?“I crushed her heart.”
?“Without using your aura?”
?I slightly shake my head. “It was a fraction within a fraction of time. I did it so fast nothing was perceivable from me.”
?Her eyes widen and finally I can see a clear emotion. “Just like you were so fast you were able to kill a blood witch before her written fate was finished.” And now she smiles. “Good. Trisha used to try and slander our family and for a time convinced Asher’s family to even hate us. She did other things, but. . . well, I’m not sorry she’s dead.”
?I smile back at her. “Good. She was also a bitch to me my first day on campus so even if you were I wouldn’t be sorry.”
?Jullia rolls her eyes and drops the barrier. Then we actually enter the locker room and my first dilemma of the day appears. All the girls in here are changing like the girls in the brothel house do. And there’s not a changing curtain in sight.
?“Oh,” Jullia winces out. When I turn to her she’s holding up what our gym clothes are supposed to be. And tell me why it’s barely more than what I was wearing in the cages.
?Someone throws an arm over my shoulder and I turn to find Hanna in the exact same thing Jullia is holding up. A tight fitting tank top and short biker shorts.
?“Hope you’re not a prude, Mavyn,” Hanna jokes before recognition flashes and she winces exactly like Jullia just did. “I apo – “
?“No need,” I brush off and dig in my bag. “I did grow up in a brothel house. Also I highly doubt my scars are going to bother me more than they do everyone else.”
?“They are a bit. . . intense.” The three of us turn and Ricka stands in the same outfit with her arms crossed. “But if you don’t care, then they don’t matter.”
?Hearing her say that warms my chest a bit. The honesty through her words. Because theydon’tmatter. I never caredabout giving them a symbolism of how much I survived because that’s bullshit. Children shouldn’t have to survive what I did. Me being here and now proves I survived, I don’t need the scars to do that for me.
?So I choose to let them be meaningless.
?“Well,” Ricka chirps, which sounds weird coming from here, “hurry up and change so we can get out there. I wanna see you guys fight.”
?How comforting.
Thirty-One
Mavyn – Decim 17
All eyes are on me as we exit the locker room and make for where everyone is grouping. Even with Jullia, Hanna, and Ricka surrounding me. Not that I’m hiding. I do think these outfits are a bit much though.
?Hanna and Ricka lead us towards the center of the room, verses all the first years seeming to collect around the edges. I can feel the strength from the compiled aura near the group in the center. Men and woman dressed in a bit more modest clothing but still athletic type. Near the edge I finally see who I’ve been looking for all day.
?I’m about to strum our bond to catch his attention but he’s already turning. Golden eyes finding mine immediately and something within me that I didn’t realize was coiled tightly like tensed muscles relaxes.
?I’ve missed him. Like a shadow, always there. A comfort due to his presence that I’ve gotten used to.
?Tonight we’ll all need to speak.
?For now though –
?“MAVYLLORA!”
?My back straightens as my shoulders push and I snap my attention to that voice.
?Burning bones on a pyre.
?Hanna and Ricka shift and they drag Jullia out of the firing zone as a short but plump woman dressed in more or less rags stomps over to me. White hair coiled on the top of her head and milky eyes scorning me.
?I keep my mouth shut because I have no idea what I’ve done to earn her scorn and I will not be admitting anything until I know what she’s mad about.
?She points a bony finger at me and her aura dominates the arena as she stops a few feet before me. It makes everyone choke.
?“Will you be continuing training or are you simply doing the basics?” she says rather calmly. Her eyes roving over my body and lifting a thin brow. “You’ve seemed to regain some muscle. Is that in correlation to your new nickname, Death Devourer?”
