His sharp jaw clenches. “No.”
“Wow, I definitely believe you,” I say sarcastically, even though he was telling the truth. “This is mylife,Asmo. I’m trying to decide who I want to rule an entire kingdom with.”
“Well,” he says.
“Well, what?” I shoot back.
“Which wine do you want to try first?” he asks, gesturing toward the various bottles.
I’ve had it.
I scoff. “You know what? You’re welcome to go home. I won’t choose you.”
I stand up from the table and storm away, leaving the beautiful Prince of Darkness to rot.
Chapter 25
The left hook comes from nowhere, catching my jaw. I go down hard.
“Shit. Are you okay?” Elle asks, standing over me. I give a weak nod, and she helps me stand up. “You have to focus,” she says. I nod again, resetting and settling back into my usual stance.
After my disaster of a date with Asmo, I desperately needed a run to clear my thoughts. The moment I woke up, I went on a six-mile run, then immediately sought out Elle and asked if she could meet me to train. I never imagined that I’d be spending my Saturday mornings engaging in physical combat, but here we are. After two weeks of training, I’m able to string simple movements together and attack, not just dodge blows.
“Want to keep practicing but add in some of your magic?” she asks.
I nod eagerly. I’ve been asking her if we can add my magic in, but the answer has been no. She’s been wanting me to get a solid base of physical training before adding that portion in. I’m surprised she’s asking me about it today. I don’t feel like I’ve fully mastered the physical training portion yet, but I’m not going to say no.
“I’m going to attack you slowly, and I want you to fight back using a combination of your magic and your physical skills. Don’t worry about hurting me because you won’t,” she says. “You don’t have to do anything specific with your magic. Just do what feels right.”
I nod again, and she frowns at me. “You okay today? You’re oddly quiet.”
I shrug. “It was a weird night with Asmo, but I’ll tell you about it later.”
She nods in understanding, then begins to move toward me, throwing a slow punch in my direction. I immediately knock the punch away using my hand. She repeats the movement with her other hand, and I do the same thing.
“If you’re just going to use physical skills to block, I’ll start coming faster.”
True to her word, she throws a faster punch. I bring my magic to the surface and concentrate on using a small gust of wind to knock her hand out of its path. She gives me a brief nod of approval. She starts to run toward me, albeit slowly, and I dodge out of her way, sending another gust of wind to prevent her from running back to me for a second attempt.
“Let’s liven this up a little,” she says. We’re in the basement of the training center, and she walks to the weapons wall and selects a sword from the collection of deadly instruments.
My mouth goes dry, and my heart rate begins to increase. Surely she doesn’t mean to use that onme?
“Are you joking right now?” I ask her.
“No! This is more realistic. Come on,” she says, then runs toward me. She wields the sword like it weighs nothing, swinging it toward me effortlessly. Again, I block her movement with a wall of wind. She uses the sword to slice through the wind, and then she’s through, running toward me again. Think, think, think.
I summon water and wet the ground in front of her, then send a wave of freezing wind over the water. The water instantly freezes, and she loses traction, slipping on the ice and landing on her ass. She looks at me, a smile on her face, before rolling off the ice, sword still in her hand, and lunges at me.
Fucking hell, Elle.
I summon fire, and I put a protective ring of fire around me, the flames dancing high. A small bead of sweat forms on my forehead from the heat radiating around me. Elle circles the border, trying to find weak points, trying to get inside the circle without harming herself. But she can’t.
She lays the sword down and gives me a deep bow.
“I surrender,” she says, a smirk on her face.
I let the flames die and jump into the air, exclaiming, “Yes!”
