Spycraft Academy by B. Miles (little readers .txt) 📕

Sam didn’t say anything because she was right. This wasn’t the first time he’d put himself into a slumber coma.

“You can’t keep doing this, Sam.” Rosin sat on the bed beside him and brushed his hair from his face. “Your body can’t handle this much stress. It just won’t do it.”

“Yeah, you can't keep waiting around all night for the thief to show up, go to class, practice fencing, and have a fuck party every night.”

“Drina!” Rosin gasped.

“What? I’m just calling it how it is.”

Sam let himself sink into the bed, content for Rosin to fuss over him and the other two to figure everything out for now. He was tapping out for the next twenty-four hours.

Suddenly, his eyes went wide and he bolted into a sitting position. “The fencing tournament is tomorrow!”

Drina scoffed and folded her arms. “You think you’ll be able to walk to the arena?”

“I’m fine.” Sam tossed his blankets away and swung his legs around. It must have been the adrenaline or something, because his body was ready to move, he was ready to keep going.

“Like hell you are,” Mattie said.

Okay, he wasn’t fine, exactly. “Yeah, alright, you’re absolutely, unequivocally correct. I can’t keep doing this, and I wouldn’t have had to in the first place if the thief would just make his damn move already. So how about this: let’s force his hand. The lead we have right now is June, more accurately, Delcan. We were gonna break into Duncan's room once, why not actually do it this time? If he's involved in something nefarious and he's got June doing his dirty work, he'll have evidence in his room.”

“That's…not a bad idea, actually,” Mattie said.

“Well, do you feel better? Did staying out today help?” Rosin asked.

“Yeah, like I said, I feel fine.” And he did. He felt totally normal now, as if he hadn’t gone two weeks straight without even a minimal amount of rest. The girls were right, though. He couldn't do this once every six months and then just pass out for a full day. That wasn't productive. He wanted his strength and focus back.

“We still have the poison dart,” Sam said. “We could stick him while he's in the shower, and that'll give us enough time to look through his room thoroughly. Once we find out what he's up to, we can stop him prematurely, and I can get some regular sleep.”

“Alright, let’s do it tonight, then,” Drina said.

“He doesn’t feel good!” Rosin’s voice turned into a high-pitched, aggressive snarl and Sam’s eyebrows rose. Drina and Mattie looked just as surprised.

“I mean…” Rosin curled in on herself, “can’t this wait until he’s had more sleep?”

“No way.” Sam stood up and the stone floor chilled his bare feet. “Let’s get this over with.

“Okay, but Sam—”

He looked at Rosin.

“You’ve really got to let us take more of these night shifts. You wouldn't feel so tired if you just let us help you.”

He sighed. She was right. They were all right, damn them. “Yeah, that's what Apelles said. It just doesn't feel right letting you guys do this when I should be the one doing it. What if one of you got hurt? I couldn’t live with that.

Mattie huffed. “You're so arrogant sometimes. You don't think that we can handle the exact same job that you've been doing? We're grown women, Samson Croft. You think we’d be in this school if we weren’t capable?

Sam smiled softly at her. “I know you can do it, Mattie, but it just doesn't feel right. I can't explain it, but it just feels like something that I have to do.”

“Well, not anymore!” Drina chirped. “Majority rules. We're helping. And if you try and stop us, I guess you'll just be sitting out with us at night. And then two of us will be tired instead of one, which is wasteful. So…don’t do that.”

Sam gave in rather easily. It would be nice to let somebody handle it sometimes. It would be nice to rest and not feel like he was going to pass out during class or studying for a test after hours. Apelles was right: Sam had to let go of his control. He had to trust his crew. Otherwise, why were they his crew to begin with?

“Alright, fine,” he said.

“Great. Not that we were asking for your permission,” Drina said. Mattie rolled her eyes and nudged the tray toward Sam.

“So, what's the plan with Delcan?” Mattie asked.

“Well,” Sam said, “he takes a shower around the eighth hour every night. After that, he usually hangs around with his crew in one of their rooms. They never go to his room for some reason. I don't think they like to be in his space, or maybe he doesn't like them in his space, and probably for good reason if he's doing something with June.

“I can go in the shower,” Drina said. Sam opened his mouth to tell her no way.

But she held up her hands. “I’m being serious this time. Look, if Sam goes in the shower, he's going to freak out. There’s probably going to be a fight after that, and there's no telling if you'd actually win, especially right now. Mattie, if you or Rosin go in, he's going to be suspicious, but if I go in, he may just think that he charmed me into it.”

She had a valid point. But the idea of a naked Delcan putting his eyes all over her, thinking of her in the way that Sam thought of her, raised the hairs on the back of his neck and made him hate the blonde man just a little bit more. Drina must have read his mind, or maybe his expression was just that obvious.

“Seriously, I'll be fine. It's not like I'm going to fuck him.”

“What if he takes it the wrong way and puts his hands all over you? What are you going to do then, scream?”

“By the spirits’ tits, Sam! Scream? Really? I’ll stab him with the dart, obviously.