After how pathetic I’d been on the running track and at the gym, there was no need to further embarrass myself by falling off my unicorn and into the lake.
I caught a few glances of Darra running nearby on her unicorn, but I mostly focused on the gorgeous scenery around me. The crystal blue lakes and emerald green mountains were extraordinary. The colors were so strong and bright that I would have thought they were photo shopped if I were looking at a picture instead of seeing them through my own eyes.
We made our way around several more of the mountains before they started leveling out.
On the field ahead, built right over a lake, was the obstacle course. My eyes bulged when I saw it, my grip tightening on Annar’s mane. Because it was like those Ninja Warrior courses I’d seen a few times on YouTube. It was massive. Seriously huge.
The closer Annar brought me to it, the smaller I felt, until we stopped in front of it and I was staring up at it feeling like an insect.
The course was divided into sections, but each section looked complicated. I was having a difficult time figuring out how a person was supposed to get through it. There were parts where there were ropes, bars, and ladders. But there were other strange things—like a wheel and a nearly vertical wall—that looked impossible to tackle.
To make it worse, bleachers surrounded the course, turning it into an arena of sorts. A coliseum. There were enough seats for the entire population of Avalon.
“You can’t be serious,” I said to Darra.
“No one ever said the Angel Trials were going to be easy.” She smirked and gazed upon the course, her eyes shining in excitement. “You’ll be ready to drink from the Holy Grail once you run the marathon and finish this obstacle course in the allotted time period. And then, you only truly complete the Trials if you drink from the Grail and survive.”
Right. Easy peasy.
I wished.
“And even if I survive drinking from the Grail, I still won’t be a full Nephilim,” I said, recalling what Violet had told me in my orientation.
“Correct.” Darra nodded. “You’ll need to kill a supernatural to ignite your powers. As Violet explained, that supernatural will be one who has committed grave crimes and has been sentenced to death. He or she will be transported to a satellite island surrounding Avalon. I, another supernatural of your choosing, and the most powerful witch on Avalon will accompany you to that island. We’ll make sure you’re safe as you hunt down and kill the assigned supernatural so you can come into your powers.”
“Why a satellite island?” I asked. “Why not do it on Avalon as well?”
“Since the supernatural in question would be a criminal, he or she wouldn’t make it past Arthur’s simulation to be allowed onto Avalon,” Darra explained. “Therefore, a satellite island must be used. But the satellite island is close enough to Avalon that it’s impossible for anyone to get to without already knowing its location. Like Avalon, it’s hidden and safe.”
“That’s good to know,” I said, although my mind wasn’t truly on our conversation anymore. I was back to staring at the obstacle course, trying to figure out how I’d tackle each section.
“Obviously you can’t be expected to complete the course at this point in your training,” Darra said. “But would you like to see me demonstrate so you know what you’re working toward? I won’t use my full vampire strength, so you can see how a human would approach each task.”
I could tell by the way she was looking at the course that she didn’t just want to do it to demonstrate. She wanted to do it for fun.
No matter how hard I trained, I’d never find this stuff fun.
“Sure,” I said, despite suspecting that seeing her do this would only make it look more intimidating and impossible for me. “Show me how it’s done.”
29
Raven
Darra jumped off her unicorn and whizzed over to the start of the course. She rubbed her hands together, stared it down with excitement gleaming in her eyes, and set off.
She easily did the beginning—jumping back and forth over big blocks to cross over the water beneath them. The blocks were nearly as far apart as she was tall, but she jumped so gracefully she made it look easy. Next, she held onto a giant log that was wider than her arm-width, letting it take her along a bouncy zip line and landing perfectly on the next platform. She ran across a flat surface that rotated out under her feet, staying just ahead of it to make it to the other side. She swung on a giant swing and took a massive leap to grab onto a rope net, climbing down to the next platform. She moved between poles that were up to five feet away from each other like a gymnast. She ran toward the nearly vertical wall until she was literally running up it and grabbed the top with her hands. From there, she pulled herself up to the top.
With each platform she reached, the obstacle she’d finished completing magically cleaned itself up to return to how it had started.
She did more and more of these stunts, each crazier than the next. Until finally, she reached a chimney shaped obstacle with the front wall cut out. It went thirty feet up in the air. The next platform was at the top of the chimney… except there was no ladder inside.
As if that was going to be a problem for Darra. She jumped into the bottom of the chimney and used her hands and feet to hoist herself up one huge leap at a time, like some kind of supernatural insect. It was insane.
Once she reached the top, she held her arms out in the air and let out a woot of satisfaction. “Done!” she proclaimed, as if that wasn’t obvious. “Once you reach this platform, the Earth Angel will be waiting for you with the Grail. You’ll drink from it, and will hopefully make supernatural history by being the first human to drink from the Grail and survive.”
“Wow.” I gazed upon the completed course in amazement—and terror. “I thought you said you were going to tone down your supernatural strength?”
“I did tone down my supernatural strength.” She leaped off the ridiculously high tower and landed perfectly on her feet in front of me, as if demonstrating what it looked like when she didn’t tone down her strength. “This course was designed for humans. Strong, trained humans, but humans nonetheless. So… do you want to have a go?” She motioned to the beginning of the course in challenge.
I looked at her like she was crazy. Because there was zero chance I could complete that course. Even with my gift of determination, my body wasn’t strong enough to do what Darra had just done.
But I’d never been one to turn down a challenge.
“You think I have a chance?” I asked.
She snorted and placed her hands on her hips. “I don’t think you’ll make it through the first obstacle.”
“We’ll see about that.” I jumped off Annar’s back, patted her neck for good luck, and jogged over to the beginning of the course.
If I thought it looked intimidating when I was sitting on the back of my unicorn, it looked worse when I was staring straight at it. I was smaller than most of the obstacles. How was I going to manage this?
I clearly wasn’t going to manage it right now. Hopefully future me—the one who would be able to run a marathon and would be doing lots of training sessions at the gym—would be able to do it.
But future me wasn’t doing this right now. Present me was.
I just needed to take it one obstacle at a time.
The first obstacles were the giant blocks, nearly four feet away from each other. I needed to jump back and forth from each block to reach the opposing platform. There were five blocks, and a sixth one to climb up at the end.
I thought back to how Darra had tackled it. She hadn’t hesitated—she’d just run. She’d bounced from one block to another, running on the surface of each one to keep her momentum going.
That was the trick. I couldn’t lose momentum. If I did, I’d fall into the water below and fail Darra’s challenge to get past the first obstacle.
After my lousy attempt at running and my terrible performance at the gym, I’d had enough of
failing for the day. I needed to do what Darra had done. Go for it and don’t hesitate. And take big jumps. Because the spaces between the blocks were huge.
Not wanting to psych myself out, I took a running start and jumped onto the first block. As planned, I didn’t hesitate, using the block to get in two more steps and take the biggest jump possible onto the next block. Surprisingly, I made it and continued onto the next. I almost stumbled on the second to last block, but I kept going, not wanting to hold myself back.
The next thing I knew, I was jumping onto the final block and pulling myself up to the platform.
I turned around to look at what I’d just done, breathing heavily. “I did it,” I said in wonder, and then I threw my hands up in the air like Darra had after she’d completed the entire course. “Yes!”
I looked over at Darra. She was standing in the bleachers. From the stunned look on her face, she was just as surprised as I was that I’d made it through the first obstacle.
“Wow,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
Well, if there was one thing I could say about my new trainer, she wasn’t afraid to be honest.
“Neither was I,” I said, still looking at the completed obstacle in amazement.
“Think you can handle the next part?”
I studied the next obstacle. The giant, log like thing hanging from a zip line. The log was wider than my arms could stretch. At least there were grips to hold onto on the opposite side.
I tried to think about how Darra had approached it. She’d run at it, wrapped her arms and legs around it, and let it slide her down the zip line to drop her off at the next platform.
There was no way this could be harder than the first obstacle.
I ran at it, wrapped my arms and legs around it just like Darra had, held on as tightly as possible, and let it slide me down the track.
The first second or two went well. I could see the next platform coming closer, and I smiled at the fact that I was going to make it.
But there was one part I’d forgotten about when I was watching Darra—the zip line wasn’t smooth. Halfway through, it dropped suddenly. I nearly lost my hold around it, but miraculously stopped myself from slipping too far.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a solid enough grip around the log again before the second drop. I flailed off the log and splashed down into the water below.
Under the water, all was silent. A part of myself wanted to stay there, where everything was peaceful and calm, and forget about training and completing the Angel Trials and saving the world.
But I was no quitter. I also couldn’t breathe underwater. So I spun myself around to figure out which way was up, swam to the surface, and took a deep breath in.
Darra stood at the side of the obstacle course, holding a big fluffy towel. “Good try,” she said, reaching out with her other hand to help me up.
I took it, appreciating the look of respect she gave me as I climbed back onto the land. Especially because I was a sopping mess. Well, my hair and face were sopping messes. My training outfit—along with the parts of my body it touched—were already dry. I assumed it was thanks to some kind of magic.
“Thanks,” I said, using the towel to dry off the parts of my body that weren’t touching the suit. “I almost had it. If I’d been ready for that stupid drop…” I shook my head and glanced back at the giant log, which had already reverted itself back to the way it had started.
“You’ll be ready for it in the actual Trials,” she said. “And those are what count.”
“So… you believe in me now?” I asked.
“I’ve believed in you from the first words I heard you speak at the steps of the academy,” she said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have volunteered to train you privately.”
“Oh,” I said, stunned into silence. “Wow. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” she said. “But belief doesn’t get someone through the Angel Trials. Hard work does. So how about we head back to the gym and continue with your training?”
After this morning, my body was exhausted. I wanted to go back to my room and collapse into bed. But that wasn’t the answer Darra wanted to hear. And if I wanted to train to complete the Angel Trials, going back to bed wasn’t an option.
“What are we training next?” I said instead.
Darra beamed. “That’s the kind of excitement I like to hear,” she said. “Next up is weapon training. This way, if—no when—you survive drinking from the Grail, you’ll know how to use weapons so you can kill that supernatural and become a Nephilim.”
The fact that she truly sounded like she believed I’d survive drinking from the Grail sent a warm burst of confidence through me. Also, weapons were something I wanted to learn to use. I’d seen firsthand how useful they’d been for Noah, Sage, and Thomas on our hunt. I wanted to be able to fight like them, too.
I’d actually already started weapons training a bit with Noah. Hopefully the few moves I’d learned while we’d been on the road would be enough to somewhat impress Darra.
“Cool,” I said. “Let’s do it.”
“What weapon did you choose in Arthur’s simulation?” she asked.
“The sword.” When I spoke of the magical weapon, I could almost feel it in my hand already. I’d loved using that sword. “Do you have swords like that on Avalon?”
“Like the one from the simulation?” She chuckled. “No. That was a replica of the Holy Sword—more commonly known as Excalibur.”
“The one Arthur pulled from the stone?” I widened my eyes, amazed.
“The one and only,” she said. “But it’s been missing since Arthur’s generation of Nephilim. He used it to kill the last demon of their time. No one knows what happened to it afterward.”
“Oh.” I deflated, disappointed. “That’s too bad.”
“It is,” she agreed, brightening a second later. “But we have lots of swords and knives to train with back at the gym. And it’s just your luck that teaching sword and knife fighting is my favorite. So, are you ready to head back?”
“Yes,” I said, walking with her back to where our unicorns were nibbling on the grass as they waited for us. “I’m ready.”
And surprisingly, despite how grueling this day had been so far, I meant it.
30
Raven
It turned out I was relatively a natural at sword and knife fighting. At least I had that working in my favor.
Unfortunately, without much strength and endurance training behind me, none of it mattered. Holding a sword for a long period of time was way more exhausting than it looked on television shows and movies. As was keeping on my toes to fend off multiple blows.
I supposed that was why Darra wanted me to do all those push-ups and burpees each morning. Ugh.
We used practice weapons instead of the real things so I wouldn’t get injured. And even so, I was going to have a lot of bruises in the morning. Luckily, Darra said the mana and Holy Water accelerated healing, so I wouldn’t be in as much pain as I would have been otherwise.
After getting my butt kicked at the weapons center, we took a short break for lunch. We were once again the only two in the dining hall, since the supernatural students all ate on the other side of the island where they trained.
After lunch, Darra gave me private lessons in weapon strategy and the supernatural world at large. Because if I wanted to fight different supernatural creatures, I had to learn all their strengths and weaknesses so I knew how to beat them. My muscles felt like jelly by that point, so I was more than happy to sit down and learn while the mana and Holy Water I’d had at lunch did its thing to re-energize me. Focusing while so tired was tough, but I managed. Barely.
Finally, once I didn’t feel like I was going to fall over just from walking across the room, Darra ended the lesson and declared it was time for HIIT training.
“What’s HIIT training?” I asked. It sounded like I was going to be beating someone—or something—up.
“High inten
sity interval training,” she said.
“Isn’t that what we did this morning?”
“That was strength interval training,” she said. “This is high intensity.”
“Great,” I mumbled, following her back out to the track. “Sounds like a blast.”
If she noticed my sarcasm, she didn’t acknowledge it.
High intensity interval training ended up being just as torturous as it sounded. I had to do thirty seconds of sprinting on the track—full-blown, all out, sprinting. Then thirty seconds of walking. Then sprinting, and then walking, on and on until I collapsed. Literally.
I couldn’t breathe. My entire body was drenched in sweat. I stared up at the perfectly clear, blue sky, wondering why I had to be the one to go through torture.
“Great job!” Darra shouted from across the way.
I would have sat up if I had the energy. “Are you kidding?” I said in between tight, wheezing breaths.
She was by my side in an instant. “Lots of students throw up after HIIT training,” she said, holding out a bottle of water. “You didn’t. So like I said—great job.”
The sight of the water encouraged me to sit up. I took it and downed it faster than I’ve ever downed anything in my life. It was Holy Water—of course—so I felt slightly less like death after drinking it.
“What’s next?” I braced myself, expecting the worst.
“The sun’s setting soon, so we’re done for the day,” she said. “Go back inside, take a shower, and come down for dinner at nightfall. Your shifter mate has been pushing to see you, so Prince Jacen has allowed him to dine with us in the evenings.”
Noah wasn’t my mate yet, but I didn’t bother correcting her. I couldn’t wait to see him. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since the last time we saw each other, but it felt like forever.
The Angel Trials- The Complete Series Page 89
