Page 90 of Taken By Shadows

They faced off for a moment, then collided with a metal-on-metal crash.

I watched in awe as they moved and breathed together. Back and forth. Like opposite sides of a coin or two magnets moving and pushing each other.

When Denora attacked, her arms swinging her sword with a flourish behind her head and aiming for Gavrin’s neck muscles, he easily blocked her move with a solid upward parry, almost without looking. His defence was as natural to him as blinking was to someone else.

I tried to watch for the details. To mark their individual styles.

When Gavrin moved to the offensive, his shoulders would flex a little as he prepared a huge strike.

And Denora saw it every time.

They looked like they could anticipate every move.

Swords clanged, and their metals rang through the rooftop air. Over and over.

And I knew I hadn’t been trying hard enough with Denora. A part of me was ashamed of that. I’d been showing up to her lessons and just not offering my fullest self to her teaching. I couldn’t say why. Maybe it was some remnant of stubbornness against my situation.

Kaed’s insistence on defence lessons made me want to do them less.

There might be a strong pull to him when he was in front of me. Like some godsdamn chemical charge in the air. I found it was easily replaced with ire, frustration and anger when I wasn’t around him. Like my body forgot what it felt like to stand under him when he wasn’t towering over me. And when it forgot, my head took over and reminded me I was supposed to hate his blue eyes and angular jaw line. I was supposed to hate the planes of his chest where his shirt opened. I was supposed to hate the way his hair fell carelessly into his eyes. I was supposed to be paying attention to the lesson in front of me.

“… How about it?” Denora asked.

I looked up, dazed. Both she and Gavrin had stopped to take a breath and were looking at me expectantly.

I shook my head, and my mouth gobbed open and closed like a fish.

“Gav says he’ll take it easy on you,” Denora repeated what I’d missed.

My eyes felt like they’d pop from my skull. “Gavrin?” I shrieked with a dry throat.

He was massive. Broader and taller than Kaed. Larger than an ox. And his sword hung in his hand. I was instantly reminded of how he’d impaled that man from horseback when I’d first seen him.

“No, thank you.” I quickly dismissed their offer to spar with Gavrin. “I’d rather keep my limbs.”

Gavrin chuckled. “That’s okay. I’m happy to throw Dee to her ass instead.” He laughed again.

“I’ve beaten you three out of four times, Gav.” Her brow quirked at him. “You need to review your assessment there.”

“What did I miss?” Audrie’s sweet voice carried over the training ground then as she came to sit beside me on the stone bench.

“Gavrin is getting his pride beaten from him,” I remarked, but Gavrin instantly looked more like a mountain bear than an ox as he fumed. And a small part of me cowered as he bolstered himself.

I was glad not to be truly on his bad side. And I was glad not to be Denora at that moment.

But Denora didn’t seem to shy away from Gavrin as he squared up to her. In fact, I think she was flexing a new muscle.

Both Denora and Gavrin offered a look this way.

I thought it was for me, but as Audrie was unpacking a small bundle of candied fruit peels, I realised I was mistaken.

The clang of swords reverberated through my teeth without warning as they started up again. The force they used this time around was harder. More intense. Purposeful. They weren’t demonstrating moves for my benefit anymore; they were showcasing their own.

It was actually incredibly impressive, and I realised just how much I had to learn if this was what I needed to become to hold my own against fae.

But beside me, Audrie was visibly cringing. She flinched at the restrained violence, the shattering noise as their blades met, the near misses as their swords sliced air instead of flesh.

“Watch out!” I called to neither of them but both of them at the same time, as their swords came smashing right for each other’s flanks.