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“I’m not exactly sure, but this wasn’t it. I’ve never held a sword before.”

“Obviously. That’s why I’m going to teach you. Are you nervous, little firecracker?”

“I mean…yeah. Yes. Wouldn’t anyone be nervous tosword fightfor the first time? This isn’t exactly common in this realm. Not to mention you have a significant amount of height and weight on me,” I gestured to his form with my hand and his grin deepened.

“True. I’ll go easy on you,” he said with a wink. “It is common in the other realm. If you ever want to go there, you’ll have to learn.” He grabbed the lighter, smaller, of the two swords and flipped it by the handle, tossing it to me. I hadn’t been expecting it, and it clattered to the dirt at our feet as my arms remained crossed.

“Seriously?” he asked, a laugh in his voice. “I have my work cut out for me.” He grabbed his sword, placing it in a scabbard across his back, gesturing for me to do the same with mine. The sword felt awkward between my shoulder blades, but it wasn’t as heavy as I’d first imagined. I still thought I would prefer a dagger. Since I knew nothing about hand-to-hand combat, I would let Nik make the decisions, for now.

As we walked towards the meadow clearing Nik walked close enough to me that his hand kept brushing against mine, sending a rush of heat to my core. I shot him a sideways glance, but he didn’t meet my eyes. A playful smile across his lips told me he knew exactly what he was doing. His pale hair was radiant in the glow of the sunlight, his T-shirt showing off his tanned skin and tattoos. I thought, not for the first time, about where those tattoos might start and where they might end.

When the clearing came into view I went running ahead, my head thrown back towards the sun and my arms spread wide. A laugh bubbled up from my lips as I spun, I couldn’t believe how much it felt like a clear spring day. The meadow was free of all snow and the grass was surprisingly dry. To think it had snowed a few feet this past week, but it had warmed up enough to melt it all away. Spring was on its way, and it couldn’t come soon enough.

“I take it you hate the spring,” Nik teased, joining me at the center of the meadow, his heavy boots crunching against the dry grass.

“Loathe it,” I teased back with a smile, squinting against the bright sun.

“Where should we start, firecracker?”

“I guess we should start with these swords?” I offered, motioning towards my back where the light broadsword was resting between my shoulder blades.

“Let’s do it,” Nik replied, grabbing the handle of his sword and pulling it free from his scabbard. I tried doing the same, but was not nearly as graceful as he had been.

A laugh bubbled to his lips as he stepped forwards. “You are going to hold it like this, your grip should be firm, but loose. You don’t want to white knuckle it and grip it to death.”

I nodded, holding the sword as he had instructed and lifting it to waist height.

“Very good. Now when I swing my sword forwards, you will parry. I want to focus on defense for the moment.”

Nik stepped forwards again, swinging his sword towards me in slow motion. I did as he said, and the sword sent a reverberating shock up my arm as they clanked together. If this was slow motion, I couldn’t even imagine what that would feel like in a real battle when the sword was swung at full strength.

Nik taught me a combination of defensive moves and instructed me to use my height and my size to my advantage. While I was short and not especially muscular, I was fast. I needed to take advantage of that and not come at someone with brute strength.

By the end of our short training session I was sweating, my breathing heavy, and my arms sore. The broadsword may have appeared light at first, but swinging it around for the last hour was surely going to leave me sore tomorrow.

“For your first time with a sword, I have to say I’m impressed,” Nik said as he returned his sword to his scabbard and used the hem of his shirt to wipe the sweat from his forehead. My eyes immediately traveled to the skin of his abdomen that had been exposed before I caught myself and glanced away. Nik’s eyes met mine with a heated gaze, and I wiped my own forehead with the back of my hand. “You’ll be a pro in no time,” he broke the silence as I met his eyes again.

“Let’s hope I never have to use these skills.”

“Agreed.” A muscle ticked in his jaw and his eyes were serious. “If you ever visit Istmere, I want you to be able to protect yourself. Using a sword and dagger will be a useful skill.”

“Can we use a dagger next time?” I asked excitedly with a raised brow.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” he asked.

“A little,” I admitted. I had never been much good at sports, but I felt strong with the broadsword in my hands. Powerful. This is something I might actually excel at.

“We can definitely train with a dagger next time. That will likely be the best weapon for you, it will pair well with your speed and agility.” I had never imagined someone would use the wordsspeedandagilitywhen referencing me before.

I was hoping the dagger wouldn’t leave me as sore as I was sure the broadsword would. I could feel the muscles in my back aching already, and I made a mental note to take some ibuprofen as soon as I got home. I slid the sword back into the scabbard at my back.

“All this sword fighting had me distracted. I just remembered I never told you what happened to me the other night,” I responded, relaxing my arms back to my sides and meeting his gaze.

“What happened to you?” He took a step forwards, a note of concern in his voice.

“Nothing bad,” I assured him with my hands out, “I only wanted to tell you about my dream.”

“Your dream?”