Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 117246 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117246 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
“Line up,” he snapped. Uh-oh. He was in a mood too.
Everyone rushed to obey. He stopped in front of the clear office, uncapped a marker, and wrote on the wall in big black letters, Today we are working on:
I swiped my tongue over my lips. Beneath those words, he hung my note. Everything.
Chapter Eleven
There is only one battle, and it is between good and evil.
—The Book of Soal 2.10.6.12
“Apparently everything includes death by exhaustion,” Roman muttered as the entire team hobbled to our rooms. Others groaned in agreement, me among them.
Warm-up involved being stalked by hordes of feeder holograms. In self-defense class, we were pitted against machines that projected holograms of ourselves and left battered. Drills included practicing what we’d learned yesterday in bouts of hand-to-hand combat. Afterward, the HP appropriated everyone’s free time, not just mine, and forced us to run obstacle courses outside while knights acted as feeders, working to stop us. His version of immersion therapy, I guess.
I slogged into my cell and fell onto my mattress. Mykal was already asleep and chained.
Man, I missed my plants and the scent of earth. But I missed Mom and her encouragement more. She gave the world’s best hugs and had the most infectious laughter. No doubt she was locked inside her apartment, in desperate need of rest but too busy worrying for me to get it. How I hated that. I wanted only to make life better for her, never worse.
The barred door shut, and I clasped my shackle shut around my wrist. All night, I drifted in and out of sleep, but I never managed to doze for more than an hour. When the morning alarm sounded, I wasn’t ready.
“Guess what?” Mykal exclaimed, bounding over. She looked as bright as the sun. “It’s Shiden Day! Or do you prefer Ariloh?”
“You’re making this weird,” I grumbled, shucking off my open chain and rising from bed.
“That’s my specialty.”
Hopefully, Shiloh was in a better mood today. I hadn’t seen him after warm-up, when he’d seemed so upset.
I trudged to the locker room while Mykal skipped, pausing here and there to beckon me onward. “Hurry up, Ardie! We can’t be late, or we’ll get bumped from the train. No Bala City. No date. Did I tell you I’m meeting my boyfriend?”
Looked like the nickname was sticking.
Maybe it was the exhaustion. Or the stress of being at the academy. Either way, I didn’t understand half of what she said. “Bala City?” I’d never even heard of it.
“A playland for soldiers. I’ve been once with Roman and his family.”
A myriad of other questions bubbled to the surface, but I was too drained to engage in conversation. I zipped through a shower, then riffled through my locker and the few clothes I’d brought from home. Disappointment set in. I should’ve added a pretty dress to my travel bag. Just one! Even a pair of cute jeans. Because I’d packed so sparingly, my best option for the most anticipated date of my life was a blue tank top with matching running shorts. Basically a replica of the pink set I’d worn on day one, eliciting scorn from the HP.
“—second-in-command.”
My ears twitched, catching Lark’s voice.
“He doesn’t get a day off,” she told Juniper, who entered the locker room with her. “He’s attending a meeting with all our instructors.”
Poor Roman. Attending such meetings equaled torture. But also fortunate Roman. He had the greatest chance of becoming top lord. Not that I’d given up. I’d just shifted my focus. Improve first, then go for gold.
“Come on, come on.” A bouncing Mykal dragged me through the building. She wore a frilly red dress, and she looked beautiful. “Have you ever been underground?”
“Never. And I never will.” The infected most often broke in the dark, and those with full-blown Madness loved to congregate in underground tunnels.
“Okay, so, that’s not true. Or it won’t be true in roughly three seconds.” She led me through a set of double doors and to the ledge of a staircase leading down. Far down. Into a pool of darkness.
Foreboding skittered over my spine. Nope. Not happening. I dug in my heels, then endeavored to retreat.
She grasped both my wrists to stop me. “It’s perfectly safe, I promise. Armed guards are posted all around. I’ve made the trip multiple times to fetch stuff for His Majesty. Besides, if you refuse, you gotta stay here. No date.”
Fine. Deep breath in, out. I refused to give in to fear, missing a day of fun I craved with every ounce of my being. “I-I’ll do it. Because I’m brave,” I said, forcing my feet to shuffle forward. One, two, three. “I mean it. I’m brave,” I repeated, quickening my pace.
“So, so brave,” Mykal praised, matching my stride.
Down we went, a musty odor saturating too-warm air. At the bottom was a platform illuminated with pritis light and overflowing with soldiers both in and out of uniform. Different conversations mingled together, echoing from rocky walls. Not bad. But how was I supposed to find Shiloh?