I shook my head furiously and reached into the chest for a short, brown-handled knife, then marched past the assassins toward the arena. Maybe if I swung it fast enough it would keep him and his fists back.
As I ducked under the rope, one of the assassin leaders said, “No lethal strikes.”
“Tellhimthat,” I snapped back, gesturing towards Morrow. Three of the assassin leaders turned their heads slightly toward ... Blue Eyes. I clenched my jaw, and my cheeks warmed. There was a quiet, frightening power about the assassins that even the shining warriors didn’t have. I knew they killed vampires with ease, and I’d thought the blood drinkers were the most terrifying thing in our world. By his stare, he saw me as nothing more than an ant that could be squished beneath his boot.
The four warriors in gold across the sparring square chuckled, and one shouted, “You going to let an initiate talk to you like that, Viper?”
Blue Eyes was named Viper? Were the assassins named after animals? He stepped out of the line of leaders and prowled toward me. I instinctually took a step back, my breath catching.
“Let me get a couple good shots in on her, sir.” Morrow drove a fist into his palm. “That’s all it will take before she’s crying to go home to her slum in Lothleton. I’m surprised the vampires haven’t gotten this one yet.” Everyone watching laughed. Everyone except the assassin leaders. They kept their composure, like they were above jeers and insults.
But now it was personal. “I survived out there where they hunt us like animals while you lived safely inside your high walls. Don’t forget that.”
He laughed. “You’ve never been touched by a vampire or you’d be dead.”
“You don’t know anything about me!”
Viper stopped inches from me, putting his back to Morrow, and blocking that asshole from my view. I leaned away from him but kept my feet planted. The hair on the back of my neck rose in warning. Something inside me knew he was a killer. “Don’t ever talk back to me again, understand, initiate?”
I gulped and managed to nod once. I wasn’t sure what I expected him to sound like, but his voice sent a chill through me. It was deep and resonant and had a rasp to it, but not like the old men who smoked their entire lives. A voice I wouldn’t soon forget. I could tell by the smooth, pale skin around his eyes he was young, a few years older than me probably. He had the name “VIPER” on his collar in small white letters. Vipers were venomous, lethal.
“Yes, sir,” he said, sharply.
“Yes, sir,” I repeated.
He snatched the knife from my hand and slid it onto his belt.
“You don’t know how to use this, I can tell by the way you’re holding it.Whenhe took it from you, it would be used against you. Antagonizing someone like him when you don’t know how to fight is stupid. Before, he might have just hit you a few times. Now, he’ll make it hurt. So if you want to make it out of that ring without several broken ribs and your jaw intact, you’d better know how to move.” He swung at my head; I dipped to the side.Whoosh, his fist nearly grazed my cheek. That would have hurt. “Do that.” I watched his broad back, heart pounding, until he rejoined the others in black uniforms, and everything went quiet.
The leaders of the warriors and assassins, even the scholar leadership in their green robes, watched intently. I felt the weight of their stares as I slowly walked toward Morrow. The heat from the sun burned my cheeks. The sound of my boots padding over the grass was loud. A crow’s caw in the pine tree that cast a shadow over the center of the arena had to be a bad omen.
The group from outside the wall gathered against the ropes. I was the first of us to step into the arena. Celine and Taewyn stood shoulder to shoulder. She leaned over and whispered something to him. No doubt about my impending demise.
I raised my fists to my chin. If I could outrun a vampire, I bet I could outrun him, but today I stood my ground.Keep your fists up,Dad would say.Keep your core strong.
The first punch came fast and furious, so did the second. In surprise, I sucked a sharp breath through my teeth and barely dodged them. I backpedaled, shoving a hand coming at my chest aside and dipped under another strike. His boot hooked around the back of my ankle, and I was falling. My ass hit the ground, then his knee cracked into my chin. My teeth clacked hard, stars flashed across my vision, and I slammed to the ground. The grass poked into my cheek, and a warm coppery tang filled my mouth.Get up, Aesira. Get up.
A boot crashed into my side, I felt andheardone of my ribs crack. I coughed and gasped, trying to drag in air. Another fist came down, I rolled, and his punch hit the ground. I sprang up and hobbled backward. Everything was blurry, the ground felt like it tilted left and right. I’d been terrified moments ago, but as soon as that first fist came, I moved on instinct. There was no time for fear now. A spark of fight lit within me. I wouldn’t just lay down and curl up. If I was to stay here, I’d at least show them that those of us from outside their precious walls weren’t cowards.
Morrow came at me again; this time I sidestepped and threw the hardest punch I could where I knew his kidney was. It landed, and he hissed, whirling away. Got him at least once. I wished my father could have seen it.
Another strike came, and I blocked it, shoving it to the side. I ducked under a swing then popped him straight on the nose. I was as surprised as him. He blinked rapidly, swiping at the blood trickling out of his nose with his arm.
Take that!I wanted to shout. Then his left leg hit the back of my thigh, nearly dropping me again. He spun into a back-kick that smashed into my already cracked ribs—pain exploded. Like fire spreading across my skin. With a scream, I crumbled to the ground, holding my side.
“Stop!” a man from the assassins’ side commanded.
Morrow stood over me and spat next to my head. “They should send you back to the wilderness.”
I wheezed, wishing I could catch my breath for a good comeback.
“Step away from her, Morrow, and go speak to Commander Locke.” The woman assassin made her way toward us. Through my tear-blurred vision, she looked more like a shadow than a person coming toward me. She blocked out the sun and folded her hands behind her back. “Get up. I know it hurts, but you’re with us now. Don’t make the assassins look bad.”
I spat the blood filling my mouth and rolled onto my hands and knees. The searing pain in my side made me want to cry out again, but I gritted my teeth. Sheer will pushed me to my feet. I swayed, and she grabbed my shoulders, steadying me.
“You did good. You’re quick, one of the quickest I’ve seen in a long time, or he’d have taken an inexperienced fighter like you down faster.”
“The pain in my face and ribs says otherwise.” My bottom lip was swollen, it wasn’t the throbbing but the way my wordssounded slurred that told me. I dragged my sleeve across my mouth, and it came away smeared with blood.
