The Traitor of Inlustris

XII

"You can do better than that," Adonis remarked.

I went to punch his shoulder, but he blocked it without trouble and held me in place. I yelped as his grip tightened on my arm.

"You're hurting me," I mumbled. Tears welled in my eyes and he let go.

"I'm sorry!" He immediately apologized. "I'm just trying to prepare you for the worst. I didn't mean to hurt you."

I nodded but averted my gaze. Heat rose to my cheeks as he stepped closer, inspecting my arm. His then harsh grip turned into soft caresses.

"You need to learn to hit harder," he said. "Come on, you have to know how to fight."

His fingers laced through mine and guided me back to the clearing. Daylight filtered through from the tree branches, creating a unique pattern on the brown soil. Adonis stepped on one light spot. His eyes turned into glimmering molten emeralds instantly.

I tried hard to focus on the matter at hand. We were sparring. Herc told me I had to learn to fight with other types of people, so I had my fair share of sparring with almost every member. Adonis volunteered to take me last.

Instead of making progress for myself, I was here wasting time fighting people I was going to have to leave behind in the dust. It was frustrating, but I had to play their game for survival. The moment they realized I was a queen, the war would be over, seeing as there wasn't a queen to fight it.

It was an utter disaster no matter how I looked at it.

This whole rogue gang situation was a stupid mistake on my part, but I was in too deep. I couldn't go back on my word now. I had to continue playing my part, memorizing the script if I wanted to live another day.

"Focus, Ella," Adonis ordered.

I snapped out of it, nodding, and took my stance. There was no use in overthinking every possible outcome. I needed to live my life day by day with one goal in mind: finding the key to win the war. I couldn't let a rogue gang blind me from that.

"I know I can be distracting," he smirked, placing a hand over his chest, "but when you're out there and we find ourselves fighting with someone as attractive as I am, you can't lose sight of your goal: to win."

"Why, you must certainly have a big head, Adonis," I chastised. However, the blush on my cheeks told him everything he wanted to hear.

"Just remember you want to survive," he instructed. His smirk never wavered, which didn't help any, but at least I tried to follow through with his advice.

We circled around each other, waiting for one of us to strike first. I didn't dare, seeing as I was not prepared to deal with his mighty hits, and waited for him to throw a punch.

"Ella, take the offense!" Herc yelled from afar.

I burned inside and threw a punch. That, as I expected, was futile. Adonis took my weak arm, turned me around, and pressed it to my spine. I gasped at the jolt of pain.

Frustrated, I stomped on his feet. He let go in his shock and I took that as my chance. I imagined he was Mahli whenever he spoke in his perfect Flamberin, attempting to be the ever so glossy prince of The Allicere.

I swung a punch to his gut. A tiny smile adorned my lips as he doubled over in pain. I brought his bent figure closer to me by scrunching up his cheap shirt in my fists, and kneed him in the chest. He fell on his hands and knees, winded.

"Once we wed, you'll be stress-free, my Queen. I can assure you of that."

As if I needed to marry a man to deal with all of my problems.

I growled and fisted his raven hair. I pulled him up by surprise, and punched him square in the face.

I was not to be controlled. I was not to be a king's trophy beside him.

I was the queen.

"Ella, stop!"

I let go of Adonis. When I came back to it, I noticed all the blood. My hands trembled, covered in scarlet.

"Oh, Gracious! What did I do?" I whispered.

Adonis laid in a heap by my feet, coughing up blood.

"You are stronger than you let on, Flamber," he joked, but it didn't hold the same teasing manner in which he carried himself.

"I am so sorry, I don't know what came over me," I said. I wiped his matted hair away from his eyes and forehead, checking to see if he was alert.

"Hey, I told you to learn how to fight. You took that quite literally." He grinned showing off his blood-covered teeth. I grimaced.

I cannot believe my hands were guilty of causing such pain. Tears fell down my eyes as Jax and Orion helped him to his feet.

"Go wash him up in the river," Gaia instructed.

Adonis tried to stand on his own, but he limped forward, using Jax as a crutch.

Staring down at my hands, I could not believe I had done such a thing to him. I needed to learn to defend myself, not kill.

A whimper escaped my lips, and I ran off into the forest.

"Ella!" Herc's voice called out.

I didn't listen and ran deeper into the forest. My tears blurred everything in front of me, and soon I tumbled over onto the ground. I sobbed and curled up into a tree root, trying to be as invisible as possible.

After several minutes, I heard stomping footsteps coming in my direction.

"Ella," Herc sighed. His footsteps sounded closer to my body, but I chose to ignore them.

They should just kill me now. I was going to be useless as a Bleeder. I couldn't bear to hurt someone. How was I supposed to defend myself on the daily while using different kinds of weapons?

"Hey," he shook my shoulder, "you don't have to cry."

"I didn't mean to hurt him," I whispered.

Herc tilted my chin up using his fingers. "You did nothing wrong, Ella. In fact, I think you exceeded all of our expectations about you."

"What?" I croaked.

"You have a long way to go," he said, wiping my tears with the back of his hand. "If you keep impressing us like that, you have a shot of being an excellent Bleeder."

"I have never hurt someone like that," I whimpered.

"Oh, we know." Herc chuckled. "Adonis is fine. He's probably more shaken up by being attacked, but he'll be fine by tomorrow. Might leave horrid bruising, but he'll be as annoying as ever come morning."

I nodded, but everything still didn't sit well with me. I had attacked Adonis so wildly, I barely recognized myself. I was so out of it. I kept thinking of Mahli and his manner of speaking that angered me from within. His presence was enough to kindle the fire inside, and I had to fight so hard to not let it out.

"Come on, let's head back," Herc said.

I followed him, walking by thousands of trees. All I could think about was how would I manage to look at Adonis in the eye without remembering what I did to him.