Page 38 of Above
Zade was a menace. No, a monster.
With only two weeks left in the grey phase, he seemed determined to move me from the bottom quarter of the class to the top ten percent. It was unrealistic at best, delusional at worst. Still, he showed up in my room before dawn, grabbing me and throwing my body over his shoulder if I argued. We’d spend the first thirty minutes running, where he’d coach me on breathing, adjust my posture, and guide my feet. Then, as we lifted or worked with weapons, he would arrange my body, making sure I was always maintaining good form. From there, he would run through mock combat sessions, never so much as smacking me. Instead, he would stop just before he hit me, explaining where I went wrong and how I could still win. Allof the things that no one had ever done for me before. And I couldn’t deny that it made a drastic difference. After day three I was quickly moving towards the middle of the group, skill wise. By the end of the first week I had found my new place amongst the top half of our class.
Still, he exhausted me. I spent countless hours in my lab at night, either working on my elixir or practicing defensive magic, so waking up early to train wasn’t exactly exciting. Not that I could afford to stop going home. I had made a significant amount of progress with the ingredients to the elixir. In fact, I was convinced it was perfect with the exception of my magic. I still wasn’t sure how to separate that from my blood. I had been slashing open my skin and trying to convince my magic to split it, but nothing was working.
“Where is your head at, Supernova?” Zade asked.
Blinking, I focused on his face, realizing I had begun to slow us down. He never ran ahead of me, even when I knew it was excruciatingly slow for him. That was the thing about Talon, he wasnice.Or, that was what he wanted me to think. It was hard to trust him when I knew he had spent the better part of six decades being taught to hate me above all else.
“Sorry, just thinking about the start of the black phase.” Only somewhat of a lie. I was always thinking about the next phase. Talon reached out, grabbing my arm and forcing me to stop. We had been running through the forest on the island, the damp air feeding the overwhelming greenery around us. Moss, trees, bushes, plants—everywhere green other than the thin dirt path. “I don’t like the unknown.”
“Is that all? I can help you with that. Why don’t you ever ask?” Jaw clenched from the hurt that so clearly dominated his face, Talon stared at me.
How easily he believed in my supposed weakness. Celeste would have immediately called my bluff. She would have saidthat I would sooner die than allow myself to have no knowledge of something. Not knowing only ever plagued me for a short amount of time usually, because I rarely took long to find the information I needed.
Days ago, I had convinced Talon to let me wait in his barracks room while he bathed after our morning training, and while he did, I went through his belongings. His choice to not unpack yet still surprised me, but the issue of remembering where everything was proved irrelevant when I found a small book, the leather faded and pages worn, hidden beneath his bed within the floor. A journal. Guilt slowed me, but it didn’t prevent me from reading Talon’s private thoughts. I skimmed through the pages, aiming for the dates before academy.
If I had any doubts about his hatred for Altair before, they were all put to rest the second I began reading his entry from the day of the shadow ritual.
I saw Az today. Stars, he pisses me off. He loves to act like some kind of king, but we all know his entire family is a disgrace. Now that I have the shadows, I can work toward getting the stars. Then the Altairs will really fall from that ridiculous pedestal they put themselves on.
Until then, I’ll just have to show him that he isn’t better than me.
Mother is a big help with that. She gave me a ton of information about the academy this year. The grey phase will be easy enough, but I think I’ll struggle with the black phase. The mind tricks they plan to play on us make me nervous. I already lived out my greatest fears once today, I don’t want to do that every day for a month. And if Father sees me falling behind, then he’ll make last summer look like a game in comparison.
The only good part about it is that, if I struggle, Az will barely make it out alive. Everyone knows what living in Castle Altair is like. No one walks out of that unscathed.
Forcing myself back to the present, I blinked in rapid succession, the greenery around us blending. My eyes met his, the kindness overwhelming as I considered how I had betrayed him by going through his things. Not that I regretted reading it, as it had been eye opening in many ways. The best insight I got was that our entire class of trainees would be on an even playing field for the black phase.
“I don’t know, it’s hard to let someone else help me. But I want to try. Will you tell me what you know about the black phase?” I asked. Talon’s eyes went wide, his mouth dropping open. For a few seconds, he simply stared at me, the weight of his gaze heavy and unnerving. But then, as if he had come back into himself, he beamed at me, his hand going to my lower back as he guided me to a tree before plopping to the dirt and pulling me down next to him.
“It’d be my pleasure, Supernova.”
Sleep found me slowly the night before the finale of the grey phase.
Priya Otarn and another trainee named Jeanette Rhoden had both absolutely kicked my ass in our combat sessions. Neither had any special rules other than stopping when someone conceded, which was the only reason I wasn’t in the infirmary.Otarn could likely kill me if she wanted. She was utterly lethal, and it terrified me more than I cared to admit.
It wasn’t the pain of the day that kept me awake though. I had long ago studied rudimentary medical texts that helped me understand the human body enough to heal myself on a surface level. Our systems were complex, but a few bruises were easy.
What really left me sleepless was the thought of what was to come. Talon had explained to me that the black phase not only involved history lessons and more time with the captains of our divisions, but it also focused on mental torture. They would be determined to shatter us each at least once. Essentially, our goal was to not break, and if we did, to recover quickly. Tech would be used to simulate scenarios that were meant to terrify us, and much of the month would consist of us trying to determine what was real and what wasn’t.
Only the fact that I was on a relatively level playing field with the others made me feel remotely okay. Knowing what was to come didn’t necessarily help any of us. We would all be forced to face this next phase head on with no advantages.
By the time I had finally caved and dug a vial of sleepless tonic from my bag, the sun was mere hours from rising. I made sure to also snag the tonic Mama made for me to stop my monthly cycle, tipping that one back first. The bell tower at the center of the academy tolled three times right as I poured the sage tinted liquid into my mouth next. Within moments, I was finally fading into a dreamless sleep.
What felt like mere seconds later, I was violently shaken awake, the blissful darkness replaced by the pink and purple light of the coming dawn. Above me, two masked and cloaked figures loomed. Was this a nightmare?
“Grab her!” one of them shouted, the other quickly gripping my curls and pulling. I screamed, trying to get a hold of the roots and stop them from completely ripping out my hair. The onewho had yelled locked their hands around my ankles, helping to get me off the bed. I fought back, kicking and swinging, my body writhing.
“She’s stronger than she looks,” the second one huffed. Both women. The first sounded suspiciously like Otarn with her hissing and superior edge, but I couldn’t say for sure. All I knew was that whatever this was, I would die if I didn’t get free.
Stupid, ridiculous choice to drink the damn potion!
“Hit her or something!”
I was hit hard in the temple, my vision doubling and blurring. And, for a second or two, I was limp in their arms, nausea overcoming me.
“We are low on time, let’s just throw her out the window and be done with it.” Yes, I was rather sure that was Otarn’s voice. Whoever had my hair let it go, my shoulders flying toward the ground and hitting with a rattling thud. Once she had a grip under my arms instead, they began moving again, careless in how they carried me.
