Fate Breakers

Chapter 5

Aviva

"Go, get the fuck out of here!"

Gannon ran. He ran because his life depended on it, and I was so fucking thankful he did.

My relief didn't last long.

The crackle of wood splitting rang out in my ears, and I flinched harder than I'd like to admit. I flinched so hard I fell straight out of the tree.

Vladian Rush was there waiting at the bottom for me. Had we not been on a slope, his axe would've been driven straight into my neck. Forget risking rolling all the way back down. I'd much rather start from nothing than end up fucking dead.

My back slammed into a rock, and that's what forced me back to my feet. From the whoosh combined with the sharp pain in my thigh, I know I was too slow. Vladian is practically on top of me, but thanks to my buckling leg, I can at least make him believe I anticipated his attack.

I knew they all hated me, but I didn't think my platoon would hate me enough to try and kill me and Gannon. No one could've seen me with him for more than three minutes. We left the common wash area at the same time, and that was all.

"You fucking ill-bred bitch," Vladian snarls, staggering back to his feet after having fallen a great distance. He flashes his fangs, his scarlet eyes trained on me. "Can't you see I'm doing you a favor?!"

I scream as he swings for me, if only to distract myself from the pain in my leg. "Sure," I snarl back, "that's all fine and fun, but why the fuck would you go after Ramirez!?"

"Who knows what you did to him," Vladian snarls. "For all we know, you wormed your way into his head!"

The gravel slides out from underneath me, and a rippling pain shoots from the back of my head and down my spine. Vladian abandons his axe, getting on top of me with both hands flying to my throat. I suck in a breath, trying to get as much as I can as he adds pressure.

"Get this through your head," Vladian huffs, his eyes ablaze with pure hate. "You are nothing, and you never will be. Your people are the scum of the earth, and the Elders should have taken you all out when they had the reasons and will to do so."

I can't breathe.

Holy shit, I'm going to die.

↻

Fox is all about appearances.

Her brassy hair is always in a slicked back bun, occasionally in a braided bun if she has the time, or if her hands aren't acting up. Her amber tattoo, which manifested with her magic at the age of twelve, is always covered up. I know it's there, somewhere on her back, but I've never caught more than a flash of color on her tanned skin. Her uniform is never out of regulation. When Fox earned a pattern for her cloak, she chose something simple: she textured it like the coat of a red fox. Her cloak was already that color, she'd used the nickname Fox for so long, most didn't even know what her real name was. Fox drilled it into our heads that we were to be the same.

So nearly killing Vladian on that mountain, a member of my own platoon, should have warranted way more than a suspension of my candidacy.

Fox glowered at me from behind her desk. Green was the color of life, but Fox's eyes seemed to promise death if I so much as breathed incorrectly. I wasn't even sure I was breathing right.

My body feels like hell. It's a week after the field test, and even though everything is supposed to be set and repaired, being in my own body doesn't feel right. That was the downside of using potions and magic to heal; until the magic adapted to what was already in you, you would feel a stranger in your own skin. Not to mention your body healed faster than your body could register. My bones still creak and groan like the rotted wood of the officer's building.