Their Light

Chapter 15

Hadley

Hands shaking slightly, I entered the house, Joe on my heels. That was hard. It was hard, but I felt amazing, too.

Ryder had yelled. He had yelled at me, and it did not reduce me to a puddle of tears. It did not thrust me back into my awful past. I pushed through it and argued my point home. Now, I would finally know how to fight back.

I glanced out the kitchen window, gulping at the sight in front of me. The guys had paired off except Zeke. He was going from pair to pair, looking each of them over. That wasn't what had me shocked, though.

Nope.

Two words.

Bare chests.

Actually, scratch that. Three words. Sweaty bare chests. Yep, shirts had come off.

I watched for a minute, maybe more don't judge, as they battled each other. I could barely follow their movements. The blades clashed against each other, and I winced at the loud sound.

I tried to remind myself that they knew what they were doing, but it looked utterly violent. Their blades were beautiful, though. Beautifully dangerous. I made a mental note to ask where they came from. I hadn't seen any of the guys lugging them through the house.

Focusing back on my task, I started whipping together some scrambled eggs and pre-heated the oven for some bacon. It was harder than I thought it would be to turn away from the window.

I had just pulled the bacon out of the oven when they began filing into the house. They headed up to clean up as I finished up breakfast by making some toast for everyone. I set the dishes on the table just in time. They all came down in clean clothes, hair dripping from their showers.

"Breakfast is served," I announced.

"It looks amazing," Peter told me, and I smiled at the compliment.

"I just hope it tastes good as well," I replied.

Taking a seat with them, everyone dished up their meal. Joe went to Zeke this time to beg for scraps, even though he had a full bowl of perfectly good dog food. I snorted when I saw him chewing on some bacon. Seems I wasn't the only softy at the table.

"Where did your blades go?" I asked, thinking back about it. Finn shoved his hands out, showing me matching silver bracelets on each wrist. All I felt was confusion. "What? They turned into bracelets?"

"Pretty much," Finn supplied, looking amused. His finger brushed one cuff and sure enough, a blade formed in his hand, the same silver shade as his bracelet.

"Whoa," I breathed out. "That's amazing. Can I have a pair?" Ryder looked pained again at my words.

"Maybe get through some basic training first before we consider weapons," Isaac suggested. I shrugged and went back to my breakfast.

It was a valid point. I noticed now that everyone wore the silver cuffs on their wrists. I had seen flashes of them, but I had paid no attention to them.

"After breakfast we can start your lessons about our society," Kent told me towards the end of the meal. Excited, I nodded immediately. I really wanted to learn about the society I should have grown up in.

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"Ugh, I need a break!" I exclaimed, holding my head in my hands.

When Kent said lessons, I didn't expect to have flashbacks from school. This 'lesson' turned into a two hour-long lecture series with quizzes. Quizzes!