“Get running, Pandora,” Nero commanded.
“He means well,” Harker told me. “He just wants to push everyone so they will be strong enough to survive the initiation ceremony.”
“I think he has it out for me.”
“He does seem harder on you,” he agreed. “He’s not usually this hard on anyone. You must be special.”
I rolled my eyes. “Lucky me.”
He chuckled. “You’re going to be ok,” he told me.
“Of course I am. I’m too stubborn to die,” I replied, finally managing a smile. Then I set off running again.
A loud horn sounded in the hall as I finished my last lap. My hopes for a release from this torture were dashed when Nero began dividing us up into pairs for combat training. At least that’s what he called it. My sparring buddy Jace, the biggest and meanest of the Legion brats, quickly turned it into beat-the-crap-out-of-Leda training. By the end of our so-called fight, I had a black eye, a fat lip, and the side of my body felt like it was on fire. But at least we weren’t using swords right now.
“You weren’t in many fights before you came here, were you?” Harker asked me as he healed my wounds with magic.
“I’ve been in lots of fights,” I told him. “But I’m smart enough to fight from a distance when my opponent is much bigger and stronger than I am.”
“Avoidance is not a strategy here,” Nero said, stepping up to us. “You won’t always be able to run away. You need to learn to handle yourself in every situation.” He tossed me a wooden staff. “Attack me.”
I glanced over at Harker, who seemed to be amused about something. I wasn’t sure if he was laughing at Nero or at me. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he was laughing at me. I was a joke. I couldn’t fight at all. Nero was right about that. Damn angel. I hated it when he was right.
I moved cautiously toward Nero, then swung my staff. He parried my strike, then whacked me on the back with his staff.
“Too slow, Pandora,” he chided me. “You’re holding back. Stop standing there like a scared little girl and attack me like you mean it.”
I charged forward, straight at him. Surprise flashed in his eyes for a moment, like he’d never expected me to do anything like that. Well, I was full of surprises. His surprise cost him a valuable split of a second, allowing me to land a solid strike to his ribs. I swung my staff around for a second blow, but my luck had run out. Nero caught my staff mid-strike, tearing it out of my hands. As my weapon abandoned me, I threw myself against my opponent, tackling him to the ground.
At least that was the plan. He rolled as he hit the ground, taking me with him. His hands tightened around my arms, and he slammed me to the floor. My back hit the rubbery ground with the resounding thump of defeat. I kicked, trying to get free, but he dug his knees into my legs, pinning them down. His hands were locked around my wrists, holding them to the ground above my head.
“Still too slow, Pandora,” he said softly. A rare chuckle buzzed on his lips, but it was gone so fast that I wondered if I’d only imagined it.
He was gone too, standing above me, holding his hand out to me. I took it, and when our skin touched, I felt that same spark of magic again. I disconnected myself quickly. This was starting to get too weird. What kind of magic was he trying to cast on me?
Everyone had stopped sparring to watch Nero kick my ass. The Legion brats were laughing their heads off, but I ignored them. Ivy met my eyes, a smirk slowly twisting her lips. Great. Now I was going to hear all night about how ‘Colonel Sexy Angel’ had pinned me to the ground. My roommates wanted to sleep with the angel almost as much as they wanted to kill him. Except Drake; he just wanted to be him.
Nero turned to face the other initiates, and they scrambled to continue sparring with their partner before he assigned anyone more laps around that gods forsaken track. Jace, my friendly partner, rubbed his hands together and grinned at me like he was going to enjoy making me bleed. I made a concerted effort not to wince. That would just rile him up even more. Instead, I stood there, waiting for him to come to me.
He surged forward, swinging his staff at my head. I ducked and darted away toward a curtain of thick ropes hanging from the ceiling. He was strong, but I was quick. I retreated toward the wall, and he followed, glee singing in his eyes. When he swung at me again, I hopped onto the climbing wall, running up it. He followed, trying to grab me, but I snapped my leg out in a sharp kick. My shoe slammed into his face, and he fell to the ground. I grabbed one of the ropes dangling from the ceiling and jumped down. As he blinked repeatedly, trying to focus his eyes, I knotted the end of the rope around his ankle. I looped the other end of the rope around one of the bars on the wall and heaved. Up on the ceiling, the rope slid across the pulley, yanking Jace off his feet. I tied the end of the rope on another of the lower wall bars, then passed under my opponent. He was hanging upside down fifteen feet up, kicking and swinging his arms around as he rained down curses upon me.
I just laughed. And I wasn’t the only one. Most of the other initiates were laughing too—all were, in fact, except for the Legion brats.
“Come with me.”
I jumped at the sound of Nero’s voice right behind me. He really needed to stop sneaking up on me like that.
“You’re in trouble,” the Legion brats chanted as I followed Nero out of the gym. They had the maturity of four-year-olds.
Once we were alone in the hallway, Nero closed the door behind us and turned his marble stare on me. “What do you think you’re doing?”