War of Shadows

Stunted

Chapter 20

Breakfast cleared shortly after my mother had poured her heart out, showcasing her vulnerability and raw emotions. I’m still angry. I still feel grimy, betrayed, confused, and just all out furious at everything happening around me without my control on where it will take me. But, I can use that. I can’t control whether, or when, Adonis comes for me, but I decide how easy it will be for him to take me.

Caziel and I enter a large courtyard the size of a football field with two walls of arched doorways that creep nearly up to the vaulted ceilings opening to a neatly trimmed grassy field with plots of sand scattered about. Machines line the inner wall and nearest end of the gym, all looking quite strange to me but clearly set up like the gyms I've been to at home.

I never worked out, Lauren and I would mostly gossip on the stairmaster machines, pointing out cute outfits and cute guys. A pang twists in my chest. I hope Lauren and Carter aren’t too worried about me, I just miss them so much. I took a lot of things for granted, I realized with a frown.

“Follow me,” Caz treks across the gym to the outdoor field and stops beside a sand plot.

“Where is everyone else?” I find it hard to believe that this entire gym is private, especially considering the lack of security placed around.

My eyes catch a railing around the edges of the field that I hadn't noticed before, and feel my eyes widen in shock and I spin back to Caz.

“Is this entire field a balcony?”

Caz frowns. “Pay attention, we’re hitting your training hard from the start. I won’t be able to do it in stages like we do everyone else, but I think I have a good plan so far.”

“You could always just throw me in a lion’s den and let me figure out how to survive,” I offer sarcastically.

“While I would love to observe and gamble on who would win, I don’t think Cici would approve very much.”

“So you think I stand a chance?”

Caz’s gaze trails down my body and flicks back up to mine. “Let’s get started, stand on the grass first.”

I wave my arms dramatically, silently pointing out that I’m already on the grass. Caz ignores me and prowls around me, pushing me from the side.

“What the f**k?” I protest.

“Quiet,” he chirps dismissively.

He continues circling me and pushes me again from behind, making me take a half step forward. I return to a neutral stance, eyeing him curiously. When he pushes me from my left side, I stumble over my foot and barely stabilize myself again.

“What is this supposed to do?” I ask haughtily. “I don’t think Adonis is going to push me.”

“You’re not balanced.”

“No shit.”

He pokes and prods at my arms, thighs, back, and stomach, asking me to do various poses and motions as he does so. I would think that he were trying to cop a feel, but something about how concentrated and fixated he is makes me hold my tongue on a few remarks that bubble up. Finally, he takes a step back and sucks on his teeth.

“Well, we definitely have our work cut out for us.”

********************

Sweat rolls down my temple and tickles down my neck by the time Caz decides to let me take a break. The sun sits high and bares down angrily on my pinking shoulders. I had discarded the blouse I arrived in and decided the sports bra styled undershirt was more suitable.

“Are we done yet?” I ask Caz as I roll my shoulders out and slump into the grass.

We hadn’t done anything tiring, in fact I was a little frustrated at his training tactics. He hadn’t taught me how to fight. At all. The past 3 hours have been spent teaching me motions and techniques and having me do them over and over again until I was sure I would be doing them in my sleep tonight. Caz was ruthless about it, and it makes me nervous about how he would be when I actually began combat.

“Take five laps.” He commands in response.

“Around the outside or inside?”

“Both.”

I bite back a whine of protest and swallow it down. This is for me, it’s not because he hates me. All of a sudden, the complaining and sneering feels childish. This isn’t for funsies, this is to protect me.

I start at a slow jog, making sure my ankles were loose and warmed up for the run. I pick up the pace, awkwardly aware of Caz’s watchful eye picking at my form as my thoughts begin to wander.

I know it’s the bond, but I can’t help but miss Eli so much that it hurts if I think about him too much. He’s always in the back of my head, something that’s both painful and comforting. Until I recall what we discussed yesterday, that is. He’s married now. Was that always his plan, and he was just stringing me along? What if I was too gullible under the influence of the bond, and I wistfully fell into a trap that he was creating for me to fall right into Erin’s hands- Into Adonis’ hands. Though my heart aches to see him again, to even just smell him and hear him laugh again, is this a risk that I’m willing to take? Would I let my mate bond lead me into my own oblivion? If what my mother, Daine, Dasia, and Caz said was true, then more than just my own life hinges on me staying low and alive.

I make a mental note to ask Caziel to elaborate on that further. Are they asking me to overthrow Adonis? First of all, that may be the most irresponsible, stupid plan I’ve ever heard. I’ve only just arrived in these foreign lands, and while I feel like I'm adjusting well, there’s so much about the culture and the people that I still have no idea about. I’m too young, I haven’t even graduated college, my mate is a prince from across the world, the list goes on.

It sounds like this is all dependent on me harnessing even a drop of Atlis’s power in the first place, which at this point seems a little unlikely. It took me this long to trigger my mother’s shifter genetics to kick in, and even if she’s able to contact the witch that suppressed me wouldn’t I be… stunted?

“STELLA!”

Caziel’s bellow echos around the courtyard and I stop dead in my tracks to find him stomping over to me.

“What?” I snap. “You scared the s**t out of me!” I huff and pant as he gets closer.

“You did six.”

“Huh?”

“You did six laps.”

Oh. I must have been so caught up in everything that I lost track… “I uh.. Sorry I just…”

“I know,” Caz says softly, catching me off guard. “Let’s take a break, I’ll have lunch brought to us.”

I nod gratefully and lead the way to the indoor courtyard.