Chapter 50

I sat alone in the cafeteria, pushing every chair around me out of reach so no one would get the idea to sit nearby.

It had been a few days since family day, and already, I was hoping the king would skip the next one, sparing me from the same mess all over again. The whole event had been too exhausting.

Today was my last day off before Elite training picked up tomorrow, and I needed the rest. Unlike the last session, we would have different commanders this time—and they weren’t as soft as Rochwall.

They were trained to see through every flaw, and pushed to make lives miserable—even mine. That was their job, to make everyone strong enough they wouldn’t crack under pressure.

My peace was interrupted by a group of three girls at the table in front of me, giggling in an irritating way. They whispered, kicked their feet under the table like a bunch of little kids, and glanced around the cafeteria—but when I heard them murmur about Violet, the freshman healer,