Sauter (Ironside Academy, #3)
Jane Washington
Disclaimer
Some crystals dissolve in water.
This will make sense later.
Ironside Academy Map
To view the map of Ironside, please scan the QR code below or click HERE.
Ironside Academy Playlist
To listen to the playlist for the Ironside series, please scan the QR code below or click HERE.
Ironside Academy Cheat Sheet
To view the character cheat sheet for the Ironside series, please scan the QR code below or click HERE.
Main Character List
This book has ELEVEN main characters, which is a lot!
Feel free to bookmark this page if you have trouble keeping track of them all. (In order of age).
Isobel Carter Moses Kane Theodore Kane Elijah Reed Gabriel Spade Cian Ashford Niko Hart Kilian Gray Oscar Sato Mikel Easton Kalen West
1
Soul Infraction
Isobel drifted in and out of consciousness for what seemed like an eternity, bobbing up and down like a rag doll tossed into a stream and pulled along with the current. Sometimes she was in free fall, tumbling down a waterfall with no end in sight. She thought she screamed when that happened, but it never amounted to anything. No impact when she landed. No sudden submersion. One minute she was falling, and the next, she was asleep again.
Sometimes she passed through warmer currents where she drifted closer to the surface, sunlight striving to stroke her cheeks. That was when she knew she was herself, and someone was holding her. She was cocooned in a warm, resinous scent. Sweet, like a drop of honey on the tip of her tongue, but deep, earthy and woody. Amber. It sank into her nose and mouth, filling her up until there was no room for the water she drifted through to spill into her lungs and drown her. After some time, the stream turned into a cloud and she was no longer bobbing, but floating.
She tried to edge away from the heat when it grew too much, but burning hands always dragged her back, tucking her against muscles that seemed tight and stiff with tension. His voice was the first tangible thing she registered after days of floating. It was as tight and tense as his body, biting out a harsh word to someone else. An unfamiliar voice answered, sounding calm and measured, their tone resonant. It was clearer than the rasped rebuttal from the warm body wrapped behind her.
“You cannot lie to me,” the calm stranger stated. It was impossible to tell their gender.
Isobel flinched at the change in the amber scent wrapped around her, that drop of honey against her tongue souring into something acidic that burned her taste buds.
“And you still haven’t told me how you manage to get in here every damn day.” The words were growled out of the warm body behind her.
“We walk from the chapel to the hospital,” a third voice supplied. It was droll. Young and feminine with a sharp, sardonic undertone. Another stranger.
Isobel peeled her eyes open, the movement taking far more effort than it should have.
“She’s awake,” the androgynous voice stated. “You’re overheating her, by the way.”
“Fuck off.” It was Theodore holding her, his gravelled tone ripping through her body. She was curled in his lap in a hospital bed, the back of the bed raised to allow him to sit up while he cradled her.
He was also very warm.
“Illy?” His voice softened instantly, his hand supporting her head as she tried to lift it up. His thumb brushed across her cheek. “Welcome back.” His eyes narrowed on hers like he had more to say, but he only sucked in a breath, his pupils dilating as they flicked over her features before he turned back to the other voices. “Now isn’t a good time.”
“Now is the perfect time,” the younger voice replied. “That’s why we came now.”
“Hush, Sophia,” the androgynous stranger scolded.
Isobel dragged her attention to the speaker. A tall woman with skin like cinnamon baked happily in the sun and elegant, narrow eyes that stared unflinchingly back at her. The deep, gold-ringed, mahogany hue of her stare unsettled Isobel, making her shrink back against Theodore.
The woman was an Alpha. Her grey hair was cut short, the strands flat and straight, and she was wearing plain, threadbare clothes, her grey shirt sporting mismatched buttons, though the cloth was perfectly pressed and probably better cared for than the numerous designer outfits Isobel had been stitched into during …
The settlement tour.
She shuddered, her teeth mashing together as pain laced through her body and mind.
“Get the nurse!” Theodore barked.
The Alpha with the grey hair stepped closer, peering at Isobel. She towered over the bed, her dark brown eyes shrewd. There was a small pin in her collar, a silver lyre. Her only adornment.
“Both of her eyes have changed,” the woman noted. “She’s been wearing a contact.” Her tone was devoid of shock or curiosity. She was simply making a calm observation. “I suppose the bond specialist wouldn’t have thought to check the authenticity of her normal-looking iris.”
“You’re seeing things,” Theodore growled, cuddling Isobel closer, his hand cupping her face, blocking off her view of the woman. And hiding her eyes.
She pulled his hand down with shaking fingers—the Alpha woman had already seen her eyes—and watched as the other woman thrust out her arm, offering Isobel her palm.
“Maya Rosales,” she introduced herself. “You can call me Maya, or Guardian Rosales if you like. I keep the chapel.”
Isobel’s brow furrowed as she stared at the hand, some of her remembered pain slipping away as she was distracted by the very hot, vibrating body curled behind her. Theodore felt like he was seconds away from lunging forward and ripping the older Alpha’s entire arm off.
“K-Keep the chapel?” Isobel’s voice cracked, the words barely dragged into existence as she slipped her hand weakly into Maya’s.
“The academy tries to keep a Guardian on grounds for the students who still follow the Gifted religion.” Maya immediately turned Isobel’s hand, revealing the deep wounds spidering up her arm. They looked like scattered lightning bolts, raw and puckered, a deep angry red. Stitches knitted her skin back together.
Theodore finally snapped, gripping the other woman’s wrist between his thumb and forefinger. He flung it away from Isobel before tucking her arm gently back in against her chest.
“These are my children,” Maya continued, without so much as a flinch at Theodore’s overreaction. “They came to work as my Soul Keepers.” The Guardian stepped out of the way, revealing a girl around Isobel’s age and a boy who couldn’t have been older than nine. “Sophia and Luis. They don’t usually accompany me on my hospital rounds, but Luis is quite the Ironside fan. I hope you don’t mind.”