She stumbled back, the emotional probing of her power falling away from my mental shield. I swept her legs out from under her, sending her into the snow with a satisfying thud.
Pride gleamed in her smile as she looked up at me, and for a brief moment, I felt the weight of it settle in my chest. It had been a long time since I’d felt that kind of acceptance from her. Even before I was kidnapped, our relationship had been rocky. I wasn’t sure what it was anymore—but I missed that look.
“Good.” She took my outstretched hand and stood. “But using my concern for you against me won’t work on most of Hell’s elite military. You’ll have to find a different manipulation tactic.”
“I’ve read about others in a strategy and warfare book,” I admitted, pretty sure I was still sleeping on it as we spoke.
She nodded. “And if manipulation doesn’t work…” She threw a punch at my face, catching me off guard.
I fell on my ass, avoiding the hit, and my metal barrier crumbled.
“You’ll need to move faster and react faster. It’s you or them.”
“I’m well aware, Mom.”
“You should also stay away from Lucifer and Ronen.”
“Mom, Lucifer and the general have saved my life at least two, maybe three, times now,” I added quickly, counting the river incident in my mind. “Stop being paranoid. The only ones trying to kill me are my squadmates and the squad leader. So teach me how to survive againstthem.”
She seemed to agree, though reluctantly, and we practiced—well, I couldn’t tell how long, since time worked differently in dream-walks—but it felt like hours. Most of that time, I ended up flat on my back.
When I wokeup in the library, I was surprised my body wasn’t one big throbbing bruise. And even more surprised that it was still dark outside.
Chapter
Twenty
LUCILLE
“Ihate you,” Oliver whined, zipping up the collar of his coat and throwing up his hood, which continued to fall in the wind.
“I know.”
“I hate you.”
“Oliver! Shut up! I got it the last forty times you said it!” I panted. “Suck it up. We’ve only run half of the way so far.”
He groaned. “Ran-walked.”
Ugh. “I know!”
Change didn’t happen in the blink of an eye. I didn’t expect to be able to run the entire ten miles after barely managing five. So of course we ran and we walked through the negative-degree weather to achieveour goal.
Or at least I did—and I hadn’t even gone to bed, not counting the nap in the library. After deciding to wake Oliver from sleep to train, he half-assed his run behind me, kicking every stick and pebble along the way. I should’ve left his grumpy ass in bed, but he needed this as much as I did. Every minute counted, and if one of us could rank and gain the general’s favor, we’d be halfway to rescuing Aspen and Oliver’s sister.
And if we didn’t rank… well, there was always befriending the general. The thought almost made me laugh out loud, but I had no air in my lungs for that.
“We could’ve at least waited until there was no freeze-your-face-off wind chill. And not in the middle of the fucking night!” Oliver’s complaints were on a never-ending rotation, sandwiched between the I hate yous, the you’re crazys,and the I’m not carrying your passed-out ass up that hill again.
“This is our new reality. Every day, every night. So get used to it, and take it like Rune is.”
She ran next to us with an ease I both envied and adored, her tongue lolling out.
“Rune was created for Hell! I was not!”
Strangling him sounded tempting. I was about to rip into him when a mischievous smile graced his face. He hadn’t smiled once since we got out here, and now he was?
“Oliver,” I warned. “Don’t you dare?—”
