How I wished to let my father know that the training they gave us in Alfemir was nothing compared to training the fallen did. That would be an eternal thorn in his side, knowing they were inferior to the very people they looked down upon.
I wished I could say the embarrassment of how poorly I did kept me silent on the walk home from the training center. Really, it was just the exhaustion and my focus being on avoiding any movements that would enhance the pain I was already feeling. When we finally reached the house, I nearly cried at the prospect of climbing the front steps followed by the agonizing climb to my bedroom.
“Let’s get inside?—”
“Beauty?” The sound of Ronan’s deep voice had me nearly melting in relief as I turned to find him walking toward us from the line of pine trees around the house. His gaze ran over me, tension causing his back to straighten as his jaw locked before a rumble of anger broke from his throat.
I heard Steele mutter a curse behind me, but I was suddenly too distracted by Niz soaring down from the sky and landing on my shoulder to check out his expression.
“Hey, you,” I greeted the wyvern as he licked my cheek, his nose brushing against my neck afterward. A worried noise came from the wyvern, making me frown.
“Why does she have cuts and scrapes all over her body? What the hell happened today?” Ronan demanded as he stepped in front of me, vibrating with anger that was pretty clearly directed at Steele.
Oh no.
“I’m not explaining shit to you,” Steele said bluntly as he crossed his arms over his chest. He looked down his nose at Ronan, daring him to try and force the answers from him.
“What are you not explaining, Steele?” Gabe asked, thankfully appearing at the door of the house before I had to step between Steele and Ronan. Hopefully he could diffuse the situation here because I was out of fucks to give after this day.
Gabe’s gaze ran over me, taking in every single detail just as Ronan had. “Shit—Steele, did something happen?”
I must have looked even worse than I felt. Wonderful.
I lifted my hand to touch my lip that was throbbing and let out a sigh at the crimson blood that stained my fingers when I pulled it away. A split lip. Just great.
“It was just training, guys” I offered, hoping they’d just move on.
Unfortunately, my words seemed to have the opposite of my intended effect. Gabe’s expression twisted into a snarl as he looked at Steele with narrowed eyes. His voice was dangerously low as he asked, “Thatis because of you?”
I tossed my hands in the air. I swear they all justwantedto fight.
Steele looked fully prepared to argue with Gabe until Bastian appeared right next to me, drawing everyone’s attention with his sudden, unexpected teleportation. His rough hands took hold of my arm, examining it with concern before moving to my hands and then to my face. It seemed as if he was taking meticulous inventory of every single wound. His eyes flashed completely black, holding my gaze for a long moment, before looking back at Steele.
“You marked her skin and spilled herpreciousblood?” he seethed.
Here. We. Go.Not my precious, precious blood.
I rolled my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose, muttering, “Someone just put me out of my misery, please.”
This was bad,not only because Bastian was objectively insane when it came to my blood, but because Steele wasgrowing more and more tense with each passing moment. His jaw was so tight now that I worried it would shatter. I wasn’t sure who was going to make a move first, but I knew this was allentirelyunnecessary.
“I’m only explaining myself once,” Steele snarled, his lip curling as he stared at each of the other men in turn. “The enemy won’t go easy on Kieran, so neither will I. If she wants to be here—actually, if any of you want to be here—then you will train like the rest of the Rebellion does.”
“That isn’t how the rest are trained. You know that!” Gabe argued sharply, throwing his hand out.
I wasn’t shocked to hear that Steele was going harder on me than anyone else. But honestly? The intense training would only lead to me improving faster. At least I hoped so. I never wanted to feel helpless in any situation again. This was the best path to ensuring I could protect myself and those I care for.
Gathering the little energy I had left, I decided to make one more attempt to end the conversation. “Listen, I’m exhausted and hungry—likereallyhungry…” I trailed off as Ronan rumbled.
His voice was low and gravelly, his glare intense as he bit out, “Yeah, he didn’t even let you have breakfast before a training session that heknewwas going to beat you into the ground.”
I let out a sharp breath of air through my nose. While Ronan wasn’t wrong, and I wish I had been granted the time to eat this morning, it was neither here nor there at this moment. My stomach let out a poorly timed rumble, clearly agreeing with Ronan and not me.Quite rude.
I continued, “As much of an ass as Steele can be, he isn’t wrong about the enemy. If my father ever came after me, or if any of the Angelic Army ever did, it would be far worse than I can probably imagine. Not only did I break the law and fall before they could strip my wings, I also helped steal the dagger andtext from the library before bringing it to their enemies.” I spun around to look each of them in the eyes before landing on Steele in the end. “I’m a traitor in their eyes, and they will have no mercy for me. So if this is what needs to happen to be prepared, then this is how training will continue to go.”
Steele’s gaze filled with surprise and he stared at me for a long moment, his lips parted slightly and his eyes wide before he nodded sharply. “We will train again tomorrow.”
No one argued this time, but I had no doubt some of them still disagreed with Steele’s methods. Going easy in training wasn’t a luxury I could afford when I never knew if time was on my side. I had to make every day here count.
