Tempting Darkness

"Move it, Aleera! Twenty laps, now!" Tobias roared behind me.

Despite not wanting to run, my feet started moving, the rocks digging into my feet painfully. It didn't take long before the men overlapped me. Around a hundred or so barging and shoving past me. What the heck was their problem? I didn't even know them, and they took no care when they came too close. "Aleera!" I heard Zac's voice behind me before looking over my shoulder in time to see him running straight at me. I tried to step out of his way when he dropped his shoulder and barreled straight into me, diverting slightly off track to hit me deliberately. My body was tossed across the gravel, and I felt like I was being skinned alive. My face burned as I skidded across the loose gravel, my hands I used to try and brace myself grazed, and I felt battered and bruised all over.

"Up, Aleera! You have only done three laps!" Tobias called from the center where the obstacle courses were. I hauled my body up to my hands and knees, trying not to cry out at my pain and discomfort.

It was agonizing, I kept going, and by the time I finished the laps, the men had completed theirs plus the obstacle course. The rest of the class moved on to their next lesson while Zac had been told to make sure I finished the course.

His sneers and name-calling were starting to get to me. I was starving, and the sun was cooking me alive. I wondered how long I had been out here when the blare of the alarm sounded; it was time for lunch.

Someone brought Zac out some food while I tried to navigate the climbing wall. My arms could not take my weight much longer and shook as I tried to haul myself up when I felt something smack me in the center of the back. I was about five meters up when pain rippled up my spine, and I lost my grip, plummeting to the ground below.

A shriek left my lips as I grasped the air frantically, hitting the ground with a thud before darkness swallowed me.

The sound of angry voices pulled me back to my surroundings. A furious growl had me blinking, and I found the sun was no longer directly above me, the sky now painted in orange and pink hues as I tried to remember what had happened.

"If she runs again, I swear I will f*****g kill her," Darius's angry voice boomed. I groaned, rolling on my side, my head pounding to its own beat and every muscle aching. My back was killing me, and my skin felt sunburned.

"You know she wouldn't be able to find her way through the forest. She wouldn't even know what direction to go in," I heard Lycus's voice answer.

"Wait, I can smell her scent," Lycus growled, and I pulled myself up to my hands and glanced around to see them coming up over the small hill from the castle.

"Found her!" Tobias called out, pointing at me. My vision was blurry, and I squinted about to get to my feet when suddenly Darius gripped my hair, yanking my head back. He moved with speed that made the air rush around me. One second he was over on the crest of the small hill; the next, he was beside me.

"You think you can skip classes, Aleera?" he snarled as I clutched his hands and cried out. My hair ripped painfully from my scalp, and I would need to find some scissors. The taunts and bullying I could deal with. The hair-pulling was a low act and very demeaning. I suddenly cursed being a girl.

"Let go. You're hurting me," I choked out, and he laughed before shoving me forward back in the dirt.

I rubbed the back of my neck and noticed Kalen was nowhere to be seen, which at least gave me comfort, knowing the only person who had been decent to me since being here wasn't hunting me down to inflict more injury when my brain backtracked. He was one of them. He could be looking for me elsewhere.

"Get up! You have power placement with me. If I ever have to come searching for you again because you have missed class-"

"Ah, finally you found her," Kalen said, cutting Darius off as he jogged over to us and a look of relief crossed his features as he let out a breath.

"Had me worried for a second. I thought you left us again," Kalen said, and his smile faltered when he looked at me. Kalen turned and looked at Darius before he shoved him. "Why is she bleeding? What the f**k did you do?" Kalen snapped out in an angry growl. Darius ripped Kalen toward him by the front of his shirt. "I haven't done anything but take that tone with me again, and I will make you watch her punishment," Darius growled at him.

Lycus gripped Darius's arm, and Darius looked at him. "We have enough going on. We don't need to be fighting each other, especially over her," Lycus said before glaring down at me. I remained quiet, not wanting to draw any more attention to myself. Kalen, however, didn't.

"Punishment for what?" Kalen demanded.

"She skipped my class and Lycus's."

"Come on, give her a break. It's her first day," Kalen said, offering me his hand. I reached for it, and Darius slapped my hand away.

"She can get up by herself. She survived for six years, holed up god knows where or with whom. She can get herself up," Darius snapped at him.