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“The laws of physics,” I muttered.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
I shrugged. “Kinesiology, then. Or geometry. Take your pick. My knees bend, gravity works, there’s room on the bench, I’m sitting.”
She glared at me. “You don’t know when to quit, do you?”
“Do you?” My patience was wearing thin.
She laughed. “What are you going to do, kick my ass?”
“Nah. I’ll persuade you to kick your own ass.”
She clenched her jaw as her eyes flashed. “I’ll see you in Combat, you little bitch.”
“You guys really need to come up with better insults. I’m a fucking demon. You think bitch is going to hurt my feelings?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kai hide a smirk behind his sandwich. A flash of ridiculous hope rushed through my veins—and with it, a charge of energy. I grinned at Sonja.
“What the fuck are you smiling about?”
“You got a problem with people smiling now? Damn. You’re going to make one hell of a Custodian.”
The redhead gritted her teeth and pushed to her feet. She snatched up her tray and stormed out of the cafeteria.
“Shit. I’m going to pay for that in Combat today,” I said under my breath.
“Worth it,” Kai murmured.
His approval and Sonja’s tantrum gave me back my appetite. I tore into my lunch, actively looking forward to Combat class.
Unfortunately, that high only lasted until class actually started. With the guys scattered to the four corners of the cavernous room, I was back to feeling like an eighty-year-old after a weekend bender. Our instructor, Atticus Beedle, paired me up with Mia, a girl who was caramel-colored everywhere. Hair, skin, eyes, all caramel. I wondered if that was how she was born or if she had decided on that form, but I never got the chance to ask. As soon as Beedle blew the whistle, Mia was flying at my face.
I barely blocked her from demolishing my nose. She adjusted and went for my ribs. I went to sweep her legs out from underneath her, but she just jumped over my foot like she was skipping rope and shot a punch at my jaw. It rattled my entire head. The pain wasn’t nearly as bad as my frustration though. I knew all the moves, why wasn’t my body reacting?
The only plus side was that all of us first-years were still on hand-to-hand combat, while the second-years were fighting each other with lengths of rebar on the other side of the room. The clang-clang of metal on metal resounded in my head, amplifying my migraine. I just wanted it to be over. Mi
a hit me again and again. Each time I narrowly avoided going down.
She grinned at me. She was cocky, and it made her sloppy. I took full advantage. When she swung wide, I caught her in the solar plexus, and she crumpled like a rag doll. Victory gave me a burst of energy, and I lifted my fists to the ceiling.
That… was a mistake.
“Shit! Watch out!”
I heard the words through a red-ringed migraine haze. Everybody was running. Toward me, away from me, scattering like roaches. I looked up, and the world slowed down.
The piece of rebar flying toward me looked like a small silver disk at first. By the time I realized what it was, the steel was already piercing my flesh.
My whole body jerked from the impact, as if I’d been hit by a car. Shock tore through my system, and I vaguely recognized the sound of metal clanging against the floor behind me.
That… that means it missed. Doesn’t it?
I looked down in a daze at my bent body. The rebar was sticking out of my stomach, pinning me to the floor in an awkward sort of backbend. But I couldn’t feel it.
Why can’t I feel it?
Shock.
