Page 48 of Red Demon

He looked up at her voice; his anger softened.

“I think you should explain,” Mira said.

Asher squeezed his eyes tight. “I’m in no mood, Mira.” And with that, he started walking toward the street in bold strides.

I could see red in my vision watching him go. “I need a sword, Mira.”

“What?”

I darted toward the mansion’s back door. Flinging the door open, I ran down the hall with the awful purple carpet to the guards’ storeroom. Inside, I met one of the guards dressing for a shift, a muscular brown-haired woman, scanning me agape from head to toe. Beside her, weapons.

“I need to borrow this,” I blurted out, swiping the best of the lot.

Mira tried to block my path, her arms wide in flowy pink sleeves. “You’re not going to hurt him, are you?”

I darted under her, too caught up in the storm of emotions churning within me to respond. I glanced back at the front door, a flicker of guilt breaking free before I started running. Ash was already too far up the road for me to see.

“Jesse!” Mira’s cry fell under the sound of my pounding boots.

I started catching up to Ash on his way home, but he veered off, picking up into a run into the woods as he passed Ruan’s house.

My lungs were heaving as I reached the training clearing, the sky bathed in the first fires of sunset. He kept his back to me as he came to a halt, his hand resting on the grip of his sword.

“Ash!” I called out, my voice raspy from the run.

He whirled around, his face a mask of fury. He gripped the haft with a tight fist.

“Leave me alone, Jesse. I don’t want to talk.” His tone was neutral, but I could see his rage straining its leash. He never wanted to talk anymore. He was shutting me out yet again.

“Spar?” I couldn’t understand his anger, but I was tired of it. I let my anger rise to meet him where he was at, drawing the borrowed blade in one fluid motion.

His eyes widened, hardened. We both knew how stupid it was to fight with battle-ready blades and no armor. In retrospect, I was a cocky idiot to assume I wouldn’t hurt him. I considered no other possibility.

With a nod, he was on me. The clash of steel shattered the tense silence. Sparks flew as our blades met in a flurry, leaving a groove in mine from the force of his first strike.

Voids. It was a good blade.

“Remember what you told me when Mahakal asked me to join his battalion?” I yelled between parries. “You asked why in the black void I even considered it.”

Asher countered with a brutal swipe, forcing me to backpedal. “I’m not you.”

“Yeah, and that means you’re more likely to die out there,” I said, launching a series of quick attacks that put him on the defensive.

“Because I’m weak? Because you’re the better man?” he roared, regaining his footing and landing a blow that sent a jolt up my arm.

I’d been thinking about the SBO immunity, but I was too busy reeling away from that steel to say so.

“I’ve been in your shadow for years now. Everyone notices you first.”

I just laughed, swinging. “No.”

“The governor!”

I parried, my blade sparking, shredding.

“The major!”

My blade broke against his, and I barely twisted away.