Beckoning Light (The Afterglow Trilogy #1)(36)
Author: Alyssa Rose Ivy

“Kevin, let us have you start,” Percy said, as Samantha took a step toward me. She looked at me seriously, obviously ready to fight.

“I don’t fight with girls,” I objected, as soon as I realized what she was planning to do. Even playing sports with girls was hard. You couldn’t just let them win because they’d get upset but, then again, you couldn’t play your hardest either. And now I was supposed to fight one?

“You did not just say that,” Samantha said furiously. I looked over at her quickly, but not fast enough. Her leg came out of nowhere, knocking me in the chest, propelling me to the ground. From a distance, I heard Liam laughing. I would kill him. I got up slowly, watching as Samantha approached Liam.

“You next?” she asked.

Liam immediately stopped laughing. “Uh, no thanks.” Served him right, I thought, still feeling embarrassed.

“Are you afraid to fight girls, too?” she asked without a trace of humor on her face.

“No,” Liam said nervously.

“Okay, then,”

Even with the heads up, Liam ended up sprawled on the floor as well. Monty took her on next, and he was incredible. He was unbelievably fast and able to anticipate her every move. Eventually, Monty had Samantha on the ground. At first it was weird to see Monty kicking around a girl, but considering what she had done to me, I understood it. I had no idea that Monty knew how to fight like that. But I probably shouldn’t have been surprised, considering he was from another world and all.

We took turns fighting all day. It turned out that Tomas was pretty good at combat, too. We didn’t use any weapons, it was more about strength and agility. I pushed myself as hard as I could. I had been through hard practices before, but this was something else altogether. We had short breaks, but never quite long enough to fully recover before we were working again. Percy was an intense coach.

Late in the afternoon, Percy led us outside behind the cave to an enormous shear mountain wall. I stared at it for a minute trying to figure out what Percy expected us to do. I saw Monty approach the wall and understanding dawned—we were going to climb it. Before Monty started to climb, it looked like there were absolutely no hand or footholds. As I watched him, I realized that there were some tiny cracks in the surface that were just big enough to maneuver with your fingers. I followed behind Monty, just ready to get it over with. It was exhausting. I almost slipped a few times, but I was able to catch myself. Liam had even more trouble than I did, but he made it up unscathed. Samantha followed him easily, although she moved slowly. After Tomas reached the top, I watched in awe as Percy scaled the wall like it was nothing. Percy could barely walk with a cane! So now on top of being beat up by a girl, I had been shown up by a crippled old man.

Exhausted, I was thrilled when Percy finally suggested we call it a day. Every muscle in my body ached, and I really wanted to sit down. I was about to start climbing down when Percy stopped me.

“Kevin, I have one more thing I want you to try before we stop,” Percy said, watching me. I couldn’t believe it. As much as I wanted to turn him down, I didn’t want to look weak in front of Samantha.

“Sure Percy, what is it?” I noticed that the rest of the group was watching us.

I followed Percy over to the edge of the cliff still unsure of what he was going to tell me to do.

“All you need to do is jump to the other side,” Percy said nonchalantly. I thought I was hearing things. There was no way that I was going to be able to make that jump. The gap between the cliffs must have been nearly twenty feet. Assuming there had to be some sort of trick, I moved closer to the edge of the cliff, but there was nothing between the cliffs for hundreds of feet until the dried riverbed below. There was no way anyone could survive such a fall.

I wasn’t the only one concerned. “Percy, are you sure he’s ready for this?” Monty asked. “Maybe we should wait until he has more experience.”

“If he is going to handle himself at Bellgard, he had better be able to make this jump now. We do not have the luxury of time, Monty.”

I was already nervous, but hearing the doubt in Monty’s voice really scared me. Monty had always been my biggest fan, aside from Charlotte, so if he didn’t think I was ready, then I could be in some serious trouble. I tried to think of a way to get out of it when I looked over and saw Samantha eyeing me. Great, I thought, now I really have to do it. I decided to get it over with. I hoped that Percy had some rescue plan in case I fell, but I seriously doubted it. Logically, I knew that attempting the jump was stupid, but I couldn’t back down from the challenge. I took a running start and prepared to start freefalling. Suddenly, I felt ground beneath my feet. I opened my eyes and turned around. I had made it!

“Good job!” Monty called over to me, relief clear on his face.

“I told you he was ready.” Percy smiled at me for the first time.

“Nice one, man!” Liam said, clearly impressed.

“I’ll see you all at the bottom,” I called before starting my descent. I was pumped with adrenalin after the jump, but at the same time, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was going to be facing much worse obstacles at Bellgard.

Overall, I was physically spent, and I felt pretty dumb. In one day, I had been taken down by a girl and outdone by my uncle and an old man. The only saving grace was that I had miraculously made the jump. Monty tried to reassure me that more training and patience would go a long way, but I was still in shock. I was used to being the best at anything physical, and this was embarrassing. I started to worry about our chances of saving Charlotte. What if I wasn’t strong enough, and I let her down? I knew that I would never forgive myself, so I pushed harder. Liam seemed to be having an even harder time than I was, but I was impressed by how tough he was; nothing seemed to keep him down. We had barely talked, too engrossed in the training, but I could tell from his face that he had the same concerns I did about rescuing Charlotte.

Liam and I excitedly walked over to where dinner was being served. We were both starving. I didn’t know why we had gotten our hopes up; the food was no better than it had been for lunch. It was like hummus without any of the flavor, but with crunchy bits that I decided I would rather not identify. Liam and I looked at each other as we tried to swallow it.

“I’m really starting to miss pizza,” I said, as I took another bite.

“I don’t think you’re the only one. Maybe it’s pepperoni withdrawal that has Monty in such a bad mood.” Liam laughed and nodded toward where Monty sat looking miserable.