Page 141 of Ashborne: Defiance

As he strode off to the tree, Bren leaned into my ear. “Where did you learn to do that?”

“I didn’t,” I said. “Voski told me that you can throw knives as a weapon, so I asked if I could be trained because I don’t like to fight and I think I need to use weapons.”

Bren snorted. “Looks like that was a good call. If any of the guys get grabby, just bury a blade between their legs—from a distance.”

“Oh, I couldn’t—”

“I was joking, Grace,” she laughed.

I grimaced, because I would have known that if I’d just thought about it. I shook my head. “I’m always in such a panic to not look like an idiot, I appear to be the very idiot I’m avoiding,” I muttered.

“Don’t worry, that just means you’ll fit right in,” Bren said with a wicked grin at Gil, who’d yanked the knife out of the tree.

“Your turn, Bren!” he called as he walked back to us.

She nodded and took the stance as he’d shown us, inhaled and exhaled, hand on the hilt of the blade sheathed at her waist. When Gil was next to me again, she nodded, exhaled once more, then slipped the blade from the sheath and let fly.

Her blade flew true, but finished just short of the edge of the leaf. And it quivered more because the blade wasn’t buried as deeply as mine had been.

“Shit,” she muttered.

“That’s good,” Gil said.

Bren looked at him sideways. “Do not patronize me.”

“I’m not. You’ve got the eye. Don’t compare. Grace is a born assassin, I think.”

I giggled, thinking he was teasing her, but they both looked at me blankly, and the laughter died in my throat. “I thought it was a joke?”

Bren shook her head, though she was smiling.

My jaw dropped. “I’m not an assassin! I don’t want to kill people! I just want to be able to protect myself—I mean, unless they’re trying to kill me. Or my friends. Or, I suppose, if there’s war or…”

Gil huffed. “I’ll talk to the Quartermaster about getting each of you a real set of throwing knives. I think that would be a better investment in your training than the sparring—”

A dragon called, and we all looked up to see the gleaming body of Kham coming in to land at the launch hollow.

My heart trilled. Kham looked so beautiful in the sunlight, but the dark shadow with broad shoulders and glittering eyes, hunched between his wing ridges, sent my pulse and nerves through the roof. I hadn’t seen Voski since the afternoon before when I’d found him out in the forest.

He’d apologized for being so angry with me then, but I wasn’t sure if he’d still feel that way now that he’d had time to think about it.

“Hey, bro—come show the girls how it’s done!” Gil called, as Voski slid down the mounting strap. He turned and raised a hand, but he didn’t smile.

“It’s really not necessary!” I whispered quickly. “He probably doesn’t want—”

Gil shot me a strange look that shut my mouth quick. “Voski is one of our best trainers. He’s going to have a lot to do with getting you ready for your testing, Grace. And happy to do so. It’s what we do for Flameborne. You don’t need to worry.”

I nodded, but my nerves trilled. I felt Bren watching me, but she didn’t say anything. And I couldn’t take my eyes off Voski, who’d removed Kham’s harness in a blink.

Koa called to Kham from the stable. The golden dragon danced, and screamed, tossing his head until the moment Voski dragged the harness off, then he galloped up the other side of the launch hollow and into the stable, sending stableboys running to get out of his way.

I could feel Koa’s joy at the anticipated reunion, and it made my heart race. I instinctively turned back to Voski, something trilling in my chest. But the sight of him trudging up the launch slope quickly squashed that.

When he reached us, he clasped hands with Gil and they slapped each other’s back. Bren smiled and I stood just behind her, watching him.

“Evening, Bren, Grace,” he said quietly. His eyes caught on my mine for a blink, but before I could greet him back, he’d turned back to Gil. “You said someone needs schooling?”

“Hey!” Bren laughed. Gil snorted.