a Thor

ng air between us like a bla

ee

days before I would beg on my knees for a ticket back

y smile. She did not mind that Stryker had cut off her fight with me. The Commander had just given me a worse punishment th

I kept every muscle in my face still. I would not let him see me flin

d rough, but it carried through the quiet hall. "I've been breaki

he high-born heirs. Nobody talke

ound us that my lungs seized. I fought for one scrap of air. For a second, I thought he

. He did not smile. He did not scowl. His jaw stayed har

on me and spoke to the whole hall. "If you are one minute late, Thorne,

p the center aisle, his heavy coat moving around

vanished. I let out a shaky breath. My legs shook so

amed. "You haven't been here an hour, orphan, and you've already made an enemy of the most

with her two huge enforcers behind her. The other students followed. Th

in the middl

dark stone stairs to the basement dorms. They we

ll with no window. It held an iron bed with a thin canvas ma

he edge of the hard bed, a

look at m

e looked at me, it was not the same as Maeve's disgust or Warden Briggs's mockery. His look

matter. At 5:00 AM, he would try to de

up on the bed under the thin wool blanket. I

30

as stiff and sore from the cold, but my mind was sha

a dark, fitted training shirt. I splashed freezing water on my face

ways until I found a heavy iron doo

d walked out into t

nd cut into the edge of a high mountain cliff. Wind howl

nce stood in the mid

rs and hard muscle. His dark slate-brown hair was damp from

eaked shut. His steel-blue eyes f

deep voice cut through the

aiting, Commander," I said, an

thick iron training weigh

unds on each ankle. Ten on each wrist. Then

cold mud and strapped the heavy ir

Stryke

track. Every step was hard. The iron weig

sted of copper, and I fought for air. My left boot

frozen ground. Pain shot through my k

tsteps came thr

e bent down, grabbed the collar of my shirt with one

l-blue eyes burned inches from mine. "I

out. Blood dripped from m

and get off my mountain!" he

g dark and wild in my gut. My tiredness van

th hands. My bloody fingers

through my teeth,

chest with all the

ys. Stryker reached out without thinking to catch me before I fell ov

uched mine, it did not

ke a light

ched. It exploded under my skin with a loud hum. A shockwave of p

e mark on my collarbone burned so hot that it f

er pushed himself up o

old glowed around them. He looked down at his right arm. The silver scars along his forea

n he lifted his head and looked a

was bow