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“Understood.” I’d told her after I fled that battle I would heed instructions from now on. Placing my hand on the pommel of my sword, I tried to stifle my nervous energy.

Mila tracked the movement. “There is something you can do, though.” She grinned, and the rattled feeling in my chest soothed at the sight. “Training.”

Mila led me away from the center of the capital, to the very edge of the Gennium Forest, where ash white cyphers trees grew, but?—

“These don’t look like they normally do,” I observed. The sweeping branches still lined the path in places, but they also stretched up and over, forming grand arches.

“They call this the arteries,” Mila explained. “It’s tied up in Bodymelder lore, but Esmond told me about it weeks ago. I’ve wanted to see it since.”

The tunnel of trees had a collection of offshoots like little burrows through the gnarled branches, and I understood the comparison to veins. Surrounded by foliage in oranges and reds and golds, it was a stark contrast to traveling across the Wild Plains in Mystique Territory with lush plants and wildflowers. Different from the rocky, grass-covered peaks of the mountains I’d grown used to or the snowy southern region of the camp.

Mila led me into one of these tunnels, surrounded by tall interwoven branches forming an arch overhead.

“Sword out, Warrior Prince.”

I shook my head at the title, but it didn’t bring that grating feeling in my chest it used to. Not when she said it like it had become a joke between us.

After warming up, Mila stood before me with her own weapon. The trees around us seemed to buzz with the land’s energy, and it called to the power I’d shunned for so long.

In a dance of metal, Mila struck first. I met her, forcing her back. Then, I swung for my own attack, surprising her with the forward offense.

“That’s new,” she commented, blocking a tactic I hadn’t tried before.

“Learned it back at camp,” I said, trying not to break my focus. Again and again our swords flashed between us, nothing but silver blurs. Grunts and screeches of metal flooded the forest, the trees absorbing every sound and granting us privacy.

“You’ve been practicing?” Mila asked. This was the first time we trained since I stormed away from her. Since before the attack on the western edge of camp when I fled.

But I hadn’t been entirely stagnant in that time.

“I asked Ronders to work with me.”

With my revelation, Mila’s eyes lit up, her grin from earlier returning even as I ducked her next blow. Spirits, I liked that smile more than I’d realized. It shot through me, a better balm than those drugs I was trying to quit. My next movements were more precise, control back in my hands as I fought to get my blade on her.

She was damn skilled, though, and moved like water through the tunneled trees, just out of reach of my blade. She seemed impressed that I’d taken the initiative to keep training. Truthfully, I was impressed with myself.

“Is he your new teacher, then?” Mila teased.

“Are you giving up your post?” I clicked my tongue. “Not very professional of you.”

“If you’re making better progress with him,” she growled, not liking my response, “then perhaps it’s for the best.”

“Are you jealous, General?” I goaded, sidestepping her.

“Of course not.” She mirrored the move.

With the added space, I pulled the Engrossian ax from my belt and charged. Before she could counter, I used the thick blade to knock aside her own. Catching her wrist in my grip, I swung her arm behind her back. Her chest was forced toward mine with the motion, but the sharpened edge of my ax was between us, beneath her chin.

“Don’t worry, Mila. You’re still my favorite teacher.” The buzzing of the forest seemed to magnify around us as we caught our breath. It matched the restlessness within me, fed it and soothed it in some unnatural way.

“Next lesson,” she muttered. I had to lean in to hear her. But the hand I didn’t have locked behind her flicked out faster than I could react and snatched my father’s dagger from my waist, pressing the tip into my ribcage. “Your own weapons can be your greatest downfall.”

Shaking my head at my own mistake, I couldn’t help myself from laughing. What she said was true in more ways than one, I realized as a lightness I hadn’t felt in a while pushed against the guard I usually kept up.

As I dropped my weapon, my head swam back to the present. The air between us was charged like a lightning strike. That was sort of how training with Mila felt. A bolt of searing illumination that tore through the clouds I’d been shrouded beneath.

Mila’s chest rose and fell as she watched me for a long moment. Her tongue flicked out across her lips, and if I didn’t turn away soon I didn’t know what I’d do. My cock was already paying way too much attention to the way her leathers hugged her figure.

She tilted her head to the side, the silky strands of her braid sliding over her shoulder.