Page 81 of Lost and Stolen Gods
“Look at me!” Briella said. “I want my face to be the last thing you see before I knock you out.”
She’d made her point. Knocked me down. But it wasn’t enough, because she was a bully, and I fucking hated bullies.
She ran at me and launched herself into the air, mace coming up to deliver another blow, and something inside me snapped. A red haze stole my vision and took control of my body. I swung at her as she arched down, catching her solidly in the gut with the full force of my rage.
A sickening crunch ripped the air, her eyes popped wide, then she was nothing but a dot flying away from me, over the platform and into the complex wall.
Silence fell like a blanket of doom.
All eyes on me.
Someone clapped. Slow and deliberate.
My gaze snapped toward the sound to find who it was.
Guru Chandra dropped his hands to his sides with a smug smile. “There it is. I was wondering how long you’d succeed in hiding it.”
“You knew?” My words were a wheeze.
“I suspected, and I was correct.”
“She’s alive!” Kriti called from the platform. “But we’ll need to get her to medical.”
“Go,” Guru Chandra said, turning his attention back to me. “And that is why we do not hold back in training, because when we do lose control, all that pent-up aggression comes out, and your peers can get seriously hurt.” He approached and gripped my chin, forcing me to look up at him. “Why did you hide it?”
“I…I didn’t want to be a target for the native demigods.”
“If you cannot survive your peers, then you have no business on the battlefield.”
So he knew…He knew what could happen, and he’d deliberately exposed me?
My skin itched beneath the stunned appraisals of said peers. “I…I’m sorry.”
He released me. “Class dismissed.”
He shot up into the air, wings flaring, and flew off.
Everyone around me started talking at once.
“Back off,” Blue yelled. “Can’t you see she’s about to drop?”
“What?” I looked down at him in confusion a moment before the heat left my veins and my knees buckled.
I was saved from another meeting with the ground by the circle of a strong arm.
“I’ve got you, Leela.” Pashim scooped me up and cradled me. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Blue appeared on Pashim’s shoulder, beady eyes glittering in concern.
“I’m okay.” But it hurt to speak.
Pashim carried me across the arena, past Araz, who stood exactly where I’d seen him when I’d fallen. But this time his face wasn’t a mask of impassiveness; it was one of fury.
Chapter 29
A TRAUMA SHARED IS A TRAUMA HALVED
Pashim carried me all the way to the barracks as if I weighed nothing, and maybe to him I didn’t. I was already healing, the pain ebbing. I could have walked, but it felt nice to be held.
