“Form two lines.” Ares gestured with his hand where we should line up. “You are going to learn how to use a shield properly to defend yourself, so you don’t get stuck in the gut with a spear and bleed out.”
We all jumped into motion. I wanted to get in line with Georgina and Jasmine, but ended up getting jostled around, until I could squeeze into a line, which just happened to be beside Lucian. Perfect. This day was just getting worse and worse by the minute. I could just imagine the joke he was going to make at my expense.
He bent toward me. “Not bad, Blue.”
I didn’t look at him, keeping my eyes ahead. “Oh yeah, I was a real hero there. I’ll be defending the masses in no time.”
“Hey, I know it’s not easy holding one of those shields up.”
When I turned to look at him, I noticed the long, thin scar along his jawline.
He rubbed his thumb across it, then he winked at me, and I couldn’t stop the smile blossoming on my face.
Then a shadow loomed over me.
“I said no laughing during class.” Ares glared at me, his scowl so deep it cut lines into his granite-like face.
“Technically, I wasn’t laughing. I was smiling.”
He got right into my face. I had to crane my neck to look up at him. He was so close I could smell his body odor.
“You need to check your attitude, Blue Belle, or I’m going to rip that nose ring right out of your face.”
The intensity of his anger rippled over me. I didn’t like how it felt on my skin. Like snakes, a thousand tiny snakes slithering over my body, every muscle quiver constricting me tighter and tighter.
“To help you with this lesson, I want you to go out in the middle of the field and do some pushups. You will keep doing them until I tell you to stop. Do you hear what I’m saying to you, recruit?”
“Yes, sir.”
Revana, who was nearby, started to snicker.
“Sounds like someone else is laughing, sir.”
Ares whipped around and glared at Revana. “You can join her.”
I walked out onto the field and dropped down to my hands and knees. Revana followed me out and nearly stepped on my hand as she took up a position beside me. As we both did our first pushup, she glowered at me, her eyes like dark storm clouds.
“I know you’re a fraud. When I find out how you got in here, I’m going straight to Zeus, and you’ll be expelled from the academy and exiled from your life.”
“Wow, girl, you really need to relax. You are much too tense.”
As she did pushups, she continued to glare at me. I didn’t know how one person could put so much effort into hating someone they didn’t even know. It must be exhausting.
It was just another reason, in a long list of them, of why coming here was a bad idea, and one I was sure I was going to regret. I should’ve given the box back to Callie, and maybe she’d be the one on the ground doing pushups until she puked.
Chapter Six
LUCIAN
Despite all my past training, the reality of the academy and what we were being put through paled in comparison. Walking into the gymnasium for hand-to-hand combat class and seeing Heracles, the giant of a man who stood seven feet tall and was built like a semi-truck, training us crushed any confidence I had going in. This was in no way going to be an easy class.
All my life, I’d been training for the possibility of being invited to join the Gods’ Army. For my parents, it was inevitable since my older brother, Owen, had been called four years earlier by his eighteenth birthday Shadowbox. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since the day he’d left, as recruits were cut off from the outside world. In the back of mind, I had hoped he’d be here at the academy when I arrived. But that hope had been dashed when I realized that those who had completed the training and gone through the trials transcended to Olympus to await the Great War. Maybe I would see him again when I, too, transcended.
Since I was six years old, my father had started training me in various disciplines like archery, deep sea diving, and hand-to-hand combat. And my parents had placed offerings at the temple of Ares since I’d been born in the hopes I would become part of his clan. Like my brother had. Or at least, I assumed he had.
“Form a single line,” Heracles bellowed, his voice echoing off the dark wooden floors and paneled walls.
Everyone rushed to get side by side. My friend, Diego, made sure to get next to me. Revana pushed another girl aside, so she could get in on my other side. The girl could be ruthless, which I didn’t like, but I supposed a person had to be to get through this training.
I looked down the line and spotted Melany about ten people away. I wasn’t sure what to make of her. She seemed so much out of her element, like she didn’t truly belong. From misreading where the entrance to the academy was, to diving out of the portal and nearly drowning, to talking back to Ares. I’d never thought anyone with any kind of smarts would ever risk that. She intrigued me; that was for certain.
“The first thing we are going to learn in this class is stance, how to keep your center of gravity. If you perfect this, you will never be knocked off balance, no matter how you move or what hits you.” He moved to the center of the floor and put his left leg forward, toe pointing straight, and his back foot pointing outwards. He bent his legs a little and then put up his hands to his chest, hugging his arms a little into his sides.
“Now, from here, I can perform any kind of maneuver.” He did a jab, and then upper cut, then threw an elbow, then he spun on his foot and did a back kick, coming back to rest in the same position. He moved so quickly, his limbs blurred.
Beside me, Diego sucked in a breath. “Damn. I’ve never seen anyone move so fast.”
“In this stance, nothing can knock me over.”
From the far back corners of the room, two six-foot tall wooden dummy robots on wheels rolled toward Heracles. Both carried long wooden Bo staffs. One of the robots rolled in front of Heracles, lifted its arms, the staff reared back as far as it would go, then it swung with all its power.
Heracles lifted his arm, tight to his body; the staff smacked him across the shoulder, the cracking sound reverberating off every surface, and snapped in half. Splinters of wood rained down onto the floor.
He grinned, his whole demeanor changing, as the second staff hit him in the other side, and snapped into pieces from the force of the blow. He straightened and brushed off the small wood chips still clinging onto his shirt. “Ha!” He pumped his fist in the air. “I am invincible. Nothing can knock me off balance. Now, it’s your turn.”
I heard a snicker down the line. I didn’t need to look to know it was Melany.
“You’re seriously going to smack us with wooden staffs?” She had her hands on her hips and appeared indignant. Her lips were curled in disgust.
Heracles shook his head. “Of course not. It’s only the first day. I don’t do that until at least week four.”
That got a round of laughs through the group.
“Take up your stances.”
I put my left leg forward, and my back leg turned like I’d practiced over and over again since I was six. The others around me all did the same, as Heracles walked down the line and inspected us. He spoke to a couple of people, correcting them, and then when he got to me, he stopped. He looked me over and then shoved me hard.
I stumbled a couple of steps backward, but I didn’t break my stance. I didn’t lose my balance.
He nodded. “Good. Step forward.”
I did.
“Name?”
“Lucian Remes.”
Heracles’s eyes narrowed. “You have a brother.”
“Yes, Owen.” My heart leapt a little, knowing that Owen had made some kind of impression. He would’ve done well in this class.
“I want you to go down the line and try to knock down every person.” Heracles glanced at the rest of the group. “Your job is to not let him.” He pointed to the far end of the room where a short blonde girl stood.