Page 19 of Enchanted Shadows
I nodded toward Zara. “Zara felt a presence near the barn but didn’t entirely trust it. It was fortunate for us she felt anything at all. If she hadn’t, we might not have caught him so swiftly. Dixon Hill had only been observing, but had he any evil intentions, those of us Enchanted would have felt it, picked up on it.”
“But wouldn’t he know that?” Molly asked. “Wouldn’t he know that if he had evil intentions, we’d know he was there?”
Smart woman. “Yes. Precisely why he was only here to watch today. Which is equally as alarming.” I gave her a nod. “He was not innocent. You heard him. But the point I am trying to make here is to trust those instincts. Zara couldn’t rely on an Enchantment to warn her, but we can all rely on our human instincts, every single one of us. If you feel creeped out by something, there is likely a reason. You will have to learn to trust each other, of course, but you also have to learn to trust yourselves. Listen to your bodies.”
A few of them nodded at me.
“Speaking of, we have exactly five minutes to finish up this workout, so let’s get to it.”
Sam snorted. “And if my body is saying that my abdominals are already too sore?”
“Then you remind it you are capable of more. Let’s go.”
With some groaning, we got back to work.
CHAPTER 7
“You could act like you even halfway want to be here!” Jessina’s voice was far louder than usual. She had run with Aletta today, trying to motivate her to move a little faster. Elsie was making the runs at least half of the time, but Aletta still wasn’t. After half walking, half running with her, Jessina was fed up.
“I don’t want to be!” Aletta finally snapped, taking a huge step in closer, gesturing wildly with her arms. “I don’t want to be here. There. You happy now?”
Jessina hesitated.
I stayed back but paid close attention, trying to see if they could handle it on their own.
“My family forced me into this,” Aletta gritted. “They went down in society when the dead king died. They want my placement in this group to be the thing that gets them back.”
I wasn’t expecting that. “So you’re intentionally holding yourself back? Hoping to get kicked out?”
“Yes and no,” Aletta sighed as her voice came back down in volume. “I hate running. Loathe it. I would rather walk it than jog.I hurt my knee a few years ago and the motion makes it reverberate up my body. It hurts.”
How’d she make it past the physicals then? Or had she lied about any previous injuries?
“Does your family know?” Jessina asked. “That you’re hurt?”
“Yes. They sent me anyway.”
“That’s horrible,” Molly provided from where she was grabbing her knees for breath.
Aletta looked to them all. “So stop doing this thing where you try to befriend me and make me like this. I don’t want to like it. I don’t want it.”
I walked over. “The way I see it, Aletta, you have two options. You can take the real trial test in a few days and intentionally fail it. Then you’ll be out. Or you can actually run it, pain be damned, and stay.”
Her eyes flooded with tears. “I don’t want to stay. This isn’t for me.”
Oh damn. I hated tears. With a passion.
“Then go.” I put a hand in the direction of the barracks. “Go.”
“I can’t,” she whispered around the tears.
“You can. I hereby kick you out. And I can write a nasty letter to your family about making their daughter train when they knew she had a medical injury.”
“Don’t do that,” she said quietly. “It’ll only make things worse.”
I cocked my head. “Are you sure you want out? Because once you’re out, the rest of us cannot help you.”
“I’m sure. I was engaged to be married anyway. They just didn’t like him.”
