When Lex had come for her, Nyssa was just putting on new clothes. Nadir had left her with another kiss and a wink that he had something to show her later.
"Shatter indeed," Lex teased her. "Knew it would be explosive. Tell me he's satisfying all your needs, Princess."
"Needs I didn't even know I had," Nyssa uttered in response as she put on her shirt. "Are you going to tell me why you're punching me now?"
Lex smirked and gestured for her to hold her hands out. Lex wrapped the same bandage around Nyssa’s fists as Lex had around hers.
"You're going to pretend I'm Rhaif," Lex said, to which Nyssa's head snapped up. "And I'm going to pretend you're Rhaif—“
"Terrifying," Nyssa muttered.
“—And together, we're going to try to kill each other." Lex cupped Nyssa's cheek playfully. "Let's go, Princess."
Nyssa stared at her as she left out the door. "Wait— this is dangerous," Nyssa said as she ran to catch up with her. "You're joking, right?"
Fighting was something Lex did not joke about.
Within minutes, Lex had knocked Nyssa off her feet. Lex grinned at her when she helped her from the ground.
"Is there any chance we can work up to this?" Nyssa begged as she touched her hand to her bleeding lip.
"You and Dorian didn't fight hand-to-hand?" Lex asked.
"No, we certainly did, but... He's not... Well, he's notyou," Nyssa argued. She could remember Aydra after sparring with Lex, how the pair would come back with bleeding lips and bruises, sharing each other in celebration of a well-accomplished day before Aydra would sink into their mother's waters for healing.
Lex's bare feet dug into the ground again. A smirk rested on her perfectly narrow and beautiful face, a wisp of her now shagging blonde hair falling into her eyes.
She'd been away from Magnice sixteen days, and already Lex was starting to look more of a feral feline than she did before. That Belwark illusion was loosening into one more dangerous, of savagery and determination. She'd acquired a pair of the scaled armor pants from Nadir, making her legs look longer and more muscular than they already did. The lightweight tunics she'd brought had been cut up—sleeves now missing, open down the sides, showcasing the muscles Lex had earned and the strapping she'd started wearing around the swell of her breasts, as though Lex had decided she no longer needed the keptness of her title.
The Second Sun: obsessively confident and yet fragile. Ready to explode on those that had betrayed them at any moment.
She jumped at Nyssa, and Nyssa jerked to her knees, flinching and not meaning to allow the screech that came from her lips.
And Lex wailed with laughter.
It was the first genuine laugh Nyssa had seen on Lex’s face since it all had happened, and the sight of it softened Nyssa to the point that she too began to laugh.
"I hate you," Nyssa laughed.
"I haven't seen you flinch like that since the Village," Lex said, holding her stomach as she doubled over. "Oh, that was amazing," she continued, wiping her face. "Thank you, Princess."
Nyssa shoved the sand off her knees and shook her head. "You're welcome? I guess," she replied, still smiling despite herself.
"Get out of here. We're done for today. You did good," Lex told her.
Without another word, Lex pushed past her, gave Nyssa's hair a quick ruffle, and Nyssa watched as Lex ran off to join Nadir in the surf to help him with the younger recruits.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
BY LATE AFTERNOON, Nyssa had taken up comparing translated books to the same ones in the old language, intent on learning it so that she could understand whatever Nadir's people were muttering about her under their breath.
"Do you ever break?" Nadir asked as he joined her on the porch.
She smiled up at him. "Not when I've a job to do," she admitted.
"What happened?" he asked, gesturing to his lip.
She remembered she had a cut on her own from fighting with Lex.
