Page 90 of The Edge of Darkness

“To The Elderwood,” I said.

We vanished into nothing, the echo of Nivelle’s yelp barreling down the tunnel of wind and space around us. A few seconds later, we materialized at the edge of the stream that skirted the large stone slab of a temple that never was. Silas caught Nivelle as she wobbled forward on unsteady footing.

Her eyes immediately found mine. “That was not ‘quick as a blink,’” she growled.

This time, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You did well,” Aremis said as he stepped past us, toward the same foundation where Niall had trained me to port.

We were here again for two reasons. One, was so that I could learn how to port myself and someone else at the same time. The other reason . . .

Roirdan was crouched on the sizable stone slab, slinging daggers at a tree not ten feet away from him. The final blade left his hand in a fury, a blur of silver reflecting off the sunlight through the tree canopy as it soared through the air and sank into the bark, hilt deep.

He tossed his hair out of his face and stood, his back still facing us. When I began a slow, mocking clap, he spun.

I stepped up onto the platform and approached him. “Seems the pointers I gave you are paying off. This is leagues better than the last time I saw you throw a blade. You must be practicing daily . . . from the looks of it.”

Roirdan threw his head back and gave a mocking laugh. “You think you’re so funny.”

I snickered as I came up to him. “Been out here since you finished breakfast, have you? Is that how long it’s taken to finally make progress?” I peered around his hulking frame and pretended to struggle to see the other daggers that had found their mark—precisely where he’d aimed.

He stooped down to my eye level, and pointed at his target. “Clearly your eyesight is fading, because I count seven daggers in that tree.”

I turned my head toward him. “You can count?”

When he met my eyes, I gave him a wide smile—all teeth.

He let out a jovial growl, and his knees bent at the same time that he drove his shoulder into my side. I folded over him, my hands landing on his back. His arm wrapped around my middle, and he threw me over his shoulder like a ragdoll, taking me with him to the other side of the platform to retrieve his weapons.

Back at the edge of the pavilion, Silas looked like he was about to tear across the slab to wrench me free.

I bobbed against Roirdan’s muscular frame, swaying with each step he took, laughing heartily. “Don’t worry,” I called out, “he won’t go far, he’s too exhausted from throwing daggers.”

A pinch landed on the back of my calf.

“Ouch!” I giggled.

When we reached the tree, he slung me down, and I fell back against the bark, laughing once more.

“You’re a menace,” he said, wrinkling his nose amidst his grin. He pulled a blade out of the bark and slid it back into the baldric across his chest.

“And you are training Nivelle today,” I replied, catching my breath.

Another dagger wrenched free with a pop and the splitting sound of wood. “Says who?”

“Me. I see how you look at her.”

He gripped the next hilt and yanked. Hard.

“She’s a challenge, and you enjoy challenges. Don’t you?” It wasn’t as much of a question as it was a statement. Nivelle aggravated him, and in turn, he’d denied treating her like the powerful prowess she was used to being regarded as. The dynamic was testy, volatile, but I was betting that was exactly what Nivelle needed in a training partner. And at the very least, I’d get to tease Roirdan about it.

His smile was dripping with sarcasm as he tugged another dagger free. “If you think this is a good idea, you’re terribly mistaken. She hates me.”

“Only because you threatened her within the first thirty seconds of meeting her.” I slapped my hand over his as he gripped the pommel of the last blade. “She needs training if she’s going to be staying with us for the foreseeable future. If something happens, and her ability to use spells and magic are wiped out, I need to know she can handle a proper weapon like the rest of us.”

Roirdan sighed, but it didn’t fool me. He wasn’t the least bit put out by this. He was probably already planning ways to make the witch miserable.

“No liabilities,” he relented. “That is something I can’t argue with.”