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

She clutched the package closer to her chest. It was wrapped in fabric, but it had the distinct shape of a thick tome. Maybe it was the Codex. Maybe it wasn’t. Didn't matter.

Sam unsheathed his sword. He could hear Mattie and Rosin shuffling toward him, around him, forming a triangle around the girl with Drina’s lifted knife as the point, caging the thief in. They closed in on her, an arm’s length away from her.

Nobody moved.

That is, until Mattie inched her foot underneath a large tree branch that happened to be next to her, kicked it up in the air, grabbed it with both hands, and swung as hard as she could at the girl's head.

Everything happened quickly after that.

The girl ducked then grabbed Mattie’s arm as it flew above her head. Drina’s knife shrieked through the air and impaled the tree where the girl’s head was not a second before. Mattie gasped and dropped the stick, holding her stomach with both hands.

“Sword!” Rosin shouted. Sam tossed it at her and she caught it before swinging it at the girl. Drina had pulled two more knives from spirits knew where and flew toward the thief.

The thief tossed the book to the ground and lifted her arm, bringing out the weapon that had been strapped to her back. It was a thin flail, sleek and slim and black. Expensive. That was seabone. Toxic metal from the Meeran sea. Sam could recognize the beautifully shaped white waves along the handle anywhere. There was no other metal that looked like marble, and he didn’t think that even the likes of Delcan could afford such a rare import from a country stamped with a trade embargo. She was Meeran nobility, and very high up.

The thief swung the flail and the thick, sleek chain flew toward Rosin’s head. Sam yelled and dashed toward them. Rosin bent backward just in time to avoid losing her nose. Drina shrieked and leaped for the girl’s back, both knives poised for an overhead sweep.

The thief didn’t even look at her as she grabbed Rosin and used her like a springboard. The thief sailed over Rosin and Drina crashed right into the petite blonde.

The thief was very good, better than the lot of them. There was no telling how old she was under that full black mask, but she had a few years of experience on them at the very least.

Mattie was laying on the ground, gagging like she needed to vomit but couldn’t. Drina had all but flattened Rosin, who was clutching at her belly and groaning. She scrambled up to go at the thief again, but the girl in black grabbed dropped her weapon just in time to grab both of her wrists.

Sam saw his chance. Drina doubled over and heaved, looking like she was going to get sick right on her opponent. The thief released her, but when she realized that Sam was close, it was already too late.

When he closed the distance between them, he gave no quarter and took no chances.

He leaped for the girl in black and wrapped his arms around her waist, taking her to the ground as he fell, smashing her chest with his shoulder even as bile rose in his throat.

The girl hissed and struggled with all of her might, kicking out and screaming. She shoved both hands onto Sam’s chest and he gagged, his dinner threatening to spew all over the ground. Let it. He would just puke all over her.

He pinned the girl's hands above her head and flipped her squirming onto her stomach. His vision blurred and he hunched over, spewing somewhere on the ground. He didn't let go.

Maddie stumbled toward them, her hand on her mouth and the deepest frown he'd ever seen on her face. When she kneeled down and reached for the black mask, the thief bucked wildly, but Sam pressed down on her with his full weight, throwing up a second time, his grip tightening on her hands.

Mattie pulled the material up and the thief tried to turn her head away, but Sam grabbed the back of her neck and kept her still. He almost let go out of surprise when Mattie pulled the hood off.

June.

“Figures,” Mattie muttered darkly.

“I’m coming!” Drina shouted from somewhere behind him. “Sorry! Guess my gag reflex isn’t as tough as I thought!”

She was joking even now, probably because she felt the Sam thing Sam was feeling. Relief. They’d finally caught the thief…well, one of them. Drina rounded them, shucking off her shirt and ripping into it in the process.

June had gone completely still. She looked beyond them, her mouth a thin line.

“I knew it was you,” Drina said conversationally. She balled up one of the strips from her shirt and bent down to shove it into June’s mouth. “I said to myself, ‘if June is crazy enough to like Delcan, she’s crazy enough to be involved in some national conspiracy. Good thing she’s shit at running.’”

June’s nostrils flared.

“Can you hurry up and do her hands?” Sam groaned, right before he puked again. June squealed and tried to wiggle away. When he recovered from the bout of heaving, he glanced at the little bit of sick in her hair.

“Well if you don't want me to throw up on you, June, stop using your talent. It's useless anyway. You lost. We know who you are, we saw your weapon.”

“Okay! I’m alright!” Rosin slowly sat up beside the tree and pushed herself to her feet before dragging herself to the tome that lay forgotten on the ground. She picked it up and pushed the cloth away from it, letting it drop to the ground.

“What is this?” She muttered, flipping it open. Her eyebrows jumped up her forehead, then the space between her brows dimpled, her face drawn in concentration. Her eyes moved from the book to June then back again.

“It’s a roster,” Rosin said, flipping the pages back and forth. “Of students, looks like. Decades of them.”

“Hey,”