Night School: Resistance (Night School 4)

‘Carter told me about Rachel,’ he said. ‘I can’t believe it.’


Allie made a helpless gesture.

‘She shouldn’t be here.’ Zoe’s tone was condemning. As if Rachel had broken some fundamental rule.

‘She seems to be struggling,’ Carter said, and they all turned to look just as Rachel tried to kick Nicole but ended up in a heap on the floor.

‘She’s terrible,’ Zoe said. She glanced at Allie. ‘She’s even worse than you were when you started.’

Allie didn’t reply. She kept her eyes on the pair as Nicole helped Rachel up.

‘We thought we’d practise with you.’ Sylvain said, drawing her attention back. ‘Is that OK?’

‘Sure,’ Allie replied without thinking. Then she realised what he was saying and looked up in stunned surprise. ‘Wait. You two are training partners?’

‘I told you we’ve been training together,’ Sylvain said mildly.

‘Yeah,’ Allie looked back and forth between them, ‘but you didn’t tell me you’d made it official.’

‘What can I say?’ Carter said with a cynical smile. ‘Opposites attract.’

Allie didn’t know how she felt about this new development. There was something unseemly about her former and current boyfriends becoming partners.

As they resumed training, she found it hard to focus with them so close. Whenever they talked, or one of them laughed, she looked up to see what was happening and Zoe would kick her in the face.

‘You’re dead,’ the young girl explained helpfully each time this happened.

After a while, though, she got into the rhythm of training – distractions fell by the wayside. She’d always liked the sheer physical effort of it, the knowledge that she could fight back. Or get away if she needed to.

While she’d been away from Cimmeria she’d followed a strict training regime provided by Raj. She was very strong.

Still, working with Zoe wasn’t easy. The younger girl’s moves were accurate and lightning quick. When she swung her foot towards Allie’s throat, her leg was a blur.

Periodically, she and Zoe took a break to watch Carter and Sylvain practise. Their methods were the same but their sheer physical strength made it look more brutal. Carter swung his foot up with the strength of a tank. Had he wanted it to, that move could have thrown Sylvain across the room. Or broken his neck.

When it was Sylvain’s turn he was as graceful and lethal as an armed dancer. Instead of a simple swing move, he leapt from the ground in a spinning circle, his foot ending up perfectly positioned in the middle of Carter’s throat.

‘Great moves.’ Raj Patel walked up to them with a smile and held out his hands to Allie. ‘Welcome back. We’ve all missed you.’

He pulled her into a warm hug, patting her on the shoulder. ‘Looks like you’ve been keeping up with your training while you were gone.’

Allie flushed with pride. ‘Every day.’

‘It shows,’ Raj said approvingly. He gestured at the room, where the other students were still working through the move. ‘You’ll see we’re trying new things now. These are moves designed to disable a fighting opponent long enough to give you time to get away.’ He added ominously, ‘Or longer.’

‘Longer?’ Allie asked.

‘You could kill someone with these moves, Allie,’ Raj explained simply. ‘We teach you both the kill moves and the disable alternatives.’

Allie tried to hide her dismay. They’d always focused on self-defence and evasion techniques – ways to avoid being kidnapped or hurt. That sort of training was priceless for the children of billionaires who, as Allie had learned, were always soft targets compared to their well-protected parents.

But they’d never learned methods of killing their assailants.

‘Wow,’ she whispered. ‘That’s intense.’

It was Sylvain who answered. ‘We haven’t got any choice,’ he said. ‘It’s kill or be killed with Nathaniel, you know that.’

‘And I’m here to make sure none of you gets killed,’ Raj said. ‘Now,’ he looked around the small circle of students, ‘I think you should switch.’

They stared back at him blankly.

‘Zoe’s a great training partner but Allie needs to know how to kick someone taller than her,’ he explained. ‘She needs to know how to fight a man. So –’ he made a swirling motion with his hand as he walked away – ‘switch it up.’

Allie avoided Carter’s gaze. There was no question who she should train with.

It was clear he knew this, too, because he waved Zoe over. ‘Come on, Shortie. Show me what you’ve got.’

‘Don’t call me Shortie,’ she complained.

As they set up on the adjacent mat, Allie wondered if the slight twinge she felt was disappointment.

Smoothing all doubt from her face, she turned to face Sylvain. ‘Ready?’