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My heart tripped over itself. The air between us shifted.

He shrugged my hand off his shoulder and then caught it in his. He pulled it to his lips for a kiss and then pushed it down until it hit his thigh.

My mouth went dry. He trained his eyes on me and then flatted my palm against his skin. With his hand over top of mine, he moved it up. The curve of his muscular thigh gave way to a sinewy upper leg. His kilt bunched in between us as he moved my hand upward. At long last, while my heart beat like crazy in my ears, I felt the hem of boxer briefs beneath my palm.

My breath caught, and Calen snickered. “You’d probably been wondering what I had under here, lass. Now you know.”

He shifted and instead of me following with him, I stayed still. My thumb ended up perched precariously close to another part of his anatomy I was interested in.

Footsteps sounded down the main hallway. He quickly removed my hand from him and we stepped apart from one another. I stared at him with my heart in my throat. There was so much I wanted to experience before my visions started to come true.

“Go,” he whispered. “I’ll wait here and then come out in a bit.”

My mind drifted away, and I looked down. If I wasn’t mistaken, his kilt had come to a point in the middle when it hadn’t earlier.

“Go,” he whispered again.

I turned, my heart still beating like crazy.

I rather enjoyed that side of Calen. The risk-taking yet vulnerable side too. Before I got to the mouth of the hall, I turned back. I couldn’t see him in the shadows, which was probably exactly what he wanted.

Quickly, I turned back around and headed for the training rooms, trying to make myself relax. This time, it wasn’t the prospect of playing with Kai’s weapons that had me excited, it was something much more primal.

Chapter Seven

Kai stood in the center of the training room and took us through a form for his special weapon. My mouth fell open. This one had a curved blade with a handle that was no bigger than the four fingers we used to wrap around it. It came to a startling point that looked like if it just nicked someone, it would slice the person open in a heartbeat.

I was enthralled.

My mother came too. She stayed off to the side, Papa Nic to her right while they watched. I could see her muscles twitching to get in on the action, but I knew she wouldn’t. Not when what was going on was also important. It would be my duty to learn this and bring it back to them.

We were all surprisingly quiet while Kai worked. I expected Felix to make some sort of smartass comment, but he was as engaged with the form as I was.

When Kai finished, he showed us the first part again and then walked around while the rest of us tried to execute it to the best of our abilities.

Calen looked a little out of place with the weapon as well as Theo. But they were trying. The rest of us slashed through the air using the same angles Kai had demonstrated, tearing up imaginary opponents.

“Very good, Princess,” Kai said as he approached me. “You work a blade like it’s an extension of your arm.”

I smiled up at him. “It might as well be. I’ve been using weapons since I was a little girl.”

Kai glanced over at my mother. “I can see why. Why won’t your mother come out here?”

I didn’t even need to look over again to know she was probably sitting on the edge of her seat. “Because it’s not about her,” I whispered. “It’s about us.”

He nodded slowly. He still wore the wreath of grass around his head and the paler skirt, his chest bare to everyone. It made what he had shown us look more impressive as if we were transported back in time and watching an island chieftain defeat his clan’s enemies.

“Do you have to fight much back home?” I asked.

He twirled the blade and then held it under his arm as he looked at me. “Not often. Every once in a while, a rogue vamp will show up. Sometimes even a rogue clan. Because we’re such a small island, they think they can come in and takeover, but we don’t let that happen.” His teeth gleamed white, almost threatening when he smiled down.

“How many warriors do you have?”

“A fair few. I train them as my father trained me.”

I thought back, realizing Kai’s mother was the only one who accompanied him.

Before I could even pose the question, Kai said, “He fell during the blood shortage. As isolated as we are, my clan was hit hard. It was a rough time for us.”