The Energy Crusades by Valerie Noble Page B

turned ice cold.
    No matter what had transpired between us, I could not bear his insult to Ajax, and I completely lost control. I grabbed at Atticus, clutching the front of his suit between my fists while knocking over all of the glasses and causing the other dishes to clatter to the floor. I swung at his face and managed to connect before Ajax leaped over the table to get between us. Silence descended over the entire cafeteria. I ' d managed to cause quite a scene, though such an incident would have been nothing at the Tennis Academy.
    Atticus yanked his way out of Ajax ' s grip. "Get your hands off me! You have no right to touch me!" he yelled.
    Without speaking, Ajax took me by the arm and navigated through the curious bystanders and out of the building. Tory, Balor, and Caden followed closely behind.

Chapter Six
    Training
    "I know he's your son, Astrid, but you have to admit he pushes her too hard," Audrick said to me , his voice laced with tension as we watched the Crusaders training on the common lawns. It was indeed a grueling couple of weeks for Kaia. Preliminary training for all crusaders meant a battery of physical challenges. If they couldn ' t pass the level of challenge assigned to their Crusade, they would be bumped to a lower level.
    Ajax took his mentor role extremely seriously when it came to Kaia. When they weren ' t training, he let his resentment of her permeate their interactions, and when they were training he pushed her beyond all reasonable physical limits. Nobody could miss the way they ignored each other during off hours, but what made my insides crumble in despair was the way she was starting to resent him. Things were not going as I had hoped.
    "She can handle it," I answered him tersely. "You ' ve trained her well." Ajax worked with four of my Crusaders: Kaia, Caden, Tory, and Balor. The sixth member had already completed his preliminary physicals and I didn ' t mind keeping him away from Kaia for as long as possible. He was also an Unviable, and therefore a potential completion of the prophecy my sister had seen in regards to Kaia.
    "Maybe you should have kept Cadmus behind," Audrick needled me. He knew my doubts on the subject, and my constant worry over whether or not I had made a mistake. At the moment, Ajax was prompting Kaia to do yet another task while her hands stayed firmly clenched against her sides. She turned her face away as he spoke, even though her glasses shielded her eyes.
    Shut up, Audrick. I didn ' t trust myself to say the words out loud. He knew how to hit a nerve. Had I chosen the wrong son? Had I put too much faith in the childhood bond Ajax and Kaia once shared?
    Watch. Audrick nudged me with his mind, calling my attention back to the Crusaders. I watched as Kaia ran through a course followed by the Athlete, Atticus Martin. Atticus was the only other Athlete currently at the University and I had wondered how Kaia would react to him. A Reformation Athlete to his core, Atticus believed wholeheartedly in the superiority of Athletes, and as I suspected, wasted no time in declaring Kaia as his own. She disputed his claim immediately, however, unable to deny her alliance with Ajax, or her former bond with him. At least, it was how I chose to view her loss of control when Ajax was insulted, and my hopes skyrocketed upon hearing about the incident in the cafeteria.
    In any case, Atticus was maddening. I wanted to dislike the boy, if only because he had insulted my sons on too many occasions, but I had to admit he was simply a product of his upbringing. He was also good enough to be on my own team, but I was uncertain about him. Would he ever believe he was a well-trained pawn in a game he had no control over? Or would he remain a Reformation Athlete, sold on the idea he was superior? I couldn ' t tell. He had a part to play, but as of yet, I could not see what it was.
    Instead of dwelling on those unanswerable questions, I concentrated on the way he shadowed Kaia on the lawns. The