A Court of Blood and Courage

Part 1

Sweat dripped down my face as I clutched the mace in my hands. Wings flaring, I launched myself at the female across from me. She fell before my mace even touched her shield with a cry. Annoyance swept through me as I charged again but our overseer stopped me.

"Carina, enough." I back up as he comes rushing to the female's aid. With an annoyed sigh, I brush my strawberry, blonde hair into a ponytail. I watch as the overseer helped Teagan as she fake-limped back to the barracks. An angry noise burst out from my throat as she threw me a sneaky grin. Being forced to fight these sad excuse of Illyrians is driving me insane. The males wouldn't let me train with the other males because I was too "fragile". What they really meant was that they didn't want to damage the females so they could breed when they gave up on being soldiers. There were three females, according to our general Cassian, that were fit to be soldiers. I disagreed with him, there was only one fit. The second was faking a limp and the third was nowhere to be found, again. Shaking out my wings, I swing the mace in my hand with practiced precision.

"Hey Carina, why do you waste your time with this crap?" Cyrus calls to me with a grin. Cyrus had been preening for me since I had my first bleeding. He had claimed me behind my back to the rest of the Illyrian males. They thought I didn't know, and when I tried to talk to any Illryian male, they usually walked away from me. Cyrus was always near me, asking me why I even bothered with learning to fight.

"So I can kick your ass." I snap at him.

Cyrus just grins down at me, then takes the mace from my hands. His eyes went to my wings with distaste. I knew he wanted me to clip them ever since he had suggested it subtly to me. My wings were precious to me. Once or twice it had crossed my mind to take away my ability to breed but if I did that then they would give up on me entirely. It wasn't worth it. My wings pull tight to my body, to avoid his gaze. "What do you want, Cyrus?"

"You know it would be better if you gave this foolish notion up and just gave yourself to me." he purrs trying to stroke my face. I jerk away from the touch.

"I'd rather swallow hot coals." With that I turn from him but he grabs my arm, forcing me to look at him.

"Watch your tongue." he growls. Despite my warrior abilities, I was no match for the male. So fear stroked down my spine at his threat. Wings tucked tight to my back in fear of losing them.

"Cyrus, leave her alone." We both turn to find the newest leader of our camp walking toward us. Drevon swaggered up to us, his wings were huge and beautiful. General Cassian had hand picked the Illryian to oversee the females training after the war took our other commander. Drevon was all hard edges with a scar on his upper lip and another through his eyebrow. Thick dark locks of hair were pushed away from his face in waves. Cyrus does not let go despite the threat in Drevon's voice. "Cyrus." he snarls.

"She's mine. You don't get to tell me what I can do with her." Every inch of my body wanted to fight Cyrus but my whole life, I had been told to bow my head and submit to the males. Fear forced me to look down at the mud and not take part in this fight.

"What's your name sweetheart?" I look up at Drevon who is giving me a small smile while Cyrus's grip tightens to the point where it hurts. My eyes flick to the mace Cyrus holds. Drevon grins as I look back at him, and he nods with a glint of danger in his eyes. This was a test. I take a deep breath and wrench my arm then with the other I smash my palm into his nose. My foot plants square on his chest and as he falls back, he lets go of my arm. The mace gripped in my hand as I whirl on Drevon.

"Carina." I say with a straight face. Drevon grins down at me then bites his finger and cocks his head.

"Carina, meet me tomorrow at daybreak in the training arena." He looks at Cyrus whose nose is bleeding all over his leathers. "Cyrus, Carina is not yours. She is her own soldier. You will leave her alone and go get your nose fixed." he sneers down at the male. When Drevon walks away, I walk to the barracks to start my chores.