Page 67 of Sealed By Fire (The Nature Hunters Academy 2)

Ender was standing in his blue uniform, looking like a cop. Colt gave the impression of some sort of heavenly enforcer in his white outfit. Tara was very glad that she hadn’t ended up in white. She had a feeling they’d end up rolling around in dirt before the day was over.

Zuri clapped her hands, and a smile that Tara could only describe as sadistic slipped across her face. “All right, first things first. I don’t care how powerful you think you are. Battles are not won by power alone. And there is always,alwayssomeone or something out there more powerful than you. You may not like it, but one day, when you meet the opponent you cannot defeat, you might have to run. And that means you have to be in excellent physical condition. Every day, we will begin our training with a run and then a boot-camp-style workout.”

Tara’s lips turned up as she watched Gabby’s face bloom into a grin as she bounced on the balls of her feet. Gabby rolled her head side to side and shook out her hands as if she was getting ready for a fight. The obvious excitement in the other girl made Tara want to laugh. She didn’t share her new friend’s enthusiasm.To Tara, running seemed like something a person should only do if they were being chased by a serial killer … or if there was a soccer ball to be kicked. Then again, she could pretend she was chasing a soccer ball with Liam’s face on it. That might speed her up. Unlike the running, boot camp sounded intriguing, and she looked forward to it.

“I’ll be the lead,” Zuri said as she turned and motioned behind her. “Students follow, and then the other profs will pull up the rear. There will be other groups running, too. Do not get separated.” Without another word, she took off at a brisk pace.

Tara fell into step beside Gabby. They ran in silence for a while. Tara was simply trying to make sure she could maintain the pace. It was clear from the outset this wasn’t going to be a light jog.

Pretty soon, she and Gabby were panting too hard to speak, and Tara focused on keeping up with Zuri.

Tara tried to think about other things besides the fact that her side was killing her. Her legs felt like concrete blocks attached to her body. She looked around the forest they were running through and found it interesting that the forest was actuallyinsidethe huge mountain housing Terra Academy. She wondered how they made a forest grow inside the earth with no sunlight. Then she wanted to smack herself because, duh, they were earth elementalists. Of course, they could make a forest grow regardless of the location.

After about a half-hour, Tara felt a cool rush of air hit her face.

“Thank you, Colt,” Gabby called out to the male who was at least twenty feet in front of them.”

“What was that?” Tara panted.

“That was our friendly neighborhood air elementalist giving us a little shout out.”

On the tail end of that sentence, there was another blast of cool air. Inside of it was a misting of water.

“Now y’all are just showing off,” Gabby hollered.

“Was that both Ender and Colt?” Tara asked.

“Yeah, and honestly I don’t think they were showing off. They were actually being nice, considering they’re trying to cool us while we run.” Gabby was glistening with sweat but still managed to look badass rather than worn out. Tara hoped she looked more Lara Croft and less like a sloppy, out-of-shape chick because, despite her soccer conditioning, the instructors were putting her and the other students to shame.

“Finally,” she huffed when Zuri came to a stop. All four of the students slumped over, their hands resting on their knees as they panted and sucked air.

“Good news,” Zuri said. “This day will be the worst. It only gets better from here.”

“You really shouldn’t lie to them,” Professor Frost said with a slight chuckle.

Tara did not miss the fact that none of the professors were winded in the least.

Professor Frost had a slight glow to her pale cheeks, and her dark brown hair that had been pulled back into a ponytail had some flyaways. But other than that, she didn’t look like someone who’d been running for half an hour.

Professor Briggs stood with his hands resting on his hips, observing them. He had short, black hair with brown eyes and a chiseled jaw. He wasn’t conventionally handsome, but the angles of his face made him interesting to look at. And his obvious confidence was compelling.

Professor King looked as angelic as his student Colt. In his white military-style uniform and blond hair and blue eyes, Tara was just waiting for the wings to sprout out of his back. He was probably just shy of six feet tall and lean. Just like Professor Briggs, he looked as if he worked out on a very regular basis.

But, Tara thought, regardless of how in shape those three appeared, Zuri still looked like she could take them all on single-handedly.

“All right, give me twenty-five burpees,” Zuri suddenly yelled. “This is a burpee, for those of you who might think it’s a burp with a whee sound at the end. It’s not,” she said dryly and then showed them a workout that had them jumping down into a plank and then back up to their feet with another jump. Tara had done plenty of burpees in her soccer career. They were her archnemesis.

“After that, each professor will show you another workout. You will do twenty-five reps of each, and you will do three rounds of all of the workouts.”

Gabby held out a fist to Tara. “Let’s make a deal that if either of us goes into cardiac arrest, we will not tell a soul.”

“Unless we die,” Tara said. “Then we are sort of obligated to tell someone.”

“Fair enough.”

Tara bumped the other girl’s fist with her own, and they both started their burpees. Yep, she still hated them. It was good to know some things stayed the same in her ever-changing world.

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