Cursed: Briar Rose's Story - Kaylin Lee Page 0,16

to inch closer to Eugene as we completed the first field length.

At the halfway point, a sharp pain shot up into my knee. The curse hissed and sent another stab toward my heart, not allowing me to slow.

I passed Eugene at a lopsided sprint, ignoring his sour glare.

Somehow, I reached the final round on the course. Tavar was still in front but slowing. So was Corbin. I held pace just behind him, the throbbing in my knee bringing involuntary tears to my eyes as I sprinted through the pain.

When I reached the finish line, I collapsed to the ground and heaved up the contents of my stomach—the small bit of water and victus I’d eaten for lunch before coming to the training compound.

“First recruit—Tavar.” Raven’s voice sounded distant, somewhere above my head.

Worthless, said the curse. West is worthless.

Black spots hovered in front of my eyes. I heaved a second time, but nothing came out.

“Second recruit—Corbin.”

Foolish, slow creature, the curse mocked.

“Third recruit—Briar Rose. First time in the top three, Briar. Well done.”

Weak. The curse laughed as I gagged again. Weak! You would be nothing without me.

Somehow, I nodded to acknowledge Raven without losing consciousness. Speech was beyond me. I wanted to throw myself down and cry, to never move from the training yard again. Instead, I let the curse force me to stand, keeping my weight on my good leg. I squinted against the sun as the rest of the recruits gasped for breath beside me.

“Well done.” Corbin clapped me on the back and shot me a charming grin, somehow able to talk over his own gasping breath. “You’re fierce, Bri.”

I nodded wordlessly and found my eyes searching out Tavar, but his broad back was to us as he poured a canteen of water over his head.

“It’s not natural for a girl to run so fast,” Eugene grumbled. “Something’s wrong with her.”

Tavar’s back stiffened. I glanced at Eugene, but the dark spots in front of my eyes wouldn’t clear enough to bring him into focus. I took a swig from my canteen, still too breathless to talk, much less come up with a decent retort.

Then again, why should I bother?

Poor Eugene. He was right—something was certainly wrong with me. Too bad no one would believe him.

“One final task before you go home.” Instructor Raven shaded her eyes as the last few recruits stumbled to the finish.

The collective, silent groan of response was in our posture, not our voices—we’d learned early on that Sentinels didn’t tolerate complaint from recruits.

“Mop the main compound building. I want those floors scrubbed and buffed until they shine.”

My stomach soured. The main compound building was where teams went for debriefing immediately after returning from a mission in the Badlands. The floors were always disgusting. We’d be there for at least another hour, even if we divided in teams to tackle each of the three floors at the same time.

We trooped into the building and collected buckets, mops, and water from the chore closet, then separated by floor. I took the section down the hall from Tavar’s on the first floor.

I started on my hands and knees to scrub the worst sections first, my legs and arms throbbing as I pushed my exhausted body through the repetitive motions.

When I got to my feet to start mopping, I nearly crashed down again. The stabbing pain in my knee was even worse than before. I limped over to the bucket and tried to ignore the pain as I got to work, not even needing the curse to force me. I knew full well what Raven would do if I were caught shirking chores—cut me from the program without a second thought, third-place finish or not. I didn’t want to find out what the curse would plan if the Sentinels mission fell through.

The luminous lights in the hallway sparkled, then flicked on one by one as twilight fell outside.

Male voices came from down the hallway. Eugene and a few of his friends hauled their buckets and mops toward the cleaning closet, which was in Tavar’s section.

“Ugh!” Eugene glanced at Tavar, then heaved a sigh and set his bucket down heavily. The bucket wobbled, then tipped over, releasing a flood of dirty, soapy water onto the floor beside Tavar and soaking his shoes. “Whoops.” He shrugged. “Sorry about that, river dweller. Guess you’ll be staying a little later to clean up tonight.”

The other boys set their buckets of dirty water down and kicked them over. The buckets went flying, narrowly missing Tavar.

“Good