Ilean in the doorway to the small utility room at the back of the cabin, which has been transformed into a gym.
After a night alone with Bird, when I found myself regretting not taking up Joker’s offer to share his bed with Phantom, I sought out the Beta and found him here, busy with his dawn workout.
Impressed, I watch him running on the treadmill, which dominates the back wall.
Joker is dressed in a tight olive t-shirt and training pants. He is so focused that he hasn’t noticed me. He’s running fast, and I know enough to realize just how good his form is. His breathing is controlled and rhythmic.
He looks born to be a runner.
Yet life isn’t fair.
I know that.
If Joker’s dad hadn’t burned down the house…if his sister and he hadn’t been separated because she’d been a Rogue…if he hadn’t been taken as a Companion…if he hadn’t gone into the military…
Butifdoesn’t exist.
It’s simply how we comfort ourselves. It’s a lie.
Jokerisa Rogue Switch. Heisan outlaw.
And now, heismy pack.
I swagger into the gym over the rubber mats.
Rain drums on the metal roof. I can see the wet trees and swirling fog through the narrow window.
In the far corner, divided from the workout area, is a low workbench. It is covered with the evidence of gadgets at the different stages of invention.
Interesting.
My nose scrunches up at the mingled scents of iron, rubber, and sweat.
Dumbbells are stacked by size along the wall. A barbell, ankle weights, and balance boards rest on a rack, paired with a simple, padded bench. I eye a pull-up bar that has been bolted into the wall studs. The wall around it shows the marks from frequent use.
These men are clearly gym bunnies, which is obvious from both their defined muscles and levels of fitness.
I can’t wait to spar with them.
It was thrilling to fight someone in the Sanctum Lodge room who was able to dodge my attacks. I have never met anyone like that before. But then, now I know Joker’s secret advantage: he’s a Rogue like me.
On the other hand, he praised Phantom as being even better at hand-to-hand combat than he is.
And isn’t that exciting?
I grin, glancing at the gymnastic rings and jump ropes that lie abandoned on the mats.
I am still dressed in the black kitten woolen pajamas, which Phantom bought me and I had to be coaxed into wearing by Bird with laughter and kisses. But they’ll be all right to wear for simple exercises.
I snatch up the jump rope and check it, as my instructors taught me.
My lips thin at the thought of the hours I spent every day with my instructors in Adonis Hall. It wasn’t like this contented quiet with Joker, where we have both chosen our own exercise and pace.
Instead, I had a schedule set by someone else. I was pushed past my limits. I was forged into a weapon for someone else to use.
Now, I am my own weapon, and everyone who once made me what I am today had better watch out.
I settle my weight. Then I flick my wrists and start to jump.
