“His name was Derrick,” I snapped. “He was a friend of my mom’s.”
His grip vanished and he got up. I didn’t share any further information, unsure if Derrick was known to such high-ranking members of another kingdom. Ash didn’t question me further and I used the reprieve of his physical and mental onslaught.
“What markers?” I asked, still trying to catch my breath.
Ash circled me, his expression calculating. He was evaluating me—giving me time to recover to test something else. His stance was lazy as he brushed his hair out of his face. His collarhad come loose, showing his lean, muscular figure around his collarbones and shoulders. He trained—a lot.
“You can sense others’ emotions. It means your sensitivity to the everi around you is so refined that you can interpret its nature,” he said. “How long have you been able to do it?”
My grip on my sword weakened and my mind felt like it was cracking open. I swear I’d read about Soul Affinity but it was an advanced use of everi that few used—one that I was nowhere near awakening, right?
A cold wind struck my cheek. I had let my guard down. The sword was knocked from my hand, and a bright arc of my everi seared in the air like the aftermath of a firework. The shield-summoning technique was the only reason his slicing cut didn’t take me down.
I staggered back a few steps, my breathing quick and erratic.
Ash observed me, still not having broken a sweat.
“Interesting,” he murmured.
“What is?” I snapped hoarsely, still feeling the ache of where his sword connected to my everi. The glow of the shield was gone, but I still stared at where it had been.
“You are advancing rapidly. It’s rare to touch on a soul affinity trait before an elemental. I doubt the other Aurkai realize it,” he said.
Was he right? Had I already awakened an affinity but no one had realized it? I’d gone the past several weeks thinking I wasn’t cut out for this and training my ass off because these people screwed up their world so bad it was falling apart, and now they tell me that I’d already awakened something?
Holy fuck.
Anger lashed through me, enflaming my everi to the point it was visible as it emanated from my palm. I reached my arm out towards my sword, summoning it into my hand. When it struck my palm, I lowered into my stance and charged.
I moved faster than I ever had, but Ash was still faster. He dodged every blow, no matter how relentless and ruthless I was.
Ash was agile and exceeded my physical ability to maneuver well-timed strikes. He easily flipped backward without using his hands and launched straight into counterattacks each time.
I threw everything I had in my repertoire at him, executing relentless attack after attack, but it was not enough.
But my time was drawing near. My everi was fading, and with it, my strength. I used the last of my energy to thrust myself into a twisting back tuck meant to catch my opponent's back when it was open, but Ash sensed what I was doing before I did it.
He fell backward, his blade defending against mine as it struck, leaving me vulnerable. Reacting in shock, I summoned another sword to my free hand, unleashing my desperation. Surprise spread across his face as he reached out to defend himself with his bare hand, summoning his everi to his palm as the blade made contact.
I struck the wooden floor hard, my blade clattering beside me, and we lay trying to catch our breath. He sat up first, looking at his palm with an unreadable expression.
A thin line of red formed on his palm. As quickly as it formed, it closed.
He’d healed it. Such abilities were restricted to those who were able to weave their everi tightly and accurately enough that they could heal wounds: weaving affinity.
But the blood from the cut remained.
“When did you first notice you could understand people’s feelings?” he asked, standing up and returning his sword to the rack.
I got up and retrieved my two, trying to think to when I didn’t understand what others around me were feeling.
“I’ve always been able to understand someone’s feelings, it’s not new,” I said. “And I’ve never thought of it as an affinity. You have to try to understand people.”
Ash laughed under his breath. “You truly have been sheltered, haven’t you? Understanding others' feelings is not an easy task. It is the soul affinity that you awakened long ago from its slumber. It is a rare affinity.”
He walked to the door, pausing only for a moment, and I hurried to put away the swords and followed him, falling into step beside him as he navigated his extensive chambers.
“I will tell you a story,” he said. “Since you wanted to know what happened between Roslyn, Blake, and me. But it is not a pleasant one. Roslyn’s parents were from two different kingdoms—Roran, the capital city of Celestia, and Ashendale, a city in The Falls, near where Blake is from. It was a forbidden marriage that brought hard-won peace to the region for several years. Because Blake was Roslyn’s cousin, they traveled with their mothers frequently between the two kingdoms. This is how I came to know Blake when we were children. Never had a prince of Celestia and a prince of The Falls been childhood friends. But the peace did not last. War inevitably broke out and Roslyn’s mother was in Raven Falls with her at the time. Roslyn was a prisoner of war for years after her mother was executed for treason,” Ash said.
