, something shifts behind me.

I snap up from my position, turning, noting the little rock that's rolling across the ground towards me, perfectly innocent.

I stare at it for a long moment, trying to figure out how it got here.

And then I shift my eyes slowly...upwards. To where shadows move along the ridge above me.

"Shit shit shit," I whisper into my headpiece, using my feet to push myself back into the bushes, grabbing my gun and my binoculars and my map as I go. "Rafe, Jacks - they're above us -"

"What?" Rafe breathes.

"I don't know who it is," I hiss,

els

suddenly desperately afraid as I see the shadows growing larger, closer. "But they must have spent the day going the long way around - crossing the river way north or way south and then trekking along above the top of the ravine."

“Get the fuck down here, Ariel," Jackson snaps, livid. "Right now."

I make to move but my head snaps to the right when suddenly a bright flare of green lights up across the river and to the south, puffing out into a green cloud.

"What's that?" I whisper.

"Get down here!" Jackson barks.

"It's Jesse,” Rafe murmurs, sounding confused. "He must be in Wright's camp - but that signal means...all clear? No one's...there..."

My heart begins to pound as I look again towards the growing shadows coming down the ravine towards me.

"Run, Ari!" Jackson barks into the headset. "Fucking run!"

"It's too late!" I whisper, knowing that they're close enough now that if run they'll hit me easily - and then.... don't know what. If it's Wright, and he really does want to hurt me? "I have to hide."

"Ari!" Jackson gasps, desperate. Then a savage snarl rips down the line. "I'm coming up for you!"

"That little sniper's up here," someone says, not twenty feet from me, making my head snap to the left towards the voice. "He's our first priority - take him out first and we'll take the base next."

My hand shakes a little as I raise my gun to my shoulder, looking down the scope, but realizing as I hear the number of footfalls that it's too much. That even if I do

shoot there's no way I can tool

all of them before they find and

dand

out

swarm me. Because, I mean, if they shoot me it's not like I actually die and slip out of their grasp –

No, I'd still just be a girl that they'd found all alone in the woods.

And if it's Wright...he could do anything to me.

Still, if I can just stay quiet enough...

I exhale slowly, my hands shaking with adrenaline as the first of the enemy troops steps onto my plateau.