Broken Bonds (The Bonds that Tie #1) - J. Bree Page 0,58
up, bloodied and broken on the ground in the main room of the training center, I’d hobbled over to my bag to message Sage and cancel our plans for the night because there’s no way I can possibly study and eat pizza on the floor of my shitty dorm room in the state I’m in right now.
She immediately hauled her ass over to check on me, dragging Felix behind her because he’s a healer. Apparently, my damaged state is enough to get her to call him willingly.
I tried to apologize to him but he’d shrugged and started working on all of the many wounds on my body. There’s other healers here but I’m the worst for wear, thanks a fucking lot, Vivian. Gabe is over on the far side, holding one of his friends down as a healer resets the bone in his leg, and he’s only looked my way once this entire time. I’m not surprised or disappointed, it’s just another strike against the asshole.
“She’s a crazy fucking bitch and Sage, I will literally pay you anything if you set her on fire for me. Your bail, getaway money, let’s start a new life somewhere far away from here where Vivian can never find me again and force me into a room with the pond bitch again.”
Sage stares at me in horror for a second and Felix winces. “You went up against her, huh? She’s kind of an urban legend around here.”
I scoff again, glaring around at the other students while he resets my shoulder because apparently I’d dislocated it as I passed out, all of the wrenching and pulling of the day finally just popping it out at the end.
I want to die when he finally pops it back in.
“Motherfucking, cocksucking, cunt of a thing, I will honestly carve the skin off of that miserable—”
“Jesus Christ, you’ve got a mouth on you for such a little thing.”
I glance up at Vivian, who is now standing over me with a scowl, and give him a glare back. “We are not friends, I rescind my offer of giving your teacher enemies paperwork for days.”
Felix snorts at me, smothering it into a cough at the stern look on Vivian’s face as the hardass checks over his handiwork.
“Now, now, you can’t pass TT without going up against the worst of what our kind can do. You did good, kid. If you didn’t have so many of your own enemies, you’d be free and clear for the rest of the year.” He sounds a little too gleeful at this and I’m about to mouth off at him again, when Felix shifts to reset my broken rib and I find myself completely unable to think, breathe, or function, let alone speak.
Sage stops glaring at everyone around us for a second and rubs at my back, slow, soothing strokes that avoid all of the scrapes and cuts. There’s even a couple of thorns still imbedded there that I don’t want to think about, because I’m sure they’ll feel fucking peachy coming out.
Vivian clears his throat and grumbles a little under his breath before finally speaking, “You should be proud of yourself, everything you did in there was perfect. Half the others didn’t make it past their first room. Only a handful made it through a second. And only one other student has made it past the pond girl on their first try. She feeds on fear and you barely gave her anything to work with.”
Well.
Okay, that does make me feel a little better, I guess. The pond girl looked horrifying but she wasn’t really that bad to get past, just so long as I don’t think about whatever diseases she has in her mouth that are now in my foot.
Eww.
Vivian glances around at the other students and then drops his voice a little lower, “Thirty years in a TacTeam taught me that what your gift is doesn’t mean shit about who you are… it’s what you’re going to do with it. Look at Gryphon, with his career trajectory you’d be thinking he was a shifter or some other physical gift, but he proves every day that you don’t need it. If you’ve got nothing but your backbone, kid, you’re going to be fine out there.”
That’s too fucking nice and sweet for me today and now I feel shit about how much I cursed the old man out in my head while I was in that hellhole of a maze of his.