Sasha's Pov
The bruise bloomed like a second heartbeat beneath my ribs, pulsing with every breath as if to remind me I was still alive. Still prey.
Training had been worse than usual. More intense. More eyes on me. Vale had gone for blood again, this time with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, and I’d barely kept up. My movements were slower. My breath quicker. The pain in my side flared with every dodge.
It felt like after each training session, I was gaining new enemies. And my old bruises didn't even heal before I got the new ones. But I didn’t fall. I couldn’t.
Falling meant attention. And attention, in the Academy, was a knife aimed at the jugular.
By the time Alex and I made it back to our dorm, my shirt was soaked in sweat, and my limbs trembled with that sick, exhausted buz
