ArcKnight (The ArcKnight Chronicles #1)

Chapter Seven

Ephrem

"Fuck!"

Lily pushed off the ground, pissed all to hell. It was the fifteenth, maybe more, or so time that I'd dropped her to the ground. Can't say it wasn't painful for me either. She wasn't made for this kind of punishment, and I hated doing it. My friend Jason and I were dedicated to beating her ass to the ground in as many creative ways we could think of just to prove how pathetic her so-called training in the ArcKnight stronghold had been.

Hey, she hadn't believed us. The look on her face now proved she was rethinking everything I'd told her and calculating just how hard this was going to be to level up.

I hoped she'd overestimated. She was getting her ass handed to her.

"Are you going to give up now? We just got started on the good stuff." Jason smirked as he bounced on his feet, waiting for Lily to attack. Her face was flushed scarlet, and her long dark hair clung to the sweat drenching her face and neck. Flustered wasn't the word to describe her in this state. If I hadn't already spoken to her some, I'd say she was down for implosion any second.

"Come on, Lily. What are you waiting for?" I called out. She needed the push. There was nothing else she required. She had the skills. They just needed refining, and we were the best of the MarkTier pack who could train her.

Jason was now first scout of the Outlands Legion. That's what the soldiers who guarded the Neutral Lands called themselves. We were an organized bunch. A well-oiled machine. The army was made up of only MarkTier soldiers because the ArcKnight pack had their own group of legionnaires scouring the edges of the Outlands near their borders. Here, we intermingled now and then, but it didn't happen often. Only if necessary. If Jason knew Lily was an ArcKnight, he'd have an epic fit. He may have followed me out here in banishment and was my best friend, but he was still a spoiled rotten MarkTier nobleman soldier if I'd ever seen one.

Regardless, he was the only person in the world I trusted enough to help me train Lily and keep his damn mouth shut if he happened to figure out who she was. There was a list a mile long of people who'd want her dead if they knew who and what she really was, but I wouldn't allow it. She'd been my betrothed, and I respected her even though we were no longer promised to each other. We had been once, and that was all I needed.

She curled her fingers into her palms, turning her knuckles stark white as she screwed up her face in a furious rage. "You're going to pay for that last bit."

Jason waved her over, tossing her a wink as he continued to bounce back and forth on his feet. "Give me what you got, babe."

I never said he wasn't a chauvinist pig, but it was darn good for angering Lily enough to push her into warrior mode. Rage was more useful than the giving up that had passed across her face when she'd discovered just how poor her training had been.

"Whatever, jerk. You got a date with the floor!"

She lunged toward him, flinging her body into the air near the ground. She grabbed onto Jason's ankles and yanked with all her might. This movement threw him to the floor next to her, catching him off guard enough so that she could let go and turn, grabbing his arm and folding it behind his back as he faced the ground. She sat on his back to keep him from escaping.

Jason jerked and bucked as best he could with his one good arm, but she squeezed him with her thighs and pulled his arm even harder. It wasn't looking good for him.

"Relent!" she demanded, giving his arm another pull for good measure.

"Stop! Okay, okay! I give!" Jason's purple face and the veins popping out his temples told me he'd had enough.