She rolled her eyes before refocusing on Kailia. “You are sure? I won’t go easy on you.”
“Why would you?” Kailia asked, brow furrowing.
“Because you’re royalty, Lia,” Razik said, ready to be done standing around. “Ready, Ophanim?”
“You’re really okay with this?” the male asked doubtfully, still eyeing Kailia.
“You’re welcome to try to stop her, but I’m not responsible when you’re bleeding,” Razik said flatly.
“Fucking Fates, whatever is usually up your ass seems to have crawled up there even higher today,” Jarek grumbled, moving away from the females so they’d have more room.
Razik hardly gave him a chance to get situated before he was making the first move, lunging and landing a blow to Jarek’s side. The male grunted, letting out a sharp curse, but his counterattack was swift, and Razik took a hit to the jaw.
For the next hour, he let himself fall into the muscle memory of practiced movements, too focused on his opponent to think about anything else. He’d flown in the sky for hours over thelast several days. He’d doneserena sabrein the mountains. He’d tried to get lost in books and research, but none of that kept his focus. His mind constantly wandered back to things he didn’t want to think about. Sparring though? If your mind wandered in a sparring ring, you paid in pain, pride, and blood.
The males were both panting messes of sweat and bruises when they called a truce to get water. They’d both gotten in decent hits, both of them knocked to their backs at various times. There’d been taunts and curses, helping each other up just to knock the other back onto their ass.
He nodded in thanks, catching the waterskin Jarek tossed to him as they both turned to watch the females, and Razik couldn’t hide his smirk. Fallon had been worried about sparring, but there clearly hadn’t been a need. If Fallon was fast, Kailia was a blur as she moved. Razik could only imagine the damage she would do if she could actually move through her smoke and ashes. Every movement and hit was as intentional as she was. She missed nothing, and that was saying something because Fallon was as formidable as any of the Cadre.
Fallon smiled tightly as she got back to her feet, Kailia standing still and watching her a few paces away. Fallon had clearly gotten a few hits in. There was a bruise on Kailia’s cheek, and there was blood on her arm from somewhere. But mostly there were ashes scattered all over the ground, some in the shape of her footprints and others that had been at one point.
Kailia tilted her head, those ashes stirring, and as Razik studied her, he realized she was feeling the vibrations of the ground through them. It was godsdamn brilliant and explained why she always wanted to be barefoot. When Fallon lunged, Kailia was already moving, having felt the momentum and energy from Fallon before she’d fully moved. Fallon’s strike hit nothing but air while Kailia appeared behind her, landing a clean kick to the female’s lower back.
“Fucking Arius,” Jarek breathed, just as entranced.
In fact, many around the arena had stopped to watch, and Razik was internally cursing himself yet again, but this information would have been fantastic to have months ago. All he’d had to do was bring her to the godsdamn training arena.
Kailia moved, striking out with a fist. Fallon blocked it, immediately following up with a counterstrike. The two broke apart, Fallon bouncing on her toes while Kailia watched, remaining still.
“Take a break,” Razik called out, striding into their space and coming between them.
He heard Fallon mutter something, but she was smiling as she took the waterskin from Jarek. The female had enjoyed this as much as Kailia had, even if she had gotten her ass handed to her.
Offering his waterskin to Kailia, she took a long drink.
“I would enjoy doing this more often,” she mused.
“I’m sure you would,” Razik said flatly.
“With weapons,” she added thoughtfully.
“Fuck no. Hand-to-hand combat is one thing. You with sharp objects is another.”
She frowned in contemplation. “Training with weapons is as important as training without them.”
He couldn’t exactly argue that, but that kind of training would need to be coordinated with Cethin. Because, again, Kailia with blades was completely different from what they’d done today.
Taking another drink, she handed the waterskin back to him before gathering her hair. It had been down this entire time, some strands sticking to her forehead. Separating the thick locks into three sections, she began braiding it, and that was when he saw it.
The single tendril of inky darkness.
It was as dark as her hair, blending in perfectly. She would have never seen it. The magic was tucked in with the hair at the back of her head. The only reason he was seeing it now was because she’d gathered her hair a certain way and some strands had slipped free.
All the aggression he’d just worked off flooded back through him in waves.
He said nothing to Jarek and Fallon as he gripped Kailia’s elbow and Traveled them. Not back to her rooms, but to his.
The moment they were there, she jerked her arm free, glaring at him. “That was rude,” she snapped, crossing her arms.
