Chapter 240. Not Your Usual Combat Training I

Chapter 240: 240. Not Your Usual Combat Training I

Maisie

Maybe I needed to hear myself say it. Maybe I needed one person to believe me and not look at me like I was some monster. But I couldn’t stop the yell, the desperate cry to be heard.

"I didn’t–I never wrote that!"

The second the words left my mouth, Juliette’s expression changed to shock, and then confusion. And then, the panic hit me. The fear.

My gaze flicked to the corners of the bathroom, to the vents, the mirror, half-expecting to find the glint of the camera lens.

She could be watching. She was always watching. Listening. It was too soon to be so damned careless. She could hurt my mates. Kara. Kisten. Bastian. Ryder. No one had heard from or seen them in months, but I knew she still had them in holding, and even if I tried to go to bed at night, telling myself I didn’t care about them, and I was only doing this because of my mates, I knew every hostage the Queen kept was an indirect tie to me.

Too much was at risk for a silly emotional outburst.

Juliette rushed forward, grabbing my hand and squeezing tightly. "I knew it. It was forged, wasn’t it? Something happened at Samhain?" She gasped. "We have to tell–"

"You can’t," I cut in harshly.

Her brows married together and her eyes tracked mine. "But–"

"No one," I repeated. "Don’t ask me why. I can’t tell you why. The less you know, the safer you’ll be. The safer they are."

I didn’t even want to know what the Queen would do to her if she caught wind of this conversation.

Juliette leaned in, her eyes heavy with sympathy. "You do not have to carry this all on your own, mon ami. Jenny is still hurting, yes. But when you were gone, she and Regina walked the halls every day, pulling down every death poster with your name on it. Regina got suspended for punching a senior in the face for name calling you." Blue eyes tracked mine. "They fought for you, even if it made the targets. Maybe most people here act like sheep, but you still have people who are willing to stand in front of you and shield you. You only have to trust us enough to let us."

Tears pricked my eyes.

The problem wasn’t that I didn’t trust them. It was that I trusted them too much and I knew without a doubt that if we were to trade places, they would, without a heartbeat, give their lives, jump in the line of fire to keep me safe. They already had.

"I do," I croaked. "And that’s why I can’t."

Juliette’s nose reddened and she sniffled. "Maisie," she said softly and Gruer climbed up her neck, sitting on her head as she wrapped her arms around me, crushing me into her embrace, ignoring the skunk and gore on me.

"Ça aussi, ça va passer," she whispered against my ear, rubbing her hand up and down my back as I sobbed in her shoulder.

This too shall pass.

***

"For the benefit of the first years and new students, I am Warren, and this is not your regular Combat training," Instructor Warren’s voice echoed all over the new yard that stretched farther than the training halls ever did.

Hundreds of students stood in uneven rows across the packed concrete, the mid-morning air tangy with sweat and fatigue.

Soren was right. Greymoor had changed significantly. If I thought Warren’s previous regimen was primed to murder us all, then this was focused on complete annihilation. Running up and down the new hilled tracks with weighted packs that bellied our individual sizes as an idea of ’warm up’ exercises was downright diabolical. Even the usually agile like Cole and Damen were panting.

Lana was notably missing–possibly busy with to-be-Luna duties or caring for her baby? I had no idea. The Night Shade pack was keeping information on her on a tight leash and I hadn’t heard a single thing about her since the little interview she had about me in front of the press.

Her clique, however, had gone for the next best bitch in school. Tessa.

They surrounded her like she was the goddess reincarnated, nodding and doing whatever she wanted. Claire was currently running to hand her bottle of water, like a handmaiden. Her grey eyes caught mine and there was a nasty grin on her face as she winked at me.

Anger boiled in my chest and I swallowed it.

I stood near the back of the third column alone. The down sides of being drenched in pig’s blood? The stink didn’t wash off immediately. And the bright side of that? Everyone had given me a wide berth, which in turn meant they didn’t notice how I hadn’t broken a sweat. Or how much effort it was taking to ’keep up’ with them.

My Lycan thought they were too slow. She was practically itching for Warren to be done with his speech and assign us partners, so she could beat the ever-loving shit out of whoever was unfortunate enough to be paired with us.

Show off.

Instructor Warren turned in a circle at the center of the yard. "And for the benefit of those who took a break and returned, expecting to return to a fanciful resort," he tossed a glance my way and students snickered. "You’ll find that a great deal has changed since the start of the academic year."

His eyes skimmed over the crowd. "Over the last year, Ashbourne has recorded the most amount of kidnappings and unnatural deaths than it has in two decades."

The laughter halted and a morose air filled the yard as he continued, "Settlements on the east and southern borders have fallen. And while that means the number of rogue attacks we’ve received have reduced by a whopping ninety percent, it also means something is coming our way. When it is done feasting on the rogues, our towns and cities are next. Your families are next. You are next."

The hairs on my skin rose.

"Some of you have already buried friends. Siblings. Family." Warren paused, exhaling. "This training is to ensure none of you end up taken or in shallow graves. Every one of you will learn how to stay alive. You will build endurance and strength. You will learn to fight things far stronger and more experienced than you, because this is how you live."

Whispers spread across the yard.

"Sounds like some shitty war-speech," someone said far behind me.

"Isn’t the Lycan Queen supposed to protect us?"

"Did you hear? The Council of Wolves is pushing back against the Queen’s authority. They think this is all some load of bullshit and it’s more Lycans doing the killings, because not a single Lycan has been taken."

"How do you know that?"

"My brother is a guard at the Council of Wolves. See that woman over there? Beside Professor Ivanov?" My gaze rose across the yard where the teachers gathered, and I noticed the same woman from earlier stood beside Jericho, giggling at something, and I tried to bite back my irritation.

Jericho wasn’t even that funny.

"She’s on the Lycan Queen’s Council," the boy whispered. "She’s here to supervise and report back to the Queen."

"Like a spy?" another whispered.

"Who knows?"

I paused at that. And worry. Was it a coincidence that she was now attaching herself to Jericho like second skin?