I gulped when I saw the men start running toward a field. I made my way over, trying not to slip on the mud, and the tiny sharp rocks dug into my feet. I made it halfway to the field before stopping. The mud was too slippery, making me wonder why this side was all mud and slippery.
What could you possibly do while sliding around?I clutched my knees, trying to catch my breath and also fighting the urge to throw up the little breakfast I got to eat. The backs of my legs were burning from having to unstick my feet and legs from mud. This was ridiculous; the mud was now up to my knees.
“What do you think you are doing?” I looked up and saw Tobias stalking toward me. I flinched when I saw his hand reach toward me. Losing my footing on the slick surface, I fell backward, slipping in the mud and landing on my bottom.
“Get your ass over there with the other men.”
“I have no shoes.”
“You need something, you fucking earn it. Clearly, Darius doesn’t think you earned them yet. Now, get up!”
“Well, can I at least have mine back?” I asked. Tobias reached forward, gripping my arm, his nails sinking into my soft skin, and I could feel the entire outline of his hand. His grip was so tight, I knew it would have been bruised.
“You don’t speak to me unless spoken to, understood? You weren’t supposed to be in any of my classes, but here you are, so shut up and quit whining.” I nodded before he shoved me forward, and I only just managed to stay upright as I clambered to the field. A sigh escaped me when I found my feet on solid ground.
However, my relief was short-lived when I noticed the track running a circle around the obstacle course was all gravel.
Chapter 14
“Move it, Aleera! Twentylaps, now!” Tobias roared behind me.
Despite not wanting to run, my feet started moving, the rocks digging into my feet painfully. It didn’t take long before the men overlapped me. Around a hundred or so barging and shoving past me. What the heck was their problem? I didn’t even know them, and they took no care when they came too close.
“Aleera!” I heard Zac’s voice behind me before looking over my shoulder in time to see him running straight at me. I tried to step out of his way when he dropped his shoulder and barreled straight into me, diverting slightly off track to hit me deliberately.
My body was tossed across the gravel, and I felt like I was being skinned alive. My face burned as I skidded across the loose gravel, my hands I used to try and brace myself grazed, and I felt battered and bruised all over.
“Up, Aleera! You have only done three laps!” Tobias called from the center where the obstacle courses were. I hauled my body up to my hands and knees, trying not to cry out at my pain and discomfort.
It was agonizing, I kept going, and by the time I finished the laps, the men had completed theirs plus the obstacle course. The rest of the class moved on to their next lesson while Zac had been told to make sure I finished the course.
His sneers and name-calling were starting to get to me. I was starving, and the sun was cooking me alive. I wondered how long I had been out here when the blare of the alarm sounded; it was time for lunch.
Someone brought Zac out some food while I tried to navigate the climbing wall. My arms could not take my weight much longer and shook as I tried to haul myself up when I felt something smack me in the center of the back. I was about five meters up when pain rippled up my spine, and I lost my grip, plummeting to the ground below.
A shriek left my lips as I grasped the air frantically, hitting the ground with a thud before darkness swallowed me.
The sound of angry voices pulled me back to my surroundings. A furious growl had me blinking, and I found the sun was no longer directly above me, the sky now painted in orange and pink hues as I tried to remember what had happened.
“If she runs again, I swear I will fucking kill her,” Darius’s angry voice boomed. I groaned, rolling on my side, my head pounding to its own beat and every muscle aching. My back was killing me, and my skin felt sunburned.
“You know she wouldn’t be able to find her way through the forest. She wouldn’t even know what direction to go in,” I heard Lycus’s voice answer.
“Wait, I can smell her scent,” Lycus growled, and I pulled myself up to my hands and glanced around to see them coming up over the small hill from the castle.
“Found her!” Tobias called out, pointing at me. My vision was blurry, and I squinted about to get to my feet when suddenly Darius gripped my hair, yanking my head back. He moved with speed that made the air rush around me. One second he was over on the crest of the small hill; the next, he was beside me.
“You think you can skip classes, Aleera?” he snarled as I clutched his hands and cried out. My hair ripped painfully from my scalp, and I would need to find some scissors. The taunts and bullying I could deal with. The hair-pulling was a low act and very demeaning. I suddenly cursed being a girl.
“Let go. You’re hurting me,” I choked out, and he laughed before shoving me forward back in the dirt.
I rubbed the back of my neck and noticed Kalen was nowhere to be seen, which at least gave me comfort, knowing the only person who had been decent to me since being here wasn’t hunting me down to inflict more injury when my brain backtracked. He was one of them. He could be looking for me elsewhere.
“Get up! You have power placement with me. If I ever have to come searching for you again because you have missed class—”
“Ah, finally you found her,” Kalen said, cutting Darius off as he jogged over to us and a look of relief crossed his features as he let out a breath.
“Had me worried for a second. I thought you left us again,” Kalen said, and his smile faltered when he looked at me. Kalen turned and looked at Darius before he shoved him. “Why is she bleeding? What the fuck did you do?” Kalen snapped out in an angry growl.