Chapter 5
Loose hay covers the training ground outside the Grove. Someone has propped two canvas dummies on bales, attaching them to sticks in the ground. A small fire burns in a pit with an iron pot above it. Steam rises from the cauldron and my stomach growls. They serve breakfast in Avren promptly thirty minutes after the initial waking music.
Bastian rests a foot on a hay bale, assessing the mess of a training ground. “Whose job was it to clean up after yesterday’s session?” He narrows his eyes at the others.
All fingers point to Rafe.
He holds up his arms. “Hey, it’s not a one-person job. Laurel was supposed to help me.”
“Nice try.” Laurel smirks, hands on her hips. “I can’t cook and clean up after the lot of you. It was your responsibility to find a helper, and I had lunch to prepare.”
“I had lunch to prepare,” Rafe mocks her, a look of disgust rolling over his face. He wrinkles his nose and purses his lips. “If I had a loaf of bread for every time someone used that excuse, I could open a bakery.”
“Whatever.” Laurel unsheathes her sword and faces her commander. “Can I fight Rafe first today?”
Bastian steps forward and takes the weapon from Laurel’s hands. “I thought we’d do a little hand-to-hand combat today.” He inclines his head in my direction. “In honor of our recruit. It’ll let you take out a bit of aggression. Rafe… Mav… you’re up first.”
Mav pounds his fist into his palm.
Rafe’s eyes grow wide, and he backs away with his hands in front of him. “I was hoping to show Mari the ropes. You know, a little rolling around in the grass. A few rounds of that and I’ll have her ready to face an army of vamps.”
“You know we only use hand-to-hand with Citizens. Don’t face a Supe without specialized weapons.” Bastian unbuckles his belt and lets it fall to the ground. “I’ll fight Susan.”
There’s a glimmer in the blonde woman’s eyes as she assesses her opponent. She sweeps her braid over her shoulder, her hands in fighting position.
“Take notes on Susan’s moves.” Bastian circles her, but his attention is on me.
I sit down on a log, ready to observe.
“You’re up next, so it’s important to study what works and what doesn’t.”
The Council of Avren denounces fighting. It’s a method Undesirables use because they are primitive, lacking our advances in technology and mediation. Our advances. I’m no longer a Citizen of Avren but an Undesirable. It’s as if someone took my worldview and flipped it on its head.
“Are you watching?” Bastian growls. Susan has him in a headlock, his face red as she adjusts her hold on him. He uses the temporary loosening of her grip to snatch her waist and throw her to the ground, sitting on top of her and grinding her wrists into the dirt. “Never let up, Mari. Your opponent will use your weaknesses.”
With his head turned to me, Susan locks her teeth into the sensitive skin of his forearm.
“Shit!” He releases her wrist to shake out his arm.
Using his distraction, Susan shoves him off, jumps to her feet, and dives for his midsection, knocking him to the ground. She climbs onto his chest and uses her knees to pin his arms to the ground. “Give up, Commander.”
“You’re something else.”
When she releases him, he grips the front of her shirt and pulls her in for a kiss.
My stomach flips, so I avert my eyes, focusing on the other fight. Mav has Rafe backed into a tree, keeping the scuffle off the ground. Mav is shorter but has the clear advantage in strength to his wiry opponent, his arm muscles tight within his shirt.
Bastian sits beside me on the log, slightly out of breath. “You think Mav has him beat?”
After seeing Susan kiss Bastian, I can’t look at him. People in Avren never showed affection in front of me—not even my parents. I tug on the hem of my shirt, intent on keeping the conversation professional. “He’s clearly the stronger of the two.”
“Looks can deceive.” He scoots closer, leaning in to point at Rafe. “Don’t underestimate your opponent.”
As he says this, Rafe slips out from Mav’s grasp and ducks below his arms with lightning speed. Suddenly, he’s behind him, his arm wrapped around the shorter man’s neck. After a few intense minutes, Mav stops flailing, and Rafe lowers him to the ground.
“See,” Bastian says, placing his hands on his knees as he stands. “He’ll have quite the headache when he wakes.”
Rafe waltzes forward, his chest puffed out. Laurel shoots him a disgusted look and goes to attend to her boyfriend.
“Are you ready for our scuffle, Mari?” Rafe holds out a hand to help me up, not letting go when I try to drop it. “I promise to let you spend a majority of the time on top.”
“Mari’s off-limits.” Bastian ladles the steaming substance from the cauldron into a bowl and hands it to Susan. “Find another poor urchin to bother.”
“I can handle myself.” Keeping my hand locked in Rafe’s, I’m not sure if I can, but I’m tired of the Commander’s constant mothering. In a move I watched Susan use, I swipe my leg around, trying to knock Rafe’s feet out from under him. It feels as if I hit an iron pole.
He laughs and gathers me into his arms, deep dimples carved into his cheeks. “You’re so cute.” He jostles me as my cheeks burn. This is not how I pictured my first fight.
I want to bury my fist in his dimples as I glare at him.
Rafe finally releases me, his face falling as he walks away. His mood swing gives me whiplash. The vitamins I took yesterday no longer feel as strong. I’m beginning to understand where he’s coming from.
“Don’t mind him.” Bastian nods in Rafe’s direction. “The guy’s used to rejection. Susan, teach Mari how to perform a proper leg sweep while I work with the others.”
Susan’s eyes widen, and she frowns. “Do I have to?” Her intense gaze rakes down the canvas-bag clothes the government issued me. They are hideous. “Why do the rest of you get to have all the fun?”
My heart rate increases as I roll up my sleeves, sweat prickling my neckline. It isn’t like I chose to come here. Grayson delivered me into these circumstances. A new feeling rolls through the pit of my stomach, stretching out until my extremities grow numb. The urge to punch someone has grown tenfold, and Bastian is the closest punching bag. Maybe the meds have officially worn off.
With everything I have, I slam my fist into his chest, which I’m sure was unexpected, because he never would have allowed me to do it. Before I can do it again, his hands are around my wrists. He twists me around and pulls me into his chest. His hot breath is tickling my ear, causing me to shiver. “We are not enemies.”
I struggle to free myself, but he won’t release me. “Let me go. It’s no wonder Avren rejected you. You reject everything we stand for—order, nonviolence, peace. And to fornicate in public in front of everyone?”
“What?” Susan quirks an eyebrow. “You mean our kiss? Seriously?”
“That is for the bedroom,” I whisper, not believing we’re talking about this in public. “When you’re married.”
Bastian’s lips move close to my ear again, and I struggle against him. “Baby, you haven’t seen anything.” He lets go of me, and I move to my spot on the log, trying to calculate my next move.
“Take me back to Gray.” I lift my chin, trying to procure an inkling of authority.
Bastian leans against a tree and crosses his arms. He pulls something from a bag attached to his hip and sticks it in his mouth. It’s a cylinder of paper. He strikes a match against the tree bark and a flame appears, which he brings to the paper. Smoke rises from the end of the cylinder and again from his mouth when he opens it. “Gray will not take you back to the city. One, you know too much, and two, they’ll never accept you.” Smoke exits his nostrils after he sticks the paper into his mouth. “You can either learn to fight with us or try your chances with the Supes. We all know how that worked out for the boy.”
As much as I want to tell him to take his training and shove it, he’s right. This is my life now. A world where sin reigns. Disorder and lawlessness are preferable to civil obedience. If I am to survive in this place, I need to learn to defend myself.
I turn my attention to Susan, who stands with her hands on her hips, taking in the entire exchange between Bastian and me. “Will you teach me to take Rafe down with a leg sweep?”
She smirks, whipping around with her long braid down her back. Her black fighting gear shows off her trim hourglass figure, making me envious. “If I teach you my tricks, you’d better take that oversized oaf down.”
By this time, Mav is on his feet and holding his head, with Laurel by his side. Rafe’s nowhere to be found, which doesn’t bother me at all.
Susan leads me to the far corner of the Grove. Without warning, she sweeps her leg out and knocks me to my bottom. “Stay away from my boyfriend.”
I shake my head and crawl on my hands and knees to stand again. “I’m not…”
Her leg knocks me back on my bottom. Is she going to let me stand?
Without getting up, I shield my eyes from the rising sun. “You know my story. I live with Bastian. It’s not like I can stay away from him. Gray’s making him train me. If it was up to me, I’d live on the opposite side of the wilderness from him. He’s a bit difficult to get along with, don’t you think?”
She jumps on top of me, slamming my head into the ground. My head spins. I thought they wanted me to learn how to fight.
Her face is inches from mine. “Rafe is yours, Mav is Laurel’s, and Bastian’s mine. You better start learning how things work around here.”
“Don’t I have a choice in the matter?” I stay still, not wanting the larger woman to think I’m on the attack. In Avren, we had no choice on who the Council chose as our life partner. From what I’d observed, I thought things were different in the wilderness.
With her hands balled up in the front of my shirt, she seethes, “I see the way you look at him.”
“I didn’t mean to look at him in any particular way.” Bile rises in my throat, and I swallow, unsure if I should make the next statement. “I can’t stand him, really. He’s a pompous ass who thinks he’s better than everyone else.”
A sharp sting spreads across my cheek as her fist connects with my face. Another pummel hits my nose, and a warm rush of blood runs over my lips, the tangy, metallic taste entering my mouth. It wakes me up.
With all my strength, I push Susan and twist my hips, determined to throw her from me. Her fists continue to beat at me. I hear shouting in the distance as I yank her braid, drawing a scream from my opponent.
After a few more fear-filled moments, her weight is off me, and a groan escapes my lips. In Avren, I was on the road to become a designer, crafting dresses for balls, weddings, and other important life events. Here, I’m worthless, a weakling in a world full of titans.
“Mari, are you ok?” A hand touches my shoulder, and I look up at Bastian through my blurry vision.
All I want to do is sleep. This is all a nightmare, and when I wake, the comforts of my bedroom in Avren will surround me. Closing my eyes, I block out the noise and focus on what my life could have been.
The life three lousy weeks stole from me.