“It’s called muscle fatigue, Selena. You pushed yourself too hard,” Coach told me. He crouched down next to me.
“Nonsense,” I muttered.
His chuckle filled my ears, and I tried to slow my pounding heart. “I watched you keep going when you knew you shouldn’t,” he replied, but he didn’t sound angry.
“I don’t have limits,” I explained.
“Everyone has limits, and you pushed yourself past them.” He sounded . . . admiring.
“I. Don’t. Have. Limits,” I insisted, pushing myself up so that I was sitting. “I never have, and I never will.”
We were face-to-face now, and my resolve was unwavering. He didn’t understand. He didn’t know. My body could take far more than a few weights; the kind of power I channeled wasn’t even comparable.
“I admire your strength,” he said out of nowhere. “But you’re headstrong. Ignorant, even, of what your body tells you. You’re an amazing boxer, Selena, but I can’t use you if you run yourself into the ground. You need to listen to your body. Okay?”
“I don’t have limits.” I paused, thinking of how to phrase this.
“Foster—”
“But, perhaps, I have minor setbacks,” I conceded before he could reprimand me. This argument was a lost cause and would get me absolutely nowhere.
“I think we should start setting a timer when you’re on weights, to prevent this from happening again.”
“Okay.” I sighed. He wouldn’t let me have my way regardless of what I thought, and I was too tired to argue anymore.
“Can you move your arms again?”
“Yes,” I said tentatively, lifting them to see for myself.
“Well, why are you sitting here then? You have sprints to do,” he barked.
I jumped to my feet and crossed the gym, pretending that nothing was wrong—that I hadn’t just learned something that bothered me a hell of a lot more than any boy with green eyes. My body did have physical limits, as much as I denied it. That meant I wasn’t invincible, and I hated that, because it told me one thing. I wasn’t unbeatable, and now everyone in the gym knew it too.
Chapter 17
School had never been my strong point. I didn’t care, and my grades reflected it. I’d always made straight Cs across the board, apart from gym, but I was okay with that. Lily and Alexandra were my focus, not some mundane school for humans. Now, I was facing a small dilemma in that department. I was failing three classes and school was getting harder by the day. Without Lily’s help, I wasn’t driven to study and it showed. I thought about my sisters often, but they didn’t need me anymore, and I was still pissed with them.
Early Saturday afternoon in late September, there was a knock on my door.
“Who is it?” I yelled, not even bothering to get off the floor.
Lily walked in.
“What do you want?” I said coldly. My jaw strained, and I nearly broke my pencil.
“To talk.”
I looked back down at the textbook, pretending to be ambivalent. “Well, then; talk.”
“I’m sorry, and I miss you,” she said.
I stayed silent.
“Selena, talk to me,” she pleaded.
“What do you want me to say?” I said, not looking up.
“That it’s okay. That I made a mistake. That you’re still my sister.”
I chuckled. “I’ll always be your sister. You can’t change that.”
“Are we okay again?” she asked. I looked up at her. She seemed sincere, and her brown eyes looked hopeful. I wanted to say yes, but . . .
“On one condition.”
She stayed silent, waiting.
“I don’t ever want you to bring up my ability, or how it affects me, again. Got it?”
She sighed, but nodded anyway.
“Okay.” My shoulders released the tension I’d been holding in sudden relief.
She took a seat on the floor next to me. “What are you working on?”
“History. I have to write a paper on the difference between the American Civil War and the Revolutionary War,” I said. I was bored just talking about it.
“You don’t sound very enthusiastic.”
“Could you tell?” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
“I’ve got an idea. Let’s make a deal,” she said.
I examined her, slightly guarded now. She was trying too hard. When she tried to be, she was too innocent, and it always gave her away.
“What kind of deal?” I questioned.
“I’ll tutor you in your classes if you teach me how to fight.” She tried to seem indifferent, but didn’t quite pull it off.
“Why do you want to learn how to fight?” It didn’t really matter why—I wouldn’t teach her—but I still wanted to know.
“Because . . . everyone here knows how to,” she said meekly.
“Bad answer. Why’d you come to me?” It dawned on me that this was the real reason she’d come here today. I didn’t know whether to be angry or hurt. She’d just lied to me so that I would teach her how to fight.
“Because you’re better than anyone I know?” It came out like a question. Lily was a terrible liar, but that didn’t make this any better.
“Okay, Lily, why don’t you stop lying to me?” I refused to look at her. The pencil snapped. “There’s no way I will ever teach you how to fight. So just get it out of your head.”
“Why not? You fight. Alexandra fights. Why can’t I? I just want to be good enough to impress everyone in Battle Simulation.” Whatever grand notions I’d had that she would be ashamed were gone. She was pissed because she wasn’t getting her way. Like a child.
“Because that’s who we are, Lily, not you. Besides, what would our parents say if they knew you were trying this just for a stupid class?”
Her eyes flashed in a way I hadn’t seen before. “I don’t care what they would say. Our parents are dead, and they’re never coming back. When are you going to get that? You always hold them over me like I’m still ten. I’m not a little girl anymore, and they’re gone!” she yelled.
I was stunned.
“Get out,” was all I was able to say.
She was already gone, slamming the door behind her.
~.~.~
“We need to talk.” I was at Alexandra’s door less than a minute after Lily left.
She was busy painting her nails, gossiping with Hannah, and didn’t want to leave. Only after I threatened to drag her out by her hair did she actually come into the hallway.
“What do want?”
“Lily. What’s her new kick with wanting to learn to fight?”
“Well, if you were being her sister instead of ignoring her, maybe you would know,” she said.
“The sooner you tell me, the sooner I leave.”
“Okay, I don’t know . . . she, like . . . she came to me yesterday and asked me to teach her. Something about fitting in—I don’t know.” She flipped her hair and made an annoyed sound.
“Wait. Why did you tell her no?” I asked her.
“Probably the same reason as you. Besides, teaching Lily how to fight is like teaching a cat how to be a dog. Okay? It just wouldn’t work.” She tapped her nails impatiently on the door as she waited for me to move.
“And why do you think I said no?”
Her eyes flashed. “Because her fighting takes her down a path that could go one of two ways, and you have no guarantees what it will do to her. Will she be like me . . . or you?” She looked away.
It was the only secret we kept from her. The real reason I fought, the reason I would train with Alexandra but not her. Alexandra didn’t have the “killing gene,” as I called it. My father tested that before he died. I did.
“Keep an eye on her,” I said by way of goodbye as I walked away.
On my way back to the gym, I bumped into Elizabeth. We hadn’t seen much of each other since starting school, and I suspected it had to do with boxing becoming my entire life. She was dressed in her u
sual black skinny jeans and graphic tee. Today, however, she had on knee-high black Converse and a studded choker. Um . . .
“Going somewhere?” I asked, eyeing the choker.
“They’re taking all the eighth graders who’ve manifested to Vegas,” she said with a smirk.
“What for?” I asked.
“To see the market,” she said, like it was obvious.
“What market?”
“The black market? You’ve never been to one, have you?”
“I didn’t even know it existed,” I said, and she laughed, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Well, they have one in all the major cities. New Orleans, Vegas, New York, San Francisco, even Detroit.”
“Mm hmm . . . So, what’s at this ‘black market?’” It sounded too witchy, like something out of a book.
“They sell everything there. For some reason, the school thinks it would be good if we saw this.” She shrugged, finding her hands fascinating.
“Well, enjoy your trip,” I said.
“I will, and when I get back, we have to catch up. I haven’t seen you in over a month.”
“Yeah, that’d be fun . . .”
“I’ve got to get going. Don’t want to miss the plane,” she said awkwardly.
We went our separate ways. As I got back to my room, I couldn’t help feeling that there was something she wasn’t telling me.
Chapter 18
It was a week after our brief meeting when I saw her again. She was sitting in the library reading a book and sipping a cappuccino. No surprise; the girl mainlined caffeine. I walked up to her and took a seat to her left.
“How was the black market?” I smirked. It really sounded kind of stupid.
“Interesting,” she said, without taking her eyes off the book.
“So what are you reading?” I asked.
Without talking, she tilted the cover so I could see it. Mystical Creatures of the Supernatural. What was she doing with that? I started to ask her when something caught my eye.
“I’ve got to go. We can catch up later,” I said over my shoulder as I walked away.
She didn’t reply. What was her problem? I shrugged. Maybe she was just having a bad day.
I walked over to the corner where a flash of red hair had caught my attention. Either my eyes were fooling me, or Alexandra was in here. I rounded the corner and my eyebrows rose.
Alexandra was studying, actually studying, with Michael. Her head was lowered, and she was readying something out of a book, taking notes every now and then.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her, even though it was pretty obvious.
“I was just helping Michael— hey—”
I snatched a few papers out of her folder. They were tests, and she was failing. I flipped back and forth between them. The highest grade was a forty-nine.
“What are these?” I asked, holding them up.
“Michael, could you give us a second?” she asked him, but it was an implied command.
He stood and disappeared behind the shelves in the library.
“What are these?” I repeated.
“Who do you think you are, my mother?” She snatched the papers away, stashing them in her bag.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I didn’t have the energy to go another round with her, but I refused to walk away and let it go.
“Because, newsflash, you haven’t exactly been around,” she snapped spitefully.
I winced, but tried to downplay it. “I would have put our problems aside for this.” I took a seat. She’d failed tests before, but never like this. She always managed to pull a mostly passing grade, and when the end of quarter came, she passed. Barely, but she did.
“Look, I don’t need your help,” she said.
“Bullshit,” I spat.
“I’m doing perfectly fine without you.”
“You’re failing, and I know you don’t like studying with your boyfriend.”
She considered this. “Okay, what am I supposed to do? He’s the only person doing well in these classes, and while I’d rather do other things—I need to pass.”
I silently thanked my lucky stars she didn’t know I was failing. I would need to start actually trying to do better if I was going to be able to help her.
“You’re supposed to come to me, that’s what you’re supposed to do.” I had taken care of her for years. Both of them. It was what I knew. It was what they knew. This whole new world of independence wasn’t something we’d prepared for.
“Well, you’re here now, and you’re not helping. So either find a way for me to start passing or get lost, because I only have another half hour with my boyfriend to try to learn about the Declaration of Independence.” She crossed her arms.
“Pick three days a week. We’ll study, and no one will know. You’ll start passing again, and you won’t have to spend all your time with your boyfriend studying.” I sighed.
“What’s in it for you?” she asked, expecting a catch.
“I don’t have to deal with you when you fail at the end of the semester,” I said bitterly.
She looked me up and down like she didn’t believe me.
“Okay, here’s a better one. If I don’t help you, who will? Because whatever your boyfriend has you doing, it’s not working. Otherwise you’d be passing.”
She sighed in frustration. “Fine, but I’m not doing it on the weekends. We can do it on, like, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.” She crinkled her nose like a snob. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I would like to spend a little time with my boyfriend.” She practically pushed me out of my chair when Michael came around the corner.
“Nine o’clock?” I asked her.
Her response was a single nod and a fire-filled gaze.
I disappeared behind the bookshelf and found myself facing where Elizabeth had been sitting moments before. Her book was lying open on the table.
I stared down at a man with jet-black hair and fire in his eyes. Literally. You could see the flames through the deep and endless black pits. He was handsome in an unearthly, unsettling way. The title on the page next to it read Demons.
Now why would she want to know about demons?
Chapter 19
It was almost October, and rain and thunder rolled in across the mountains from the west coast. The warm summer breeze passed and became gray and drowsy as the days went on. Today, however, was the best day we’d had in a while.
As I looked out of my bedroom window, I couldn’t help noticing how pretty the sun looked with the clouds. It would rain tomorrow, but today it was beautiful.
I sighed and turned away from the window, heading outside to the gym. I strode back to the third room, and immediately walked to the mat.
Before I could even drop into a split, Coach Avery called me over. “I want to start you on a new routine.”
“Why?”
“Your first match is less than two months from now. I need you to build up your endurance in the ring.” He glanced away, almost nervously.
“So what do you want me to do?” I prodded.
“You’re going to train with a partner from now on, and we’ll see how it goes. He’s the only one I think could compete with you, and he’s already agreed to it.”
My heart sped up a little. I had a suspicion about where this was going. “Who?”
A figure appeared at my side, and I felt a gentle shift in myself.
“Selena, meet Lucas. Lucas, Selena.” I swore I could see a slight twinkle in his eye.
I turned my gaze toward Lucas, who put his hand out tentatively. I placed my mine in his for a second, careful to keep my grip gentle.
He wore black gym shorts and a white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His muscles flexed with the slightest movement of his arms. His hands were rough and callused. I didn’t want to feel them. I snatched my hand away and threw my shields up.
His face was careful and guarded as he examined me for a moment, but his eyes . . . they gave away his su
rprise. I smiled slightly, meeting his gaze, and gave a slight nod before turning back to Coach Avery.
“Selena, Lucas is my best boxer. I’ve been training him since sixth grade, and he’s the only one who can compare. Your footwork is impeccable, you have the fastest sprints in gym, and your hitting is precise. You’re going to need more than that if you want to win. I think you both have a lot you can learn from each other,” he said. “Will you train with him?” He pushed the question at me after a short silence.
You made a promise. You train, no matter what.
“Sure,” I said.
“You guys can work out the exact schedule, but I want you to start running, both of you. Selena, you need the endurance. Lucas, you need the speed. You both need to get in the ring more too. Like I said, the first match is approaching, and it’s only going to get harder from there. I have the rest of the gym to prepare, so don’t be expecting as much one-on-one time.” It was a nice way of saying he’s leaving me alone with Green Eyes for extended periods of time in extremely close proximity.
Lovely.
“When do you want us to start running?” I hid my smirk at his stupidity. Endurance? Apparently, he needed reminding of who I was.
“Today,” he said, giving us a serious look before leaving.
It was silent for a moment before Lucas spoke.
“Are you ready? There’s an eighteen-mile run around the school wall—”
“Give me five minutes. I’ll meet you out front.” I walked off.
I went into my split and raised myself, careful to take deep breaths and maintain tranquility. Once I was upside down, I closed my legs into a handstand and kicked backward, landing in a bridge. I flexed my stomach muscles and heaved as I pulled myself up to standing. My warmup was a type of meditation for me, only it required considerably more strength.
Lucas was standing next to the ring, watching me, completely ignoring what I’d told him to do. I sighed and walked out the doors. This was going to be a long day.
“We can start at the front gate—”
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