CHAPTER 29: THE FIRST TRAINING
MARCUS'S POV
I hated this assignment.
Not because Caleb gave it to me without asking. I was used to that. Not because it was early, or cold, or because the training ground was still damp from last night's rain. I had trained in worse. I hated it because of what it meant — that Caleb trusted her enough to let her stand on our ground with our warriors watching, that Lucien had apparently decided his morning had no better use than hovering near the edge of the field with his arms crossed and his eyes tracking her every move like she was something precious that might shatter, and that some part of me, some deeply inconvenient and traitorous part of me, kept replaying the image of her standing in front of those children with blood soaking through her shirt and her legs shaking and her feet still planted.
Hatred was easier when the person you hated did nothing worth remembering. Hazel Thornblood was making things extraordinarily inconvenient.
