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“Do you feel like moving anytime today?” Pipsqueak called down, sounding impatient.

Alex was jolted from her thoughts.

“Sorry,” she said, getting up and moving to the side.

Pipsqueak, Blink and finally Jordan dropped to the ground, landing much more gracefully than Alex had.

“That was fun,” Jordan said. If he hadn’t sounded so sarcastic, Alex would have contemplated throwing a rock at him.

“Totally ripping, bro,” Blink agreed.

Alex wasn’t entirely sure what ‘ripping’ meant, but she presumed it was a good thing, judging by Blink’s glowing expression. Unfortunately, she didn’t know the guy well enough to knock some sense into him.

“What now?” Pipsqueak asked, peering into the trees around them.

“Now we begin your training.”

. 1D;

Eight

Hunter’s words echoed around them, but nomatter how hard she looked, Alex couldn’t see the teacher anywhere. Not until he stepped out of the forest, appearing before them as if out of thin air.

“Welcome to your first class in Stealth and Subterfuge,” he said. “You’ve just had your introductory test. What did you learn?”

There was a pause as the four of them got over their shock at his sudden manifestation. Then Jordan jumped in.

“Keep an eye out for hidden traps.”

“Good,” Hunter said. “What else?”

“Don’t grab random towels off trees?” Blink suggested.

Before Hunter could respond, Pipsqueak added, “Keep Alex around for when you need a weapon handy.”

Jordan and Blink chuckled, but Alex was still too unnerved by what had happened to join in.

“What about you, Alex?” Hunter asked. “Anything to contribute?”

She thought for a moment, not wanting to answer straight away. She’d learned quite a few things during the ‘test’, but one thing in particular stood out to her.

“Appearances can be deceiving.”

“How so?” Hunter prompted.

“The cloth was a diversion, aimed at keeping our attention off the ground. It was a distraction to keep us from noticing the trap.”

“And yet, you noticed it,” Hunter pointed out. “Even when your classmates didn’t.”

Just how long had he been watching them? Probably the whole time, Alex realised.

“You’ll learn many things in my class,” Hunter said, addressing them all, “most of which will come from experience. If you pay attention to what I teach, you’ll remain my students for this year and next. It’s very rare that I take on apprentices, but if you show a high level of aptitude, I may offer to further your training. At present, I have only one apprentice, and the remainder of your classmates are fifth years.”

As he spoke, four people stepped silently out of the forest. They were dressed exactly like Alex—wearing black, black, and more black—and they wore the stupid strangling capes as well. They had their hoods lowered and Alex immediately recognised two of them. She’d already known about Kaiden, but she was pleasantly surprised to see Declan as well.

“Take five minutes to introduce yourselves,” Hunter said. “Most of the time you spend together in my class will involve group activities where you need to be able to trust each other. You don’t have to become best friends, but you do have to learn to respect one another. Starting now.”

He walked over to the tree that held the trap and began lowering the netting down to the ground, leaving his students to converse.