The Untamed

Chapter 20: True Motive

   Waking up on his own bed was the first shock Clyde had to get over. The second shock was getting over the fact that Anya and Kassy were also in there. The final shock was the one that turned his mood sour: he failed the exam.

   Once he became fully aware of the fact, he slammed his fists on his knees and he screamed in sudden pain as he did so. After a quick investigation, he saw that his left arm was entirely bandaged from elbow to fingers. Seeing that made him realize that he couldn’t even feel that arm. Only when he moved it did he feel agonizing pain.

   The girls saw him awake and they sighed in relief.

   “Yeah, you might not want to move your arm around too much,” said Kassy. “You really overworked it…”

   Clyde grunted angrily. “What’re you two doing here?” he hissed dangerously.

   “We’re here to help you, you dunce!” said Anya somewhat playfully.

   Hearing her voice, Clyde felt as if something inside of him dropped. Failing the exam also meant failing her…

   “Seyth,” he said suddenly, trying not to think too much about Anya. “He passed…”

   Kassy nodded sadly. “He was the only one that did. I tried, but after thirty minutes they stopped my exam and I failed…”

   Hearing this, Clyde’s breath shook. So then Seyth was as good as everyone said he was… And just as everyone had expected, Clyde failed the exam and Seyth was left to walk as if he was already the king. Everyone else was left forgotten.

   “Don’t feel too bad,” said Kassy. “It would have been a miracle if any of us passed. I knew the test was hard, but I never knew it was going to be like this…”

   “Shut up,” Clyde shook under his breath. He couldn’t stand the idea of failing. He couldn’t stand it that Seyth was already a step ahead of him.

   The girls kept quiet for a moment and allowed Clyde to steam off whatever pain he was in. This silence lasted a good five minutes at least, giving Clyde time to curse everything around him.

   “Where’s Jassy?” he asked suddenly, realizing she wasn’t there.

   Anya sighed. “She’s been hospitalized. Turbulous did a number on her… But don’t worry, she’ll be fine… She just needs to rest for a bit.”

   Hearing this, Clyde looked down at his bandaged arm. All in all, the exam was just as brutal as everyone had told him – perhaps more so. Not only that, failing the exam meant he was just like the rest of the kids there. Everyone had low expectations of him from the beginning and now, those expectations were only going to drop lower.

   “Don’t beat yourself up for it,” said Anya cheerfully.

   Slightly surprised, Clyde turned to face her. She was smiling and she was giving him a thumbs-up. Slowly, his lips parted, growing more and more confused by the second.

   “You did your best. You were super close and that’s all that matters. Even Kane said he was impressed by how close you were.” Then, her face turned slightly red again and she turned her head away. “And I guess I was a bit amused, even though I couldn't see anything,” she said in her bossy voice.

   Kassy chuckled and Clyde felt himself burn.

   Before anyone could do anything else, however, the door knocked and the three looked at it in surprise.

   “Speaking of which,” said Clyde, “didn’t Kane break down my door?”

   “Yeah, but then he fixed it later on with a different Kin,” said Kassy approaching the door. She peeked through the peep hole and simply squeaked, “Huh?”