Page 79
Story: A Vicious Game
Forever.
I pushed the thought away. All it did was stoke the storm already rumbling in my belly.
“Your tomorrows are not assured either.” I turned to Nikolai. “I see the way you look at Vrail. And the way you oftendon’tlook at her. Why not tell her?”
Nikolai let out a deep breath and rested his neck on the back of his chair. His fingers found the stretched strand of hair over his brow and he tugged on it.
His brown eyes swirled with worry, trying to find the right words to answer my question. My shoulders fell, realizing his worry wasn’t for him but for Vrail.
“Because she’s your compass?” I answered for him.
A mix of joy and fear crept over Nikolai’s face. He reminded me of one of the baby birds perched outside my burl preparing himself to jump off and trust his wings. A cautious smile tugged at his lips.
“I hope so.” His eyes glazed over and I knew he was remembering the way Vrail had carried the pile of books out of the room. He shook himself free of the memory and stood. “But she deserves thetime to draw her own map.” He held out his own hand for me to grab. “And I will wait for however long that takes.”
“Straighten your stance, Fyrel!” Gerarda shouted from the sideline of the training grounds. A crowd of Elverin, mostly Shades, stood around the perimeter of the field five bodies deep. Everyone wanted to see the spectacle Feron and Syrra had devised to help me train my magic. It would be vital to tear through Damien’s soldiers at the next seal.
Fyrel swung again with her long, curved blade. I jumped over it easily but when I landed, the ground started to shake. I only had a moment to roll along the grass before Feron shot a pillar of earth forty feet into the sky.
That only brought me closer to Vrail who had a large mallet in each hand. She swung and I dodged. She swung the other and I bent my body backward, watching the hammer graze the air just over my nose. A spout of hot flame exploded beside my ear. My skin bubbled as I waved my hand and doused the fire with my magic.
I glared at Lash’s smug face beside Feron’s. “Just because I can heal doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt!”
He crossed his gigantic arms. “If you were more instinctual with your magic the flames wouldn’t have lived long enough to burn you.”
Vrail slammed the mallet down between my legs and I twisted my calf around her shoulder, throwing her to the ground. “Instinctual,” I muttered under my breath. “You’ve had three thousand years of practice and I’ve had three weeks.”
I tried to put some distance between Vrail and I, ducking Fyrel’s swing that narrowly missed my head. I sent a gust of wind into her chest and she fell to the ground.
I caught my breath and readied my sword but Feron lifted a single hand and eight pillars of earth penned me in on all sides. In the gaps between them, Lash ignited fires that raged over my head, making my brow sweat. I closed my eyes and focused on the scorching power that flickered under my skin. I smoothed it out in my mind, like taking a pot from a boil to a manageable simmer. The flames turned to red embers on the ground and I stepped through the pillars.
But Riven was there to meet me with his shadows. He blanketed the entire field in his darkness as the crowd gasped.
I couldn’t see anything. I reached out, trying to grasp a tendril of shadow, but nothing slipped through my fingers.
Something knocked into me and I fell to my knees. I focused on the beat of Riven’s heart and heard him circling around me in slow, silent steps. I matched the rhythm of his breaths to mine and used that as my anchor. I imagined each of his steps, mapping out our distance as his heartbeat thumped beside me.
I felt the softest breath of movement to my left and pounced.
The whirlwind that had been building inside my chest roared. Sweat pooled along my brow as I fought to keep control, pulling the air from Riven’s lungs. Slow and careful, not pulling so hard to hurt him, but enough that his power faded.
The shadows around me turned to gray fog. Riven’s black figure was kneeling on the ground across the field.
I pounced, pinning him to the grass.
“Got you,” I whispered, unable to hold back my smug grin.
But Riven only grinned back as a sharp jab pressed between my shoulder blades.
“And I got you.” Vrail pulled back on her short sword and smiled triumphantly at Syrra and Gerarda. They both nodded with approval, which only sent Vrail into a frenzied dance across the grass.
I sighed and rolled off Riven in defeat. Fyrel brought me a waterskin and helped me off the ground. “I should have had you,” she said. “Twice.”
I patted Fyrel’s shoulder. “You will in time. I reckon you’re good enough to best Gerarda.”
Gerarda rolled her eyes. “We will work on some more advanced footwork tomorrow. Then you’ll run circles around Keera.”
Fyrel beamed and ran back to her friends in the parting crowd.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79 (Reading here)
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128