He puffed out a cloud of smoke.
Shadows moved at his legs—Nero wagged his tail, and Poppae glared.
Water rippled as another figure blocked my sun.
Patro stood over me.
He lookedpissed.
I opened my mouth to ask why he’d dumped me in the sea, but a groan left my lips. My head throbbed, and white spots dotted my vision.
The world spun.
Every muscle in my bodyached.
I rested my hands on my knees and coughed raspingly. Red droplets of blood sprayed from my lips, then sank into the clear waters.
It was all too much.
I collapsed backward into the sea and spread my sore arms.
In my head, I floated peacefully. In reality, I partially drowned because I couldn’t find the strength to lift up my sore hips.
A tear streaked out of the corner of my eye.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d have assumed I’d been hit by a Spartan truck. It felt like a driver had slammed into me from the side, then backed over my body, then got out of the vehicle and stomped on my?—
“Why are you scrunching your face like that?” Patro interrupted my spiral.
I grunted as I tried to breathe. “I’m profiling the imaginary driver that hit me with his truck.” I squinted as I thought about it.
A bird squawked as it floated across the cloudless sky, and I studied it suspiciously.Is it spying on me?
“Next time,” Patro said slowly, “don’t share.”
“Next time,” I whispered, “don’t ask.”
“How about next time, you wake up like a normal person,” Patrosnapped. “Then I won’t have to dump you in the sea and watch youdrownin shallow water.”
I rolled my suspiciously moisture-filled eyes. “Just let me sleep.”
Patro clamped his hand around my ankle and dragged me through the water so I was right beside him.
“No, you need to refuel your body after the academy. That’s what these three days off are primarily for. I’ve been trying to wake you up forhours, Alex,” he growled. “Nothing worked.”
I loathed that name.
His grip tightened, red ink spelled out “LIAR” across his knuckles, and his thumb scraped against my shin bone.
We both stared down at where he was touching me.
It hit me, harder than my imaginary truck driver: he was touching me.Another person is touching me.
I shrieked and kicked him in the groin.
Patro groaned and doubled over. “What the fuck—” He grunted in pain. “—was that fucking for?”
Splashing, muscles cramping, I scrambled toward the shore. “Don’t t-touch me,” I called out weakly.
