“When last did you train together as a triad?” David asked, not bothering with a greeting and mercifully distracting her from her dark thoughts.
“Well….” Kay rubbed the back of her neck. She’d had good reasons to avoid her friends recently, but honestly, they’d been skipping triad workouts for far too long.
David grunted, clearly he already knew her answer. “Today we’re working as a team. One of you will lie in the middle while the other two form a net. Shadows only. I’ll attack whoever looks weakest and you’ll need to work together to keep the net up without being distracted.”
They warmed up and then James stretched out on the floor.
Slowly, taking deep breaths and counting them back out, Kay settled herself. Beside her, she felt Zach do the same. Both of them expanded their awareness, pulling at the Shadows around them. She opened her hand and felt the Shadows become tangible, filling her awareness.
She spun her fingers, using the motion to twist a dark gray Shadow rope, and then flicked her wrist to send it out toward Zach. He was standing, feet apart for balance, intently focused, and easily intertwined his Shadows with hers.
Together, they wrapped the Shadow ropes under James and, raising their hands, lifted their friend smoothly from the ground.
She didn’t have a moment to feel smug before David was on her, connecting with a hard blow to her right bicep. Damn. He thought she was the weakest. That hurt more than her arm.
Kay threw out more Shadows, bolstering the support under James while shifting some of her awareness to David as he danced back.
David ducked, spinning, and landed a vicious blow on Zach’s lower back. Zach lurched forward, the Shadow net fraying as he stumbled. Kay leaped across to him, grabbed his arm, and pulled Zach back up, helping him to spin to meet David in a flurry of kicks and punches.
“To me,” Zach grunted, and she leaped toward him, trusting him to hold his hands out for her to step into. He launched her into the air, and she aimed a brutal flying kick toward David’s head. But they were fractionally uncoordinated, fractionally too slow, and David had already whirled away.
David flung up his hands, releasing a swarm of tiny blades that spun through the air, slicing through their twisting Shadow ropes like they were butter. The net began to unravel as they threw out Shadow after Shadow, but David was everywhere, kicking and punching. Somehow, he got an elbow into Kay’s face, and in a flurry of spiraling Shadows, their net collapsed.
James crashed, cursing, onto the ground, and they all drew back, panting and bruised.
David looked them up and down with annoyance. “That is exactly what I was worried about. Too easily distracted. No focus. No real teamwork.”
Damn. Kay tucked sweaty strands of hair behind her ears and straightened her spine. They were better than this. Or at least, they should have been.
“Again. Zach, you’re in the middle this time.” David gestured for them to start again.
And again.
And again.
They fought, and concentrated, and failed, and fell, for a full two hours until David finally released them. “I’ll see you back here again tomorrow. Be better.”
He looked each one of them in the eye before focusing on Kay. “Clean up and then come and see me in my office.”
By the time she sank into the seat opposite David, her body was aching and her bruises blossoming. She had never felt so disconnected from her triad, and it hurt her heart as much as her body.
David nodded in greeting as he distractedly tidied papers into different piles. He had rolled his sleeves up, and when he leaned forward, his tanned forearms pressed into the desk, almost as if he needed the support.
His face was as stern as she’d ever seen it, deep grooves furrowed into his forehead and his mouth flat. “We need to talk about yesterday.”
“Okay.”
He met her eyes. “I’m sorry. I can’t believe I wasn’t available when you and Elizabeth needed me. Especially after everything you told me.”
After the beating he’d given them that morning, it wasn’t at all what she’d expected. “Don’t worry about it, David; I’m fine. We’re all fine. We understand that you get called away sometimes.” She fought back a sigh. “But I do need to tell you something.”
David’s face grew increasingly grim as she explained what had happened at the school and about the box they’d found. “And this time, I’m sure. I felt it myself—those Shadows are being used to manipulate people. To control them somehow.”
He steepled his hands together and let out a slow breath before admitting, “There are references in the Knowledge to Shadows like the ones you’re describing.”
God. Relief bubbled up inside her. There was information they could use. Finally, they had a chance of understanding the dark Shadows, of learning how to defeat them.
But hard behind the relief came irritation. No wonder she hadn’t found anything during her hours of searching. It was hidden from her. It was hidden fromeveryone. Only the Council could access the Knowledge.
