Immunity Seven

"My hand aches." Keegan paused. "But last night was the best sleep I'd ever had. The beds are extremely comfortable! And the showers? I didn't think I could ever get out!"

In the hall, a chorus of scornful laughter sounded upon Keegan's admittance.

Micah looked apathetically at the group of blond-haired students as they gestured towards him and Keegan. Their expressions ranged from hilarity to aversion as they watched the two scholarship students pass. Talia stood amongst their group, positioned at the outskirts, desperate to be a part of them but no doubt an outsider. She looked at Micah, her mouth scowling and her eyes averting.

"Enjoy it while you can," one of the boys remarked spitefully. "You and pretty-boy may be smart, but as soon as we start the physical assessments, you'll be eliminated and sent back to the desert."

Keegan's face turned crimson and he pursed his lips, ready to deliver an insult.

Micah curled a hand around his elbow, tightening his hold until Keegan looked down at him.

"They're not worth it," he murmured. "They have to find a way to cover their asses for their uninspiring academic scores. Let them overcompensate and sound important." He'd said it loud enough for them to overhear. By the time they registered his comment, Micah was already around the corner and down the corridor.

"Sorry," Keegan murmured quietly. "I forgot our surroundings again." He seemed uncomfortable. "All of this is so new. What they take for granted is precious to me."

While Micah understood Keegan's enthusiasm, as he experienced them himself the first few weeks alone at the academy, the boy was too outspoken. Lavish amenities to Keegan were ordinary and expected items to others. Raving about them only drew attention to his disadvantaged social status.

"How do you think you did on the exam?"

"Which one?" Micah asked, noticing a crowd of cadets gathered in the dining hall. "They all blended together by the fourth exam."

After waking up at dawn and inhaling breakfast, they'd started their entry exams. With the exception of four fifteen minute breaks, and a light, hurried lunch, the first-year cadets had been taking exams all day. By their sixth exam, stomachs growled throughout the testing hall and the students grew restless in their seats.

The exams covered everything from language to math and even history. Instructors would post the results tomorrow morning and rank the students based on their overall scores. As soon as the scores posted, they would start the process of arranging the cadets into teams based on physical assessments.

Until then, Micah looked forward to eating dinner and reading in the library.

"You're right," Keegan murmured. "I don't even remember which subject gave me the hardest time." He touched his stomach with a heavy groan. "I can't even think straight until I eat."

Micah narrowed his eyes as they entered the transformed dining hall. The tantalizing smell of food wafted the air, tempting all the students and their empty stomachs. Yet, there wasn't nearly enough food for the hoard of hungry first-year cadets.

The head table was arranged ornately with hors de 'oeuvres and wines. Only, there were no instructors present.

The delectable scent emanated from the head table and the hungry students pressed closer, their curiosity and skepticism falling way to ravenous hunger. Trepidation kept them from touching, however, and they stood around and waited for further instruction. Behind the head table, the heavy curtain from last night's banquet fell way to a wide, peripheral observation window. It overlooked the large arena down below where the track and other various yard equipment loitered.

The tables the students sat at yesterday were dressed up further with ridiculous amounts of satin cloth and gold-encrusted silverware. In the middle, pens and parchment lay out, though Micah couldn't understand the purpose.

On the other side of the room, a huge, black screen hung on the wall.

The object was completely foreign to Micah.

"What's going on?" Keegan asked aloud.

"For the next forty-eight hours, you're going to be entertainment for the high nobles," a young man spoke next to Micah. He had the typical blond hair of the Unda people, yet it was cut short, shorter than Micah's.

"I don't quite comprehend," Keegan replied slowly.

Micah grimaced, having an assumption.

"Some instructors, various councilmembers, and high nobles attend this event every term. They place bets on their chosen cadet. High stakes, apparently. Lots of gold. Bragging rights and entertainment." The other boy shrugged, a very non-aristocratic gesture. "I dropped out early last year and trained harder to make a second reappearance."

Keegan appeared aghast. "I'm going to make a fool out of myself. In front of nobles," he whispered.

"You are not," Micah reprimanded firmly.

He watched the students talk amongst each other. Most of them appeared to know the general turn of events, at least the children of the capital. The scholarship students, on the other hand, appeared utterly confused at the state of the dining hall.

Why hadn't Josiah informed Micah of this spectacle?

It disgusted him. Their plight was a mere show for rich, bored aristocrats.

An imposing man suddenly walked into the hall, his stature entirely all bulk. Micah could only stare in cynical silence, never having seen a man of such sheer size. His shoulders were absurdly wide and the short-sleeved tunic he wore revealed his bulging arms. His face was cruel, scarred on the left side, and entirely worn with sun. He was of Igni descent with thinning hair combed back into a low-slung ponytail. It looked slightly ridiculous, though another look at his burly arms quelled any amusement on Micah's end.

"Attention." The man hadn't screamed, but his deep, baritone tenor was enough to reverberate across the entire hall and rattle the expensive dishware on the tables. "I am Instructor Candace."

Upon hearing the feminine name associated with such a hulking giant, a solitary, throaty snort sounded amongst the crowd of students. The instructor—Candace—immediately zeroed in on the cadet who had emitted such a sound. Micah didn't turn his attention to the culprit. Instead, he watched as the instructor's eyes narrowed, as if he were making a mental note of the disrespectful student's identity.

"I'm sure you're all hungry after such a long, productive day," Candace said, his tone full of scorn and cynicism. Clearly, he found all-day exams menial. "Unfortunately for you, food will not be provided until after I'm through with you. By the end of the trials, I will be your most hated adversary."

He smiled then.

"All of you will perform an array of assessments that will test your skill and physical aptitude. The fun and games are over. Your life will now rely on the team you're assigned to in these next few days."

His announcement set a certain gloom in the air. No matter how much they wanted to celebrate on finally making it to the academy, they had to repress their high spirits and acknowledge the gravity of the situation. Despite the nobles thinking this as entertainment, it was imperative they remain focused.

"I suggest you push your ass as far as it can go to get on a good team." He motioned towards the side doors and towards the grey-clad staff worker. "Follow him."

Without offering much more in way of explanation, Candace disappeared amongst the crowd of anxious first-year cadets.

Micah and Keegan followed the students through the corridors. Oddly enough, it was silent with only an occasional whisper. As they marched through the dimly lit corridor, there was a sense that things were about to change. The air was heavy with anticipation and stale with the unknown.

Micah couldn't wait.

He found it amusing that some of the cadets raised their chins superiorly, clearly self-assured they knew what was to come. And they did, he supposed. They had an unfair advantage and their scores would reflect positively.

A familiar voice suddenly flooded the hallway. "Line up here! Wait your turn. We are going to go quickly!" Healer Kendra ushered the crowd of students against the wall.

They all followed her instructions and she grabbed the first student by the bicep.

"She's beautiful!" Keegan confessed breathlessly.

Micah quirked a disbelieving eyebrow, watching as the first student in line dwarfed the female Healer. With her pinched and stern expression, Kendra appeared rather angry today. Considering there were so many students surrounding her, she most likely wanted to appear professional and capable despite her young age.

"You don't think so, Micah?"

Scoffing at Keegan's sharp disbelief, Micah shook his head. "I suppose she's attractive, yes."

"All of them are attractive," Keegan whispered. A flush stained his cheeks as if he'd just confessed to something scandalous. "The Unda people, I mean. Or…" he cleared his throat nervously. "The women. Their blonde hair."

Micah shifted, choosing not to respond to Keegan's awkward fumbling. He did not share the other boy's enthusiasm when it came to Unda women. He supposed he really didn't understand infatuation of any sort, whether it be for a male or female.

If they were beautiful, they were beautiful. No sense to really fantasize and fumble from afar. Romanticizing the same gender was not unheard of. In all actuality, it was quite common. Society, however, expected males and females to settle down and start a family. Both parties had to marry into respected lines and carry on their family names.

Micah pondered.

He supposed he was sexually attracted to both sexes if the situation warranted it. He had experience with both sexes, but found men more desirable. If they proved worthy enough, their mind especially.

For a moment, he grew distracted, recollecting the night on the train when Josiah made an advance. Granted, the man had intended for it to be a mocking sort of tease, though Micah remembered the alien tightening in his lower stomach when the hand ventured near his thigh before anchoring in the roots of his hair.

"Focus on what's ahead," Micah admonished Keegan, yet he was talking about himself.

What was he? A foolhardy teenager who just discovered his hormones?

The back of his neck turned warm. He was a fool.

"No need to be so worried, Micah." Keegan ruffled his hair, having mistook Micah's frustration with nerves for the upcoming trials. "You'll do just fine."

Micah moved calmly away from the offensive hand and patiently waited for the line to get shorter. Fortunately, the students moved quickly, for a few minutes later, the boy in front of him disappeared inside the room with Kendra. At his sides, his fingers tapped the seconds. He barely got to thirty.

"Next!" Kendra hollered. Besides the softening of her eyes, she remained cordial and professional as he entered the room. To an outsider, it was if she were not familiar with him. "Name?" she prompted as soon as the door shut behind him.

"Micah Egan," he replied curtly.

"Region?"

"Region 20."

"Age?"

"Twenty-one."

She wrote furiously and motioned toward the scale. "Please strip down to your undergarments and step on the scale."

He disrobed quickly, handing his uniform to the assistant standing near the scale. After stuffing his clothes in a numbered cubicle, the assistant read off the number on the scale before promptly pushing him against the wall to check his height.

In a whirlwind, and nearly naked, Micah then stumbled into an adjourning room.

"Igni?"

Micah examined the man standing across from him. "Pardon me?"

The man looked up from behind a massive table, impatiently scanning Micah's lithe stature. "I'm assuming you're Igni, no?" Without studying Micah too much further, he tossed over a black tunic and black pants. "Please dress quickly and grab your size shoe from the wall. Go through the next door."

Micah accepted the clothes, shouldering on the tunic while stepping into the pants simultaneously. Both articles of clothing were relatively form fitting, yet flexible enough to allow a free range of movement. Grabbing the appropriate shoes and socks from the shelf, he walked into the next room, only for a man to bombard him with papers and sharp-looking pins.

"Hold still."

The pins poked his chest as the man ungracefully attached the number thirty-eight to the front of his shirt.

"Turn around."

Micah scowled, following the order as his back received similar treatment.

"Stand against the wall." The man pointed towards a mark centered on the floor and in front of an ivory curtain. "Toes here on the line. Stand tall. Look forward and into the lens."

When the man ushered him to the spot, Micah finally took note of the other men flying around the room in a flurry of papers and short, brisk orders. There were foreign machines set up around the room, churning and making loud noises. They were huge. He felt as if he stepped into another world.

"Here."

The persistent hand on his shoulder nudged him towards the line, clearly not finding Micah's pace fast enough. Just over the man's shoulder, Micah caught sight of a black screen that was similar to the one in the banquet hall. On the screen, a familiar face peered back at him.

It was the student who'd stood in front of Micah. On the screen, the boy appeared perplexed and confused, his eyes wide and his mouth slack with surprise. It would have been amusing if Micah didn't feel the exact same way. Next to the boy's picture, his name, age, race, height and weight appeared.

"Done!"

The man at one of the odd contraptions ripped out a large, clear-looking object from the machine and waved it towards another man. Said man collected it from his hand and raced wildly from the room. Micah stared at all this, trying to recollect it into his memory for later. This was clearly new technology. Aside from the fast train, he wasn't privy to modern-day equipment.

In a way, he felt inept.

"We don't have all day, kid."

Trying not to appear too irritated at the impatience directed towards him, Micah stood at the assigned spot and stared into the odd-looking contraption. It appeared like an enormous glass eye. The man behind the machine held up a hand, his thumb settled over an odd button.

"Smile."

Micah hardly did that. He had an idea where this portrait was going and he didn't want to look like the kid in front of him, completely and utterly taken off guard. He kept his expression deadpan as he stared into the glass eye. Without warning, the contraption flashed brightly, momentarily blinding him. Glass shattered somewhere in the distance and a hand landed on his shoulder.

"You're done."

The hand pushed him a bit too roughly, urging him out of the room. Micah bit the inside of his cheek at their rudeness, but soon found himself with the rest of the students. They loitered in the corridor, waiting for the others to finish. Some of them appeared just as taken aback as he felt, though Micah was sure to school his features.

Keegan appeared a moment later, his face ashen as he patted his numbered tunic. "I have no idea what just happened," he whispered to Micah, intentionally pitching his voice low. "First, I had to get naked in front of that girl—"

"Don't be so silly, Keegan," Micah interrupted. "She is a Healer and familiar with the human body. Besides, you were in your undergarments."

He stared at Micah. "I had no undergarments on when she told me to undress."

Micah turned and coldly assessed the other boy. "Why on earth would you—"

"I like the way it feels, alright?" Yellow eyes narrowed.

Micah turned away, wondering why he even bothered with the other boy's company. Keegan was improper and recklessly exposed during social interactions. He lacked finesse and the sweet, tantalizing mystery of not expressing every single emotion that flittered through his head.

"Micah."

Yet, his resolve crumbled at the teasing tone. "Hush," he muttered.

Keegan laughed. "You should try it some time, kid. Let the poor guys breathe from time to time, eh?"

The rest of the students finally lingered into the corridor, fully outfitted in black or white tunics and a number on their chest and back. Micah observed their strained expressions, amused the academy wanted to cause further segregation by color-coding the students by their race.

He wondered at Josiah's intentions with the kingdom. Why hadn't the man attempted to close the divide yet?

A stomach grumbled loudly.

"What are we waiting for?" one of the students bemoaned.

"The noblemen have to place their bets after seeing our physical statistics, of course," another boy responded. "They probably already have our test scores. Now they need to pick their favorite based on intuition alone."

"Intuition if they pick you, maybe," a blond-haired boy reprimanded. "Common sense for most of us. If they're smart, they will put their gold on a well-known name. They would have known us since birth and followed our training. We're superior."

Micah gazed steadily at the boy who spoke, unimpressed.

The boy's eyes suddenly caught Micah's unwavering stare. "What? Is the truth hard for you to hear?"

"You're so sure of yourself, it's rather remarkable." Micah pressed his lips together and smiled. "However, you should know that those who are most boisterous in their assertions are the weakest in their actions." Around him, the Igni students perked up, intrigue washing their features.

The boy took an advancing step forward, spurring Keegan to step protectively next to Micah.

"What's your name, kid?"

Kid.

Micah pacified him with an answer. "Micah." He quirked a brow. "And you are?"

The boy smiled unkindly. "You'll find out when I receive top ranking cadet, Micah." He winked then, an arrogant sort of gesture, before turning his shoulder dismissively.

"His name is Nereus Edlen," Aiden, the Igni boy who sat with them last night, informed quietly. "Apparently, his father is on the royal council. The boy next to him is Kai Edlen, his cousin. Both their fathers are high-ranking officials in the court."

Keegan laughed. "You are quick to learn the gossip around the academy, I see."

Micah phased them out, watching the two blond-haired men, clearly the ringleaders. He remembered Nereus as the one insulting them in the corridor after the exams. Apparently, he was the outspoken cousin. He also appeared younger, only because his body seemed disproportioned with long limbs and a long neck. Kai, however, had Keegan's build. He was tall and broad-shouldered, evidently going through puberty much earlier than his blood relative had.

Kai Edlen locked eyes with Micah, his gaze narrowing with contemplation and then displeasure.

Josiah told Micah he could catch them young and prevent them from turning into their fathers. Yet, as Micah considered the close group of noble children, he doubted that he could reverse the several years of grooming and brainwashing.

What had Josiah said before? Oh, yes.

Children had such malleable minds, after all.

How could Micah redact their teachings?

"What are you loitering around the halls for?" Instructor Candace appeared out of nowhere, his ferocious voice nearly cracking the foundation of the academy. "Get the hell out of here and out into the arena!"

They started running immediately.

Micah followed the others, not entirely sure which way to go. The sensation of being plucked from the comfort of his own world and being placed in another realm only intensified as they stumbled into the arena. It was dark outside. The glass dome above was proof enough as it reflected the night sky.

Only, the lights inside burned with startling clarity. Almost daylight intensity.

He stared at spotlights, ignoring the slight discomfort in his eyes. He noticed more than simple torches generated the yellow flames. It was technology again, he supposed. He'd seen smaller lights burn from electricity before, but never of such startling magnitude. He had to read up on them. The library had to have books on modern-day inventions.

Perhaps he could also find the details behind the glass lens that took instant portraits.

He did not appreciate being naïve or oblivious in any situation. It wasn't in his nature for events to take him by surprise. So far, the proceedings at the academy left a bitter taste in his mouth for effectively taking him off guard.

"Micah," Keegan called to attention, his tone thick with dread. "Not only are the nobles watching, but the older cadets are in the stands."

Micah could no longer suppress his curiosity. The older students who observed were not in the banquet hall overlooking the arena. Rather, they congregated together in the stands, a short distance away from the track. They weren't dressed in uniform, though classes for the upperclassmen hadn't started yet.

"Don't pay them any attention." Micah appraised the group, pleased to see an equal blend of both Unda and Igni. "They are just curious of the outcome."

"Easy for you to say…" Keegan trailed off and Micah shook his head, amused.

Let them all watch. Let the nobles bet their gold.

"You'll be running two miles."

Some students made small noises of exasperation. Both Candace and Micah scowled at the outspoken cadets. Did they not realize they signed up for a military academy? Physical exertion would be a regular.

"Tomorrow you'll be wishing you were running two miles, I assure you." Instructor Candace moved to the side of the track and motioned towards the starting line. "Eight times around. Don't think of skipping a lap. I have eyes watching every one of you. They will be timing you and counting your laps."

Candace held up his hand, gathering the students at the line.

"I suggest." His eyes roamed across the expectant soldiers. "You start slow and warm up your muscles. Save your energy and finish. Those of you who don't finish will not enjoy breakfast at the academy tomorrow."

He dropped his arm and the students took off.

Micah shuffled awkwardly with the others.

It was the academy's goal to test the students' endurance and mentality by thrusting them into an unfamiliar environment with unideal circumstances. By denying them food, they'd weakened their bodies. By throwing them into an unknown situation with strange and alien surroundings, they'd rattled their mentality. They were all adults now. They had a capital to defend. The council and the instructors wanted warriors. Not coddled children.

Micah understood their objective, but it was a disgrace to get politics involved with gambling and wagering. Nevertheless, perhaps that was intentional as well. After all, it was enough to get Micah riled up.

He supposed the other students felt the same.

Humiliated, meek, and unworthy.

Nonetheless, this trial was obtainable. Running was familiar to him. It should have been familiar to the other students from the outskirt regions as well, especially with empty stomachs and fatigue weighing down their limbs. It was nothing new.

Yet, as the laps continued to stretch, the Igni students fell behind.

Pacing himself, but also not far behind the lead of other students, Micah glanced back at the stragglers. Looking past Keegan, who stubbornly remained a few paces behind Micah, he observed the pack of students with black tunics. Their faces were entirely flushed red, their chests heaved, and they looked pathetic.

They were mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. They still had four laps to go and Micah didn't know if they would make it.

He turned back forward, exhaling with controlled frustration. A purely selfish side of him wanted to ignore their plight. It would be easier. No one expected anything less from him than to think about his own scores. Yet, he wanted a balanced number of Unda and Igni cadets to make the final cut.

While some of the students behind him weren't particularly good at running, they might be impressive in other areas. Micah wanted to give them the chance to prove themselves. He wanted to see if there were any useful allies in the group of sufferable, pathetic-looking cadets. In order for that to happen, however, they needed to pass the first day.

He fell back, slowing his strides.

Keegan made a noise of discontentment.

"Keep going, Keegan," Micah ordered as the other boy faltered.

"You were my encouragement!" the other boy argued, unnaturally upset.

For a moment, Micah absorbed Keegan's raw frustration, never having witnessed that side of the good-natured boy before. Though it was intriguing, Micah pushed it aside in order to focus on his task.

He submerged himself into the clump of black tunics, becoming one of them. "You all look weak," he stated loudly enough for the students in the back to hear. The only response he received was heavy breathing and wheezing. "You're going to lose at something you've been doing all your life?"

He started to increase his pace, pleased when the others subconsciously picked up their own speed.

Little by little, he coaxed them faster.

"How many days have you gone hungry because there wasn't enough food?" he inquired. "Those days, we still had to push ourselves to keep moving, no matter how dire the consequences. This is no different."

"They're betting against us," Aiden contended. "It's discouraging."

"It should be encouraging," Micah reasoned. "They have no idea how we grew up and how resilient we are. Instead of proving them right, I imagine proving them wrong would be far more satisfying and worth more than their menial wagers."

Much to his pleasure, they picked up their pace, enthused by his words. There were still stranglers behind the group, though Micah couldn't –wouldn't— do much more. If they wanted to fail, he would let them. He'd already tried his best to encourage them. To push them. If they lacked the drive, even when stimulated, they did not belong at the academy.

Some white tunics fell behind.

Micah pushed his group faster.

They seemed exhilarated as they passed a few noble children. Keegan remained ahead of them, but only by a short distance. He kept glancing back, his temper clearly fading into bemusement.

Two laps to go.

Micah kept his attention on the lead. More appropriately, the young man who led.

Kai Edlen remained at the front, his cousin trailing behind him by a short distance. Micah mentally calculated the distance and the speed required to catch up. He would need to make his move shortly. He was confident he'd encouraged the others to finish by their own means. He shouldn't have to hold their hands across the finish line.

The balls of his feet slapped the soft pavement and accelerated him forward.

"Make your move now," he ordered the others. "Give it your best."

Breaking free from the crowd of cadets, Micah pushed his legs faster. As he ran past Keegan, the boy hooted for joy and followed franticly at his heels. They were used to this. Instead of soft pavement, they'd had to navigate through deep sand or dry earth. Instead of climate-friendly weather, they had to push themselves through relentless heat and sun.

The hollow emptiness in his stomach was a familiar passenger.

A familiar weight.

It only fueled his need to run faster, to prove them all wrong. The nobles trained for this, though they hadn't lived every day with this familiar feeling of emptiness, of suffering.

Micah barely comprehended the students he passed. He forgot his surroundings, he forgot the consequences, and he forgot the other students. He focused solely on catching the boy at the front, and above all else, surpassing him.

He crossed the starting line for the last time.

Only one more lap remaining.

Throwing caution to the wind, he pushed his legs even faster, hardly feeling his pulse as it beat too quickly to catch. He looped around the curve of the track, his eyes focused determinately on Kai's shoulders. He barely recognized when he passed the outspoken Nereus Edlen, though he heard the boy curse loudly and pound his feet quicker behind him.

Micah chuckled deliriously and closed in on Kai.

The boy glanced back, spying Micah's looming figure. Futilely, Kai attempted to quicken his pace, though he'd pushed himself far too much in the beginning to accelerate much more than his current speed.

Micah, however, had determination in spades.

He fell into stride next to Kai, locking eyes with the boy for a brief moment. The Unda cadet scowled and turned away, stubbornly pushing his legs faster, quicker. Micah thought it delightful how obvious the boy hoped to advance.

He was no match for Micah.

Picturing himself back in Region 20, Micah sprinted. Pushing past Kai, he took the lead. When that wasn't enough, he broke past his limits and accelerated himself around the last curve of the track. Though he didn't look over his shoulder, he could imagine them all.

All following.

All trying to catch up.

Watching him from a distance, yearning, hoping, yet never touching.

The sensation was powerful and it tasted so sweet on Micah's tongue. He would never forget this feeling of total domination. To know he encouraged some of them to follow only intensified that feeling of victory. Yet, his mother warned him about power-hunger and the corruption associated with it. This sweet, nearly orgasmic sensation was dangerous and he needed to practice caution.

Nonetheless, it was only running.

It was only a race.

He crossed the finish line well before any of the others. The sounds, the smells, and the sense of awareness suddenly rushed back at him. He could hear wild cheering and hollering from the older students observing. He could hear the shoes slap the soft pavement behind him. Glancing back, he was surprised to see the line of Igni students stretch further in the lead than he'd predicted.

Keegan finished behind the two Edlen cousins and two more Igni cadets followed just after.

Nereus Edlen's face was crimson as he spat words to his cousin.

He batted away Kai's restraining hands as he rushed towards Micah. "You cheated!"

Cheated?

"Yes," Micah drawled, clutching at his shirt around his hips. "I blatantly cheated."

Despite his cousin's attempts to hold him back, Nereus remained stubborn in his pursuit to undermine Micah. He advanced quickly, his eyes resolute. Micah simply turned his shoulder on the boy, not wanting to start a fight. Not here. Not under these circumstances. This was a noble child, after all. Surely, they had more restraint than to fight in public.

Unfortunately, Nereus did not fit in the general aristocratic mold.

"You're a desert rat."

The hand reaching for his shoulder was a perfect shadow on the track. Micah watched the hand's descent, frowning as he felt a strong wave of antagonistic hatred channel at his unprotected back. It might not have been reaching towards him with the intentions of harming, but just the thought of it touching him at all got under his skin.

Acting on instinct alone, Micah grabbed the hand as soon as it came within proximity and bent at the knees. Using his pent-up adrenaline, he yanked the arm forward and abruptly tossed the boy over his shoulder. Nereus landed on his back, breathless, shocked.

"Don't touch me," Micah informed the boy coldly.

He stepped over the idiot, humiliating him further.

Walking into the inner field, he tried to relax both his pulse and tight body. As he struggled to deescalate his mind, he almost missed Keegan sprinting past him. The sound of skin hitting skin instantly snagged his attention.

Whirling around, he watched as Nereus withdrew his hand from Keegan's face. Micah stared for a moment, realizing Keegan had readily jumped in front of his unprotected back to take a hit. An ice-like sensation washed his hot adrenaline cold and Micah sprinted across the short distance to interject himself between the two.

The sensation he felt was somewhat new, though it was natural enough in its ferocity to indicate it was always inside of him.

Protectiveness.

He never knew he was capable of such an emotion, yet, as he brought back his fist, he realized it came readily and instinctively. Just as it did when he protected Master Idris at the tavern. It came almost too instinctively, like that of an animal backed into a corner, forced to savagely defend itself.

Only, he was defending Keegan.

Nereus dodged the strike, but Micah was ready with his opposite fist. His left knuckles caught Nereus with a sharp undercut, sending the boy stumbling backwards.

The other cadets came running.

Instead of joining in the fray, they pulled back their respective classmate and defused the situation. Micah allowed Keegan to pull him away, already ashamed of his actions. He was far too old to get into fistfights, especially fistfights observed by high-ranking adults.

Josiah was going to have a field day.

Kai Edlen scowled fiercely at Micah. "I'd say keep your dogs on their leash, but clearly the master can't even keep himself restrained. I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything less from desert dwellers."

"Your cousin attacked first because he lost a race," Keegan retorted angrily. "And he's a coward for attacking turned backs!"

A slow, thunderous clap sounded across the stadium. Micah glanced around Keegan, watching as Instructor Candace approached the group. He appeared mildly frustrated, but oddly enough, a wide grin stretched across his lips. That smile, in itself, was far more horrifying than his anticipated anger.

"Stars of the show," he praised with a low whistle. "Finished the race first and will be the first ones eliminated from the academy." He pried his hands apart from their final clap and pointed right at Micah. "You four will come with me."