His smile sharpened. “Is there something you’d like to say?”
He doubted it. Aya made it a point to speak to him as little as possible. He could count the number of words she’d uttered in his presence since they both started training for the Dyminara on a single hand.
“Drills!” Galda’s gravelly voice barked from the far side of the training ring. Aya turned away from him without a word, and the recruit next to him let out a low whistle.
“I swear that girl is an Auqin at heart. Ice runs in those veins,” he remarked. He nudged Will again, and Will’s jaw clenched as he fought off the urge to rip his offending arm from its socket. “What do you think it takes to melt it, huh?” The recruit bit his lip, his eyes darkening as he watched Aya take up sparring with Tova. “Wonder if she’d let me have a chance at warming her up.”
Will shifted out of the man’s space only to slap a hand on his shoulder, his grip tight. “Drill with me,” he said, the congeniality in his voice smooth and effortless thanks to the years he’d spent by his father’s side, catering to merchants whose egos needed stroking.
He’d come a long way from that trembling ten-year-old boy.
It was an effort to give the recruit a fighting chance. He wasn’t very good with his sword, and his shield was lackluster at best.
Will had him on the ground in less than three minutes, tears streaming down his cheeks as he trembled under the waves of pain Will sent lashing into him.
Will eased off his power and crouched down under the guise of helping the recruit up. He grasped his hand and pulled, stopping when he was fully sitting.
“I don’t think the force is for you,” Will murmured. He let his power wash over the man, let himtasteevery bit of the threat Will could be. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
Will bit back a laugh as the man scrambled away from him, his eyes wide with fear. The recruit stumbled to his feet, his legs trembling as he turned his back and ran.
Seven hells. Sometimes it truly was too easy.
“Are you done?” Will turned to see Galda watching him, her brow furrowed.
“You would have had to dismiss him anyway,” he reasoned. He didn’t think he was imagining the way the corner of Galda’s lips twitched, as though she was fighting off her amusement.He could use affinity to sense her, he supposed, but he didn’t have a death wish.
“You need to drill with someone more evenly matched,” the trainer instructed. She kept her gaze fixed on him as she barked out, “Aya!” waiting until the Persi had materialized at her side before nodding her chin in Will’s direction.
“Give him a challenge.”
Will smirked, but Aya…she stayed ever cool and calculating as she took up her position opposite him. She drew her sword, her feet braced apart, her attention focused solely on him.
His pulse ticked up just as she lunged.
They’d been training together for a year, but it hadn’t taken more than that first week for Will to recognize that Aya was a deadly contender. She was fast, and fierce, andfocused. Her years of training with Galda showed.
But Will had been training for years, too. As if he’d known even then, he wouldn’t follow in his father’s footsteps.
Or perhaps he’d merely hoped.
Will blocked her assault, relishing in the sound of their swords meeting. They parried, their moves quick and vicious, and Will couldn’t help the way a smile worked its way onto his face.
He actually had to try. It was a nice change.
Aya’s cheeks flushed with exertion, her affinity brushing up against his shield like a cat brushing against one’s legs.
She’d have to try harder than that.
Will sent his own affinity spearing toward her as he feinted to the left before bringing his sword down hard. Aya ducked, a frustrated noise bursting from her as she fell into a crouch, her arms shaking as her blade blocked his.
Her eyes glinted with anger, and Will felt a spark of it break through the careful cover she kept on her emotions. He pushed his affinity harder, sensing instead of manipulating, and there she was, so cold and crisp he couldfeelher in his lungs.
She doesn’t feel like ice, he thought.She feels like mountain air.
Like being able to breathe.
His thoughts cut short as the world tilted, the sun blinding him as Aya kicked his legs out from beneath him. Will fell hard to the ground, and she was on him in the next instant, her body battle-warm and unyielding as she pinned him, her blade bared at his throat. Will gripped her sword hand, his fingers curling around her wrist as he barked out an incredulous laugh between his panting breaths.
