Page 105 of Hell Fae Commander

He leaned in to kiss me, but I dodged out of the way. “What are you doing?” I asked, both disturbed that I’d almost let him and thrilled by the prospect.

I reminded myself that I was supposed to be mad at Az. That he had magically bound Ajax and forced him to watch while I’d been on display in the Hell Fae Kingdom.

But I was also his mate, so my body certainly wasn’t listening very well to that logic.

This must be what Az struggles with on a daily basis.His primal instincts were literally half of his soul.

He ashed behind me, sneaking in a nip on my earlobe, making me yelp.Training starts now, Cami.

When I turned around to swat him away, he wasn’t there.

He ashed again, this time clipping my shoulder with his teeth. “Ow!” I yelled, growing irritated.

He did it again, then again, biting me in more sensitive places.

My hip.

My wrist.

When he caught me by surprise and sent me tumbling over, he lightly bit me on the inside of my thigh.

“Stop it, Az,” I hissed.

Tell that to my bird,he said in my head.Ajax put him in charge. If you want him to stop, thenstophim.

I realized this was part of Az’s training, meaning he wanted me to fight back.

That, I could do.

I threw a punch at him, but he simply ashed out of view.

The Phoenix appeared behind me, earning a growl from my chest as I turned on him. The momentum of my body wasn’t in my favor, but as I suspected, he ashed out of sight again.

Nice try,Az said.But Lucifer can disappear and reappear wherever he wants, similar to Ajax—just like my Phoenix can ash. You’re not going to win in physical combat no matter how much experience you may have. Not against one of us.

“Only if you allow yourself to be distracted,” I replied, catching the Phoenix looking down my shirt as I threw myself at him again.

His Phoenix’s dark eyes flicked up to me before he molted out of existence, only to reappear a few feet out of reach.

“Stop running,” I told him, growing even more irritated. Not really at him, but at the fact that he was much harder to catch than I realized.

Not until you understand,Az cryptically replied.

I came at him, this time with a low kick that should have caught him off guard.

He ashed out of sight again.

Maybe he thought he could wear me down.

“You want to play this game?” I said, tracking him when he glanced to the left. “We’ll see who gets tired first.” As everyone liked to remind me lately, I wasn’t even half human. I was somethingother, and I could play this game all night.

The Phoenix didn’t respond. He simply ashed again, so I followed—but I’d been wrong about the direction he’d chosen. He reappeared on my right instead of my left.

Fake-out maneuver,I decided.

Maybe he was evading me right now, but I was learning. So I chased him, trying to find a pattern to his endless tactics. After at least thirty minutes, the room swirled with soot from his magic that made it hard to see. I tore off the bottom of my shirt and wrapped it around my forehead, occasionally using it to rub the particles from my eyes as sweat rolled down my temples.

There has to be a pattern.