I guess I couldn’t complain about that, since I was more than happy with her seeing the best in me. I needed all the friends I could get.
‘Violet, do you have a minute?’ Rainer asked as we passed.
I stopped as Morgan continued on with an apologetic wave. She thought I was about to be told off.
Probably right.
I threw my training bag over my shoulder and followed Rainer into a side room. The space was dimly lit with several golden artefacts dotted along the dark wooden shelves. In fact, the room was at odds with the bright and modern fit-out of the rest of the Academy buildings. Rainer sat down behind a large mahogany desk.
She motioned for me to take a seat.
‘I live here full-time at the moment. I needed at least one place where I felt myself,’ she said, as if reading my mind.
I put my bag on my lap and leaned on it. I’d been training for hours. My body was in a world of hurt.
‘Did you get my note?’ she asked.
‘Yes, thank you. I … Um …’ I didn’t know how to talk about Nyla with her, with anyone, really.
She shook her head again, as if knowing exactly what I was thinking. ‘Take your time. She’s not going anywhere in a hurry, but I believe there is still hope. If I didn’t,’ she flashed me another glimpse at her warrior eyes, ‘I’d finish things myself.’
I admired her optimism but … I was there when Nyla’s soul shattered. She wasn’t coming back.
Rainer kept going. ‘I wanted to ask you if you have considered my offer to be your mentor?’
I had discussed it with Griffin last night and we had agreed it was very generous of Rainer and something I should jump at, but after the class I’d just been through …
‘I don’t seem to fight to the Academy standards. And I don’t intend to change, either.’
She lifted one eyebrow.
Nifty.
‘Did you see Seth adhering to Academy protocol when he took down your partner yesterday?’
‘No.’
‘I believe Nyla and Rudyard included you in some training when they were staying with you, too?’
I nodded, remembering how fierce a fighter Nyla had been.
‘Precisely. Valerie is all about rules and regulations. She has to be in order to run the Academy effectively, but make no mistake, when you stand in front of a roomful of Grigori seniors and the Assembly for your final testing, only one thing is going to matter.’
‘What?’
‘Winning.’
I shifted in my seat. ‘And you can help me do that?’
‘Yes.’
I had to respect her confidence, given that we both knew there would be a number of Grigori, including Drenson and Josephine, who would like nothing more than to boot me out of the Academy for good.
‘Okay, then. When do we start?’
‘Tomorrow. We train before your classes and directly after every day. Be prepared – I plan on working you hard.’
I’d been so glad to have an ally as my mentor I don’t think I’d been listening when Rainer had explained the working-me-hard part.
Two weeks after signing on with her I felt like the walking dead. From the first day of our training she’d been collecting me at 5 a.m. and not dropping me back at my room until 8 p.m. after our evening session.
My heavy schedule meant that I’d only seen Spence and Zoe in classes and due to the fact that more than a few sets of eyes were trained on everything I did, if Lincoln hadn’t taken to sneaking me dinner in my room, I wouldn’t have seen him at all. Or eaten.
Luckily, we both knew spending too much time apart was not a good idea. Somehow we seemed to have found some kind of medium for our souls. It wasn’t perfect and although the physical pain – not to mention heartache – of being away from each other and around each other was constant – it was always intensified by extended periods of separation.
Hence my nightly room service.
‘I’ll talk to her,’ he said, as we sat on my floor eating cold pasta. Well, Lincoln was eating it – I was basically inhaling it. I had missed lunch, again.
I’d thought Lincoln had been a hard taskmaster, but Rainer took training to another level. When I wasn’t running laps in the enormous rooftop gym with its glass bubble ceiling – I was going through drills, lifting extreme weights, handling weapons or getting hit in the face. Repeatedly. By Rainer. She hit every other part of my body as well, but she focused on my face – reassuring me we’d always be able to gauge my progress by the amount of times I allowed her to smash it in.
I tried to explain I wasn’t allowing anything.
She disagreed.
I shook my head at Lincoln. ‘No you will not.’ The last thing I wanted was him coming to my rescue. ‘Only one more week to go and I’m learning a lot.’
Like what the ground looks like from close up.
He nodded, but remained focused on the food I could tell he wasn’t enjoying. I might be fine with microwave dinners but Lincoln was a fresh-produce kind of guy.