Feather Dark

Chapter 10

Keira

"Yah!" The scream that left my lips seemed to give extra weight to the blow I landed against Blue. My staff struck hers with such force, she staggered backwards and let go of her staff with one hand.

"Ow!" she squealed, shaking her free hand as if it was injured.

Keira from a month earlier would have dropped her guard, rushed forward to help. In fact, it was exactly what I'd done my first day in the training room with Blue – and I'd had my butt handed to me in return as Blue had darted to the left and used her staff to sweep along the floor, sending me crashing to the floor.

Now, smarter from the bruises I'd been nursing from our training sessions, I charged. With my fingers clenched tight around the staff, I struck her ribs – hard. Blue tumbled backwards, and I raised my weapon high, ready to strike.

"Okay, okay, uncle!" Blue cried, releasing her bow with both hands, our signal that sparring was over. "Frack me, girl, you're getting good at that!"

"Thanks," I said, filled with hot pride.

"Mind you, you should be good, considering all the hours we're putting in here." Blue gestured around our training space, the room filled with non-lethal weapons and double the usual amount of cameras, three white walls and the fourth made up of giant windows overlooking the rainforest room. "I mean, if you weren't improving after four weeks of six to eight hours a day under my expert guidance, I'd think you were a lost cause."

"Gee, don't make me blush." I threw her a towel, aiming it at her face, then I walked over to grab a drink of water from my bottle.

Blue cackled. She clapped an arm over my shoulder, saying, "So sensitive, little Seraph! Wanna hit the gym?"

"Sure." The gym was the last thing I physically felt like; my muscles ached like they were coated in battery acid. But I actually had muscles for the first time in my life, and I planned on developing them even more. I might have been trapped in a fancy government cage, but I was putting every minute to good use: training, working out, honing skills I'd never known were hiding within me. Besides, when I was physically exhausted from exercise, sleep came easier and the nightmares stayed away.

We walked through the first set of doors leading out of the training room and waited for the guards watching on the cameras to unlock the second set of doors – a safety measure designed to keep the weapons from being smuggled out. The selection was pretty non-lethal anyway: the staffs, boxing gloves, wooden swords, and a pair of nunchakus I'd used once and just as I'd feared, proceeded to almost knock myself out with.

The exit led down a flight of stairs and back into the rainforest room, and we followed the path along past the artificial waterfall on the far side. Keeping my voice low enough that the water would hid my words from any listening ears, I said, "Blue, I still don't get why Sevic is okay with us having weapons and training to become more deadly. Isn't she worried at all about us taking on the guards and busting out of here?"

She snorted, her scarlet hair flipping around in derision. "Dude, have you seen the heat the guards are packing? Tasers, dart guns, handcuffs – and that's just the guys in here. When they brought me in as a captive, I saw the people manning the external doors. Automatic weapons everywhere. So, no. I don't think Sevic is concerned about us escaping. What I think she is concerned about is how useful we'll be in the field once we finally give in and agree to work for her."

"Never going to happen," I said, halting by a large rock beside the waterfall. I sat heavily and began to knead my tight thigh muscles with my knuckles. "She's insane if she thinks I'd ever help."