Chapter 45

• Ava made so many mistakes in training that she was surprised she had only come out of it with a few cuts and bruises. Claire managed to ruin the one thing she felt confident about in this academy. Not letting emotions take her over while fighting was her thing. But the whole afternoon, she’d been too nervous and distracted, and her paranoia was back in full force.
• Her classmates were looking at her differently. And the coach... She didn’t think he had even paid attention to anyone else; he had been too intent on giving her sparring partner after sparring partner like he was testing her limits. She’d had to rely on muscle memory to get through, but if her partners had been any good, she would have been in the infirmary again. It seemed to have pissed the coach off that she had lasted the whole training session without being knocked out.
• The moment her panic attack had abated, Ezekiel had rushed out of the bathroom. He hadn’t turned up for training, and she’d felt disappointed. But that was a good thing. She didn’t want to rely on anyone here, least of all Ezekiel. There was something different about him.