Elder Zeller waved an absent hand. “Not necessary.”
Both stepped away, talking quietly amongst themselves again as if I didn’t exist, Elder Merrick even pulling a thin computer pad from his bag, typing on it while they spoke. I instantly crossed my arms over my chest, peering across the room to where my King and Elder Farrar were speaking with Aria. I really wished I was over there. Considering I was apparently malnutrition, lopsided, and was tiny except for my fat hips, I really didn’t want to be standing in front of someone I hated, but was attracted to.
Really…could a woman feel any less beautiful after a cold examination like that?
Elder Zeller snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Ms. Jules?” One eyebrow quirked.
“What?” I waited, not caring if I hadn’t been listening once they deigned to speak to me. “Wait. Let me guess. My tits are so small they won’t be a hindrance during a battle, which is something you can both work with, but shit,” I held my leg out, pointing, “my feet are too narrow, and might create a balance issue during a fight, so we’ll have to work on foot work.”
Elder Zeller inched his nose, not glancing to the areas I had mentioned. “Ms. Jules, our assessment may seem callous, but we’re both very good at what we do. Once we’re done with you, you’ll be able to handle yourself much better than the,” his nose crinkled, “in-your-face approach you seem to favor.” A flicked finger to my chest, even as he held my gaze evenly. “Besides, you’re built more like a Com, so therefore, your chest is average, not small by those standards. And your feet are small, but not narrow, and we already know your balance is fine from previous encounters you’ve had. You’re very well proportioned for your smaller stature.”
I started to place my hands on my hips, sighing heavily at his patient answer to my churlish one, but I remembered their assessment of my “motherly” hips, so I quickly re-crossed my arms again, not wanting to draw attention to them. “Thanks. I guess.”
“Don’t thank us yet,” Elder Merrick murmured, tone gravelly, still staring down at the thin screen and typing. “We’ve got a lot of work to do before you do that.”
“Right,” I muttered, glaring. “I understand.” And I fucking hate you.
Chapter Fourteen
“I fucking hate you,” I muttered breathlessly, not able to contain it any longer, staring up at Elder Merrick from where I lay flat on my back on the mat, chest heaving, sweat drenching my body, all while he and Elder Zeller appeared completely unfazed, not even being gracious enough to appear a bit tired while they took turns teaching—beating the shit out of me—and the other took notes on the computer pad I wanted to bash over both their heads. “You’re cheating. I know you are.”
Elder Merrick bent from his standing position, his tone still void, the chill he had been gifting me for the last forty-five minutes as frigid as the artic. “No. I’m not. You just react first with your fists, instead of your brain. You may be tiny and think the only way you can win is to get the first punch in, but your brain will always be your best asset.” He rose, and moved to Elder Zeller, not even bothering to help me from the floor.
Even with the fury boiling my insides, keeping me nice and toasty warm, my damn chin trembled the barest bit. His fury was a force all unto itself. His pompous nature irritated the shit out of me. His cruel, merciless side I hated with a vengeance, but would probably have respected if it hadn’t been aimed at me, hurt me. But this…nothing…he was giving me struck a different chord altogether. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I knew I didn’t fucking like it, the elusive emotion churning in my gut.
I rolled slowly, hiding my face, and cleared my throat quietly as I stood on exhausted legs, chancing a glance to the clock, praying I was close to being done here, needing the small reprieve of breakfast to pull myself together.
And that was when I felt it.
Through everything inside me, my Core thumped.
My breath caught.
It thumped again, and I quickly rubbed against my breastbone.
Buh-bum. Buh-bum. Buh-bum.
Harder…and harder it started to pound with magic, until it felt like another heartbeat inside my chest. My feet were moving instantly toward the pull. I felt as if I was in a daze of magical drunkenness, moving toward my destiny. “I have to go.” My voice was a mere toneless whisper, eyes on my destination, the door. “Have to go.” Elder Zeller was instantly in front of me, bringing a breeze, and I pivoted automatically, moving around him. “Gotta…go.”
“Kitten?” Leric asked inside my mind. “Are you on your way?”
“I’m coming,” I murmured aloud and through the bond, instantly ducking under Elder Zeller’s arm as he blurred in front of me again, his mouth moving, but I heard none of it, only Leric’s voice and the constant buh-bum, buh-bum filling my ears. “Is it time?”
“It is.”
I knew I should feel fear, but all I felt was the…pull…inside me to get outside. I blinked when Elder Merrick was instantly in front of me, walking backward; navy blue eyes scanning my face, his face still expressionless, but his lips were moving. I stared at them as I moved out the door, he beginning to walk up the stairs backward while I quickened my pace, my heart rate accelerating the faster my Core thumped. I shook my head at Elder Merrick, feeling dizzy, in a daze, pointing at my ear, stating loudly, “I can’t hear you.” I was starting to sprint up the stairs. “I have to go. Have to go. Have to go. Have to go. Have to go.”
He was managing to keep up with me, jogging backward, eyes trained on my face, and I shook my head. “It’s time.” I nodded, reaching around him for the door handle, thrusting the door open to the main floor, rubbing at my throbbing Core. “Grimm Reaper. I’m a fucking Grimm Reaper. Time to reap. Reap the fuck away. Reap…reap, reap.” And in essence, that was exactly what I was as the Chosen. “I’m not scared right now.” I was running through the halls, Elder Merrick keeping pace beside me, his face stone solid, attention avid on me, but his lips were no longer moving. “Not now. I just gotta…go. Gotta go. Gotta…go.” I laughed on a breathless chuckle, crazed, my mind chaotic as screams of the Damned, the trapped, began to fill my mind as I threw open the back door. “Insane. I’m going to be fucking insane. Another spirit…lost.”
Leric was there on the lawn already, face tilted down toward the ground, white rolls dangling about his face, glowing, his hands rotating, stars flying from them, not hiding his work this time—going to the Temple as I had suspected he had been doing previously for this—as spirit Guardians stood behind him, come from the Temple, a massive black, iron door beginning to form into the ground from his work. “Hurry, kitten.”