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Marcus had taught me almost everything I knew about fighting, and the last thing I wanted to do was disappoint him.
“Look at me, Sagelynn!”
Even though I was unready for the lecture I was about to receive, I pushed back my anger and forced my gaze upwards.
“Have you forgotten who you are?” he asked, his question confusing the shit out of me.
“Umm. I’m—”
“You don’t need to tell me because I already know who you are. You’re a trained killer and a strong woman, not just intellectually, but physically. The only reason your body isn’t acting like it right now is because you’re malnourished. You went through some traumatic shit, Sage. And now that your soul has had some time to heal, your body needs to catch up. The only thing stopping you from being who you are is your fear. You’re giving it power to control you. Once you decide to dominate that fear, the easier this will get. And the more you stand there sulking and complaining, the longer it’s going to take. Now stop whining and get your damn fists back up!”
None of the training Marcus gave me compared to the value I gained from his lectures. He had many great attributes, but his words of encouragement along with his motivation to do better . . . to be better, were always my favorite.
Marcus raised his fists, going back into a fighting stance, and after a few shocked blinks from me, I realized he was right. I mirrored his posture because regardless of how much I loved him, I was ready to kick his ass.
After training, my nervousness continued to consume me. A thousand scenarios of what could go wrong during our rescue mission occupied the space where my brain once was, the agonizing thoughts buzzing through my head faster than lightning.
Attempting to calm myself and to tackle my fear, like Marcus said, I slipped away undetected to go for a walk.
Even though the sun had barely begun setting, the canopy of pine and oak made my surroundings dimmer, so my eyes were on the hard, cold ground below my feet as I stumbled through the brush of the forest.
At the edge of the treeline, I emerged into a field and my gaze went to the sky lit up with orange and pink hues before they went wide in surprise, my feet coming to a sudden stop.
Not paying attention to my surroundings had never been a weakness of mine. Today, I failed to spot the three women in front of me until it was too late.
The light still clinging to the horizon lit their faces, revealing them a mere four feet away. Not comprehending how the magical wards worked, I held my breath, worried they would . . . see me? Smell me? Sense me?
The woman on the left was eager as a small child, squealing with excitement. Her bare feet slammed against the grass and her white sundress flowed behind her like a symphony of fabric as she chased a butterfly with nothing less than pure joy.
The temperature had to be only around fifty degrees when I left the camp, but with the sun setting it had dropped even lower. I wondered how she wasn’t freezing since I wore jeans, a T-shirt, and a leather jacket, yet my cheeks and hands were ice cold.
The woman on the right wore a black leather, strapless jumpsuit with what I thought was a scarf around her neck but it turned out to be a large ball python. Her expression was joyous as she peered down, affectionately stroking its body.
The one in the middle was the tallest of them, with wavy copper hair, and when she locked her attention on me, her cheeks tightening with a smile, I realized I had wandered outside the wards.
My hand instinctively went to the dagger Peach had given to me, which was fastened to my thigh, flipping open the leather strap that secured it.
“Don’t,” she warned. “We’re faster and stronger than any weapon.”
Suspicious of the fact that three women were wandering in the middle of the woods, I didn’t heed her advice. Instead, I yanked my dagger from its sheath.
Before I had a chance to decide if I needed to use it, an unseen force slammed into my body, knocking me onto my back and expelling the air from my lungs, causing me to gasp.
Now pissed off, I sprang to my feet with efficiency and raised my dagger again, ready to plunge it into the woman in the middle.
She flicked two fingers in my direction and another invisible wall hit me, shoving me backwards as if I was light as a feather.
The back of my skull bounced off the cold, hard ground, sending sharp pains through my head.
My body alerted me to stop, but I ignored it, instead scrambling to my feet slower than before, my sore, overworked muscles also screaming for me to retreat.
When I raised my dagger this time—because apparently getting knocked on my ass twice wasn’t enough to stop me—instead of being thrown backwards by some mysterious power, my entire body locked in limbo.
She had frozen me in place like a heroic and possibly idiotic statue.
While I could still breathe and move my eyes, my body was completely unresponsive. Every muscle I had appeared to be no longer owned by me and I finally panicked.
“What the fuck!” At least my vocal cords still worked, even if it didn’t matter since scolding them to death wasn’t a power I possessed.
