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Oh, they’d definitely heard. Did they think Kaden was holding me hostage in the field? What did they think happened? Did it even matter? A picture of Luisca’s horrified face as she saw a limp body by my feet flashed in my mind. She’d probably never hurt anyone in her life.
“No, don’t go out of your way. I’ll be fine.”
Tiber was watching on as Luisca looked at me like she was a long-lost aunt who needed to protect me.
“Really, I’ll be back early for lunch.” I smiled and got out of there before she tried to follow me.
Kaden was waiting in the field. Just as expected, there was a new man standing beside him. I’d bookmarked this one in my mind as well. He was hard to miss between the towering height and arms as thick as redwoods.
My palms grew sweaty as acid churned in my gut, making me feel like I’d drank a glass of poison, instead of breakfast tea. But I didn’t falter in my steps. No one had broken me yet, and I wouldn’t let this, or them, do it either.
Although I didn’t care about the new guy. I had no reason to expect better from him. He’d probably heard what happened to his friend and volunteered to even the score, put the new girl in her place. It was Kaden’s part in this that had kept me awake last night.
This wasn’t just about helping me. He might deny it, but he was bitter he was stuck with me, and it was spilling out. Where had the man who’d helped heal me gone? Saved me from death? How quickly he had become this person who was almost as bad as my enemy.
“Round two?” I asked, stopping in front of the two of them, and projecting as much fuck-you arrogance as I could drum up. I sounded surprisingly convincing, at least to me. The way the man’s eyes narrowed, I must’ve convinced him as well.
“You think you can come here and do whatever you want? I don’t think so, little girl.” There was a rage in his gaze, a look that promised pain, and hinted that he’d enjoy it.
He hated me. How many of the people here hated me now? How many would hate me after I hurt another one of their own?
“I need to speak to you alone for a minute,” I said.
“Why? Are you scared? You should be.”
I ignored the man’s taunts and walked twenty feet away, waiting for Kaden to follow me.
He did.
“What’s the problem?” His tone alone told me that talking to him wasn’t going to fix anything. He was dug in and stubborn as ever.
“If we keep doing this, we’re going to alienate a lot of the people here.” I tilted my head toward the newest thug.
He glanced over at the man and then back to me. “You’re not killing them. You’re honing skills that you’re going to need to survive.”
“But I have to live here, and survive here too. Not to mention these people can help us, but they won’t if they hate me. Even you said we needed them.” I crossed my arms and gave the thug who was still staring at me my back.
“I’m not pulling any Kradix, and what we’re doing is more important than losing a few of the ones I don’t trust anyway.”
“I’m not doing it.” I shook my head, ready to dig in. I either stood my ground or this would happen day after day. I should’ve put a stop to it yesterday.
“You have to,” he said. “That man knows I gave him a pass to take a shot at you. If you try to walk away, the only thing that’s going to happen is he’ll take his shot anyway, but maybe not when I’m close enough to limit the damage. It’s your choice. You let him do this now, or he does it later and you kill him.” He shrugged, as if he didn’t care at all.
At that moment, I really did hate him. I would’ve killed him if I could’ve. How had I ever cared for someone like this?
“Stare at me like that all you want. I’m not budging,” he said.
I thought I caught a flicker of some softer emotion, maybe a trickle of guilt, but I was probably deluding myself.
I was good and stuck. Either do this or end up killing the man later.
“Then let’s get this over with.”
“When you hit him this time, try to control it. Try to get a sense of how much power is flowing from you,” Kaden said.
I heard every word, even as I ignored him and kept walking over to the guy.
The thug was smiling.
