A Collection of Ruins

Chapter 18 - Jealousy's a Knife (Tess)

Tess 

The sun shone through the trees, creating a kaleidoscope of green and yellow above the clearing. The weather was warm and humid, sweat rolling down the back of my neck. Standing before Jev, I tried not to make show of my laboured breathing – he had warned me that Ellie would be a harsh teacher, but he was hardly a forgiving one himself. 

"Now," he was saying, showing me his clenched fist, "when you strike, you want to hit your opponent with the knuckles of your first two fingers – not with the flat of your fingers, but your knuckles. Not only does that hurt more, but you could end up breaking or dislocating your fingers." 

I nodded. 

"Try not to aim for the face – hitting someone in the face will hurt a lot, because generally you'll be hitting them right on a bone. The stomach or the ribs would be better, or even in the balls if your opponent's a guy. Just, uh, let's not try that today, okay?" 

I scoffed. "Anything else I need to know?" 

"Expect it to hurt." He said. "If it doesn't, well... Are you really hitting them hard enough?" He added with a smirk. Then he raised his eyebrows. "Come on then, punch me." 

"You?" I asked, perplexed. 

His brow furrowed. "Who else?" 

I blinked, looking down at the gravel beneath my feet. "Don't... Don't you guys have like... Practice dummies or something?" 

He shook his head in disbelief, a smile playing around his lips. "In a real fight, you're gonna be hitting a real person. The best way to teach you is to have you get used to actually hitting someone else. Besides," the smirk was back, "it's not as if you'll be able to hit me anywa—"

I swung, my fist landing in his unsuspecting stomach. 

Jev stumbled backwards, his eyes wide – in shock more than pain, I imagined. "What was that for?" 

I shrugged. "That's twice you've doubted me and deserved getting punched for it." I reminded him. "Be thankful I got your stomach and not lower." 

His eyes narrowed. "You're still mad about Ellie's test the other day." 

It wasn't a question. 

"I lost regardless." I snapped. "But you had no right to tell me to lose." 

Jev sighed, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. When I had first seen him in the Tunnels, the ends of his hair had a slight curl to them, but now they fought to grow into dark ringlets. When the sunlight touched it, I realised his hair wasn't black like I had originally thought, but a very dark brown. I imagined it was something one only noticed as his hair grew longer – what with James preferring to keep his as short as possible, you couldn't use Jev's twin as comparison. 

Jev just shook his head. "Tess, you don't understand. If I had let you win you'd—" He broke off suddenly and cursed under his breath. "You just have to trust me on this, okay?" 

I scoffed. "How can you expect me to trust you when you don't even trust me enough to tell me why I just had to lose?" 

He looked away. "My loyalty lies first with Ellie and the rest of Sterilis, Tess." He said softly. "You don't understand how much trouble I caused by speaking out against Ellie the other day."

I took a step towards him, anger burning my throat. "Then why do it?" 

He groaned. "Tess, honestly—"

He froze as he turned to face me, not realising I had moved closer. His eyes were wide and as green as the leaves high above us as he took in my face. It looked almost as if he were committing it to memory.