Page 134 of A Vow of Shadow and Blood

Sweat licks the back of my neck, but I keep my eyes on Kaia. I inhale deeply, trying to clear my mind, like she told me to. I push away the raging thoughts of Karius and who he might be with right now and instead focus on this room. As the noise in my mind shifts, my focus locks entirely on the room. I hear the tiny flicker of wind that sweeps through the small gap of a window. I can hear Piper sucking in a breath as she watches us intently. Ican smell the sweat that clings to the floor of the training room. I can feel it all. My body pulses with the power of my senses, and I pull at it more, sucking in the intense strength of it, but I don’t let it overwhelm me. I am in control.

Kaia eyes me like a predator, a true warrior, and it’s intoxicating to watch. My ear flickers at the tiny shift in the air, and my body flips back without me even telling it to. It moves with an ease that I have never had, and I hear Athriel’s hum of pleasure.

Ajax claps from where he stands at the side.

“Yes, Red! You’ve got this.”

I try to hide the smile that fills my face, but the moment feels so good.

Kaia sucks in a breath, and the sound of her foot shifting against the stone floor flows like waves to my ear, and I curl my body easily, missing the kick that she throws in my direction.

Her eyes narrow in focus, but so do mine. We move back and forth in a beautiful dance, until I forget where I am and who I’m fighting. This is no longer Kaia but a real enemy. It’s Amabel. It’s Julian. It’s the impures who have Willow. My eyes close, and I feel the air around me like a second skin, sensing the moment it shifts and ducking before Kaia can land the punch she just threw in my direction. I smile, spinning until I am behind her, but she is fast. She turns, lifting an arm to block my assault, but for the first time, I can tell that I was close to hitting her.

We move back and forth, throwing kicks and punches through the air, but neither of us lands a winning blow. My body moves like water, and it feels right. I sweep across the floor, meeting her blow for blow until I turn at the last minute when she expects me to duck. I send my foot slamming into her side and hear the collective gasp as it hits its mark. Kaia flies across the room, landing on her back with a thud. I prepare for a counter, for heranger as she lifts her head up slowly from where she lies. To my utter surprise, her face curves into a smile.

“That is how you fight in a war,” she says, her breath coming in sharp. She jumps to her feet, and I’m not entirely sure if I’m imagining the pride on her face. “Let's go again.”

And we do. For the next hour, we engage in a back-and-forth sparring match that has my adrenaline pumping. I only manage to hit her one more time, but it’s an improvement, and if this war is real, if it really happens, then this is exactly where all my attention should be. Not on Karius.

“Shit, I think you might be on to something,” Finn says after I tell him about Iza’s theory that his current mix is only stifling the magic that makes impures what they are.

“So, you think it’s possible then? You can create something that could draw it out?”

He moves around his workspace as I speak, searching for something. I track him everywhere that he goes, praying to the lost gods that he says yes.

“Technically, yes, but it’s not just as simple as pulling the magic out. You would need…” His words fade off as he grabs a piece of paper from a pile in the corner of the room. “Here it is.”

I stand up, making my way over to him as he lays the sheet down on the wooden counter. He bends to look at it, sliding his fingers down a long list of words that make no sense at all.

“That’s not Kalish. What language is it?”

He stops to look up at me.

“One I made up.” He pauses to look around as if someone might somehow slip in unnoticed. I almost roll my eyes until I remember that we are in a castle full of vampires. I find myself eyeing the shadows too. “I created it so I could document the things I needed to remember that I didn’t want others to know.”

“It actually terrifies me how smart you are sometimes. Yet it’s also very impressive.”

He tilts his head to look at me, and a mischievous smile fills his face as he raises his eyebrows.

“Impressive enough to—”

“Ew, no.” I slap him on the arm, and he laughs before holding up his hands in surrender.

“Gods, a guy has to at least shoot his shot.”

“I told you it was a mistake.”

Honestly, it wasn’t the worst night of my life, but I’ll never admit it. Something about teasing him makes me feel human. It gives me the tiniest escape for just a minute, and I need that.Long for it.To feel anything other than fear or rage.

Or jealousy.

Why do you only speak when I least require it?

It entertains me.

I feel Athriel’s gleeful smile deep within and wish I could punch him. He laughs at the thought.

“Bestmistakeof my life,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows.