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Is that the best you’ve got?she taunted.

Thea saw the second hit coming, but it made no difference. There was no way to brace herself against the impact, no way to lessen the pain or the panic that came with having the air knocked out of her so soon after the first.

She doubled over, a ragged wheeze escaping her as her insides spasmed. Intense pain burst through her midsection, almost forcing her stomach up through her throat. Nausea followed and Thea’s legs threatened to give out from under her, but sheer willpower forced her upright once again. Her vision blurred this time and she could feel saliva hanging from her mouth, but she remained unbroken.

The final blow caught her off guard. This time, Seb’s fist struck her on the side, the sharp agony sending her sprawling across the dirt. But this pain had been different, not only for its location, but…

Thea’s shirt was wet.

Looking down, she saw red leaking from her side.

‘You bastard!’ someone shouted, and Thea looked up in time to see a flash of silver between Seb’s knuckles before it disappeared into his pocket.

‘He fucking stabbed her!’ cried someone else.

But Thea was too battered to register what he’d done to her. She cared about one thing. It didn’t matter that her eyes were streaming, or that she had spit on her chin.

If they’re not on the ground crying for their mothers by the end…

With those words ringing in her head, clutching her bleeding side and choking down the need to vomit, Althea Nine Lives got to her feet.

‘Can’t even beat a girl, Seb,’ she wheezed, spitting blood on the ground.

Humiliation and fury blazing in his eyes, he launched himself at her.

Only to be sent flying back into the dirt.

‘What in the realms is going on here?’ Torj the Bear Slayer bellowed, his gaze shooting to Vernich in disbelief.

The older Warsword eyed him with dislike before he shrugged. ‘Usual shieldbearer hazing,’ he said before shouting to the rest of them, ‘You’re all dismissed.’

Like the coward Seb was, he left in the Bloodletter’s shadow. Dizzy, Thea gazed after them for a moment.

‘You’re only here because your uncle is friends with the Guild Master,’Cal had said all that time ago in the woods. It suddenly made sense that Seb faced so few consequences for his actions.

Torj turned to Thea, gripping her by the shoulders. ‘What happened?’ he asked, staring at the blood staining her shirt. Cal was helping Kipp limp to her side.

Thea could feel the rest of the shieldbearers lingering around them, and she knew she had a choice. All that time ago, Cal and Kipp had told her of the code of silence between shieldbearers and she’d be damned if she would be the one to break it. And if Seb truly had an in with the Guild Master, then snitching would do her no good.

Forcing her hand to drop casually from her bleeding side, she straightened, suppressing a wince. ‘Nothing, Sir,’ she said.

‘Doesn’t look like fucking nothing.’

Thea was struggling to remain upright; were it not for the big hands gripping her shoulders, she would have swayed.

‘It was nothing,’ she repeated, tasting the blood between her teeth.

‘Thea’s right,’ someone called. ‘Just some hazing that got out of hand.’

‘Yeah, Sir. Barlowe was just being his usual bastard self,’ Lachin chimed in. ‘Nothing Thea can’t handle.’

Was she hearing correctly? Or had the blows to her gut gone to her head? What were they —

‘Didn’t you see Seb’s face, Sir?’ Cal chimed in. ‘Thea had him.’

Cal’s voice in the mix anchored her and fuelled her understanding. The shieldbearers weren’t condoning Vernich or Seb’s actions. They weren’t downplaying her suffering… They were supporting her choice not to say anything. The shieldbearers, including Lachin, of all people, had her back.

Scanning the determined faces around them, Torj released her, and somehow, she managed to stay standing.