My thighs burned and my lungs could not get enough air. Calpurnia braced herself with her hands on her knees while she gasped. We both plopped onto the ground.
“That was pitiful… again!” he ordered. “What? Are you serious?” she asked in protest.
He stood to his full intimidating height and crossed his arms. “Shall I make it two more times?” he threatened with a raised brow.
With that, Cal and I jumped to our feet and sprinted for the stairs. It was clear that fated mates or not, when Cercies was in General mode, there would be no leniency.
Without the elixir, I doubted I could keep up with Cal. It wasn’t that she was in excellent shape, but the Fae in general were simply stronger and more agile than humans. I made a note to thank Gleeda for the boost later. After sharing our mutual hatred for stairs with every curse word combination we could think of, and how stupid it was that a magic castle had no other way to move between levels, we climbed the last thirty steps and found a second wind. Somehow, we managed to sprint to Cercies before collapsing again.
“Better. Now tell me what was different this time,” he barked.
“Fear of doing it two more times?” I suggested.
“Wrong. That only got you moving. What made you improve your time?” he asked sharply.
Cal and I looked at each other. She shrugged.
“You were prepared the second time. You knew the difficulty of the task and how much time you had to complete it. You had less energy but nearly cut your time in half because you already knew what to expect. Having the upper hand in combat is the key to survival. Know your enemy—you live. Guess—you die.”
He reached out both hands, pulled us to our feet, and handed us our flasks of water.
“I’ve been studying the female anatomy—”
I raised a brow at Calpurnia with a wry grin. She gave me a cheeky smile back.
“So I’m not going to train you like males. I’ve already made that mistake once,” he said, looking at me with remorse before continuing. “I’m going to train you like females. What you lack in size, you’ll make up for in speed. What you lack in durability, you’ll make up for in mobility and flexibility. And what you lack in upper-body strength, you’ll make up for in your lower body—where most of your lean muscle mass sits, which makes your kicks your strongest weapon. Males are trained to fight upper-body first and treat the lower body as secondary, so they won’t expect the opposite. They’ll be unprepared, and that gives you the upper hand,” he explained. “I know this because I trained them.”
Okay, so now I saw it—the genius side of the General. He was in his element. He had clearly put some thought into this for Calpurnia’s sake, and I was grateful to be receiving the benefits of his affection for her.
We did a series of lunges while holding heavy bags of grain, followed by sit-ups and some basics with wooden swords before
K. ROSÉ
stretching and calling it a day. Cal took a moment to kiss her mate goodbye before hurrying off to bathe and help with whatever duties she had been assigned. I finished my water in the shade to give them some privacy.
After a moment, Cercies approached. “Are we still on?” he asked.
“Definitely. Meet me in the grand hall in twenty,” I replied.
Twenty minutes later, I freshened up, got my bandages changed, and met Cercies in the grand hall of the castle. I set Gleeda’s harp on the fireplace ledge and asked it to play something slow.
“Are you ready for your first dance lesson, General?” I asked teasingly.
He removed his armor and an alarming number of weapons in a heap on the floor before meeting me in the center of the open space.
“I thought you were… an orphan. How is it that you know how to ballroom dance?” he asked.
“When I was young, my best friend and I were convinced we were going to marry the princes of England, so we watched hours of YouTube videos on how to ballroom dance so we would know how when we became royalty,” I explained.
He gave me a confused look and said, “you say the oddest things sometimes, Tiny Warrior.”
“I’m self-taught,” I clarified. “Let’s start by letting me lead so you know what to expect. Then we’ll go over the steps, and then I’ll let you lead, okay?”
He looked around to make sure we were alone. “This seems a little degrading, but fine,” he grumbled.
I showed him where to put his hands. I would be lying if I said the physical contact wasn’t awkward because it absolutely was. I just keptchanting do it for Calpurnia in my mind. It was odd how his touch now felt like a cousin’s or a brother’s would when not long ago I would have let him do vile things to me.
I cleared my throat and focused. I led him through the steps—the footwork, the posture—all to the rhythm of the music Gleeda’s magic self-playing harp provided.
