Page 100 of Wicked Enemy
Stopping in front of the desk, I clasped my hands behind my back and dipped my chin. “Captain.”
For a few seconds, he only tried to stare me down from behind his desk. It worked poorly given that he was sitting down. And even if he hadn’t been, he was still shorter than me so he couldn’t technically stare down at me.
“Once again, you screwed up our entire operation.”
I blinked, genuine shock pulsing through me. “I… what?”
He slammed his palm down on the desk, forcefully enough to make the white ceramic mug jump and the pens inside it rattle in fear. “We walked right into an ambush!”
“It wasn’t an ambush,” I protested. “We surprised them and they fought back before fleeing. If it had been an ambush, lots of people would have died. But no one did, which means that—”
“Don’t talk back to me!” Anger flashed in his eyes like violent lightning strikes as he shot up from his chair and stabbed a hand in my direction. “According to my sources, Arden wasn’t even there. He was halfway across the city, slaughtering the other gang leaders.”
I had asked Levi about those deals after we had finished fucking each other’s brains out, so he had already told me what had gone down with the worldwalker and the other gang leaders. But I wasn’t supposed to know that, so I jerked back slightly and blinked at him as if in shock.
“He killed the other gang leaders?” I asked, keeping my eyes wide and my voice full of disbelief. “All of them?”
“Yes. So now, he rules the entire south side. And all because we were searching on the wrong side of the city!” He narrowed his eyes at me. “If I didn’t know better, I would almost think that you worked for him.”
I threw my arms out in a show of frustration. “How is any of this my fault? I got the information from one of our spies. A man who had the password of the day. And I just passed it along to you.”
“Arden must have gotten to our spy and somehow blackmailed or threatened him into giving you false information. You should have noticed that.”
“How the hell am I supposed to have noticed something like that?”
“Silence!” Stalking around the desk, he prowled up to me with anger still crackling across his features. “You do not curse at me and you do not raise your voice at me. Is that clear, Sterling?”
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to lower my gaze. “Yes, Captain.”
“Good. Now, you should have noticed any irregular behavior from that spy. But you didn’t. And because of that, you led us into an ambush.”
We both knew that that was bullshit. But the parliament was no doubt furious that Levi had been able to become the sole dark mage leader of the south side, so they wanted someone to blame. And Captain Wright had apparently decided that that person was me.
“I warned you, Sterling,” he began in a hard voice, but I swore I could almost hear a hint of smugness in it too. “That I would tolerate no more mistakes from you. And yet, you screwed up again.”
There were several other things I would have liked to say in response, but I still managed to press out the expected, “I’m sorry, Captain.”
“It’s too late for that. From here on, you are demoted to archives duty.”
I snapped my head up. Shock and alarm slammed into me like a tidal wave. With eyes wide, I stared at Wright. “What?”
The hint of a smirk lurked at the corner of his lips as he declared, “You have been demoted. Report to the archives straight away.”
Thick silence descended on the room as I just stared at him, but I barely heard it because my ears were ringing as if I had taken a blow to the head.
Demoted.
Archives duty.
It had taken me years to work my way up the ladder to become a Senior Constable. And now, within the span of just a few short weeks, I had been demoted toarchives duty.
It felt as if Wright had just pushed me off the side of a building.
How was I supposed to help people, to carry on Ulric’s legacy and honor my father’s memory, if I was stuck behind a desk in the fucking archives?
“You can’t do this,” I blurted out.
A vicious smile blew across his lips. “Watch me.”