Page 12 of Enchanted Shadows (The Enchanted Kingdom #6)

A week later, we had no other leads on the black magic in the forest and more than half of the women had made it up the obstacle course. I stood watch as Sam took her turn, Jessina and Vivian on the balance beam in a brutal match up.

Sam got to the metal bar jumps, where she normally faltered.

It had been Zara who had tucked her legs under her arms and flipped to the top of the bars, sitting on one bar to reach up and grab the other which had given the women another strategy for the bars.

Sam could usually get to the second one using that method, but the third, the highest, she ran out of steam and fell when she grabbed ahold of it.

Sure enough, she fell again. In the same spot that kept tripping her up. It was affecting her confidence. More and more of the women were making it to the top; Molly had just done so yesterday, and Sam was beginning to get in her own head about it.

As she rolled off the mat, she offered in explanation, “I have weak wrists.”

She likely did, but if she could get from the first bar to the second, I knew she could get to the third. I suspected it had more to do with nerves and breathing.

“You still have time,” I reminded her. “Don’t forget to breathe up there.”

“How could I with your constant reminders?” she said with a tight smile.

Vivian smacked Jessina off the mat, but Jessina swiped out on the way down and caught Vivian at the lower legs, knocking her off too.

There was not as much brute force training this group of women, but I had to admit they were scrappy and didn’t give in so easy. Competitiveness was not exclusive to gender.

“Don’t forget,” I barked at a louder volume. “Today is the first day we will be running twice. We leave in five minutes.”

Multiple groans were heard. Pippa the Pepper couldn’t be bothered to hold back her curse. I had at least given them a break between the rounds of running.

We were at the halfway point in our training session.

Forty-five days left. Whoever passed the first round of training would have a month off before the second round began.

Though the team wasn’t ready to compete in any training drills with the other teams yet, the girls were getting stronger.

Sharper. I was pleased with their progress.

And when it came to knowing one another, this group of women was by far outperforming some of my other groups.

Five minutes later, we ran.

“No sluffing off this round,” I told them as we headed toward the big rock for the second time that day. “Running it twice does not mean you get to walk it this time around.”

Multiple groans were the only response.

I started in the back and ran all the way to the leaders, encouraging them as I went.

When I got to Molly, Wren, and Zara running together, I noticed they were speaking under their breath every once in a while.

“Ladies,” I told them as I passed by. “If you can chat through it, you can run it faster.”

“We are—commiserating,” Wren said to my back.

“Commiserate at the finish,” I snapped back over my shoulder. Zara was looking around at her surroundings. Was she searching for a weapon? “Zara,” I added. “If you hit me with a rock—you’ll be running it again.”

“Might be worth it,” she said quietly to the other two before saying more loudly, “Wouldn’t dream of it, General.”

The women made it to the finish line. I wanted to snap at Wren, Zara, and Molly for running it together the whole time, but their time was decent enough that I refrained. I was choosing my battles today.

As the last woman, Jaya, crossed the finish line, the women all cheered.

I headed for my own water jug, taking a generous sip. It was going to be hot out today. Far more hot than necessary. Where was that crisp fall air when we needed it?

As I turned back around, Wren and Molly were slightly swaying to the beat of a music not there. They were dancing.

Dancing?

Our first two-a-day of running, and they were dancing?

As Zara and Jessina joined in, I ran a hand down my face. This training group was different, there was no doubt about that. I had to ask the obvious. “What are you doing?”

“Dancing!” Molly provided. “We survived the first double run.”

“And sometimes you just have to dance it out,” Vivian agreed.

At this point they were all just dancing around. Every last one of them. Some were gracefully swaying. Vivian was arching her back and popping her butt out, making the others giggle and try the move .

“Want to join in?” Fern asked, her moves reminding me of a tree swaying in the breeze.

I shook my head. “I don’t dance.”

“Yes, you do,” Wren argued. And when she saw me cross my arms, she put her hands in the air. “Right, right. You aren’t my brother right now, who can, in fact, dance. You are the big, bad General Raikes.”

My sister was funny. Always had been. I couldn’t help my lips from twitching. “And don’t you forget it.” I turned, sweat dripping and ready for a shower. “Head in whenever you’re done dancing. Be sure to eat enough protein at lunch. Otherwise, you will not make it through River’s class awake.”

In my first training class, Krew and I had sparred to blow off steam. Occasionally beating the hell out of each other. Here the women were, tired and out of breath, dancing it out. These women were annoying most days, but I found them endearing too.

Later that evening, I was just falling asleep in my cabin when there was a knock at the door.

Rap. Rap. Rap.

I opened it to find Miles. Miles, who I had just had an hour meeting with. Our weekly meeting about the upcoming events and all that would happen.

“Yeah?”

“It’s your training group.”

“What about them?” I asked as I reached for a shirt. If another Dixon Hill showed up, I had no issues handling that again.

“They snuck out.”

I stilled. “They what?”

“They snuck out. To a party in Savaryn.”

I ran a hand down my face. These women were going to be the death of me. “How?”

“Apparently your sister has a friend on Team Two. The girls snuck out while they knew you and I would be in a meeting. ”

That was actually some good strategizing if I wasn’t pissed off enough to consider it. “Why couldn’t they just sneak in booze like the rest of us?”

“At least they’re resourceful?” Miles asked. “I’ve got Alvarez waiting at the wall for you. He said he didn’t know they would go over the wall and sneak out; he’d just been asked what time they swapped out, who kept watch at the wall.”

Again, not a bad strategy if they weren’t actively breaking rules with this little stunt.

“I suspect he was just trying to impress your sister by being on Team Two.” And then he had to go and add in explanation, “Because she is rather attractive.”

“Stop. Talking.”

“Right. Sorry.”

I let out a curse. “Let’s go find my team.”