Page 22 of Until the Stars Fall

Raven sighed and offered one of her warm smiles as she relaxed. “Not yet, but you will.”

“I’m glad one of us is optimistic.”

Nodding toward the edge of the circle, she said, “Come on, let’s get you some water.”

“When does this get easier?” I asked as I trudged along beside her to where two canteens of water waited for us in the grass. I stood there, letting her kneel to pick them up, knowing if I did it, I might never stand back up.

She shrugged and handed me my water. “Here, drink it slowly.” She took a small sip of her own before finally answering my question. “Everyone is different, obviously, but you’d be surprised how quickly the body can learn. The mind, however, can take a little longer.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, wiping a stray drop of water from my chin.

“A muscle is created to become stronger, right? We train it, build it up. We’re not trying to force it to do anything it wasn’t designed to do. But the mind? It’s set in its ways, averse to change, stubborn beyond measure. Training it to see past what you know and pushing it beyond its own limits? That takes time. But don’t worry. You’re not the first person I’ve trained—and not the first my parents have helped either. We know how to get you where you need to be. Trust me.”

“But what am I training for anyway?”

When she didn’t respond but merely dropped her canteen onto the grass, my heart plummeted into my stomach and my muscles locked up. Was our break already over? My mind scrambled to find some excuse to get out of continuing our training for the day. She flashed me a quizzical look and cocked her head.

“You don’t need to look so scared, Lieke.”

“I can’t,” I said, hating how pathetic I sounded. I wanted to be stronger, wanted to be able to push through all the pain to keep going, but I didn’t know how.

“Can’t what? Go relax?” I blinked slowly at her, which earned me a laugh. I was too tired and sore to be offended. “We’re done for the day, friend.”

CHAPTER 12

Connor

This was a disaster.

I stared down at the map stretched across my desk. I’d been here in my study poring over it all morning, but my vision had long since blurred. My body ached. My head pounded. My stomach growled. All in protest to my insistence on sitting here until I had devised a plan.

But all these hours later, I still had nothing.

A slowcreakfilled the room. Matthias had poked his head around the door.

“So you are alive,” he said, stepping inside and shutting the door behind him.

I rubbed a finger into my temple, trying to ease the pain there. “Am I?”

My best friend huffed out a single laugh. “I’ve never seen one of the undead before, but I imagine they would be more…rotted.”

I shook my head and gestured for him to sit.

“How are the soldiers?” I asked, knowing there wouldn’t have been much improvement since I’d looked them over yesterday. Sloppy. Slow. Slovenly. The war had ended over twenty years ago, but our troops had still not fully recovered.

“They’re…” Matthias started to answer but then looked up to the ceiling, tapping his finger against his lips. “Well, they’re alive?”

I drew in a breath to steady myself. For the past year we had received regular reports of growing discontent across the kingdom, all while our neighbors continued to fortify their own fighting forces.

The threats of rebellion and war loomed over my head daily, and my armies were simplyalive.

Matthias settled back in his chair and elaborated. “As you know, a good portion of our experienced troops are still recovering, plagued with nightmares and unpredictable fits of madness. We’ve had to relieve many of them of their duties. That leaves us with a relatively new and untested force.”

“Are they at least showing promise?” I asked, foolishly allowing a little bit of hope to leak into my voice.

My second offered a shrug. “Perhaps. Anyone can be taught and trained, but only if they’re willing. A good leader would help a lot, to be honest.”

“Are you saying you’re a poor one, Matthias?”

---