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“Listen to yourself!” I roared. “You haven’t known her for even a week, yet you’re defending her! What the fuck?!”
“You sound a lot like Azazel when you shout.”
His words zapped the ire right out of me. I sucked in a harsh breath as I took him in.
He’d stepped away from me. “Yeah, you sound just as insane as our father. I’m not doing it. Figure something else out.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. “Mikey—”
“Get out,” he said quietly. “I’ve had a long day.”
“Mikey, I’m sorry—”
“Getout, Sariel.”
And I did. Because I was a coward.
If I’d spent one more second looking at my brother’s slumped shoulders or dejected expression, I would’ve done something insane. Like, apologize for asking him to do what was necessary to save us.
7
THE BIGGER PICTURE
ARIA
Apiece of advice I was dying to share with past me was this: Never give up. I wanted to grab her (myself) by the shoulders, look her (me) in the eye, and express to her (me, once again) the importance of persevering and seeing things through.
Two weeks—fourteen whole days—was how long it had taken me to start seeing some progress from the countless hours of training I’d endured because that was when I managed to put Lucia on her back.
Reese and I had called a truce of sorts. She was getting better as well, stronger and faster. Not as fast as I was progressing, of course, but she was showing some improvement.
I apologized to her after Lucia had handed me my ass and embarrassed me in the presence of Commander Thorn and Neo. She’d hugged me, then informed me that the next time I tried to dissuade her from doing something dangerous, she would snitch to Sariel about how much I was actually getting hurt at training.
If Sariel truly learned how bad training was becoming for me, I had no doubt he would test my wrath and try to talk me out of it.
Therefore, the truce.
I was definitely getting better. When Lucia grunted noncommittally in what she considered a compliment at my improved form and quicker reaction time, I knew she was going to make things more difficult. But because I was riding the high of actively witnessing my own improvement, I saw her tests only as challenges.
Like so, night training became a little easier to attend. Even Reese stopped complaining about it at one point.
Some days back, when Reese and I had stepped into the morning weapon training sessions with twin expressions of determination, we’d finally accepted just how quickly we’d been learning.
Louis and Neil had conducted a short, impromptu assessment. The class had been split in half; one half would be moving targets, the other half would hunt them with only bows and arrows, and both sides had been blindfolded.
We’d been the moving targets.
Lucia’s prior training had prepared me for this, though. We’d been forced to hone all our senses to fend off her lightning-quick strikes and her little “friends,” as she called the tiny beings that we’d met when we’d encountered Lady Magnolia.
They were sprites, a type of fae, and likely the only other kind we’d meet if we remained within the castle grounds. They were nice enough, if not a little mischievous, and they enjoyed helping Lucia make our lives miserable, helping her to create obstacle courses and pose as enemies. Even then, they were sometimes on our side, helping us strategize against Lucia.
Back on topic, Reese and I had been the last two left standing after dodging an onslaught of arrows in the unfamiliar forested area just outside the training area. While many of our shooters had felled themselves and each other, Louis and Neil had still been equally upset and impressed thatwehad come out on top instead of their pupils, who’d been training for months. It was an understandable reaction. We’d improved greatly.
Commander Thorn had made it a habit of sitting in on our training sessions, along with Neo, who had refused to play our villain on multiple occasions—Lucia couldn’t entice him to aid us in our training no matter what angle she tried. He always just sat quietly, his eyes glued to Reese.
I wasn’t sure he ever blinked for the entirety of our night sessions, actually. It was a miracle that he’d never stepped in to save her.
Recently, Mikey also started joining us at night to observe. His presence made me unnecessarily nervous; I knew that he couldn’t have formed any negative opinion of me since he didn’t know me well enough, and I also knew his opinion of me couldn’t affect how Sariel saw me… I hoped. Iprayed. There was no reason for him to make me nervous.
