CEDRIC POV

I push past the pine needles of the tree and come out on the other side of the school, the back painted in the soft yellow glow of the early morning sun that had just started rising somewhere behind us. My body is shaking with the after-effects of adrenaline still skating around in my veins.

"You did good, kid." Behind me, Mr. Hunt pushes through the same path. I scoff back at him, I did horrible and we both know it. Mr. Hunt just shakes his head, a few pine needles falling silently to the ground around him.

I realize that his words had forced me to stop walking, I move my gaze from him, watching the trees trying to keep my anger at me.

"If I was half as good as you and Lucian tell me I am, we wouldn't need to come out every single night." My words are stressed and tense but Mr. Hunt patiently watches the anger coursing around my body.

He shakes his head.

"Cedric, you are the best fighter this school has ever seen, I can promise you that. However no one is perfect the first time and you need to accept that it's okay to fall down, that winning is just as much about failing as it is coming first."

I scoff again and turn my back on him looking at the room of the school slowly filling with light, wondering if Lucian will be up and waiting for me already.

"Failing is losing and right now we don't have the luxury to lose. Not now and not anymore." He doesn't say anything back, instead, Mr. Hunt allows me to storm my way across the small grassy field and into the backdoor of the school left unlocked for me, close enough to our dorms.

As soon as I close the door behind me I know he's there waiting for me. I sigh, as much as I don't want to have this conversation and just head to the comfort of my warm bed I know we need to talk. It just won't work out the way I know he wants it to. Nothing works out the way we want.

I breathe in deeply before heading towards the small seating area where I find Lucian waiting on the large comfortable sofa, he's watching the last of the fire slowly dying down. No one had put in the new logs of the fire sitting, waiting right besides it before going to bed last night. I think about it briefly but instead, throw myself on the leather recliner next to Lucian with a loud groan.

Neither of us speak for a while instead of just sit there waiting for the other to start. I don't know how long it takes before Lucian finally sits up in his chair and I look over at him. His eyes filled with worry and nerves, he was scared for me and everyone else. He places so much pressure on himself that one day he's going to be crushed by it.

"How was it?" His voice is so low and I know that he already knows from the way I had walked in here. I sigh loudly and turn away from him back to the fire.

"I failed." I don't elaborate and he doesn't ask me to. An understanding passing through us.

"It's fine you'll get it soon." He promises but it doesn't soothe me as he expects. Instead, his words send a new spark of adrenaline through my body and I sit up straighter copying his stance as I glare into the fire.

"Maybe I won't."

He doesn't look at me, his eyes focused on the fire as I take the moment to really take him in.

"Cedric, you will get this. You just need to work harder, push yourself further." His words rub me the wrong way and suddenly it's like my insides are on fire burning to open my anger out on the world. I have to swallow the pain down for a second.

"What if I don't want to, what if pushing myself further ends in innocent people getting hurt?" I'm angry, I yell - I scream - the words and I feel the chair below me shaking with my anger but besides a quick glare from Lucian, he doesn't say anything about it. I try taking a calming breath but the oxygen just burns its way into my lungs.

I sit there waiting for Lucian's anger but he sighs and waits as well.

"I'm sorry." I whisper hoping that there might be some way that Lucian doesn't hear my admission but he does. He places his hand on my shoulder affectionately for a moment. My chest eases its ache for a moment as he does.

"We know you can do this, we believe." Lucian's voice is soft but it rips through me more than fire, I don't say anything so he continues. "You're holding yourself back and I can feel that every time you walk into those forests. Why are you holding yourself back when you have so much potential to do good?"

My breath comes in short, quick bursts that burn holes in my lungs and make me feel like I'm drowning. I can't tell him the truth, we would fall off this line we have been traipsing on for the last year and then there won't be any return from it. Lucian turns and looks at me with such a serious expression it's like he's grabbed hold of my throat, squeezing until no air can get in.

I gasp out.

"I don't want to lose control." My words come out before I can stop them and the invisible hand on my throat loosens its hold and it's like the words come tumbling out of me, unable to stop them. "If I put in one hundred percent I have to turn off that more rational side of my mind and lose control. Once again I will be that monster I was before coming here and in a second lose everything I've worked so hard to gain. Everything."

I can't sit here and wait for his answer so I stand up and continue before he can.

"I've never had a home, I've never had a family. My world and my choices were taken from me and now if I lose control I lose this home, this family, and will never have a chance at being normal ever again." My voice lowers and I can feel the flood of tears in my throat, I swallow harshly against them. "Why do you want to take that from me?"

I rush out of the room before he can reply, afraid of his answer more than anything but I'm not fast enough, and as I exit the sitting room his words pierce through me like a bullet.

"I'm not the one trying to take them from you."

His voice is so sad that I feel it rip through my heart but I shake all thoughts from my mind and go into my door quickly getting ready for the day instead of dwelling in my own self-loathing.

~~~~~

I follow Lucian's dark red shoulders through the crowded hallways, my head down trying not to notice the people whispering all around me, knowing exactly what they will be saying about me before it even comes out of their mouths. Lucian is talking quietly with Mila and she giggles an annoying high-pitched sound that instantly starts the beginning of a horrible headache. We walk quickly into the maths room and I sigh silently before taking the seat next to Lucian.

I hate the 'normal' classes offered at Westtown Peaks because it just makes me realize just how abnormal I really am but Annie believes it's best that everyone have a well-rounded education and not to focus all our attention on what we are, instead of seeing the future possibilities of what we could be. It doesn't matter to me one way or another, I fail my way through this class either way.

I had just laid my head down on the table, trying not to fall asleep as exhaustion once again takes hold of my body when suddenly Lucian sits up higher in his seat and starts waving his arms around, when I look over at him a wide smile is on his face and Mila is beside him rolling her eyes.

"Morgan." His voice is loud in the almost silent room and like everyone else we all turn our heads to where he's yelling. "I saved you a seat."

Mila walks away but I barely notice my eyes and mind swallowed by the girl standing in front of the classroom.

It's like all the oxygen is sucked out of the room because standing there looking at Lucian with a playful glare is the literal sun. A beautiful girl with wild red hair and eyes so bright they seem to glitter in sunlight as she walks down the aisle. Mila glares at her but no one stops her as she places her things down on the other side of Lucian.

"Did you have a good day with Annie yesterday?" Lucian asks her and it sounds like he's talking underwater, not clear. Morgan shrugs her shoulders with a small smile.

"We couldn't actually leave the school to get the jacket I needed but it was fun to just sit and talk with her. It's been a while since we've done that." Her voice is like gold and even though she seems sad about her words there's still a glow in her eyes and in her soul, it warms me in a way I didn't think was possible but leaves me still wanting more. I want to hear her voice again, to see the emotions swirling in her eyes. Without thinking I immediately shove my own jacket off and hand it to her.

She looks at me strangely and it's like my tongue has swollen. I can't form any words as she looks up at me. Lucian smiles at me briefly before turning back to Morgan.

"Take his jacket he literally has hundreds." Lucian quickly translates my thoughts to her and for a second she glares at me as if she might say no but then a cold wind pushes past the door of the classroom and she hugs herself a little bit. I can see the annoyance on her face as she shakes her body and places the jacket over her shoulders.

"Thank you." Her voice is low as she turns to the teacher standing in front of the class but I can't take my eyes off of her. Wanting her eyes back on me even in the annoyed expression as before.

I want to stay here like this but I hear him coming down the hallway, his boots slamming into the hardwood floor and I sigh. For the first time, I was annoyed at the interruption. Lucian shakes his head at me but no one else seems to notice. Morgan writes the notes in her book as the boots come to stop out the door.

Three sure knocks on the door.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

Mr. Hunt opens the door standing there now dressed for the day and simply stares at me.

"Cedric." His words are hot and I roll my eyes at him in response, a smile almost wraps his lips but he simply frowns deeper. "We have some training to do this morning if you don't mind?"

As he talks I can almost see why so many of the other students here are afraid of him, he's curt and serious even Morgan is watching him apprehensive but Lucian and I, we've always seen the passion and soul he holds for this school as we train with him. We see the real emotion he hides behind.

I nod my head and slowly stand up not bothering to grab my things knowing Lucian will get them back to me eventually. I nod goodbye to Lucian who nods back and then my eyes find the sun again and I can't help the smile from spreading across my face.

"I'll see you again Morgan." It's the first words I've spoken to her and I know the gruffness of my voice has made her nervous from the way her eyes darted around my face but I can't tell if it's a bad nervous or a good one. God, I hope it's a good one.

I walk quickly out of the room, once again trying not to notice how some of the other students seem to cringe away as I pass them. I slam the door behind me following Hunt back down the hallway and into the practice room.

__________

AUTHOR NOTE

Thank you for reading chapter 04 of Myth Breaker. It is also the first chapter where we have someone else POV instead of Morgans. I hope this brings more out of the story and lets all of us explore more than just Morgan's side of the story she's telling.

As always please comment on any spelling, grammar, or plot problems that you see in this chapter or any of my stories it means a lot and helps me grow as a writer.

Thank you,

LAURA