Page 12 of Enchanted Shadows
I noticed as they formed a line for me to hand them over that all of the women had bright pink nail polish on today. It was somewhat hard to miss. Rather than be annoyed, I understood they had done something in solidarity to ward off their nerves for this morning. I wasn’t mad about that at all. So long as they weren’t forcing me to do mine, I was fine with it.
Zara was last in line. Like she often was.
I looked to her nails. “Didn’t take you for a pink kind of woman.”
“I prefer black. Like my soul.”
Not expecting that, a laugh escaped out my throat. “Okay then.”
“But we did it together. And despite my best efforts, they are wiggling their way into my good graces.”
I grinned. “Okay.”
She held up her new water jug. “This was a good idea.”
“Okay.”
“You’re in a whole mood today, aren’t you?”
I cocked my head. “Go fill up your jug and find out.”
“Great. More yelling.” But this time she seemed less mad about it.
Just to be a pest, I decided that was the perfect time to hurry them along. “Hustle up!”
Their groans and Zara’s dramatic head shake had me laughing.
I waited for them to gather back at the starting point. “Big rock.Back. Thirty minutes. One of three big tests in the first round of training. You don’t need me to lead the way today, you already know where you’re going.” I tapped on my temple. “You will need to control this. The doubts of if you can make it in time. You can. Remember to control your breathing and watch your strides. I’ll see you in thirty.”
“Or else,” Sam added.
“Or else,” I agreed, but not really.
“Go!” I yelled and they took off.
Some of them ran alone, some of them, like Molly, preferred to run with a buddy to pace themselves. I settled in to wait, suspecting that most of them wouldn’t be back for at least twenty-five minutes.
Jessina ended up being the first one in at twenty-one minutes.
“Nicely done!”
I saw a few bodies far off in the distance, too blurry to tell who they even were. “Keep it up!”
The third woman in was Zara, who ran to the starting point and immediately spun on her heel to head the opposite direction.
“Zara?”
She didn’t respond, just kept running.
“Zara?” I tried again, a little louder.
Fern arrived next, and did the same exact thing, following Zara.
“You do not get bonus points for extra,” I hollered at them.
Jessina was taking a big pull from her water jug. “It’s Viv.”
“What about her?”
