Her Hidden Half (War Songs of the Courts #1)

Chapter Ten

I think Kieran broke me.

He managed to make me do the one thing I've narrowly escaped doing most of my life: Exercise. I'd ran more in that one day than I ever had in my entire existence and now my legs felt like jello. My arms and stomach ached from these awful things called push-ups and crunches. My body protested at every movement I made and, at that moment, I was skeptical I would ever recover.

I was convinced he was trying to get me to off myself. I couldn't think of another reason he'd put me through that kind of pain and, honestly, it seemed like a pretty effective method.

I passed out immediately after 'training' and this morning I actually woke up early. I was becoming worried that Kieran caused some real damage. I have never willingly woken up at five am before. I even limped my way to class early. None of this is what I'd call normal behavior for me. You could literally ask anyone who has ever met me.

Mr. Woodward didn't even bother hiding his laugh when I wobbled into his office.

I cursed at him under my breath and winced as I sat at my table. Massaging my thighs with a pained expression, I relaxed back into the chair, trying not to concentrate on how even that hurt.

"I thought I hated you when I left yesterday, but I'd take this over training with that man any day," I complained, opening the giant book with dread, a look of helplessness on my face.

"So I guess this means you've properly met Kieran. You know, when he isn't all teeth and fur," he said as he set his book down, leaning forward in his seat to watch me with a delight in his eyes that I found suspicious.

The man was entirely too entertained by my pain. It wasn't right.

I opened my mouth to tell him the hell I went through yesterday when his words fully registered. My mouth hung open and I blinked at him.

"What?" I squinted at him.

"Ah, that's right. You don't exactly have our senses yet. Kieran is the big bad wolf that found you when the vampires kidnapped you. He brought you back with him," he informed me as he tapped his desk with a pen, completely unaware of what his words had ensued.

Anger simmered under a thin layer of calm as I remembered Gayle reprimanding Kieran for giving me too much of something. With everything going on it had been lost on me in that moment that Kieran had been the one to bring me to this pretty prison; I was too focused on the drugging part of the conversation to focus on the who. This entire time he had been a complete asshole to me, treating me like it was my fault I was here when it was his.

"You mean to tell me that Kieran the douche is the same asshat who brought me here?" I asked in an unusually calm voice.

Mr. Woodward raised his eyebrows in surprise and his lips twitched upwards.

"Oh, man. This is going to be interesting," he hummed, his voice sprinkled with delectation.

He sat back in his chair and tapped his pen on the edge of the desk a few times before shaking his head with a smile and picking his book back up to read.

You have no idea.

* * *

Lunch was over too soon and I was back strolling through the creepy hallways of hell. I walked in the training room and cautiously peered around the room. There was no sign of Kieran yet and the weapons that were set up were too much to ignore. He must know that leaving me alone with pretty weapons out and about would undoubtedly tempt me.

I would've skipped to them if I could've but my legs were still recovering the day that will probably make an appearance in my future nightmares. I picked up the knife nearest to me and tossed it from hand to hand gently. I set it down and went to pick up a bigger, more enticing weapon.

Someone cleared their throat from a few feet behind me and I jolted in surprise.

"Shit," I cursed and whipped around. Unfortunately, gravity hated me and I ended up twisting my ankle weirdly, going down hard as I did.

I sighed against the floor and tapped it a few times to signal surrender to whatever god kept fucking with my balance.

"Why? Why do you do these things? I'm already accident prone and you sneak up on me? There are faster ways to kill me, you know. I was holding one of the ways five seconds ago."

I carefully sat up and pulled my legs into a comfortable position. He watched me with a slightly wrinkled nose and shook his head. His stood with his arms crossed and his feet set wide. It pissed me off how much he looked like a goddamn statue; solid and grounded. The man had probably seen me do more nosedives in less than a week than he had experienced himself in his entire lifetime.

"You're a complete disaster. The fact that you've somehow survived this long is an outright miracle," he said, looking at me like I was a rabid dog chewing on its own leg.

I puffed out a breath in offense and sputtered.

"Please, don't talk. I get a headache when you do that." He rubbed his forehead as if he was getting a headache just from the thought.

"Trust me. The feelings mutual, big guy," I growled and narrowed my eyes at him as I fumbled to stand up.

"Please, don't try to do that either. With your balance, you could just as easily break your neck as stub your toe." He moved to assist.

I don't know what came over me but suddenly I was in attack mode. I didn't even know I had an attack mode. I had a running mode. I had a hiding mode. I even had a mouth off mode. I'd never encountered my attack mode before and it was making a surprise appearance that just might get me killed.