‘You have me,’came a small feminine whisper, and I physically jumped, eyes going wide.
Kaelric peered down at my hip and the blade that hung from it. “Is she talking to you? Good, you guys need to work on your bond, or we are both dead.”
He walked towards the door again, and this time I followed. “Work on our bond, how?”
“I’ll tell you over dinner. I’m starved. Aren’t you hungry?” He peered back at me, and I blushed.
I was used to one light meal a day, two if I was lucky.
“Yeah. Starved.” I mimicked his words. Truth was, I was still full from the large breakfast. I hadn’t even realized we’d skipped lunch.
His eyes narrowed as if he knew I was lying. “Tomorrow morning, we start weight training. Then you’ll have an appetite.”
Weight training.Bleh.
Chapter Ten
Ifound Kaelric staring longingly at my sword at times, and I found myself wishing he’d look atmelike that. Over the past several days, we’d woken up at sunrise, eaten a huge breakfast, then trained until sundown, breaking for a midday meal, of course, and finishing with a dinner so large I had chest burn when I lay awake at night.
My pants were getting tight! Which Kaelric seemed to like. I’d never met a man so obsessed with my eating habits. He wouldn’t even touch his plate until I started, and when I finished, he always offered me seconds before taking any for himself.
I knew it was because he didn’t want a skinny, frail partner in the trials, but it also felt chivalrous in a way. Now it was the night before the first trial, and I was a ball of nerves.
Cassian had left yesterday with the other sponsors to help design and set up the first trial, which, frustratingly, we still knew nothing about. Valkaryn hadn’t spoken to me since that day in the training room, and I was having a hard time “connecting” with her.
Kaelric had me sit for an hour and try to connect with her by quieting my mind, but it was impossible!
“I feel stupid trying to talk to a piece of metal,” I told him.
He raised one eyebrow at me from across the room, then peered at Valkaryn by my side. “Surprised she didn’t do anything to you for calling her a piece of metal.”
Do anything to me?
“Do the other initiates’ weapons speak to them?”
His jaw tightened. “Do you even know the story of Valkaryn? Do you know the power that has chosen you?”
I squirmed a little. “I know we call it… her… the King Killer. Capable of… I don’t know… killing kings and taking thrones of power?”
He looked offended. “That’s all? That’sallyour people know of her?”
He crossed the room and kneeled beside the sword as if in reverence. “Our stories say that when the Creator made the world, he also forged a weapon. Aweapon so powerful it would protect his people from evil, his beloved creations. He made the King Killer.”
I peered down at the blade as he continued.
“For millennia, the blade was just that, a sword with untold power. Until one day, there was born a ruthless warrior, a magicless human with a pure heart…”
Surprise rippled through me. A magicless human warrior? I’d never heard of such a thing. All the great warriors had magic.
“This warrior commanded the wolfkin alpha’s army for thirty years, until one day she died protecting the alpha she’d loved and served for decades.”
I leaned in, not wanting to miss this story. “That’s sad,” I told him.
He nodded. “When this warrior reached the heavenly realms, the legend says that she begged the Creator to forge a new body for her so that she could go back and avenge her king. Her love.”
Oh, it was a romance story, I loved those. I didn’t dare speak, not wanting to miss the end.
“And the Creator told her that she could have a new body, one of steel, one that could never be broken, one that would be a warrior forever, one that already existed on earth. And because her heart was pure and she despised evil and only wanted to protect theinnocent, he placed her soul into the King Killer and gave her untold power.”
