“Oh, there are so many ways I’d love to wake you up,mea luna.”
She tilted her head to look up at me, a bratty grin tugging at her lips. “Well, you’d better start in the morning.”
Fuck, the sight of those lips, that defiant look in her eyes had my cock hardening already. I smiled back just as wickedly.
“I intend to.”
6
CASSIE
“You’re next, spitfire!” Barrett called from the top of the course carved into the mountain side.
I narrowed my eyes on him. “My name is Cas!”
“Sorry, spitfire? What was that?” he shouted, and I let out an exasperated sigh. As if he couldn’t hear me. Insufferable bastard. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of a response and turned to focus on what stood before me.
My gaze trailed over the different obstacles for probably the fifty-millionth time. This pass didn’t change anything, didn’t calm the roar of anxiety raging within me. It wasn’t as if they were new. I’d watched the other recruits complete the course for the past couple of weeks, had been excited to take a shot at it once I’d gotten further into my own training. From what I’d heard, the course changed every season, so it was never the same, the patterns always adjusting to improve the recruits’ training. Vincent had told me of one season where the recruits had to swim under water through a tunnel system before emerging on the other side. The thought of being in a tunnel underwater left me nauseated, and I was thankful it wasn’t part of the course this time. Tight places terrified me for as long as I could remember, and the thought of being trapped somewhere left my skin crawling.
Sometimes, there were three sections—sometimes there were as many as seven or eight. This course had four: half of them on the flat expanse of forest, the other half carved above us into the mountainside, so high that I could faintly see Barrett and some recruits waiting for me and the others to join them through the bare branches of the trees. Nearly half the recruits had taken their turn. Many had reached the top, and many had failed—some walking away unscathed, some with a broken bone or two.
Now, it was my turn.
I swallowed, nerves snaking their way into my trembling fingers, and I balled my hands into fists to force them away. A yelp burst from my lips as Thalia nudged me forward.
“God,” I breathed, placing a hand over my racing heart, but when I got a good look at her, I frowned at what almost appeared to be dark circles under her eyes. “You okay?”
“Yeah, just drank a bit too much last night. I’ll be fine,” she said, waving me off. “But that’s not important. Focus on the course. You’ve got this. I saw how intently you studied everyone’s attempts. You’ll figure out a clear path.”
I nodded. Yeah. Sure. This was easy enough. It was just an obstacle course. But as my eyes trailed over each obstacle, my nerves spun out of control, my heart racing.
An obstacle course designed for immortals, not humans.
Could I really do this?
“You’ll be all right,” Damien assured me, his voice a near whisper in my ear. “You’re far stronger than you were when you started.”
I forced air into my lungs and gave him a nervous smile before stepping forward.
The other recruits broke into a chorus of cheers as I came to a stop before the first obstacle—something we’d done for each recruit as they worked their way through. It was amazing how much everyone supported each other. It had been a little overwhelming when I’d first been introduced to the recruits as Damien’s mate. In the following weeks, I’d encountered a few who were less than savory, but for the most part they had all been very welcoming, despite the fact that I was human and not the immortal they had waited centuries for. None of them had ever outwardly acknowledged what I was, but I couldn’t shake the feeling it had been a bit of a letdown when they had learned.
“Ready?” Barrett called from above, holding out a stopwatch.
Shit. Was I?
“Yes!” I shouted, giving myself no chance to hesitate further.
“Go!” he yelled, and I leapt into a run, diving into the maze of tightly packed, low trees. I hadn’t been able to witness its creation firsthand, but I’d heard of how a Dendron user grew them in a matter of moments when the others started almost a month ago. The branches stretched out to form a loose net of limbs to avoid, and Damien’s words flitted across my mind from his explanation of the obstacle course a few weeks prior. I ducked and dodged low hanging branches before leaping over others.
There will be times you may be forced to face many darklings; you will have to ensure you are able to avoid their claws. If you are ensnared, you are dead.
I gasped as a branch snagged on my braid mid-leap.
“That’s a five second penalty!” Aiden called out from above where he stood at Barrett’s side, watching with intense scrutiny. Irrational anger rose in my chest as I felt the weight of those judgmental eyes.
“Dammit,” I breathed, pulling myself free before continuing through the trees, cursing when I ran into a tightly wound cluster that formed a dead-end, only to have to double back and continue down another path. With the way the trees were laid out, I hadn’t been able to clearly see the recruits work their way through this portion, so there was no way to tell which path was the correct one.
“Ten second mark!” Barrett called.
