Page 63 of Lies That Bleed
‘Don’t tell her that you don’t know yet what your power is. That will make you sound weak,’Liana coached, and then stood beside me, bending so that I could ride her.
“I have a little something I can show you,” I told her, processing Liana’s advice.
Was sounding weak in front of Ashendell dangerous? She sort of made it seem that way. And wasn’tbeing impervious to flame, and possibly immortal, power enough?
‘You have more abilities. They just haven’t shown yet,’Liana told me.
She seemed so sure… maybe she felt it. I certainly didn’t.
I climbed onto Liana’s back. She leapt into the air as I held onto the handles of her new holster and squeezed her back with my thighs. She went really high.
‘Hold on,’she instructed.
She dove at that moment and my stomach dropped. Halfway down, she did a barrel roll and let loose a twenty-foot stream of fire that nearly shaved the top off of the trees near us.
“Showoff!” Alek taunted from the ground, and I grinned.
It wasn’t a power display from me, but it showed what I could do with Liana.
When I landed, Ashendell marked something on her clipboard and nodded.
“Okay. That will do for now. Kohen, you’re up.”
She didn’t seem very impressed. Maybe she was hoping for me to display something.
Kohen leapt onto Onyx, staying upright, and I noticed his feet slipped into the hand straps sewn onto a harness Onyx had that was nearly identical to Liana’s. Onyx flew around like a teenager who had drank way too much caffeine and Kohen stayedstanding the entire time. They ended their little display with Onyx breathing a ring of fire and flying Kohen through it.
“Talk about a showoff,” I muttered to Alek, who chuckled.
But Ashendell was smiling at the display and I saw her write,battle readyon the top of Kohen’s paper before pulling the clipboard out of view.
Battle ready. In his first few days of training? Did she mark that on mine?
We all had to be battle ready by the end of this month, but seeing him get the nod of approval so quickly made jealousy flare to life in my chest.
When I got backto our room, I found Tetra lying in bed with her bad foot elevated and an icepack on top. Her creature was lying on the bed next to her with her head in her lap.
“You okay?” I rushed inside and knelt before her.
She nodded, but I could tell she wasn’t.
“What happened?” I asked, lifting the icepack to see that her normally pink and crooked foot was black and blue.
“Jace, we were training and?—”
I stood angrily, ready to rip that bastard’s head off.
She yanked my arm, forcing me down on the bed beside her. “And he accidently jumped on it. He apologized profusely and even carried me here.”
I growled. “That’s going to put you out of commission for a few days.”
She laughed. “Are you serious? He hurt my already mangled foot. I’ll be fine. It’s nothing I’m not already accustomed to. Pain and uselessness.”
Her words hit my chest like a bomb and my heart fissured. Pain and uselessness, that’s what my best friend was accustomed to?
“You’re not useless,” I told her, but she turned away from me and I saw her wipe at her eyes.
“Tetra, look at me. You arenotuseless!” I forced her to face me and my heart broke when I saw the unshed tears in her eyes. Her mouth was set into a grim line. “What’s gotten into you? Did Jace say something? I’ll nut punch him right now if he did,” I promised her.
