Chapter 7-Learning Leadership

Odett’s POV

  By the end of the first month, the twins no longer hesitated at the Academy doors. Zerina had learned to keep walking when someone whispered her name, and Zander had collected two warnings for talking through class. Dad blamed Zander. Mom pointed out where he had learned it. I kept my opinion to myself until she caught me smiling.

  ‘He is exactly like his father,’ Lorilie said with an amused laugh inside my head.

  The first-years studied history and law in the morning, then learned to fight and work as a team after lunch. Joshy and I spent our final year on problems our instructors refused to solve for us. In one exercise, four leadership teams had to negotiate a trade agreement while every participant was certain the others had cheated. Joshy enjoyed the arguments far more than I did.

  “You only hate them because you can’t punch the problem,” Joshy said with an amused grin after our third failed negotiation exercise.

  “I can punch the person causing the problem,” I reminded him with a frustrated glare.

  ‘Punching would be faster,’ Lorilie agreed with a satisfied growl.

  “That attitude is why the instructor gave us another week to reach an agreement,” Nolan said with a tired sigh.

  “The instructor gave us another week because your future Gamma insulted the vampire representative,” I argued while pointing toward Nolan’s leadership team.

  “He insulted me first,” Barrett said with a defensive expression.

  “He said werewolves rely too heavily on physical strength,” I reminded him with an unimpressed look.

  “That was an insult,” Barrett insisted with an irritated growl.

  “It was an observation,” the vampire heir, Cassian, corrected with a bored expression.

  “It was an accurate observation,” Joshy added with a teasing smile.

  Barrett growled at him, but Joshy only smiled wider.

  I closed my eyes and started counting. Mom usually made it to ten before she answered someone who annoyed her. By seven, I understood why she sometimes let the wind close a door for her.

  “We are supposed to negotiate a trade agreement before the end of the week,” I said.

  “If either of you threatens to bite someone again, I’m locking both of you in a room until you learn how to behave,” I continued with a warning glare.

  “You sounded like your mother,” Nolan said with an approving nod.

  “She didn’t threaten our fathers, so it wasn’t quite convincing,” Joshy corrected with a thoughtful expression.

  “I can still add that part,” I warned him with a sweet smile.

  ‘Now you sound like her,’ Lorilie said.

  We reached an agreement two days later. It was imperfect, but Barrett and Cassian had managed to speak without threatening each other, and no one had challenged anyone for a title. Uncle Orian called that progress. I hoped our next assignment would have fewer people who wanted to bite one another.

  The twins faced a different kind of attention. Zerina did well in class, but some students agreed with every word she said because she would be Queen. Others challenged her for the same reason. She came home tired of guessing whether anyone was being honest.

  Zander answered unwanted attention by annoying everyone equally. Gaven trailed Zerina with her books until she threatened to make him carry Zander’s too. Sean stayed quiet until someone said something foolish, then asked a question that exposed it. By autumn, they were beginning to work together, though their first team assessment went badly.

  “This assessment was unfair,” Zerina said with an angry huff as she dropped her papers onto the dining-room table.

  “How was it unfair?” Mom asked with a patient expression while placing a bowl of vegetables beside her.

  “They expected us to cross a simulated battlefield without losing any of the civilians assigned to our group,” Zerina explained with a frustrated frown.

  “That sounds like a reasonable expectation,” Dad said with a serious expression as he sat at the head of the table.

  “We would have succeeded if Zander had followed the plan,” Gaven said with an accusing glare.

  “We would have succeeded if the plan hadn’t been terrible,” Zander argued with an offended expression.

  “You ran directly into enemy territory,” Zerina reminded him with a furious glare.

  “The enemy was distracted after that,” Zander said with a proud grin.

  “They were distracted because they were chasing you,” Sean explained with his usual calm expression.

  “That means it worked,” Zander replied with a shrug.

  “You abandoned the civilians,” Zerina snapped with growing anger.

  “I knew you would protect them,” Zander said.

  Zerina started to answer, then stopped. Dad set down his fork and waited until Zander met his eyes. I had seen that look before, usually when I had mistaken a lucky outcome for a good decision.

  “Did Zander explain that part of his plan before he ran into enemy territory?” Dad asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “No,” Zerina answered with an irritated expression.

  “Then it wasn’t a plan,” Dad explained firmly.

  “It was a risk that happened to work,” Dad continued with a pointed look.

  Zander’s smile faded. Across the table, Gaven still looked angry, but he stopped gripping his fork as if it were a weapon. Zerina glanced at her brother and waited for him to explain.

  ‘A reckless risk,’ Lorilie said with a disapproving huff. ‘He was lucky his team understood him.’

  “A leadership team succeeds because its members trust one another, but trust requires communication,” Mom added with a gentle expression.

  “They can’t understand what you’re trying to do if you never tell them,” Mom said.

  “I thought they would figure it out,” Zander muttered with embarrassment.

  “That is how your father plans most of his battles,” Mom said with an innocent smile.

  “I communicate,” Dad argued with a wounded expression.

  “You told us to follow you before jumping from a roof during the war,” Uncle Orian said with a laugh from across the table.

  “You followed me,” Dad reminded him with a pointed look.

  “I didn’t want you to die alone,” Uncle Orian replied with an unapologetic grin.

  Dad and Orian argued through dinner about that old rooftop jump. By dessert, Zerina and Zander were speaking again, quietly testing a different way to cross the simulated field with Gaven and Sean. Neither apologized in front of the adults, but they had heard each other.

  At dinner, the Academy seemed to be giving them exactly what Dad had hoped for. Other days showed how much work remained. A wolf called a witch student useless in combat, and two vampires persuaded a fairy student to let them feed from him by promising it would make him stronger. A siren with an old injury was accused of influencing an instructor with a voice she could barely use. The Academy dealt with each incident, but punishment alone could not undo what the students had learned at home.