Page 44 of Ava: Part Two

Jogging was the last thing she needed to do right now, especially considering how much she hated running. But if a two-lap equivalent was all she would manage, that would be okay. At least it was something. There was no way she was going to train with Zeke now when it was clear he would just interrogate her.

“How are you feeling? I heard it was touch and go last night.”

How many people knew about this? She didn’t want the whole academy speculating about this in case they came up with the correct conclusion.

“I’m fine. It was just nerves. All that was unexpected yesterday,” she lied as she turned away from him.

“Can we talk?” Jared asked.

“I’m sorry, but I stopped caring about anything you have to say when you showed me your true colours. Goodbye, Alpha Jared.”

Without waiting for his answer, she started what she knew would be a gruelling jog towards the dining hall. She kept her ears and eyes open just in case Douche Dexter was also waiting in the shadow somewhere, ready to make her pay. As the sun rose, she peered into every shadow and jumped at every noise. They would find her body in a ditch somewhere because of her stupid decision to leave the house alone. If she survived the day, she wouldn’t do it again. She would wait for a lift or find out how the other Omegas got to school.

Caught up in her thoughts and fears, she didn’t realise she had jogged the whole way to the dining hall until the entrance loomed in front of her.

She stumbled as she came to a halt and then looked back in the direction she had come. Was she imagining this? She didn’t feel as breathless as she usually did after a couple of laps around the training room with Coach Baxter. Was the coach’s training working?

She snorted at that as she turned and walked the rest of the way to the dining hall. Running and her would never mix, no matter how much stamina she built up during training. It had always been that way. This was probably a fluke caused by her flight or flight reactions when she had imagined Dexter jumping out of every shadow.

She took out her water and drained it before heading in to sit at a table. It seemed she was a little too early for breakfast. She must have woken up earlier than she thought, or her alarm clock was messed up.

The kitchen Omegas took another half an hour to start putting the food out. She was ravenous when she finally helped herself, so much so that she went for a second helping just as the first students arrived.

She didn’t enjoy her second breakfast as much as the first because the moment they started to whisper and look at her, she lost her appetite. She left the dining hall before it was full of people and headed for the locker room to store her bag with another set of fresh clothes. Then she walked to the arena.

When she opened the door, she stopped at the sight in front of her. They had set things up for the day, and somehow, the arena looked more intimidating. At one end were four tall, glass cabinets with ridiculously sharp weapons that seemed very real. She hadn’t even seen some of them in her training sessions, although she had worked with most at home. She assumed they were arranged by level because the wall on the end had the biggest and most beautiful weapons, so she guessed those were for the expert-level students.

Then she noticed something else. There was a shimmer around the rings. She walked towards one slowly and then put her hand between the ropes. It felt like an invisible solid wall stretched around all the rings.

It was good protection for the spectators, she supposed, but it also meant that once she got into that ring today, she would be trapped inside.

It didn’t take long for the arena to start filling up. Though she kept her gaze down, she could feel the scrutiny. Was her life going to get worse at the academy now? Emily once said that training was where everyone advanced to any level, regardless of their role. But would Dexter accept that? She didn’t think so.

She felt the moment Zeke walked in and looked up to meet his gaze. He was still angry with her. She could tell by the stiff set of his body and his hard gaze. And maybe she was losing her mind, but she could almost feel his disappointment.

Eventually, the coach blew his whistle, and as his favourite student, he called her name first. Her favourite daggers were not among the weapons available for the beginners, and the coach’s sneer told her he had done this on purpose.

But that was okay. All weapons were her forte. The katana she pulled down from the cabinet would work just as well.

She didn’t search for Zeke again as she waited in the corner for her beginner classmates to begin the process all over again.

Belatedly, she remembered Mr Patrick’s words. The Council’s eyes were here. But did they want her to win or fail?

Chapter 29

Zekestoodnearthebleachers in his section, his eyes trained on Ava. She looked fearsome with that deadly weapon in her hand and her face devoid of emotion as she waited to cut her opponent down.

He would have been very impressed if he hadn’t been so angry with her. Ava looked very confident with weapons in her hands. But as it stood, he wanted to fucking throttle her.

Gideon told him that the vampire yielding had not been his doing. The prince claimed to have been just as surprised as everyone else. And, of course, he couldn’t rip that vampire apart because he had taken himself straight to Isolation the moment he had yielded. He would not be able to interrogate him until the end of the day.

He still had the vial of Gideon’s blood in his bag, so Ava had not taken that before her last match; she’d had something else. She could have died last night! Who had given it to her? Who did he need to rip apart with his bare hands? She was keeping too many secrets; he and Shadow didn’t like it.

Shadow had been growling in his head since yesterday. There was someone else out to harm Ava, but he couldn’t leave the stubborn woman alone long enough to investigate this properly.

Was it Claire? Had she found a way to get to Ava through someone else?

It had been days since the Council left and told him they found Claire. If they put her in Isolation, her stint there should have ended by now. Was he finally going to get answers? Because he sure as shit wasn’t getting anything from Ava.

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