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“Is it ever?” Alex asked, shrugging. “Please don’t hold back on my account. Maybe we’ll both get lucky—if you knock me out again, I’ll get to skip the rest of the exam.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said with a slight grin, continuing towards the far side of the Arena.

“On my count,” Karter bellowed, his voice carrying around the massive area. “Three, two, one,begin.”

Alex frowned when Declan hesitated. “You’re not afraid to hit a girl, are you?” she taunted. “You never used to be.”

He narrowed his gaze but still didn’t come at her. Alex noticed Karter watching them and she knew that, even thoughshewas destined to fail this exam, she wouldn’t let Declan go down with her.

It took a lot of goading—and some low blows on her part—until Alex was able to convince Declan to fight. Even then, he still wouldn’t flat-out annihilate her, but he put up a pretty good show. Alex, however, was more impressed by her own much-improved reflexes, which helped her stay on her feet far longer than expected. The last time she’d fought Declan she’d acted on pure survival instinct, whereas this time she was actually in control. And it feltgood.

At least it did until he managed to catch her around the waist and wrestle her to the ground, trapping her in place.

“Jennings, you’re out,” Karter called across the Arena, as if she hadn’t already realised as much.

Declan eased up off her back and she rolled over, accepting his offered hand. They walked together to the side of the Arena and watched the rest of their classmates attack each other. Alex couldn’t help noticing that they were all much more violent than Declan had been.

“You’re not too bad, you know,” he said kindly. “Much better than last time.”

Alex snorted and rubbed a tender spot where it felt like he’d almost shattered her thigh. “Yeah, right.”

“I mean it,” he said. “You dodged most of my attacks. Your reflexes are excellent.”

“But I completely suck at attacking,” she said.

“That’s because you don’t have any experience. With a bit of work, I reckon you could learn how to hold your own.”

“Well, thanks for the vote of confidence,” she said. “But we’ve still got over two and a half hours of this exam left and no one can learnthatfast.”

“Yeah,” Declan agreed, wincing with sympathy. “Not your best afternoon.”

Soon Karter blew his whistle to signal that the first interval was over. None of the others had been defeated. She had a feeling it was going to be a very repetitive—and painful—afternoon.

As Alex continued swapping through partners, she realised that Declan had been way more than easy on her. Her reflexes continued to help her during her unarmed combat with both Sebastian and Nick, but ultimately both boys brought her down hard—and with much more force than Declan.

But none of her unarmed matches were anywhere near as bad as her round with Brendan, where they attacked each other with heavy wooden staves. Again, the only thing that kept Alex in the fight was her ability to duck and dodge every time he swung the weapon at her. She probably ended up more injured from throwing herself to the ground over and over again to avoid the wooden staff than from any actual contact with it—at least until he clipped her in the stomach, forcing the air out of her lungs and winding her. She automatically doubled over into a protective ball with her arms wrapped around her abdomen, and he took the opportunity to swing the staff up at her head, smashing it into her skull.

He must have completely pulled back on his attack, since while it hurt like crazy, she was only dazed for a few seconds, as opposed to unconscious or dead—both of which could have been possible.

The hit still disoriented her enough that he was able to use the staff to trip her over and onto the ground, pressing the weapon firmly against her windpipe.

Karter’s call of “Out, Jennings!” was definitely a welcome relief. Especially since it meant she only had one more opponent to face before the first part of their examination was over.

As Alex took her place in front of Kaiden, she felt her heart thudding erratically in her chest. Of all the matches, this one was the most dangerous. The swords they were using weren’t wooden practice weapons—they were the real deal and they hadverysharp blades.

“Do you know what to do with that?” Kaiden asked.

She looked at the sword glinting dangerously in her hand and jabbed it forward in three quick, consecutive thrusts. “Stab, stab, stab, right?”

“There’s a little more technique to it than that,” Kaiden responded dryly. “Finesse. Etiquette. It’s like a dance.”

“And then youstab, stab, stab,” Alex said again. “Right?”

His lip twitched as if he was holding back a smile. “Why don’t you give your method a go and see how well it works for you?”

“Nah,” she responded. “I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

This time he did smile. His entire face lit up with the expression and she felt as if she’d been winded by the wooden staff all over again. Alex knew she had to get her head back on straight, but she was still a sixteen—nearly seventeen—year-old girl and he was way too attractive for his own good. Even covered in dirt and sweat, with his messy dark hair plastered to his head, he was still gorgeous. She’d noticed before—how could she not after observing him and the others for months?—but she hadn’t had many opportunities to be up close and personal with him. And now they were about to attack each other with lethal weapons.