Page 140 of Death of a Mortal

He blew a high-pitched whistle that made me wince, and I picked up my feet and ran.

And so we ran. And ran. And didn’t stop. By the time the sun had fully risen, my legs were screaming, my lungs unable to draw a full breath. I’d never sweat so much in my life.

When he finally signaled to stop, I collapsed to the ground on my back, arms and legs splayed wide. He tossed a container of water down to me, which I drank dry.

“Are we done?” I panted.

I didn’t like the way Garrick smiled in response.

“We’ll skip the squats today to avoid over-training your legs, butwe’re still doing push-ups and sit-ups. Come on, let’s move!” He blew the whistle again.

I rolled my eyes as I got slowly to my feet.

We passed a group of fae huddled together on our way to the training house. They stopped talking immediately when their eyes found me, and they backed several paces away to give us a wide berth.

I wished I were naïve enough to believe they feared Garrick, because their faces definitely said they were scared, but I knew it was me they feared. I had no idea how many people here at base knew about the night I arrived, but if this was any sign—plus the whispers every time I went to the mess hall—I assumed most knew.

After we passed the group, their whispers reached my newly enhanced fae ears. My neck heated when I heard, “She’s a danger to us all. I can’t believe the leaders brought her here.”

I had just saved a little girl from drowning and helped fix a weakness in the base glythyrs—what more would I have to do to earn the rebels’ trust? Or at least get them to stop hating me.

“Stand down,” I told the shadows through gritted teeth when I felt them stirring at my building anger. I didn’t know whether talking to them would even work, but it felt better than simply rolling over and letting them take the reins.

“Excuse me?” Garrick asked, getting defensive.

“Nothing, sir. Sorry, sir. Talking to myself.”

Yeah, I’m sure talking to myself made me seem really trustworthy…

We reached the training room, where we repeated the same routine as the previous day: push-ups until I collapsed and sit-ups until I couldn’t sit up, the count of each increasing from yesterday, which boosted my mood even if my body had given up.

I headed back to the barracks to bathe and met Aerie out front, same as yesterday. This routine wasn’t so bad, and if I were being really honest, I actually enjoyed the burn in my muscles from the exercise. More so, I relished the idea of being strong.

“Hey, Aerie, can we eat somewhere private? I want to…confide something in you,” I asked as we both got our trays of breakfast.

She eyed me for a moment before agreeing. I felt like she was a friend, and I could tell her about what I’d learned fromNox Incineram. More importantly, I wanted someone here to know in case of…an emergency.

She led us to a small room down the hall with a table and a chalkboard. When we sat down, I gave her a high-level overview of everything I’d read.

“If I’m honest, I’m really terrified. I want to control this thing, and I definitely don’t want to level any continents like Thraxxus. I just…want to kill select people and keep it at bay otherwise.”

She chuckled before responding. “Maybe there’s a glythyr that can help with control. One that can tame or dampen the shadows.”

“Maybe…” My thoughts were running in all directions. I had an idea, but I’d need to understand glythyrs better before bringing it to Sevrin as a possibility. “Thanks, Aerie, that gave me an idea.”

“Any time. Don’t sweat. You’re smart, you’ll figure it out. The last fae with fire and shadow was a male; males are only good for brute strength. He was probably too dumb to solve it.”

We both laughed, making me think once again of all the games Nella and I played that always ended in stomach-aching laughter.

Gods, I missed her.

And Aerie? I was beginning to think she could turn out to be a good friend.

* * *

I met Bramickat the rings after parting ways with Aerie, excited to work more with my fire.

“We’ve got two things to focus on now that we know what elements you have.” He jumped right in. “We have basic magic all fae can do that has nothing to do with your elemental abilities, and we have your fire skills.”