A Witch's Way

Chapter 27

Serena woke with the covers crumpled, and the door banging wildly. A few seconds later, she heard the same sound on the door next to her. She glanced with bleary eyes towards the red numbers on the clock.

3:45 a.m.

She groaned and threw herself off the bed, stumbling out into the hallway. She rubbed at her eyes and glanced around, seeing everyone--almost everyone, Jasper was already wide awake and ready to roll--just like her. Bleary eyed, groggy, and annoyed. Some of them were even swearing, shuffling around.

"Let's go!" Someone down the hallway yelled from the end, "You wanna fight against the Defiance, you better be ready to fight anytime!"

Serena felt herself move, Rosemary stumbling right next to her. She kept a hand on the wall, to keep her from sliding down and sleeping. Was this conditioning?

Everyone filed out to an outside courtyard, the dawn air sticking to their skin and making everyone shiver. Jasper pushed himself to Serena and grinned.

"Hey, you ready for this?" he whispered, poking at Serena's arm excitedly.

Serena turned her head and glared, freezing Jasper in a mid-poking motion. He looked away and nodded.

Clark gave a small chuckle of laughter at her response, waving to Rosemary. Rosemary tiredly moved a pointed ear back.

"Alright you wispdusters, are you ready?"

Serena snapped her head up. She recognized that voice--it sounded like Suzuki Buji. She peered over the people in front of her, confirming her thoughts. There she was, powerful-looking as ever despite her small and frail figure.

Suzuki snapped her fingers, her mouse on her shoulder standing up. "Those people over there are brutal. They are brutal, and they will not hesitate to kill any single one of you."

Serena looked up to see the navy sky above them. She was right. Serena found herself nodding along with Suzuki. Her legs and her familiar were enough proof. Not to mention her garden and her house.

Suzuki's eyes landed on Serena through the crowd and pushed them away, grabbing at her arm, and pulling her forward to face the people. "You see Serena? You see her arms, her legs? This is what they will do to you."

Serena looked down, hearing gasps from the crowd. She shuffled her feet, being pushed back into the group. Jasper took hold of her shoulder and smiled at her, but her head was down, either in shame or embarrassment, no one knew.

"You all saw Lillith back there? They will do that to you," Suzuki said, waiting for the situation to sink into the tired people.

The air around them was tense, maybe even a little frightened. For the next few hours, Suzuki had barked at them to try harder as she instructed them to run around the area, use their magic in ways that they couldn't believe, and gave them drills to do.

It didn't help that the sun started to beat down on their backs, causing it to be even hotter than it had been before, and the use of fire didn't make it any cooler. The only ones who seemed to be staying cool were the Water Elementals and the Air Elementals.

Suzuki grinned, "Alright. Set up into pairs, and I will instruct you both on what to do."

Jasper immediately latched onto Serena's arm and pulled her away. She gulped and walked backward, seeing eyes follow her. "Jasper..." she whispered, pulling at her arm.

He gave no indication that he'd heard Serena's pleas and kept moving away from the group.

"Jasper!" she hissed, yanking away her arm. Jasper stopped and spun around, frowning. "What are you doing? I never agreed to be your partner!" Serena said, red burning on her cheeks. Everyone was staring at them.