Shards of Hope

Chapter 50

BEATRICE LAY CURLED up in bed, her body hurting from the beating Blake had given her as punishment for her failure. She hadn’t been able to use the knife on the target, had thrown up instead; she deserved the penalty he’d meted out.

“You are a pathetic excuse for an Arrow.” He’d spit on her after the beating. “I’m not sure you deserve a second chance, but I’ll give it to you in two days. Be ready to do what needs to be done or you’ll be demoted back to a worthless piece of trash no one sees, much less considers for a partnership.”

She’d promised him she’d be ready, but her body shook at the idea of carving a living being with a blade. She’d been taught how to in classes under Ming LeBon, been shown exactly how much pain and damage a body and mind could bear before it broke, but it was easier when practicing on corpses.

Real people bled. Real people cried and screamed.

Slapping her hands over her ears, she rocked, knowing she had to get this under control or she’d lose the only person who cared anything about her, the only person who would miss her if she was gone. “I can do it,” she whispered. “I can do it. I can make him proud.”