Page 53 of Fall Before Her Throne

He shrugged.

“Sounds like you just want to get punched.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, that’s probably it.”

“Well, get up then,” I said. “I’ll punch you in the face if that’s what you really want.”

He stood, brushing the dirt off his borrowed athletic shorts. As I walked closer, he made space on the grass and raised his hands in front of his face. His form looked good. His body was tense where it needed to be and loose where it needed to be. His eyes observed me as I circled him.

I took my stance in front of him and raised my hands.

“Ready?”

He gave a tight nod.

I darted forward, jabbing. My fist whooshed toward his head. He dodged to the left, and I just barely missed. “I thought you wanted to get punched.”

He shot forward, feigning left before he swung his other arm at my face. I ducked and then swiped my fist directly into his stomach. It wasn’t hard enough to pop his stitches or seriously injure him, but it was enough to have him clutching at his torso to catch his breath.

It only took him a second to straighten himself. “Again.”

I raised my eyebrow. “You can’t be serious.”

He bounced from foot to foot. “Come on.”

I sank back down into my stance, and we started circling each other again. This time, he seemed more focused. Every time I got close, he dodged and danced away. Finally, I had enough of playing with him, and I lunged forward, catching him with a jab to the cheek. It wasn’t hard enough to give him another black eye, but enough to feel smug that I did, in fact, punch him in the face.

It helped.

He spat some blood onto the grass.

“Get what you wanted out of that?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Yep. Thanks.”

I snorted at the same time the patio door opened behind us.

“Wynn,” Leona said brightly. “I thought I saw you—” Her words cut off when she saw Max. “Oh.”

“Hey, darling,” I said as I hopped back onto the deck and walked over to give her a soft kiss. “How are you? Sleep okay with Obi?”

“Yeah.” She cast a sideways glance at Max before she wrapped her arms around my waist. I smoothed her waves from her face. “I thought I saw you training, and I wanted to come train with you.”

“You train?” Max asked. He stepped back onto the patio deck and leaned against its wooden railing. His cheek was still pink where I jabbed him, but it looked like he’d otherwise recovered from our match.

She cut her eyes over to him, frowning. “Wynn and I have been training for months.”

She could take me down, Ciel down, and she’d even dropped Ryuji before. I’d never seen her spar with Cas or Obi—besides when Cas “fought” her to get her to talk to us about the Albanians—but her skills were miles above where they were when she started. She’d picked up all of our best tactics, and none of our bad habits.

He appraised her. “I was wondering how you got so good at fighting. You were pretty impressive on the ship, and when we were going after the Albanians.”

Leona rolled her eyes at the obvious compliment, but my chest puffed and I kissed her hairline. Of course, she was impressive. She was a total badass and had been for long before he’d ever noticed.

“Train with me,” Max said quickly. “Spar with me.”

She scoffed. “Ew, no.”

An idea formed in my head. Maybe this would do her some good, too.