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She made a face at their tense conversation before mimicking his response. “I’m good.”

“That’s good,” he said.

“It’d be better if I believed you,” she said bluntly.

He tilted his head and gave another un-Jordan-like smile. “You know me, Alex. Would I lie to you?”

She looked away from him and said quietly, “You mightn’t be lying, but I don’t think you’re telling the complete truth, either.”

“Trust me, Alex,” Jordan told her. “I’ve never felt better.”

She moved a step closer and lowered her voice. “You can talk to me, Jordan. I’m good at keeping secrets, if that’s what you want. I want to help.”

Something changed in his eyes, a glimmer of emotion, but it disappeared before she could identify it.

“That means a lot, Alex,” he said. “I’m lucky to have a friend like you. But really, I’m good.”

She shuddered at the carefully controlled expression covering his normally animated features. It was like he’d shut out the world. What had his parents done to him?

“Please, Jordan,” Alex whispered, not entirely sure what she was begging him for.

“You’d better get to class,” he said, reaching out to squeeze her arm in what should have been a comforting gesture. “You don’t want to be late for Karter. Or Zain. I’ll see you at dinner.”

She wanted to stay and convince him to open up to her, but his classmates began to arrive and she knew their time for talking had passed. Not that he’d actually said anything. She wished she could figure out how to bring down his walls. They were only hurting him even more—and his friends in the process. But she wouldn’t give up. Maybe he just needed more time. There were only two days left of classes until the Kaldoras break started—hopefully he’d feel more comfortable talking when they were all at Woodhaven.

As Alex hurried over to the Arena, she felt her spirits lift a little, convinced that their holiday together would make everything better. There was nothing like a little quality time to help mend hurting relationships. They would all be back to normal soon enough.

“Ten more seconds, Jennings, and you would have been late to my class for the second time this year,” Karter informed her loudly as soon as she entered the Arena.

“I can go back out and come in again if that’ll make you feel better?” Alex offered, and then she bit her tongue to keep from saying anything else disrespectful. She’d been so caught up in her thoughts that she’d forgotten to filter them before speaking to her easily enraged instructor.Oops.

Karter’s eye twitched at her words. Not a good sign.

“I think it’s time for another class demonstration,” he said, his voice low and dangerous.

Sometimes my life just sucks, Alex thought miserably when Karter, predictably, picked her for his ‘demonstration’. She looked around for Zain, figuring he would be her opponent for the three or so minutes she’d remain conscious—less, perhaps, given the slippery snow-covered Arena floor—but she couldn’t see the huge Meyarin anywhere.

“Where’s Zain?” she asked, forgetting that she was supposed to be keeping her mouth shut.

“No idea,” Karter grunted.

A flicker of worry sparked within Alex, but she didn’t have time to think of anything other than her own survival after Karter threw a sword to her and began hi

She had a chance of lasting longer than three minutes with Karter, but even so, he was a talented, aggressive opponent. And he was angry. Definitely not a good combination. Plus it didn’t help that she was distracted by trying to keep her Meyarin abilities under wraps. It seemed that ever since she’d had a few tastes of what her fighting ability could be like, her body wanted to use the skills it was capable of utilising. So, while Alex was fighting Karter, she was also fighting herself.

No wonder she was so exhausted when he knocked her sword from her hand and toppled her onto the cold, wet snow.

“Again,” he barked.

The class couldn’t end soon enough, in Alex’s opinion. She almost wished Zain was there, since he might have taken pity on her.

Doubtful, Alex thought realistically as she blocked Karter’s overhead swing.Very doubtful.

Zain still hadn’t shown up by the time Alex’s final Combat class rolled around on Friday afternoon and she was growing concerned. While she hardly counted herself important enough to know the guard’s every move, she felt sure he would have told her if he’d planned to disappear for a while. He was her only means of communication to Meya, after all.

His continued absence caused her enough anxiety that she found herself walking up to the headmaster’s office after dinner that night to see if he knew anything. While the other students were packing their bags and getting ready for their break the following day, Alex was busy worrying about yet another impossible male in her life.

She was halfway up the Tower staircase when she almost collided with Darrius, who was heading down.