Chapter47:

“Stop hitting me like a girl and put your back into it, child!” Zara ordered, flinging her duelling mask across the arena in frustration and revealing those green eyes which seemed to pierce into the inner core of my being. She had lost her stiff and respectful demeanour soon after she began training me, and quite frankly I was relieved. It was bad enough that the rest of the Guardians bowed to me whenever I walked into the same room as them!  “I’m trying, Zara.” I whined, my arms aching from the immense weight of the sword I gripped as if my life depended on it. “Trying isn’t good enough, Callista, and you know it!” Warrick barked from where he was watching at the edge of the arena. “You have just a few days to get ready for the ball and we don’t have time to waste on your weaknesses.”   I restrained the urge to throw my sword at him... barely. He was right after all, and I couldn’t deny it. As soon as I had heard that I was in more danger than I had previously thought, I’d upped my t