Chapter 618

I beam again at my friend, sitting back against the couch with a gratified sigh. "Good, I'm glad you won," I say, nestling back into the pillows. “And I hope Wright is stinking mad about it."

"Oh, I didn't win," Tony says, taking a big bite of his cookie. "You did. I got disqualified for friendly fire."

"Oh," I say, my eyes going wide as DQFF suddenly makes sense. "Really!?" I gasp, delighted. "I won!?"

A big cheer goes up in the room and I laugh, delighted as Luca bends down and opens his bookbag, pulling out not his homework - as I expected - but two bottles of whiskey and some tiny paper cups that he begins to fill and pass around.

"Luca!" I gasp as everyone cheers again at the sight of the liquor. "This is contraband -"noveldrama

"Oh, no one's checking," he says, laughing and handing me a little cup. "Besides, we deserve to celebrate! To Ari, champion of the day!"

Everyone begins to cheer again but I shout out to stop and raise my glass to Tony instead, insisting he take the honor. The cheer goes around and I give my friend a wink as we both salute each other and take deep sips from our cup. And as we lock eyes, I hope he understands that I really do owe him that favor. He nods deeply, letting me know that he accepts it and that he'll call it in, whenever he's ready.

"Wait, Tony,” Ben says, laughing and leaning forward towards him. "Aren't you afraid of the consequences of this?"

“What consequences?" Tony asks, putting his empty cup back on the table with a shrug.

Jesse just shakes his head at him. "Our professors value loyalty and trustworthiness above all things - it's not going to look good on your record, if you've got a history of defying your Commander and killing your comrades, even in a mock battle like this."

"Ah," Tony says, closing one eye and peering devilishly at Jesse. "See, that's where your mistaken, Sinclair - because your professors value loyalty and trustworthiness. Mine, however..." he shrugs. "Value a different set of equally admirable qualities in a Cadet."

"Tony,” Rafe says, leaning towards him, curious. “What are you talking about? What track are you?"

"I'm sort of...between tracks." Tony says cagily, though he's unable to keep the smile from twitching at his lips. "No big deal. Let's talk about Ari instead - so did you snipe all of those Cadets or -"

"No way," Jesse interrupts, grinning at him and shaking his head. "We've got the three tracks of the Academy represented here," Jesse continues, pointing at Ben, and then me, and then around at all the warriors in the room. "And you're not in any of our classes but magic. So? What do you do all day?"

Tony just shrugs, clearly pleased that we don't know his secret and not planning to give anything away.

Which is why it's a surprise when Daphne breaks the silence with her low, throaty laugh.

All eyes turn to her.

"You think you're so clever," she

says, leaning back against the couch

cushions and grinning at Tony as she crosses her arms over her chest. "You've got all of them fooled," she says, gesturing around the room at the rest of us, "but you didn't count on me, did you?"

Tony's grin deepens as he flicks his gaze to Daphne, perhaps for the first time. "And who the hell are you, gorgeous?"

Rafe and Jesse go rigid in their chairs.

"Oh, I'm no one," Daphne says, her

grin matching Tony's as she leans forward, her shining blue eyes locked on Tony's grey ones.

"Just, you know, the person who

sewed all of those little secret

pockets into your uniform, stitch by stitch."

Tony's mouth drops open as he gapes at her in delight. "No way," he whispers.

"Yup," she says, her grin deepening as she flicks @ finger at him, pointing directly at all of the places where I we can now assume that she's done some extra work on his clothes "Which is how I know that you're a member of the very elusive, very secret fourth track here at the Academy."

Tony sighs and shakes his head at Daphne, even as he smiles at her, clearly impressed. "Well go on," he says, raising a hand towards her in invitation. "You earned it, lady detective - go ahead and spill."

"I don't know," Daphne says, taking a deep and satisfied breath, "I would think there were some consequences for outing a secret...assassin."

A collective gasp goes through the room as we all snap our heads towards Tony, delighted and shocked.

Tony's shakes his head at Daphne and heaves a sigh. "Damn it, it's always the pretty ones who break your heart and spill your secrets."

Daphne grins back at him, I think thrilled to have figured it out, but my eyes shift to Rafe and Jesse, who both sit back in their chairs and narrow their eyes.