Page 32 of Shadow Bonds

“Sena...”he says. “That was naughty.”I hear the smile in his voice, and then they all try to bombard me through the bond, and I immediately pull back.

But not before spotting Knox smile and shake his head.

Instructor Dick is in right form today. Something or someone must have seriously pissed him off.

Instead of his normal torture of running us beyond exhaustion and then forcing us to do the assault course over and over until we’ve knocked off a few seconds, he’s decided we need to beat the shit out of each other until one of us is knocked out.

And if we don’t agree, he’s decided to step in and take over the job for us.

He pairs me up with Robin. But there’s no way I’m knocking her out just because he says so. There’s a difference between learning certain moves and how to get the upper hand or escape a hold. But this is nothing but an excuse to get us to hurt one another, all so he can get his kicks out of it.

“I’m not fighting her,” I tell him.

Robin opens her mouth to say something, but I give her a look, and she sighs, closing it just as quick.

The Dick is going to be annoyed either way. It’s better that he’s annoyed with just one of us.

“If you don’t fight her, you fight me,” he snarls.

I nod, and he gives me a savage smile. And something about it has my nerves on edge.

The girls move to the side to watch as I step closer to him.

We circle one another, sizing each other up, but he smirks as if he’s found something he was looking for.

I don’t give him any more time to think and shoot forward, blocking his attack before punching him straight in the face. His head whips to the side, and when he turns back to me, he doesn’t look happy.

Spitting out blood, he rolls his shoulders and cracks his neck before getting in position again.

He moves forward, and I reach out to block, but… nothing happens. Instead, I get my hand a couple of inches from his side, and it freezes.

Pain slams into my ribs as his hard punch meets my right side, making me gasp.

But I still can’t move.

I open my mouth to tell him something is wrong. But no words come out. My eyes find his, and the savage look full of glee he gives me tells me everything I need to know.

It’s him.He’sdoing this. Whatever this is.

Finally able to move again, I move forward and strike hard, but just like last time, as soon as I’m a couple of inches away from touching him, my body freezes.

And then he attacks. This time he doesn’t ease up. He kicks and punches me until my body bends over in a gasp of agony.

After he’s finished, he releases whatever hold on my body as he steps back, and I drop to the ground.

The girls try to move closer to me and from the corner of my eye I spot Robin’s long red hair, but one warning from the Dick, and they back up immediately.

All but Robin.

He rounds on her, and I know she’ll end up his next target if I don’t do something.

I try to move but every muscle and bone in my body feels like it’s been dragged towards the ground and held there.

I open my mouth and manage to mumble out some incoherent version of, ‘Go.’

“This is what happens when you don’t listen to me. Now, onto the assault course. She can sit here and think about what she did wrong. Now move it.”

What I did wrong?! That fucking asshole.

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