“Your friend needs rest. You should all go. We will send a message when he’s ready to have visitors or when he’s released,” the healer cuts in.
“Yes, sir.” I nod in deference to the healer and lead my friends back through the halls.
“This doesn’t change anything. Yes, Adrian knows everything that needs to happen to get us to the desired outcome but we’re still going in blind. He can only tell us so much.” Jayden wraps an arm around my waist.
“The only thing that’s changing is when we leave. Other than that, the plan is the same. We get to Arcadia and find the temple of Hermes so we can stop a global war.” I turn back to the training fields through the forest.
“I want to make sure they aren’t giving our friends crap about splitting the cliques up and making them all work together,” Raven says.
“Hopefully they have it through their thick skulls by now that what they were doing isn’t working and if we’re going to survive what’s to come, they need to work together.”
We stand back away from the two groups to observe training. The students without battle magic are running through drills, testing endurance and strength, while the others are paired off, practicing their hand-to-hand skills.
Jackson barks at two of his brothers, “The fuck do you knuckleheads think you’re doing? You’re not pairing together. Find someone else to spar with.”
My brows rise practically to my hairline as he turns back to Sara and gets into his fighting stance. He’s taking this seriously. I guess losing to Sara in the ring humbled him a bit. Is he just now realizing that he can actually learn something from the other demigods outside his siblings?
“That was unexpected,” I say.
“Not really,” Raven replies. “Jackson’s a hothead but when you teach him a lesson that he deems important, he’s all in. Sara did a number on him and I think now he’s eager to learn.”
“Well, I’m glad. We need leaders while we’re gone that will get these guys into shape quickly,” I say.
“If only the rest of the academy could even grudgingly accept the truth, we wouldn’t have to continuously babysit them.” Jayden squeezes my hand.
“Maybe with more of the Ares guys learning to be humble, more of the others will get the hint.”
“I hope so,” Raven mumbles. “They don’t have a ton of time to prepare.”
“They don’t. Maybe training should have been mandatory from the beginning,” I say with a sigh.
“Don’t do that, baby. You were trying to give them freedom to choose for themselves if they wanted to fight, even though we all know there’s an inevitability to them fighting anyway. Theyforced your hand by not obeying the rules of the academy.” Jayden cups my cheek.
“What if it’s not enough?” I ask.
“We’ll handle that,” Jackson says behind me.
I turn to find him and Sara standing next to each other, their arms crossed over their chests.
“We’re going to continue the rigorous training sessions and maybe some team building exercises while you guys go and save all our asses again,” Sara says and glances up at Jackson.
I glance at Raven from the corner of my eye, catching the goofy grin on her face. She’s thinking the same thing I am about these two. Ares men value strength and badass women over everything else. Sara put him on his ass at least once that I saw.
“I appreciate you guys coming together despite the differences between you.” I nod.
“We aren’t that different.” Sara grins at Jackson. “None of us want to die because of H…”
“Nope,” I cut her off. “Do not invoke queen bitchface.”
“Right, sorry. I forgot that whole names have that power thing for a second.” Sara shakes her head.
“All good. Just don’t say her name around me.”
“What team building exercises were you thinking?” Jayden asks.
“If we can get the Hephaestus kids on board, I was thinking we could do a chariot race or something,” Jackson says, excited.
“It could also teach them battle techniques in stressful situations,” Sara agrees.
