The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 205

Time moves strangely after that, at once standing completely still in my agony and, somehow, passing so fast that I barely understand it when the sun reaches its zenith, and then passes beyond it, and then starts to sink towards the horizon.

How…how have hours past?

God, how have I survived them?

Though it all, Jackson and my pain have kept a steady pace. I do my best to curl myself against him, to make myself small and inconsequential, to not be a bother to this man who is running miles and miles across the countryside with me balanced in his arms.

The pain is…god, it drives me a little insane, I think, gnawing at my stomach and my leg. I can feel the blood dripping from me, at once agonizing and, somehow, a balm against the raw flesh of my wounds. I think I pass out…a lot, but regular infusions of Jackson’s magic keeps bringing me back, filling me with energy, making my eyes flutter open.

Always, always he’s glancing down into my face, checking to make sure that I’m okay –

But, I mean, we’re both aware that I’m not okay.

But, somehow, I am alive.

And, somehow, he…keeps running.

I’m vaguely aware, as the hours pass, that this part of the Examination was meant to be done in wolf form – that he should have shifted by now and crossed this field at his top speed as his gigantic wolf. But even in his human body, carrying me? Frankly, Jackson’s faster than most cadet’s wolves. Only a few of them pass us, sending us side-long glances and not bothering to interrupt, knowing that Jackson would end them if they did.

Jackson’s breath only starts to flag when I feel his pace change. I lift my head, curious despite my haze of pain, wondering desperately if we’re at the end –

If there will be a healer, here –

Surely there has to be – surely the Academy has medical staff waiting, knowing as they do that this is a violent Examination in which they’ve encouraged us to maim each other, to get to the end.

I scowl a little, my mind wandering strangely as I make a mental note to have a deep conversation with my father and my uncle about this particular aspect of Academy life.

Because, quite frankly, I’m not sure I agree with these methods.