Lilith & the Nephilim Snippet #2

Today's snippet from Lilith & the Nephilim (book 3) is a flashback featuring our favorite spirit elemental Caleb Luckhardt.

“Come on!” Caleb shouted, gliding up next to me. “What are you doing?”

I picked up speed despite the immense pain in my leg and he kept up with me until I got to the line-up.

“Time to work those legs,” Coach Buxton announced. “On the ice, ladies. Leg lifts.”
All the girls dropped onto their backs and began doing leg lifts while I gingerly sat on my butt and laid down slowly. I took a deep breath and brought my legs up, biting back the scream and squeezing my eyes shut.

“Come on, Barker!” I heard Caleb shout before he appeared in front of me. “Up! Down! Up! Down!”

He’d gone out of his way to get me onto the team and I couldn’t let him down. I also couldn’t let him know how much pain I was in. If he knew how much it hurt just to lift my leg up, he wouldn’t let me play. With Caleb's reputation in mind, I brought my legs up again. My poker face was better this time because he was still watching me like a hawk.

After we were done doing our leg lifts and squats and relays, we all started hobbling to the locker room– me hobbling more than the others.

“Barker, wait up. Hey, Barker.” He was trying to be subtle, but subtlety had never been Caleb Luckhardt’s strong suit. “Sarah,” he said, grabbing my arm. “What’s up with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You can do those sets in your sleep, but you were running them like you were in slow motion. What’s going on?”

“Nothing’s going on.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying to you, Caleb.”

“I know you too well, Princess,” he said softly. “What’s wrong?”

“My leg is just bothering me.”

“What happened?”

“Stop,” I gasped when he started to tug at my pants leg. I had to cover up quickly because now he was really concerned. “I was training with Cerell the other day and he did a number on me.”

“He’s never hurt you before.”

“Yeah, but I slacked off and he was just trying to wake me up.”

“I don’t believe that and you didn’t think that lie would work on me, did you? I’m not your wolf-boy, Princess. I’m not just going to take everything you say as gospel. Now tell me what’s going on.”

I looked down at his skate-clad feet and closed my eyes. “I can’t tell you.”

“It was him, wasn’t it? Sampsa did this to you.”

“No,” I blurted.

“Don’t lie to me!” he exclaimed.

“Hey, Luckhardt, ease up,” Coach Buxton called from the locker room.

Caleb took a deep breath. “This isn’t over. We get back home, you’re going to tell me and Uncle Jake everything. You can’t keep quiet about this.”

I never saw Uncle Jake that night. He was dead before we even got back to Caleb's house. I'd never seen my friend cry until that day and hadn't since. He was never the same after his uncle's death.