AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After watching her spar with some of her students, I’d grown nervous. She’d had no intention of deviating from her daytime session for Reese and I, so we’d warmed up with the others, stretched, and attempted to practice the moves the others were doing, but I was confident that we were only embarrassing ourselves.
From the pitying looks we had gotten from the other Newbies, maybe “embarrassing” was an understatement.
Night classes were a different story altogether. With the full force of Lucia’s attention on us, it’d been a struggle not to glance at Reese every two seconds to see if she was okay. Despite our training earlier this morning and her time spent working with the scholars, she seemed to be holding up well.
It had also helped that Neo had volunteered to be our medic tonight during training, and I was almost a hundred percent certain that he’d healed Reese earlier in the day. We’d been healed up after training this morning, but the soreness still lingered within me—I could only imagine what it must have felt like for Reese.
Hand-to-hand training had taken place in the yard where Lady Magnolia had attacked Reese and me. Her thick vines had still sat, unmoving, at the base of the pole, but there was no mistake about her presence still lingering as Lucia instructed us.
“I will test you tonight,” Lucia had started. “I saw you this morning as you tried to keep up with the others, and I’m going to be frank with you: You’re terrible. You’re going to need a lot of work to catch up with your classmates—Goodnight, Commander Thorn.”
Reese and I swiveled in the direction of the Commander as he stepped gingerly out into the yard. “Don’t mind me,” he’d said, joining Neo where he leaned against the wall of the food hall. “I’m just here to watch. Carry on.”
Lucia eyed him skeptically for a few minutes, then turned her attention back to us. “As I was saying, you have a lot of work to do.”
She’d stepped into the center of the yard. “I know that everyone has individual strengths and weaknesses, so I’m going to assess you by pitting you against me. This’ll be something easy. All you have to do is get me on my back once. But ifIgetyouon your back five times before that, you’ll have to give me one hundred push-ups.”
Reese and I had gaped at her.
“Reese, you’re up first,” she’d said with a grin, motioning with a crook of her finger for her to come closer. “I saw you during weapons training. You can do this.”
When Reese had remained frozen, I sympathized with her. Lucia was intimidating; there was no way she couldn’t have seen why we might have been a little apprehensive about fighting her.
Reese had taken a steadying breath, and I watched her glance towards Neo in what she probably thought was a discreet move that Neo and I had caught anyway. I’d made a mental note to have a word with Neo about what was happening between them—if there was even anything at all—the next time I could get him alone.
She had lasted longer in the ring than I expected. She lacked finesse, but she was quick, nimble, and intelligent. She’d also been scared out of her mind, granted, but she’d got back up each time Lucia laid her out. In fact, after the first round, she’d stood, chest out and hands clenched at her sides, as she’d demanded to go again.
And Lucia had obliged.
It was clear that Reese had been struggling by the third round, but Lucia had kept going due to her determination. I would’ve thought it was admirable, too, if I hadn’t thought it was reckless of her. I’d tried to make eye contact with the Commander or Neo to get them to stop this since I couldn’t afford to intervene with the way Reese was continuing to keep her silence around me.
Neither had.
When Reese had finally tapped out, she’d been smiling. Sure, she’d been bruised and sweaty, but she’d been grinning widely, mirroring Lucia’s own mirth.
When I stepped up next, Lucia’s expression smoothed out. She’d shaken out her hands and stared at me. “Do your best,” she said.
And I’d tried, but it became very obvious, very quickly that I did not have the same finesse as Reese. I was quick, yes, faster than her, but I couldn’t outrun Lucia in the yard. I couldn’t outsmart her either.
Lucia had made no effort to attack me, but it was clear that she’d been growing frustrated with my attempts to run from her.
I had feigned dodging left and jerked right as Lucia stumbled to catch me on the left. She’d stopped altogether when she turned to find me behind her.
“Is that it? You intend to run from your adversaries?” she’d snarled, stomping toward me. I’d blanched at her expression, my muscles tensing as she approached. “You intend to take the coward's way out?”
“I… No?”
“Is that a question, Aria? Are you asking me?” She’d stepped right into my personal space. “Are you a coward?”
Her voice had been level, her citrine eyes bouncing between mine as her face pinched up in disgust.
I’d swallowed. “No.”
She’d snatched me by the arm before I could read her intentions, then spun me away from her and right into the leg she’d stuck out. I’d landed with athudon my face. She’d settled on my back, her knee pressed into my spine and her hands folding my arms into my back.
“I think you’re lying,” she mocked, bending so that her mouth was near my ear. “I think you’re faking it.”
I’d bucked beneath her. “What the fuck—”
