Jade couldn’t stop the flood of heat that rushed into her cheeks, so she turned and quickly covered the distance to the weapons. She’d never been as self-conscious in her own sleeveless white undershirt as she did in that moment, feeling Theo’s gaze behind her.
She ran her thumb over the hilts of the practice knives hung in a row on one of the weapons racks. Tarnished metal and worn leather gave way to shiny new weapons, and Jade selected two of the new knives. Light streaming in from the wall of windows glinted off the metal. She took her position on a free mat as Theo selected his weapons, and he strode to take his stance opposite her.
“Do we have any ground rules?” he asked, twirling one knife in his fingers.
“No rules. Whatever it takes to win.”
Theo angled his head, and a crooked grin split his face. “Captain Ni’ihm, are you suggesting we fight dirty?”
“I’m just giving you your best chance,” Jade quipped.
“Oh, I see how it is.” Theo tossed one of the knives in the air and caught its hilt with the blade pointing behind him. He bent at the knees and held the knives slightly out at his sides. “And how will we determine the winner?”
Jade mimicked his posture, crouching a little and readying her weapons. “First to tap out.”
Theo replied with a single nod and forced his smile away. Seconds passed, and they stared each other down, unwilling to be the first to make a move.
It had been years since they’d sparred, the last time happening when they overlapped as cadets in training. Jade now had to view Theo as a new, unfamiliar opponent. His fighting style would have certainly changed in all that time, and she couldn’t count on past strategies to work against him.
Theo broke free from their impasse—as Jade had predicted, his impatience getting the better of him—and lunged with an arm arcing down at her. Jade ducked and slid past him, giving him nothing to catch his momentum but air. He recovered quickly, finding his balance and rounding again on Jade. This time she was too close to avoid the hit, but she got her blade up in time to meet his in the air. She used her left hand to jab, crossing her body and aiming for his torso, but he pulled back. Metal scraped against metal as their knives slid down each other, and Jade whirled, using her small stature to her advantage and swiping at his legs. Her blade caught the fabric of his pants, forcing Theo back.
She took the second to catch her breath, but Theo was already on the move. He released a knife with a spin and gripped it again almost instantly, adjusting it in his grasp. He closed in on her and slashed his knife toward the space between her shoulder and her neck. The blade whistled by her ear, butJade kept her feet planted, leaning back at her hips, and the blade grazed her chest as it came across her body.
A line of fire tore across Jade’s exposed chest, just beneath her collarbone. The weapons may have been blunted, but metal was metal, and these new knives hadn’t been further worn down with use. Without looking down, she could tell the knife had only left a scratch and hadn’t drawn much, if any, blood, and she wouldn’t let a scratch stop her.
Theo hesitated as his wide eyes dropped to the wound he had left, his lips parting in what might have been worry. But Jade didn’t move other than to retake her stance, unflustered, and Theo’s eyes flashed back up to meet her own. He must have seen the challenge in her expression, because his mouth transformed into a half-smile and he moved again.
Jade was ready. She’d utilized his pause to strategize her next movements. He raised an arm, but Jade moved underneath it to come only a finger’s breadth away from him. Heat radiated from his body. She glanced up at him, his familiar woodsy scent washing over her. The momentary distraction was enough to blind her to the knife he held backward in his other hand, crossing his body and digging into her side.
She yelped and jumped away, her eyebrows pinching together in a grimace. Lifting her gaze up to Theo, Jade rubbed the sore spot with the side of her hand. A flicker of concern passed over Theo’s face before he stood straight, his posture relaxing.
“Tapping out?”
An unusual quiet settled in the room, and Jade cast a glance over her shoulder to find the other three occupants no longer moving, watching them. She grunted as she brought her gaze ahead again. Those two little contacts weren’t nearly enough for her to give up, especially not with an audience. She shook her head, stepping to her original starting point on the mat and taking her stance again.
“You wish.”
Theo tossed his head to one side, cracking his neck, and a mischievous grin crept along his lips. He ran his tongue over the bottom edge of his teeth. “A glutton for punishment, then?”
Jade didn’t wait for him this time. Before he was ready, she lunged and drove a knife toward his abdomen, but Theo caught it with ease and sent her hand straight up. She barely maintained her hold on the weapon. As she recovered, she brought her other hand toward him in an uppercut. Theo dodged, and Jade spun under his arm, the long braid down her back whipping around with her. As she circled, she slashed the knife in her first hand across his chest.
Metal clanged as Theo stopped the blade with his own, sending it flying out of Jade’s hand. Now she was at a true disadvantage. She swapped the other knife to her dominant hand as Theo moved again. Jade parried the first knife that came at her, but she had nothing to stop the second. She tightened her abdominal muscles, bracing for the impact of the blade there, but instead, Theo pushed back on the arm that held her knife, sending her sideways. His free arm wrapped around her middle, pulling her back flush against his chest, and he rested the knife in his left hand gently against the hollow of her throat.
Jade squirmed for only a moment under his arm, the cool metal of the knife at her neck holding her back. The knife in his other hand pressed into her waist.
“I’ll admit. You keep me on my toes more now than you used to.” The breath of his words tickled her ear, sending the stray hairs there flying. Goosebumps rose on her neck and down her arms, and her heart fluttered as it tried and failed to slow down.
He would see just how much she’d “keep him on his toes,” but first, she had to get free. There wasn’t an easy way out of his hold, so she would take advantage of the time he gave her to figure out her next move. If the way he pressed her body into his didn’t thoroughly derail her focus.
The tightness of his arm around her waist and the contact of his chest along her back warmed her blood even more than the exertion of sparringhad. His forearm muscles rippled as he rotated his wrist, nudging her slightly closer. Jade shot her eyes up, forcing her mind off their closeness and onto a plan for escape.
She still clutched a knife in her right hand. Theo likely didn’t consider it a threat with the warning of both his blades against Jade’s body and the fact that her right arm was pinned against her side. Her left arm was weaponless but freer, so that was the place to start.
Jade tipped back her head, exposing her neck to the knife even more, and murmured so only he could hear, “I think you’ll find I can do much more than just keep you on your toes.”
Without giving him time to process what she’d said, she threw her left elbow back in a jab that connected with his stomach. The force of the blow knocked Theo back a step, and the wind left his lungs in awhoosh. Then she hooked her right ankle around his and pulled, sending him collapsing to his back on the mat. Jade spun in a flash and was down on the mat on top of him, her knee between his legs and her left boot immobilizing his right wrist. With her knife-wielding right hand, she flicked the blade out of his other hand and pressed down into his wrist, the point of her knife grazing the skin just below his jawline.
Jade stared down at Theo underneath her as she held herself up by one arm. Beads of sweat had formed along his hairline, but the real change was in his eyes. There was a fire in them that she didn’t think appeared because of the fight, his pupils edging out his sea blue irises.
