Nearly fifty children, boys and girls ranging from five to fifteen, leaned forward on the stone steps of the training amphitheater. Their eyes tracked every movement.
“Got it?” she asked, straightening to her full height.
Kaelith moved inside her arms, his hand brushing along her forearm. A casual touch, fleeting, but her pulse caught in the smallest way before she refocused on the students.
It was the fifth slow-motion demonstration they had walked through. A basic evade-and-counter she favored when she wasn’t aiming to kill.
“Yes!!” Ben shot to his feet in the front row, fists pumping. “Faster now!”
The older boy seated behind him immediately clamped a hand down on his shoulder, shoving him back into place without a word.
“Hey!” The smaller boy scowled, twisting in his seat as he shoved the hand away.
“Show respect, Ben.” A girl in the second row chimed in.
Ben’s response was to stick out his tongue. “Miss Rynna is not like the other teachers, she’s—”
A blur of motion cut him off. Rynna lunged forward, faster than most of them could track, and in the next instant, she was standing beside Ben’s seat. Her arms crossed, shadow falling long over him.
“GuideRynna is…what?” Her voice carried easily through the amphitheater.
Ben’s mouth fell open. He scrambled back against the step as the other children around him dropped their gazes in quick bows of respect.
Rynna narrowed her eyes, letting the silence stretch as she played the part. Discipline here was severe, almost ritual. It was entirely different from the rowdy soldiers she had once trained—or thought she once had…
Pushing aside the half-formed thought, her expression cracked. And she hooked an arm around the boy’s neck, pulling him close to grind her knuckles into his hair.
“Owwww!” Ben wailed, squirming in her grip, his hands flailing as he tried to pry her fingers away. “Stop it!”
Rynna held on a moment longer, letting him wriggle, as the other children worked not to laugh. Then she sighed, finally releasing him with a shove that sent him tumbling back into his seat.
“Show your classmates some respect, squirt.” She pursed her lips, then turned her back on him, striding toward the center where Kaelith waited.
He raised an eyebrow at her, the corner of his mouth quirking.
Rynna shrugged, spinning on her heel to face the rows of students again. “You ready to see it faster?”
“Yes! Show us, Guide!” Voices chorused back.
Smothering the laugh when she realized it was the older boy now on his feet, she looked to Kaelith. “I think they just want to see me throw you across the stadium.”
His eyes tracked down her frame and back up again, slow and deliberate. “So long as you help me back up again.”
Heat rushed up her throat at the way he said it, her belly constricting before she could form words. “What?!” The stammer broke free, betraying her.You’re so annoying.
His grin only widened.
She didn’t have time to dwell on whether he had heard her thoughts before he stepped back. A slow shrug lifted one shoulder as he flowed into stance with one hand extended toward her, palm up, fingers curling—daring her forward.
Come and get me, pet.
The words barely touched her thoughts, half-imagined, fragments slipping between body language.
She sank low as one leg slid long in front of her and her arms unfurled in mirrored lines.
Finally.Her heart beat louder in her ears.
The Grannies had finally cleared him for full-contact training after months of recovery from the Serpent’s bite. Apparently, all the manual chores and water replenishments had been part of his recovery plan.
